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Call of Duty: Mobile - February 5th Community Update & Public Test Build
https://preview.redd.it/pd0xmv18trf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7797a4cfe50c33a06ab65ed46ccd00c204fffe8a Greetings Call of Duty: Mobile Community! We are back today with your usual type of community update filled with info about recently released or upcoming events and modes, but this time we are also happy to share that the next public test build is here! We’ll have that in first section following the events schedule, but it is being released far earlier than normal, especially for one that is filled with content from the next major in-game update. However, for Season 1: New Order the biggest release this week is the featured event, Fight For Humanity. https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/tei7fdebwrf61/player This new event, released yesterday, asks you to pick a side and join the fight alongside your fellow players while you earn points in an attempt to control territories. There are many unique rewards to snag this time, both as a team and solo, and we’ll have more details about that event below in its own section of the update. In this update we also have responses for recent feedback and bug reports alongside various event, store, mode, and playlist updates that recently released or are coming soon. First off though, we want to say thank you to the many players who have reported a variety of bugs and created discussions to give feedback about new features, modes, balance changes, or other aspects unique to this season. Members of our development teams who create these events, make balance changes, add new pieces of content, game modes, and more, also read your responses and feedback. Thank you all for your dedication, passion, and commitment to making this game better through so many different ways. With that said, let’s jump into this update! https://preview.redd.it/nhr33madwrf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=d92f9a5116c867106b75da4711ad83cde764de4a Here is a quick look at all of the new events starting today and others launch soon:
02/03 – 02/09 ~ 10v10 Collection (MP)
02/03 ~ Two New Seasonal Challenges
Deadly Mist (Gas Grenade) and Premier Operator
02/05 – 02/11 ~ 3v3 GunFight (MP)
Check out the Gunfight Trio event
02/05 – 02/11 ~ BR Sniper Only
02/05 – 02/19 ~ Fight For Humanity event
02/05 – 02/18 ~ System Overload Draw
The brand-new Ether – Network is here!
02/08 – 02/14 ~ Grind Baby, Grind! (MP)
02/10 – 02/16 ~ Russian Nuketown 24/7 (MP)
Coming Soon – Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year store content
*All Dates UTC We covered a number of these topics in the last community update, but we’ll go over some again if it is launching today or if we have some new information to share. First though, just a reminder that for Battle Royale we have limited modes launching every week in February and the newest mode, Blitz, will be back later in February. https://preview.redd.it/9v3crd9vwrf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d2f76132c10f62ea1ccf812db1329dc2724f4c8 February 5th - Public Test Build We are back quite early in the season with a public test build ready to go for our next update, which does not release until March. This test build will be larger than the last couple in relation to the player limit and new playable content, much of which may release in one of the next two seasons. We are thrilled this time to announce that we have added iOS to the mix! You'll need Test Flight to access it, but otherwise it should be a relatively straight forward install. Here are all of the usual details, but please note that we have two different APKs to download this time.
Begins today on February 5th (PT)
Test end date not specified
Available for Android and iOS devices
Download Size: 2 gigabytes, Wifi connection is highly recommended
Player Registration Limit: 40,000 (30K Android, 10K iOS)
Content suited for ages 16+
All information and player data collected during this test will be deleted
This time around we have two different versions, 32 bit and 64 bit. For anyone unfamiliar, 64 bit is more suited for higher-end/newer devices while 32 bit is generally more suited for lower-end/older devices. We recommend that you only download the 64 bit version if you have no issues running the current version of CODM on the more demanding (high/highest) graphical settings. With all of that said, the 64 bit version is the ideal version we would like players to test during this specific public test build. If you can, please download and use that version of the build. Please find all of those download links below along with the player registrations limit per version.
(Priority) Android - Downloadable via 64 Bit APK here: (Registration Full)
20,000 Player Limit
Android - Downloadable via 32 Bit APK here: (Registration Full)
10,000 Player Limit
For iOS players, you’ll just need to have Apple’s Testflight application installed on your phone and this link below should take you to the correct page to download the test build.
iOS Testflight Link:(Registration Full)
10,000 Player Limit
We do have a general cap (as listed above) on how many players can enter into both the iOS and Android versions of this test. You unfortunately won’t be able to see if that limit has been met until you try to register an account at the login screen. We’ll update the page here once registration is closed, but this is just a heads up for anyone who manages to download after we’ve hit that limit. In this build you’ll be able to find a variety of new content, but some of the main ones you might notice are: Shoothouse (MP Map), Shipment 2019 (MP Map), updated Night Modes, Sword & Stones mode, the Truck in BR, new perks, and the new Bull Charge Operator Skill. Of course, there are plenty of smaller changes or new additions hidden in there too, but this is just a glimpse at what you’ll be able to try out. Some general tips for downloading this rather large file:
Do your best to make sure you on a secure uninterrupted connection so that the whole package is downloaded without any issues
Try to turn off or stop your device from going into any kind of rest mode
If you are running into issues download the file, try using a different browser
Make sure you have 5-6 gigabytes of data free on your device
This file and build is independent of the main build, you do not need to remove or do anything with your main CODM application. It will install as another application that is executed separately. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to help us test out this new content and please make sure to report any feedback or bug through the in-game options, like the in-game survey that may not be available right off the bat but will show up once the beta has been out for a while. Fight for Humanity Sides have been drawn, the field of battle has been laid bare, and the Fight for Humanity has begun! Your first choice is simple, Atlas Corporation or Cordis Die, where will your loyalties lie? Pick one of the two sides, open up the map, see what territory is currently being fought over, and what tasks you can complete to help your side win that battle. https://preview.redd.it/zab957iyxrf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=d12d6a7edf27d89ac7cf5ffac1bbd2f15d67602c Each side will have its own set of Faction rewards available and they are broken down into milestones, winning prizes, and leaderboard rewards. Each faction has its own version of the Cordite to grab (seen above) and the Russian Merc operator. Additionally, the faction that wins it all will snag the ATV – Override and the those who reach the top of the leaderboards can snag the Legendary Calling Card — Rupture. Through all of those different methods there are many rewards to grab by participating in this global battle of territory control! Lastly, you can boost your points by using various weapon sets that are indicated in the top right of this event page in-game. If you’d like to get the upper hand with some tips and tricks then head on over to our Fight For Humanity blog post. Good luck out there and may the best faction win! Seasonal Challenges Two seasonal challenges are already out in the wild as of last week and now this week two are more coming your way! The first challenge, Premier Operator, is more of your usual type of seasonal challenge with a variety of rewards and tasks, while Deadly Mist is a unique one due to the fact that you can earn a new piece of a tactical equipment the Gas Grenade by completing it. Find the details below! Premier Operator This six-part seasonal challenge is all about using different operators in Battle Royale and Multiplayer modes. The tasks all vary, ranging from just playing BR matches to getting kills with the S36 while using Outrider. You can earn nearly 20K Battle Pass XP for completing these tasks plus the following rewards:
(Uncommon) Mechanic – Warp
(Uncommon) S36 – Warp
(Rare) Charm – E-Chatter
(Rare) Special Ops 5 – Trance
Deadly Mist This five-part seasonal challenge went live a few days ago and it is your rare chance to grab a brand-new piece of equipment. The gas grenade is a tactical grenade that slows down your enemies with debilitating smoke that also provides cover. Complete a variety of tasks related to equipment, scorestreaks, and perks, and you’ll be able to snag this new tactical grenade along with the following items:
(Uncommon) Smoke Grenade – Warp
(Rare) Calling Card – Dystopia on TV
(Common) Gas Grenade
https://preview.redd.it/q44od4330sf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=afcc9e6aac686ea0447b4f8763ed595860013219 3v3 Gunfight Mode This tactical showdown played on perfectly symmetrical small maps has returned, but this time around each team is bringing an extra teammate with them for this competitive challenge. This team-based mode released yesterday on 2/5 (UTC) and for anyone unfamiliar with it we have a new video just to show off the basic rules and objectives. Take a look! https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/uqcb2ql60sf61/player While you are playing 3v3 Gunfight make sure to check out the Gunfight Trio featured event in order to earn some rewards while you are challenging yourself to intense tactical gameplay. There are eight tasks to this event and they are all straight-forward, like get kills or play matches, and by completing these you can earn the following rewards:
(Uncommon) Frag Grenade – The Numbers
(Uncommon) Knife – Warp
(Rare) Kilo Bolt-Action – Cosmic Wave
(Epic) Cyber Clown Frame
System Overload Draw While we rarely highlight any draws, crates, or bundles through these community updates, it is hard not to bring up the System Overload Draw. This draw brings with it the second blueprint for the newest assault rifle, the FR .556 - Superhighway, and of course the highly sought-after new operator, Ether - Network. Here is a glimpse at those two main new pieces of content: https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/txshs60b0sf61/player Another unique aspect of this draw, related to the Fight for Humanity event, is the Breach Set. If you acquire the three breach camos for Outlaw, the EMP, and the Karambit then you’ll receive a weapon set bonus for that featured event. That specific weapon set increases the points earned from battles between factions by 50%. You can find all of the information in-game on this new draw or in the featured event. Get a jump on it while everything is still active. Feedback Since the Season 1 launch we’ve primarily been focused more on reporting bugs, but there are still a few feedback-related topics we’ve seen come up and have been trying to respond to on a one-to-one basis whenever we are able to. Let’s jump in!
Voice Overs – We’ve brought up this topic numerous times in previous updates or on social media channels, but we keep seeing interest in upcoming voice overs, updating current (or missing) voices, and of course brand-new operators. We are of course working on all of those, just like we released many updated voice overs alongside some new ones in Season 1, but we are also working on ways to provide more visibility about all of that in future updates.
China Version Content – As you may see in the public test build (if you manage to snag a spot before it is full) we have some content coming in future updates that is also in the Chinese version of CODM, like Trucks in BR. Most likely, we won’t always keep content the same in each version of the game, but the teams managing the game are always working together to coordinate, discuss, and decide what content should release in each version.
Cheater Reports – For whatever reason, most of the time we release an update we see an increase in cheater reports. These have traditionally tapered off one or two weeks into the season, but we have seen no abnormal increases in cheaters. We will always keep an eye out for reports in community areas, so please keep sharing, but also please keep reporting in-game as well and we’ll keep monitoring and acting to make sure your experience isn’t compromised.
Master of All Event – A special shout-out to those who have been giving feedback back about the unique rewards on this event (6000 credits and BP XP as the final reward). The team was looking to see if this type of reward felt valuable to players and so far all we’ve seen is positive feedback about it, which may pave the way for similar reward setups in the future.
Next Update – While we cannot confirm any dates for our next season or update, it is always a moving target for a variety of reasons, we can confirm that the next update will be in March.
Bug Reports We’ve been going through many smaller bug reports lately thanks to threads, PMs, and posts sharing details, videos, or screenshots explaining the issue. We don’t have any huge issues to bring up this week, at least nothing new or seemingly troublesome, but we are working with our teams to investigate many of those smaller issues and please do keep sharing. It is always appreciated!
Battle Royale Bugs – We’ve seen a variety of BR related bugs come in over the past two weeks and they vary greatly in relation to the types, the severity of them, and how widespread they seem to be experienced. While we can’t list it all here, we just wanted to give a general shout-out and thank you to several community members who have spent a significant amount of time making videos, screenshots, and posts to highlight these issues clearly.
Black Screen Issues – We are happy to say that we have seen fewer reports of these types of issues after the Season 1 release after we implemented some general stability improvements for all players in that update. We’ll have more on that front coming in the next major update (next month) and we’ll be monitoring both in-game and external channels for reports.
Blitz Mode Performance – We have seen various discussions about performance issues in Blitz mode due to the changes made to put more players and items in a smaller area. This seems to be a similar issue to why some devices struggle with Warfare mode. We recommend experimenting with different graphical settings before jumping into these modes to see if that helps performance, but we’ll also see if there is anything we can do to help improve performance in these types of modes.
Support Options Lastly, thank you to everyone who have been reporting various issues since Season 1 released and please do keep using our support channels on top of community areas to repot issues. In the off-chance you haven’t seen this information in every single one of our community updates 😉, here are our main support channels:
https://preview.redd.it/5e5mlmwm0sf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=8041bf5e80de983c00bcb5cf20bbbe42664d8bb5 One of our greatest pleasures each week is looking through various community areas to see the latest and greatest in CODM memes, but also to see the latest and greatest art designs created by some extremely talented community members! This week, we are thrilled to be able to highlight Sarcstoon, who you may know as Sagar in certain community areas. Urban Tracker by Sarcstoon Sarcstoon is a character artist and their online portfolios are filled to the brim with impressively detailed pieces of art that range from CODM operators to commission pieces for real life couples. One thing is clear through all of their pieces, their style is unique and in particular for faces and expressions. Park Safehouse by Sarcstoon Whether it is Helen Park or Urban Tracker, they’ve blown us away with their vibrant, welcoming, and charming pieces of work that make us proud that CODM is lucky enough to be a receipent of their designs. If you’d like to see more of Sarcastoon then you have plenty of options to see their work:
Thank you all once again for being the type of community that supports artists and designers by providing positive feedback, supportive words, or even just upvotes or positive reactions. There are so many talented folks in the community and we are always eager to look for more each week. With all of that said, we’ve come to the end of yet another community update! We plan to return next week with more and with some info on our upcoming Valentine’s Day events & activities. You know us, we love to use holidays as an excuse to design new content, create giveaways, or just create engaging events with the general community. We’ll see you all next week and for those of you in the public test build make sure to jump on that before we hit that player limit! Thank you all and stay safe out there. -The Call of Duty: Mobile Team
Ticketing for BTS is a bloodbath, not gonna lie. Especially with the influx of a lot of fans who will want to see them live post-quarantine. I was able to get my hands on some twice, although it was a very intense and fast paced process. Keep in mind, I am writing this from the perspective of someone who has only seen BTS in the US. I think a lot of the advice is still applicable internationally, but I can’t provide detail on that. Cost BTS tickets, in comparison to the other artists who are in their caliber of popularity, actually aren’t hugely expensive. You can get nosebleed seats at around 60-80 USD a pop. BTS tickets range from $60 to $300 USD face value per person (not including fees) at first sale value depending on where you sit. The average price of a ticket according to Ticketmaster is $299 (with fees). The only official initial ticketing site for BTS is TicketMaster. Don’t forget about the cost of transportation, food, lodging, and merch! If you’re gonna buy merch, you will probably spend a few hundred. Allocate $50 dollars per person for food/drink. Transportation and lodging heavily depend on your proximity to a venue, but it will probably be a few hundred for a hotel room. Transportation heavily depends. Seats It really depends on the venue. Being close without actually being on the floor is probably your best bet. To prevent mobbing, all of the floor seats have actual chairs, but it can get quite intense down there and the tickets are more expensive. Lower 1st level seats close to the stage are what I consider to be the optimum. However, if you want the chance of getting to see BTS really close up, then you’ll wanna look for floor seats, but those can range from 300-500 USD at face value. The only VIP experience is soundcheck. These tickets are more expensive, but you’ll be let in with a small group of fans for floor seats and get to see BTS do their mic checks. There’s a higher chance of interaction with them there, but it is more expensive. Hi-touch and meet and greets aren’t something that BTS do now. Even if you don’t get your ideal seats, there are huge screens and the staff do live camerawork and follow BTS around so you’ll have a good view. The show itself is very immersive, around three hours with no opening acts, and the production value is quite literally insane. If you want a taste, look up the concert performances of Anpanman, Euphoria, Dionysus, and Mikrokosmos of YouTube. Your seats won’t matter much when you get there. The vibe of being in a concert, enjoying music with your fellow ARMY, and getting to see BTS is magical. Safety BTS concerts in comparison to others that I have attended tend to be quite safe. ARMY as a fandom are pretty respectful and security guards have even said that they were blown away by how polite and well-mannered most fans are. However, there are always exceptions and it’s better to be safe than sorry. The times I felt most unsafe were trying to leave the concert because it was late at night and there’s so many people, but if you plan right, you’ll be fine. I recommend not attending alone if you can, but I wouldn’t be worried if that isn’t a possibility. For context, my first BTS concert I was with a friend and both of us were just sixteen with no adult chaperone and we never felt scared in the venue once. The vibe on the floor can be more aggressive as people are moving around. Some may get pushy. It gets hot and there is always the risk of fainting. Also, you have to line up beforehand which is a whole ordeal and fairly time consuming. There are pros and cons to floor seats, but it may be a touch more dangerous if you have any of these concerns. Preparation Last time ticketing happened, there were three separate rounds of ticketing. An ARMY membership presale which happened first, then a lottery-draw fan presale that you had to register for, and then finally a regular ticket sale. All of these happened on different dates in successive order. Theoretically, to optimize your chances, you should purchase an ARMY membership which will give you the best chance of snagging a ticket if they go about ticketing in this manner again. Make a TicketMaster account beforehand and enter all of your information including payment. Make sure you have enough money in your account for the transaction to go through without issue. Look at the venue map beforehand for your ideal section. There will be extra fees tacked onto the ticket price such as taxes and processing fees so account for that when you’re putting money in your account. Last time they offered pre-registration which was selected lottery style. It’s worth it to register in case you get picked. Be wary of ticketing on multiple devices, as the similarity in IP address may make TicketMaster suspicious. However, you can ask your friends and family to help you out by ticketing too. Beyond ticketing, you should also book your lodging and transportation if relevant in advance. The Final Hour Make sure that you clear your schedule for a few hours when ticketing happens. You will want to be somewhere where you won’t be distracted and the wifi is high speed which you can test through googling “internet speed test”. The specific time tickets go on sale will be announced and you want to log on about 15-30 minutes before. DO NOT REFRESH UNLESS YOUR PAGE CRASHES. Once you enter the ticketing queue (the dreaded purple walking man) if you refresh, you will go to the back of the line. Keep an eye the whole time. It will tell you that there are 2,000+ people in front of you, but just hold faith and eventually the screen to select tickets will appear. You gotta move fast. Tickets will blip out of existence in seconds. Being extremely picky will not benefit you. Know sections that you would be okay with getting tickets in and keep those in the back of your head if you don’t get your first choice selection. Where you sit doesn’t matter that much and you’ll come to understand that when you actually get to the venue. Once you have the tickets in your cart, check out ASAP. Don’t give up during the process, even if it seems crazy as hell. Once you’ve gotten it all confirmed, take a deep breath, and get excited! You’re gonna see BTS! Congrats! So, you don’t get a ticket. What do? Hope is not lost. Trades and resells. There are Facebook groups exclusively dedicated to selling/trading tickets, so check that out. Just be wary of scammers. You can also get resold tickets which tend to be more expensive. That’s how I got the tickets to my first BTS concert. They were $255 each for seats on the first level, but the subtotals added around another $50. StubHub is a good site for that. Notes
There are specific guidelines for the bags you can bring into the stadium. Please look at the venue’s rules beforehand. I just recommend that in general.
BTS concerts are a full day/two day experience. Take time off of school or work for it if you can because it’s pretty time consuming.
Plan for the weather! The Chicago concerts were super cold and rainy and the New Jersey concerts were quite hot. Dress appropriately for the weather and bring relevant layers as needed.
Having an ARMY Twitter account will be helpful. Look for social media projects related to your venue. You should be able to find them through searching Twitter. This may be a special fancant or something else.
My personal advice: pre book Ubers/Lyfts and set a designated meeting spot. Trying to get one after the show is hellish.
There is no bad seat in the house. Just different perspectives. See here, here, here, here, and here.
If you have close ARMY social media friends who are attending and want to meet up, make plans to meet at a designated place. Also, some of the local fan bases will set up seat buddy google forms so that people can get to know the people they’re sitting next to beforehand.
Official song fanchants are put out on BigHit’s website. Try and familiarize yourself with them beforehand.
The standard name fanchant goes as follows. “Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jeongguk, BTS!” Here’s a good example.
Some ARMY are known to give out freebies at concerts, so don’t be worried if someone asks you if you want some.
Don’t call ARMY bombs, ARMY bombs around security or outside the venue. Locals will not know what you mean and it can get you in some hot water. Instead, call it a lightstick.
People dress up for BTS concerts like they’re gonna walk a fashion runway. It can be fun to plan a cool outfit, so if you’re gonna do that, but things beforehand. Nobody’s gonna judge you if you don’t, but as an ARMY culture thing it’s pretty common.
If you have medical issues, I recommend contacting the venue beforehand to make a plan of action and figuring out specifics. Will save you time and trouble at the venue.
Most people arrive at the concert 3-4 hours early to hang out, get freebies, meet new ARMY friends, meet up with social media friends, and buy merch. You can always show up an hour or so beforehand, but that bonding time is a lot of fun! Plus, merch lines are very long so you’ll need to have time for that.
Besides your phone/wallet/essentials, don't bring anything you don't want taken away. Although unlikely, it could be lost or stolen.
If you’re driving, figure out your parking plans in advance by looking at the venue website. Some have special parking passes.
Wear decently comfy shoes! Although there are seats at all the venues, you will be standing for the majority of three hours and you will feel as if you have just gone through an intense workout between the jumping around and the screaming.
Security can make your life bothersome if you bring prohibited items into the venue so do your research beforehand on what is allowed and what isn’t.
Make a safety backup plan in terms of people you can call for help or stay with in case anything goes south. Police and security guards are always around in case you need help, so don’t be afraid to ask. There are also first aid stations should you need medical assistance.
You will probably be given a slogan (paper sign). Keep it for posterity!
I had a folder on my phone with screenshots of my ticket’s barcode, fanchants, confirmation emails for my transportation/lodging just in case I couldn’t access the internet.
Cameras other than your phone and small lenses that attach to it are not allowed. This is a BigHit policy to combat fansites and also ensure that you are getting the most out of your experience.
Here’s a comment with some very good advice about concert etiquette
The entire experience of a BTS concert is magical. Your seats or how much merch you could afford don’t matter. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and you will never regret it. I can’t even properly describe it, but seeing BTS live was one of the highlights of my life.
Things to Bring
Clear backpack/bag that meets stadium guidelines
Charged portable charger with cable (two if you’re feeling fancy)
Earbuds!
Small wallet. I don't recommend bringing your entire wallet in case it gets stolen. A mini wallet with your ID, a credit/debit card, and cash will suffice.
Tickets! If you have a digital ticket, bring print-outs as well just in case. I would also bring printouts of the tickets/conformations you will need for your transportation and lodging for the night.
ARMY bomb and batteries. These can be officially bought through Weverse Shop although they are sold in other places. Ebay and Depop are good bets, but you can’t guarantee they are official.
Venue map
Chapstick, deodorant, hand sanitizer, sunscreen stick, wipes, gum, OTC or your personal PRN prescription drugs (if needed), earplugs, and period products if relevant.
Water bottle and a granola bar. Sometimes security will let you keep them, sometimes they won’t, but it can’t hurt to try. Bring an empty, reusable bottle to fill up once you’re in the venue.
If you want, add some BTS themed decorations like pins or keychains. There are a lot of fanmade ones on Etsy. BT21 keychains are always cute. Here are some examples.
Something to do while waiting in line. There are lots of people to chat with, but it may not hurt to bring a game of something like BTS UNO or a slim paperback if you get tired of being social.
A paper fan if it’s gonna be hot
A jacket or rain slicker if it’s gonna be cold or rainy
Here’s an ARMY nurse’s tips on what to bring to keep your health in tip top condition while concertgoing
Binoculars (not a necessity, but may be nice if you’re in high up seats)
Hey all...I've been pretty exhaustively trying all the current streaming services. I know this is a Stadia group but I thought if anyone out there is curious about what the experience is like on other services, perhaps you could benefit from a layman's experience using each service and trying to make it my "main" service. Like I said, I'm a layman, not a professional reviewer, so there's a lot of things I'm still learning, but having tried all three of the major services, here's my thoughts. Edit: Please bear in mind this is not an exhaustive list, just some thoughts based on a couple of months of on and off testing. I'm certainly not trying to sway or influence anyone's purchasing decisions, just giving some general thoughts that might help when trying to decide which service to look into. I know not everyone can get ahold of / rush out and buy all of the devices I have listed here - I happen to work for a tech company so I have a lot more devices floating around than most other people. Your mileage, of course, may vary! I know there's also Steam Link, but since that requires you to have a PC capable of playing the game in the house somewhere, I'm not considering that a streaming service. Testing Devices:
ChromeCast Ultra (Stadia Only)
iPad Pro 2020
Asus G14
Pixel 2 XL (xCloud only)
iPhone 12 Pro Max (Stadia only)
nVidia Shield (GeForce Now only)
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook (Stadia only)
Amazon Luna
Notable Games: Control, lots of highly rated indie titles (Blasphemous, Bloodstained, Iconoclasts) To be fair, I only have about 6 hours on Amazon Luna, but they've been pretty excruciating. My wifi averages about 75-90 MBps, and about half of the games I tried suffered from lag and graphical smear, mostly the Ubisoft+ games. The indie games played fabulously well. Luna is probably the service I have the least to say about. It's $6 a month for Luna on it's own, so it's kindof like the "also-ran" effort - it's cheap, but might be the most forgettable of the bunch. The user interface is better than GeForce Now, worse than Stadia, and unlike Stadia it doesn't seem like Luna can be enhanced with browser extensions. I have Ubisoft+, so I tried to play Immortal: Fenyx Rising on Luna and it was absolutely horrible. Smeared graphics, dropped frames, input lag, the works. It was the only experience across all of the big three services that was literally unplayable. This seemed to be a problem only with the Ubisoft games, however, I have to stress. Pros
Netflix-style game selection, with lots of indie titles you don't see many other places. Control is the only standout AAA title, and it looks and plays fantastically. Indie games were great too.
Integration with Ubisoft+ is seamless and the games just become part of your library.
Twitch integration is pretty cool - nice to see streamers who are playing the game live when you jump into the game page.
Runs in the browser but also has dedicated apps - a plus for me.
Luna is probably the best service for Twitch streamers - it's integrated right into the UI. I don't stream so I wasn't able to test it, but it seems pretty easy.
Cons
Seems to be in Early Access, so I literally don't know anyone else who has gotten an invite.
The pro of having niche indie games is offset by the con of not having a wide game selection. Of all the services, seems like Luna has the least, but broadest, selection.
Seeing an ad for Luna, WHILE PLAYING LUNA, was irrationally annoying. Amazon just can't freaking help themselves I guess.
I signed up for Luna fully expecting to play all of my games claimed through Prime Gaming...literally none of those games are available.
If there's a way to find Luna from the main Amazon home page, they've hid it pretty well. I'm sure it's buried in one of their dozens of menus but I could not for the life of me find a quick and easy way to get to Luna from Amazon dotcom.
This is a very minor point, but Amazon Luna ONLY works on Chrome, while Google Stadia works in either Chrome or Edge Browser (since it's built on Chromium). Probably doesn't make a difference for most people, but to me Edge seems to run better, so I'm docking a point.
GeForce Now
Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Immortals: Fenix Rising, Metro series, Destiny 2 (all paid) I picked up an nVidia Shield specifically for GeForce now, but my wife and I have ended up using it primarily for Kodi and to watch Netflix more than playing any games on it. I'll just say it straight out - GeForce Now sucks ass. It's a broken, shoddy, inconsistent mess. It's actually WORSE on the Shield than it is on PC, because there are so many times when I needed a keyboard to do anything. I tried playing Immortals: Fenyx Rising on GFN on my Shield which required me to log into Ubisoft+. I'm fine with that, since you only have to do it once...but using the Shield remote that came with my Shield, the on-screen keyboard never popped up, forcing me to track down a second keyboard from in my garage and plug in. After I plugged in the physical keyboard....THEN the onscreen keyboard popped up and just mirrored what I pressed on the physical keyboard. What? Why? Games are all over the place as well. Witcher 3 was a nightmare - every time you try to play the game, it wants to install the DLC packs onto whatever virtual machine you've been assigned. Then when you can play, it dips so far under 30 fps it's literally better to just play it on a budget PC with Hairworks off. Plus the Shield ain't cheap - it was like $200 at Best Buy, and didn't include a controller. $100 more gets you a Series S, and $100 LESS gets you a Stadia-enabled Chromecast WITH a solid as hell controller, just for comparison's sake. Pros
Raytracing, I guess. Control looks great?
Links with Steam, GOG, and Epic, so you keep your games if the service goes down at some point in the future. Also technically "cheaper" overall than Stadia cos you can find cheap keys online or Steam sales (which seem to be more frequent than Stadia sales) and still get the game in your GeForce Now.
GFN seems to have the widest selection of enabled games. Not all that impressive since you have to own the game already, but this does give it somewhat of an advantage.
Links to Epic library, which is cool. 80% of my games on Epic were not GFN enabled, which is not as cool.
Cons
Literally the hardest of the big three services to use. Not a "pick up and play" experience. Requires a lot of effort to get working, and even then, inconsistent across platforms.
Even on nVidias own hardware, it can be tricky to figure out what games actually are on GeForce Now and which aren't and get them running right.
Some games just don't play well. Witcher 3 is a buggy, low framerate mess...while Control is smooth as butter. No rhyme or reason as to why. I couldn't get Mankind Divided to play full-screen - it always wanted to play in a window.
Since you're just running a virtual machine, you still have to fiddle with graphical settings. Some games don't look right when first started, and you have to remember to go into the settings and change things to match whatever screen you're on.
Twice I still had to wait in a queue to play even though I paid for the Founder's subscription. Insanely frustrating.
One hour limit to gameplay if you don't pay for the Founder's subscription, and you're stuck waiting in a queue. There were times where I was in a queue of over 300, which translated to upwards of 18 minutes one session, waiting to play. I would go as far as to say, if you don't pay for Founder's, don't bother with GFN at all.
Also, just because I don't have anywhere else to put this, Ubisoft's Cloud Save system is atrocious. This isn't nVidia's fault, I just want to complain about it.
Google Stadia
Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077 (paid), Hitman: World of Assassination (Pro), Destiny 2 (Pro), Red Dead Redemption II (Paid) Stadia is easily the best overall, but it still has its cons. I came to Stadia thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 so I have the most hours played on Stadia of the big three services. Stadia on the Chromecast Ultra seems to me to be the hands down best way to play streamed games currently. Of all the services, Stadia was the one that felt the least like a "me-too" service and more like a dedicated platform. Almost all of the other services felt like a way for corporations to dip their toe in the water and figure out if there's money to be made, while Stadia feels like someone who really grasps and cares about gaming is at the helm. Pros
Least barrier to entry. Download Chrome or Edge Browser, grab any bluetooth controller, and you're off the races.
No subscription required. You can play any game purchased on Stadia without a subscription with no queue system, no picking a virtual machine, no Steam big picture mode...it's just, hit the Play button and go.
This is a big one for me - seems to have the best "capture" integration. Though, the iOS / Android app could use work (just let me download the image and share it? Why do I need to share a link?) overall, sharing your snaps and vids is pretty easy on Stadia.
Playing with the Stadia controller on my TV after picking up a Chromecast Ultra felt like magic.
Similarly, being able to "pick up and play" games like Cyberpunk 2077 on a Chromebook felt similarly magical. The game looked its best, believe it or not, on a Samsung Chromebook that I tested at Best Buy. Random side note but the Google guy at Best Buy was SO EXCITED that I wanted to check out Stadia on a Chromebook. He was over the moon.
The game selection for Pro does have some interesting titles that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. But see Con 1 below.
Cons
The game selection for Stadia Pro is a tad lackluster at the moment. Definitely enough to keep me playing, but there wasn't really a "must have" title that jumped out at me. Bunch of average, quite playable titles
The game selection for purchases is a little thin as well, seeing as how the service is over a year old at this point. I know it’s on literally every other platform but I would have loved to do a second play through of Control on Stadia, and stuff like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Hades, even some older indie titles like Transistor or Pyre, some of the Lego games...
UI seems like an complete afterthought, which is a little weird since this is a Google product. This is solved a little bit by extensions like Stadia Enhanced, but that's a third party fix so I'm still listing it as a con. No search? Captures seem deprecated?
Probably the highest "cost" to play, since you have to buy the games outright, and sales seem few and far between. If Stadia just vanishes at some point (which, let's be fair, Google has a track record of doing with their services) they haven't really outlined what happens to your library.
No raytracing yet. Not really a con for me personally, but other services offer it.
This may just be a bug but I'm listing it as a con - a number of times the Stadia homepage just wouldn't load. I was left staring at the Stadia logo wondering what was going on for minutes at a time. I'd have to close out of the browser and restart. Not sure if that's an issue with Chrome, but it seemed to happen on Edge browser as well.
Stadia-specific versions of games. Now, hear me out - usually this is a PRO not a con, but in Stadia’s case it seems to be a con as making a wholly new build of a game for a specific platform probably just isn’t in the cards for a lot of developers. That could be what’s slowing down a lot of games coming to Stadia - the time and money required to build a new version of the game. Hopefully we see some “Stadia first” games that will convince other developers to jump on board.
Xbox Game Pass / Game Pass Unlimited / Gold / Live / Play Anywhere / xCloud / Whatever it's being called these days
Notable Games: Nier: Automata BAG Edition, Dragon Quest XI S, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda Xbox Game Pass gets added to this list on a pure technicality. So, technically Xbox Game Pass isn't a streaming service, but I include it because on Android, there actually is a "cloud" option for playing your console Game Pass library. The Cloud streaming works surprisingly well, but you're limited to either an Android tablet or phone because it doesn't seem to work properly on Android TV. I've heard you can sideload onto the nVidia Shield, but that was beyond the scope of what I was trying to accomplish with these reviews...I just want something I can pick up and play. So, yeah if you don't mind playing on your phone, Game Pass Cloud is actually probably the best of the bunch in terms of ease of use and game selection. There are so many things I want to play on Game Pass it's actually a little overwhelming. However, I don't want to stare at a 5" screen for hours to do so. Pros
Wide game selection with lots of games being added every month (almost every week, seems like)
Broad game selection - seems to be some standouts from just about every game genre. I know this seems like a repeat of point one, but they're very different things - it's one thing to just throw a ton of games on your service, its another to make sure you're representing every genre out there, which Game Pass seems to do more admirably than any other service.
Streaming seems to work just fine. I was able to play Dragon Quest: Inquisition on my Android phone with very little issue. Couple of times the connection dropped, but it was no better or worse than Stadia.
It seems like services are stumbling all over themselves to get included in Game Pass.
Cons
Again, inconsistent experience. Offerings are different on console than on PC...why is Torchlight III a console exclusive? Why are all the good games pushed to console and cloud, with PC being an afterthought?
Games seem to come and go randomly - some popular games pop up for a few months and are gone, other seemingly niche titles have been on the service since launch
Probably the biggest con - no streaming on PC, iOS, or Android TV. Baffling choice. Maybe there's business reasons I'm not aware of, but as a user, it's maddening.
Minor point, but good lord Microsoft needs to simplify EVERYTHING related to Xbox. No one can figure out what the hell service we have when I try to talk to people about it - there's Game Pass, but there's also Games with Gold, then there's Live, then there's Game Pass Ultimate, but there's also Play Anywhere, which isn't really a service, just some sort of cross-play, And the number of times people thought I have a Series X when I actually have a One X was insanely frustrating as well. I know this doesn't have anything to do with the service, but jeez man why is everything Microsoft does so haphazard?
Whew! I actually had way more to say on this topic than I thought, I guess. I've probably spent more time and energy on this than I should have, but working from home has given me a lot of time on my hands, so hopefully my experiences can help save someone else some time and effort. Would love some counterpoints as well!
Unfortunately, I had an accident with my Pixel that forced me to use my work iPhone. This is an iPhone 12 Pro Max so top of the heap in the iPhone world. These are some thoughts I have while using it. I have been using it for about three months now regularly as my daily driver. I will toss out the first month as my angst with the phone gave me a negative view on everything about it. First up look and feel I love a big phone but the 12 pro max is just way too much. The design makes it completely aggravating to use. While it is a stunning phone to look at the niceties end there. It has sharp sides all around with zero decent ways position to hold it. This thing hurts to hold. It's also super slick. While again feels nice touch wise it won't stay in hand for anything. A lot of this is negated by a case but being an already massive phone a case just makes it so much worse. I am a fairly large person and it feels like a three hand phone. It feels like it needs some sort of stand or grip at all times. People will say that's an easy fix just get a smaller iPhone. Wrong! While most of the features and internals are there in all iPhones the max stands heads and shoulders above all other iPhones. First, a much bigger battery. I have a friend with the smaller pro that gets less than a day battery wise. Mine will chug along all day and into the next. Second, much bigger camera sensors and a little more camera tech. It has a higher aperture on telephoto, more zoom on all settings, and sensor-shift stabilization. For me, Apple should have put the same stuff sans battery size in the smaller pro. Useability This is probably the biggest flaw when it comes to using an iPhone. I am leaving notifications out because that is a whole rage I will get into next. As far as simplicity goes if you were just making calls and text it's easy as every other phone out there and before it. for anything else, things get a little muddy. First, the biggest thing I notice is everything seems to take an extra swipe or click to finish. Simple stuff like switching Wifi or Bluetooth just feels like it takes so much more work than when I was using my Pixel. Other stuff like customization is non-existent. While yes there are widgets everything is still locked into a grid pattern. Folders help a bit but you quickly run out of room to play in the locked grid. Even with the widgets, it feels boring. Widgets while they look good are very limited. You cant resize or shape them and I miss having more than just one feature on some like my Google calendar or Google drive. They are just so basic right now. I still can't do things in apps without going into the app as my Pixel can. One I use all the time is the Gmail app icon swiping away notifications without leaving the home screen. Like I said just more input to do basic stuff. Notifications These just suck. There is no getting around how bad notifications suck on an iPhone. Now I know why people who have iPhones either never respond or find me in person to comment. There are two flavors of notification issues to me. First is the non-existent so subtle ones I don't notice them till it's too late. second are the one's I see but don't respond because I have to work too hard to. I want my important to be up top. Apple just files them in one on top of the other so it becomes daunting going through them. Second I one them to be sorted accordingly. For some dumb reason, it sorts them how it wants. For example, messages are not with all the other messages. Read the first to message notifications better keep going down it likes to tuck another down below one of the game's notifications. Want to go nuts with a false notification bubble even on core apps like settings? iOS loves that also. Oh, BTW you can not clear notifications from the app icon. Why is there no clear all for all my notifications? No idea there just isn't. Camera Okay, Apple you finally beat the Pixel here, or did you? so yes the iPhone camera is quite simply amazing in most situations and oust my Pixel in a lot of areas. If you widdle it down though you soon realize how insane Google has become when it comes to the camera software. Yes, the iPhone does better but I really think it is because of a brute force attack on Apple's part. It has better newer sensors and more of them. Of course, it should be better but here is the jaw-dropping point. I have gone back to exact spots and taking close photos with the iPhone and shown them side by side and the average person notices nothing and sometimes gravitates to the Pixel because the color looks more natural. We are talking a two-year-old plane jane one sensor phone versus the best of the best tech-wise and Google is still right there. Now for the parts, Apple has a Pixel beat. The number of sensors, no matter how much wizardry Google comes up with they just can not simulate the other sensors with software. Zoom same thing they just can't match what Apple is doing with actual zoom on the iPhone at this point. One thing Google does seem to stomp Apple on consistently is portrait shoots. No matter how simple the image Apple just can not seem to get the blur to work well on the Pro. There are artifacts in just about every photo on both but Apple has the more glaring artifacts in this case. The other thing I notice is while Apple does take in more light the night images typically look overprocessed on the iPhone. It is like they have the exposure turned up to 11 in most cases and in light-dark situations, it can't really make up its mind. Now in all dark or lit night scenes, the iPhone just has bigger better sensors so most of the image data is real not processed like the Google phones. This makes night sight iPhone images better in many cases especially the focus on back and foreground objects. You just have to tone the pictures down after the fact a little bit. Apps Everyone knows about iMessage. Personally, I don't use it. I do too much switching and don't want to be trapped in message pergatory. It got turned off at set up. I wish Google could get their messaging on iPhones because personally, I was starting to like it a lot. I never had any issues with sending and receiving anything with people on iPhones other than when they send me iMessage native stickers and likes. As far as other apps are concerned everything I had on Android is on iPhone and vice versa. I will say that it is weird that some Google apps seem to work a little better and others don't. The biggest issue I have is Drive. I use the scan feature a lot and it is not available on the iOS version. App integration is lacking on iOS as certain links ect. don't work the same as with Android. I am sure if I used the Apple native apps this would not be the case. The worst showing Google has is the Home app. Home on iOS works so much better than on Android. All my devices show and statuses show as well. On the Pixel, speakers would be playing but home would show nothing in the app until you went to the device. On iOS, speakers and TV show playing all the time. Connected devices All devices I had on Android work the same on iPhone. No difference here. The only issue is switching Bluetooth devices takes a little extra step to me on the Pro. I don't know how to explain it just takes a little more finagling. Battery The iPhone is better but why wouldn't be. It has a bigger battery so it lasts longer. Not some unworldly amount of battery life but good. Usually a full day or more with heavy use. Pixel was a full day most days except for when gaming. The iPhone seems to kill things more often. Stuff like google photos won't upload at all unless you are in the app. The weather widget doesn't update in real-time. so it seems to be fairly aggressive on what it kills to save juice. Glitches and other wonkiness To say the iPhone is perfect is living in a dream world. It has its fair share of glitches. Before the last update it would lock on certain apps and you would have to lock unlock and close it to get out. Another issue was random resets mainly in games. Both of those have gone away but there are other weird items. swipe down for notifications does not react to you sometimes only dragging down a millimeter and going back up. The double-tap on the back still has random activations. Native mail app just don't download something else. Wireless animation is funky sometimes. Notification sound does not play at times or cuts halfway. Some photos have a weird yellow tint so you have to take multiples. Notification dots won't go away even if cleared. This happens on their settings icon of all things. Gestures don't react according to what you want at times. Thing's I miss sorely Notification functions. Media functions on the lock screen. Full assistant Siri is still trash. Copy-paste from the app in card view. App integration. Swipe back gesture. App drawer. Apples it is not a drawer if I have to swipe four screens to get to it. Customization of colors, font, icons, and home screens. Speed of sharing anything from photos to files.
Observations of someone who switched from eero to Ubiquiti/UniFi
I was an eero user for a little over two years and decided to try out Ubiquiti’s UniFi line of networking gear. I’ve had my UniFi setup for about two weeks and thought I’d share my experience. Motivation: The reason for me moving over to UniFi was not for stability as one might expect. For my eero setup I had a Gen 2 Pro and two beacons and a Gen 2 cupcake that had a hardwired backhaul. So I didn’t experience all of the stability issues that the eero 6 people had (are having). The main reason for me moving was because I wanted more control and insight into my network. Over the last year I’ve gotten into home automation and have accumulated dozens of WiFi light switches, plugs, locks, etc. All in all I have about 60 clients connected to my network at any given time. Managing these clients, seeing what they’re doing, what they’re connected to, etc. was virtually impossible to do in the eero app. And because I had all of these IoT devices, I wanted to make sure they were as segregated as possible from my main network. I thought about using the guest network in eero but that’s an all or nothing network and I still needed to have some targeted connectivity to the main network. UniFi Setup: My house is not that big (~1800sqft single story) so my coverage needs are not that big. I do have a detached office that I built as my COVID summer project which has CAT6 run to it (the office is what had my eero cupcake). Another important point is that wireless speed is not that important to me. Most devices that I have that need the speed (server, iMac, work laptop, game consoles) are are all hardwired into Ethernet ports in my office. I decided to go with a UniFi Dream Machine (UDM) as my main router. It includes a gateway/router, a wireless AP, a 4-port switch, and a cloud key controller (the software component that monitors and controls your network). This is placed dead center of the house and provides good coverage for pretty much every room. For my office I got the USW-16 PoE switch to handle all of my servers, desktops, and other hardwired connections. Finally, I got the UAP-AC-IW access point to give wireless connectivity to the office and backyard (this, like most UniFi AP’s, is powered via PoE). Setting these up was surprisingly easy. I did the initial configuration of the UDM while attached to the eero network and just did a double NAT. I created three wireless networks (main, IoT, and NoT) and initially configured them to be on the same vlan for simplicity sake. I added all of my clients to the new networks and then cutover, removing the eero and connecting the cable modem directly to the UDM. I then installed the 16 port switch (replacing an old unmanaged TPlink switch) in the office, connected everything, and the UDM immediately saw it allowed me to “adopt” it into the network. I then installed the AP in the office and again, it was immediately recognized and adopted. The most time consuming part by far was getting all of the clients connected to the new network because they were different SSID’s and passwords. Had I kept the same SSID/password as my eero, the whole process would have taken less than hour. Pros of the UniFi: 1. Control. OMG the control you have over your network is amazing. The ability to create multiple SSID’s and attach them to different networks provides security for the IoT devices that you’re just not sure about. You can create complex firewall rules at multiple levels to make sure traffic doesn’t get in/out when you don’t want it to. 2. Insights: You can easily search on any attribute (IP, name, MAC address) and you see real time stats and info on your devices. You can easily force a device to connect to a specific AP or force a disconnect if you’ve roamed and want your client to pickup a new AP. And you can do this from your phone or computer. 3. Threat Management: if something suspicious either tries to enter or leave your network, it’ll tell you. I gotta say, I was a little freaked out when I saw potential exploits being aimed at my IP (mostly all automated) as soon as I was connected but the UniFi simply drops the packets at the front door. And if it’s a false alarm, you can easily suppress that particular signature without disabling all together. 4. You schedule when you want firmware updates to happen (need I say more?) 5. No reliance on cloud. You can use their cloud service to connect to your network and configure but it’s not mandatory. You can easily turn that off and just have local access. 6. Everything is modular. If I decide I want a WiFi 6 AP, I just have to add the AP. I don’t need to buy a whole new routesystem. Cons of the UniFi: 1. This is enterprise grade software/hardware in that it gives you more configuration options than you probably need. While initial setup was basic, it does get pretty daunting when you look at all the the things you can do. You do need more than just a basic level of network admin experience to get the most out of it. 2. Stability is a problem for UniFi too. You can tell they jam as much functionality as they can as fast as they can. Not all firmware is rock solid. I updated the switch’s firmware a few days after I had everything installed and I started getting random reboots. After trying to troubleshoot I eventually downgraded the firmware (yes you can do that!) and things seem to be better now. 3. The network stats/insights don’t seem to be that accurate. At one point it said my iPad had downloaded 200GB in less than 5 minutes. 4. Tons of products and it’s not clear what you need. I never thought I’d say it but this is a case where there are almost too many options. Go look at their website and just browse the AP’s...they over 20 different AP’s you can buy. This is partially why I went with the UDM...so I didn’t have to make too many decisions. Conclusion: So far I’m pretty happy with the switch and I’m enjoying playing around with the new features. As I said it’s only been a couple of weeks so we’ll see if that remains. I have three kids at home doing school so stability is everything to me. I still have my eero hardware and won’t hesitate to go back if things start going south. If you’re thinking of switching and have a knack for networking, I would definitely recommend giving Ubiquiti a try. Just be prepared. If all you want is a turn key, set it and forget it network, I would still recommend eero to all my non-techy family and friends.
HI THERE! I’ve re-created this list, cleaned up some mess and placed many links to their respective sections. This list contains only FOSS apps and most of the links provided here will take you to GITHUB, GITLAB, F-DROID and PLAYSTORE. I'll be adding some hearts beside each application 💖--App is active and is being updated frequently 💚--App is active but updates are a little slow. (Not THAT slow and definitely not dead) 💔--App is abandoned/dead. (Why are dead apps here? Answer: There are some humans out there who love to dig out a corpse and examine it😸) 💛--This link will take you to Playstore 💜--This app...is...uhhh...its either abandoned or the updates are slow as a sloth. IDK what's happing with these apps. (Sometimes its hard for me to point out the app if its abandoned because of the updates....some apps receive updates after a very long time and are not dead. The devs should archive the repo if they're not gonna continue developing it further) These hearts will be added beside each username 💙--The user who suggested that particular app ❤--The DEV of that particular app 🌟SUGGESTIONS TO MORE FOSS APPS ARE WELCOME, when sharing the link for a FOSS app, place the colored heart beside it. I don’t wanna end up placing the wrong colored heart🌟 🌟If any application has a wrong heart beside it OR any link is incorrect OR any app is placed at the wrong section OR if any app goes closed source or turns shady then please do let me know. I'll fix/remove/correct it asap🌟 🌟One more thing...the apps under the sections are listed randomly. Neither of the apps in these sections are ranked from best to worst🌟 ★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆ BROWSERS
AURORA STORE and AURORA DROID💚, this link will take you to auroraoss download section from where you can download both Aurora store(Playstore client without google tracking) and aurora droid(F-droid client).
APPS THAT SAVE BATTERY, ENCRYPTS, HIDES AND LOCKS PERSONAL STUFFS OR EVEN INFORM/ALERT THE USER ABOUT IN-APP TRACKERS OR OTHER FISHY STUFFS COMES HERE 👇
FEED READER💔, Modern desktop application designed to complement existing web-based RSS accounts---u/rat_tat_2_e 💙
FLYM💚, Flym News Reader is a light Android feed reader (RSS/Atom) ---u/Born_Science 💙
FEEDER💖 is a no-nonsense RSS/Atom/JSON feed reader app for Android---u/Some012345💙
READROPS💚 is a multi-services RSS client for Android. Its name is composed of "Read" and "drops", where drops are information drops in an ocean of news---u/Some012345💙
🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴⚫ SIMPLE MOBILE TOOLS💖💛-- Tibbbi❤️ almost all the mostly used applications ranging from Dialer to Gallery is available, they’re all available for free in Fdroid . The playstore version unlocks more and also supports the dev---u/kobeislegend 💙 A friend of mine made a list as well that contains open source applications, there are some apps here in his list which isn’t available in my post. And instead of listing them one by one here’s the LINK to his list, it will lead you to github. This is him: u/Petomeansfart
I Made a Free Multiplayer Online Version of Spirit Island with both Branch and Claw and Jagged Earth
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial adaptation of the game, subject to be shut down upon request. I am in no way affiliated with with Greater Than Games, LLC. All materials belong to Greater Than Games, LLC. If you read nothing else in this long post, I strongly encourage you to go and carefully read Eric Reuss's comment on this below. He has not given official permission for this adaptation. For now he has permitted that it remains up, but it is very important to stress that this is not equivalent to it being endorsed by him. The only official versions of the game are the digital version developed by Handelabra and the board game itself sold by Greater Than Games LLC. The pandemic has brought about unprecedented circumstances and isolation and it is my hope that this will alleviate some of that. That being said, it is absolutely within the right of Reuss or a representative of one of the aforementioned companies to request this game be shut down, and I am on their side in this matter. I have removed the Google Drive with the images of all the spirits and cards, that was perhaps my biggest oversight in the original post. It is not right to distribute that copyrighted material in such a public and easily accessible manner. You can access all of those materials on the wiki or in other sites. Thank you to the members of the community that expressed concerns over this adaptation, I was in the wrong in posting this without talking to Reuss first, and I'm glad that people in the community steered me towards a better path. Moving forward I will pursue an approach that respects the wonderful work the creatives behind this game have done. As you can see, this is a super long post, but I broke it into sections so you can read what you want. I included what is basically a user manual for how to play the game, it’s quite intuitive though, I made it such that my non-tech savvy parents and friends can play it with ease, so I think you could figure it out without this, but I like to be thorough. To provide background for what I did and did not do, a team of people have been developing an online platform to host board games called virtualtabletop.io. You may have heard of playingcards.io, it got some buzz early on in the pandemic; virtualtabletop improves on many of the features of that platform. I just made the game on the site not the actual platform itself (I’m not that tech savvy XD). Check out PlayingCardsIO for more details on all this, and more games that you can play. I've also made a version of Robinson Crusoe if you're interested. There's also a discord if you have any questions https://discord.gg/CEZz7wny9T . A case for how this can be better than the Steam version and the Tabletop simulator version I greatly appreciate the work that those teams have put into those online versions of the game. In fact, I got all the images and resources for my version from tabletop simulator mods. I think one major advantage of virtualtabletop is that it’s really user friendly. I’ve played a game of spirit island with my parents and while my dad is a software engineer, my mom is not the most tech savvy person. I can’t see either of them wanting to go through the effort of downloading steam and getting that all set up, even though my dad probably could. The beauty of virtualtabletop is that you just send people the link and they can join the game instantly. And it’s free, which is always a big plus. You could use this to introduce people to the game who aren't sure whether to make a purchase of anything on steam, or if you yourself are a newbie, this is a great place to try it out for the first time. This can never replace the experience of owning a tactile board game, but it can help people make a decision whether to make that purchase. It also contains everything that has been released up to this point, all 24 spirits and all cards that were released in Branch and Claw and Jagged Earth including scenarios and adversaries. The game is not super resource intensive as far I know, so even people with not the fastest WiFi would be fine. Another thing that's great about the website is that it feels slightly more tactile because you are in control of moving everything. While the initial cards are dealt out for you, you still have to set up the boards with Dahan, cities and towns. You still move around pieces wherever you want, there's no scripting that controls things for you. It's about as close as you can get to playing the game in real life in an online form. TLDR: My hope is that this provides another, easier to use option for people who miss playing Spirit Island with their friends while in lockdown. How it Works I’m going to try and walk you through the full process of setting up a game, but I also tried to make the game as intuitive as possible. You can use the link I provide at the bottom of the post which will give you access to the game file for your own use. When you go to virtualtabletop, you can customize your link, so that’s it’s even easier for friends and family to remember, just edit the text after the slash. This is what the website looks like when you open it. On the left you can enter the link that I'll also give you. What's great about virtualtabletop is that you can put other games that you can find in PlayingCardsIO into your room and build a library of games for your friend group. The chess piece symbol in the top left corner is where you add in new games and load them. You can pretty much ignore the other buttons, those are for adding in new widgets and editing games for creators. Once you have the game loaded you will see 3 options: the core game, Branch and Claw, and Jagged Earth. Side note, Jagged Earth automatically pulls in everything from Branch and Claw because I assumed that people would want to have a way to play with all the game content, let me know if you’d like a way to play with just the base game and Jagged Earth expansion and I’ll see what I can do. When you click on the version you want to play you can then select how many players to play with. I was not able to support any more than 4 players, the boards would have had to be shrunk to an insanely small size to fit on the screen. You still need to send a link out to people, which button you click just determines how many boards will appear on the screen. Opening Menu with option to pick core game, B&C or JE Then you will be directed to choose an adversary and level. Once an adversary is clicked, you will be given the option to pick a level Finally you are brought to the main board screen. I was not able to include the option to use thematic boards, but I think they would be harder to use on this platform anyways since things do end up on the smaller side. You will notice two buttons on the right, one labeled Spirit Panels and the other Adversary and Scenario cards. This was my way of fitting everything into the game. Click on Spirit Panels and you’ll be brought to a spirit selection screen. Each player can pick a corner and choose the spirit they want to play. Main Board, note the two arrow buttons. The one next to the Dahan and explorers in the left corner opens a drop out menu with the elemental markers. The one in the bottom corner, next to blight opens the scenario markers. Spirit selection screen with all 24 spirits. The arrow button opens a drop down menu with elemental markers. You'll see that each spirit has its own discard and reclaim button that lets them maintain their own pile. All cards will come from and go to the card holder in the center of the board, which I set to be invisible, but will highlight up as soon as you drag a card there. Try drawing a power card to get a sense of where it is. Beneath the Major and Minor power card buttons is its own discard button to maintain two separate piles, along with a reshuffle button for when you run out of cards. Once that’s done you can toggle back to the Main Board using the button in the middle. This might be the biggest disadvantage of this version, you cannot look at the board and your power cards at the same time. Some people may hate this depending on their play style which I completely understand. In my experience playing with my family it wasn’t too bad. There is an added level of etiquette when using the buttons because you need to warn people before you switch away, but it isn’t too bad. I usually go into the board know what cards I have so I just need to identify places to defend or dahan to move etc. Or you can identify key problem areas and say to everyone “we need 8 defense on that jungle, when I switch back to the spirit panels look for what you can do with your powers.” This same toggling system applies for the Adversary and Scenario cards as well. When you start up I game, I’ve set it to automatically deal out the correct number of terrain cards, fear cards, and the blight card. Any special things you need for an adversary should appear as well, let me know if you notice anything missing or wrong. Anytime the terrain order changes, I’ve done that automatically. I remember one adversary require you to put the Coastal terrain in a specific place, I’ve done that for you. Other times I got lazy and you’ll have to place stuff yourself such as the Slave Insurrection event, which will just appear face up on top of the deck. You’ll also need to place the terror level cards into the fear deck accordingly. I’ve made them so they will expand when you click on them to make them more visible when you pull them out and put them in the top right corner. You can choose a scenario in the Scenario card screen, and the correct adversary card should already appear there. The only scenario I didn't include was The Great River because it requires you to change the orientation of the boards, which was a bit complicated, and tbh I got a bit lazy. Plus two rows of 6 looks better 😛. If people really want it, I'll see what I can do. The Adversary and Scenario card screen I think that about covers everything. I did try and make the game as simple and intuitive as possible. Click around a bit, see what stuff does. I made the Dahan, towns, and cities have a way of showing their health if you click on them (i.e. they rotate). Let me know if you find anything difficult to do or if something is missing or wrong, I'll definitely try and patch anything up. Files Demo Room - This is a public link now, so you won't want to actually play a game with people here, but it's a good way to quickly check the game out. https://virtualtabletop.io/s/sor5s9hp/Spirit_Island__An_Unofficial_Fan-Made_Adaptation.vtt- here's the game's share link if that's easier for you, just copy and paste this link into the enter link option that appears when you open a new room. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any! I really do hope this helps some people out during the pandemic and gives you a way to play this amazing game with people, wish I could've done it sooner :D.
Brand new build - Crosshair Dark Hero + 5950x audio popping / cracking noise
Hi everyone, I was lucky enough to get all of the parts and actually complete my build this year. Even though everything seems to work great there is a very peculiar issue that I am struggling with: Popping/cracking noise on sudden sounds (like windows notifications). This can be easily replicated by changing volume on the Windows main volume, skipping the track on youtube. When changing volume on YouTube it seems to make a "static" noise. Here are some good examples that someone posted on another forum: https://streamable.com/tdvg47 https://streamable.com/iozb2i I have found various posts around the web, but unfortunately most of them do not have a solution or are related to some other issues. I fear that this is a hardware / platform problem as I have tried to exclude any software by booting Ubuntu through a USB stick and managed to reproduce the issue in Firefox while skipping youtube videos and changing volume. Even attaching a USB powered HyperX Cloud 2 headset suffered from the issue. No issue when running the sound through the DP or the HDMI off the RTX 3080! Things that I have attempted so far:
Tested with 2 different headsets on rear and front ports (AKG K701 and Sennheiser Game Zero)
Tested with USB headset (HyperX Cloud)
Updating BIOS (currently using the latest beta 3102)
Changing SOC and child voltages (VDDG) - all the way up to 1.2v SOC
Changing RAM and IF speed - all the way down to 2133Mhz
Disabling XMP and running RAM stock
Disabling PBO, switching PBO to Auto
Changing all PCIE lanes to TYPE 3
Played around with SOC load line calibration and VRM Digi+ settings (asus bios)
Fresh windows 10 on one of my storage HDDs
Latest Realtek drivers (both official and from the Asus forums)
Disabling realtek audio device power saving through registry
Uninstalling and cleaning Asus Armory crate and any related software
Running Latency Monitor and checking for issues
Unplugging all but the monitors from the rear IO
Unplugging front panel audio from MB
Unplugging other case connections from MB (USB C, USB3, Power, reset, power LED)
Unplugging PSU USB connection from MB USB2 header
Unplugging SATA (HDD) cables from MB
Running the PC off another power socket, running the PC on the same power strip as the monitors. Turning off the monitors power strip completely
Turning off the router (wifi)
The only thing that I didn't try so far is trying a PCIE sound card and swapping out parts like the PSU, GPU and RAM. I am running out of ideas and if I were to guess either the issue is either the Motherboard or the CPU. The GPU was running with my previous 6700k build without a problem and no sound problems when running the audio through it.
CPU
Ryzen 9 5950x
Motherboard
Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero (x570)
GPU
Nvidia RTX 3080 FE
RAM
16x2 G Skill TridentZ Neo 3600 CL14
Storage M2
Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, Samsung 970 Evo+ 2TB
Storage SATA
WD RED 5Tb, WD RED Pro 12Tb
PSU
Corsair AX1600i
AIO
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
Case
Fractal Design Meshify 2XL + 5 140mm fans
Fan controller
Corsair Commander Pro
OS
Windows 10 latest version (build 20H2)
Additional hardware notes: No blue screens when running FCLK 2000Mhz, but couldn't get rid of WHEA errors by tweaking voltages, ended up running FCLK 1900Mhz with tighter ram timings daily. Ram stability tested overnight with Memtest86+ and daily usage. I would appreciate any help on this issue, It is driving me nuts!
Brand new 5950x build audio popping / cracking noise
Hi everyone, I was lucky enough to get all of the parts and actually complete my build this year. Even though everything seems to work great there is a very peculiar issue that I am struggling with: Popping/cracking noise on sudden sounds (like windows notifications). This can be easily replicated by changing volume on the Windows main volume, skipping the track on youtube. When changing volume on YouTube it seems to make a "static" noise. Here are some good examples that someone posted on another forum: https://streamable.com/tdvg47 https://streamable.com/iozb2i I have found various posts around the web, but unfortunately most of them do not have a solution or are related to some other issues. I fear that this is a hardware / platform problem as I have tried to exclude any software by booting Ubuntu through a USB stick and managed to reproduce the issue in Firefox while skipping youtube videos and changing volume. Even attaching a USB powered HyperX Cloud 2 headset suffered from the issue. No issue when running the sound through the DP or the HDMI off the RTX 3080! Things that I have attempted so far:
Tested with 2 different headsets on rear and front ports (AKG K701 and Sennheiser Game Zero)
Tested with USB headset (HyperX Cloud)
Updating BIOS (currently using the latest beta 3102)
Changing SOC and child voltages (VDDG) - all the way up to 1.2v SOC
Changing RAM and IF speed - all the way down to 2133Mhz
Disabling XMP and running RAM stock
Disabling PBO, switching PBO to Auto
Changing all PCIE lanes to TYPE 3
Played around with SOC load line calibration and VRM Digi+ settings (asus bios)
Fresh windows 10 on one of my storage HDDs
Latest Realtek drivers (both official and from the Asus forums)
Disabling realtek audio device power saving through registry
Uninstalling and cleaning Asus Armory crate and any related software
Running Latency Monitor and checking for issues
Unplugging all but the monitors from the rear IO
Unplugging front panel audio from MB
Unplugging other case connections from MB (USB C, USB3, Power, reset, power LED)
Unplugging PSU USB connection from MB USB2 header
Unplugging SATA (HDD) cables from MB
Running the PC off another power socket, running the PC on the same power strip as the monitors. Turning off the monitors power strip completely
Turning off the router (wifi)
The only thing that I didn't try so far is trying a PCIE sound card and swapping out parts like the PSU, GPU and RAM. I am running out of ideas and if I were to guess either the issue is either the Motherboard or the CPU. The GPU was running with my previous 6700k build without a problem and no sound problems when running the audio through it.
CPU
Ryzen 9 5950x
Motherboard
Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero (x570)
GPU
Nvidia RTX 3080 FE
RAM
16x2 G Skill TridentZ Neo 3600 CL14
Storage M2
Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, Samsung 970 Evo+ 2TB
Storage SATA
WD RED 5Tb, WD RED Pro 12Tb
PSU
Corsair AX1600i
AIO
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
Case
Fractal Design Meshify 2XL + 5 140mm fans
Fan controller
Corsair Commander Pro
OS
Windows 10 latest version (build 20H2)
Additional hardware notes: No blue screens when running FCLK 2000Mhz, but couldn't get rid of WHEA errors by tweaking voltages, ended up running FCLK 1900Mhz with tighter ram timings daily. Ram stability tested overnight with Memtest86+ and daily usage. I would appreciate any help on this issue, It is driving me nuts!
Hi guys, as already stated in this post, here is the addition, containing my tipps for PWK and OSCP exam preparation.
Tipps
Tipps for Tooling
I bought an external SSD which I encrypted with LUKS and where I stored all my needed data (VM, notes, exploit scripts, reports, PDF, videos, etc.) on. So I was able to take it to with me and work on the labs during lunch break, etc.
For note taking I used joplin and synchronized it to a VPS running nextcloud, so I could access my e2ee notes on mobile.
For backups, I used borg and deja-dup to a cheap VPS.
For virtualization I used VirtualBox.
Make sure to flatten your VM-image from time to time since many snapshots degrade performance.
Automate the hell out of everything what costs you mental energy and the human mind can't handle well. I really found "autokey" to be useful to do stupid and errorprone tasks, like inserting my tun0 IP or the IP of the target system I was currently working on at the current cursor position. I also automated upgrades of simple reverse shells with autokey, so I would not have to type the same commands over and over again. You can find some basic scripts here: https://github.com/stens-sec/autokey
Learn tmux and it's awesome features. Also learn how to make "textual" screenshots and outupt capturing with tmux, allowing you to save everything from your terminal to files. This will be very valuable during the exam, when you need to find commands or output you have done before.
I made a small bash tool to spawn different server types, like HTTP, netcat, SMB, FTP, etc. It was really a joy just to type "msrv http 8080" instead of "sudo python3 http.server 8080". You can find it here: https://github.com/stens-sec/msrv
Make lots of screenshots and automate the process as best as you can. I used "autokey", a dedicated mouse-button and some custom scripts to automatically save all the screenshots I have taken during the exam to a dedicated folder for each machine on my kali system with a single mouse-click.
Set-up some vanilla Linux- and Windows-VMs and investigate their services and filesystem contents. Run your favourite PE tools (winpeas, linpeas, etc.) against the vanilla systems and take notes on what is "normal" on a freshly installed system. From this you will get a good feeling on what might be added or misconfigured on a system you approach.
Use the kali VM image OffSec recommends. Don't dist-upgrade it, because some packages break stuff. I know, you want all the new and fancy tools, but the ones the image ships are well tested and work. Be cautios on what software you install and take regular snapshots, just in case you need to revert.
Use python virtualenvs if you have to install dependencies via pip. This will not break your system and with virtualenvwrapper you can easyly switch between different environments.
When doing the PDF and learning how to BoF, create a template script you can use during the exam. You can find mine here, but create your own one to fully understand the process: https://github.com/stens-sec/oscp-bof-template
General Advice and Unpleasant Truths
Don't quit your job. Really, don't do it just because you see your future self in a pentesting role. This is just a fantasy right now.
OSCP is not a guarantee for a job offer. Seriously, it shows that you have foundational and practical knowledge in a very complex and coveted field, but unfortunately it does not prove that you have the working experience and support-network most employers seek for.
Take everything I wrote and what you read here with a grain of salt. You will have to make your own experiences to get a picture of the whole thing.
Don't measure your success on others. It is your journey and the progress along the way you make, what counts. Compare yourself to your past self and what you achieved until this very moment. Be proud of yourself.
Keep in mind that some people might not tell the truth here or find joy and satisfaction in degrading the efforts of others (looking at these "I passed the exam with two broken arms in 8 hours with no prior experience and 10 days of labtime" posts). I think these people are clowns.
Getting help or failing is no weakness. If you get your ass kicked, get up and learn some karate. Then kick back.
Learn how to learn. This is an underrated aspect, because PWK and OSCP require you to have a lot of motivation for self learning and self improvement.
Know your limits. Take some days off and make breaks if you feel exhausted or are fed up with everything. In the end, I struggled a lot to keep myself motivated, after I finished PWK. This will be a tough time and you will need long term motivation over a peroid of a couple of months. Get a hobby like gaming or NetFlix, which doesn't stress your mind too hard after exhausting days.
Talk to your partnespouse before starting your journey. They will also be impacted by your decision and it is only fair to give them the possibility to also prepare for the next months. If you have kids, make sure they don't see you crying in front of your PC ;).
Prepare to suffer and live through a lot of emotional ups and downs during the next months.
Tipps for Preparation
Read and understand the course and exam syllabus.
Learn some bash and python in advance. There are lots of free and great resources out there.
Learn some networking fundamentals in advance. There are lots of free and great resources out there.
Kali Linux is an awesome tool and will be your best friend during the next months. Make sure you know it very well.
Read posts in this subreddit and search before you post any questions. Don't expect anybody to answer your 10000th "How to start?" post, if you are too lazy to do the research on your own. You will have a hard time during PWK and the OSCP exam if you can't research topics on your own!
Read and understand the course and exam syllabus.
Create your own cheatsheets and notes, don't rely on other's. One of the key aspects here are building muscle-memory, learning from mistakes the other person didn't told you and the "deja-vu"-effect when using tools, or encountering services.
Check out HTB and ippsec. This guy is awesome and I couldn't thank him enough for making his high quality content which helped me to get a foot in the whole topic. But try to avoid the CTFy-boxes, since they teach you unneccessary CTF-stuff, you won't need during PWK and the exam.
Check out OffSec's Proving Grounds Practice and spend the 20$. I used it after my PWK was over and the machines were much less CTFy than other platforms, meaning they had no stupid riddles, steganography or other things that teach you the absolute wrong methodology. PG machines contain a lot of real-life exploits, service misconfigurations and lots of evil rabbit holes. I was able to further improve my own methodology before the exam, thanks to PG.
Share your scripts and experiences with the community. As you profit from others, it is only fair to give something back that helps others. InfoSec is a ride "on the shoulders of giants". One day you might be one of them, too.
Search for discord study groups, or create your own. They exist and they are very helpful for you and others.
Learn how to use Google. Seriously, this might seem like a joke, but you must know how to efficiently use Google to find information about exploits, methodology and the experience from others. Sure, you know how to google for SQLi, but - as an extreme example - can you find information on blind error-based SQLi for firebird databases?
Take notes, lots of good notes. Backup your notes. Write down every tool, command, service, web resource and methodology you encounter. Tag and refactor your notes from time to time.
Play around with the tools you use during your preparation. Make sure you read their manpages and help-text to unleash their full potential.
Read and understand the course and exam syllabus.
Make sure you have a good backup strategy. This means, backup your data (snapshots are not backups) regularly on different mediums and to different locations. House fires or water damage can happen and you don't want all you hard worked effort to be lost. Don't consider to have any backups until you tested the restore process.
Read and understand the course and exam syllabus.
Watch your OpSec. This means, encrypt everything you get from OffSec. Your course materials, your notes, your reports. Encrypt everything, because you don't want your materials to be stolen and leaked and risk a permaban from OffSec for life because of a weak password or a data leak from a cloud provider.
Learn to identify and avoid rabbitholes. This is tricky, but the more different software and services (and their different versions) you approach, the more you get a feeling for what is "normal" and what seems to be misconfigured or suspicious. You will get an eye for stuff that stands out only if you experiment with the software and understand some of its internals.
Take 90 days of lab time if you can affort it. 60 usually should be enough, but it sure depends on how much time you can invest.
Do the lab report if you can affort the time. Seriously, don't be lazy, it might cost you your OSCP and you will bite your own ass later.
Develop a strategy on how to approach the PDF, the lab report and the lab machines.
Reset the machines before you start and once you finish them. I sometimes found remains from other people, giving hints and spoilers on how to PE the system. That sucked.
Help others on the OffSec forums. Everybody struggles, don't be a "Try harder!"-guy and don't be a "OMG! Easiest box of my life!"-peenwaver.
Try to do the other subnets. Pivoting is a real brainpain in the beginning but once you got it, it will be fun and educational. Also the machines in the other subnets have some great exploits.
Try to avoid Metasploit at all costs and do your research on what an exploit is doing. This is not always possible, but if you have to use msf, try to proxy it trough burp to learn about what it does behind the scenes. Check out the source of the msf exploit scripts.
The lab machines are somewhat old, meaning that on some of the boxes a Kernel Exploit leads to PE, although this is sometimes not the intended PE vector. Do yourself a favor and try to avoid PE with KEs to learn something valuable.
Check the forums for solutions after you finish a box. There might be other and better ways than what you did.
Search for hints in the forums if you don't get any further, have tried everything from your notes AND googled for exploitation of the port/protocol/software you have had no luck yet.
If you are working full-time, I feel you. And if you have a family on top, you will have to develop an even better routine on when you can work on your goals. Spending the only two free hours of your day on pentesting can quickly become a frustrating chore. Make sure you use your time as efficient as possible.
Don't stop after you got proof.txt. I know that the endorphines kick hard after you rooted a box and HTB and the other platforms train you to submit the hash and get a reward. But make sure you do proper post exploitation to find hints and credentials for the dependent machines on any lab machine. You are now root/Administrator, enumerate everything on the system you had no prior access to, like databases, password-hashes, SAM, user directories, etc.
Take good notes on every tool, software, service, protocol, methodology, helpful command, shell-command, etc. you encounter during the lab time. Your notes are the backbone of your failure or success.
Investigate and play with services you encounter. Like, take half an hour to get a basic understanding of the MSSQL service after you exploited it.
Tipps for the Exam
Book your exam early and search the best timeframe for you. Weekends and morning hours are usually long gone. Know at which time you are most productive and book the exam in that timeframe.
Make a strategy: it doesn't matter when you do which machine, but just take the time before the exam and think of it. For me, BoF -> 25 -> 10 -> 20 -> 20 was the plan, until I wasn't able to find anything on the 25 pointer.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson. Keep in mind that your plan might not work and have some strategies ready on how to improvise, adapt and overcome.
Don't eat or drink things you usually don't eat or drink on exam day (looking at you, 3-RedBulls-in-a-row-for-the-first-time-in-10-years-guy).
Don't do stress eating or overcaffinate yourself (I ate way too much nuts during the first 3 hours, resulting in unneccessary stomach pain). Make sure you have nutricious and light snacks and drink enough water.
Once connected to the exam VPN, read the instrucions from the control panel. Don't make any assumptions! Read them carefully until you understand them.
Set yourself a timer for one or two hours (I used xfce's panel-timer). If the timer ends and you didn't find anything useful, you probably fell into a rabbithole. Take a break and switch to another machine.
Don't work on multiple machines in parallel. Focus on one machine and if you can't get any further, approach the next one after you have tried everything from your mind and notes.
Document everything you tried and found for every machine. You will come back later and don't want to waste time on doing the same things over and over again.
Take regular breaks, but not in front of your PC! Go out for a walk, or get some fresh air otherwise. Everybody here says it and it is true: taking breaks helped me to identify things I had not been thinking of in front of my PC. I took breaks around every hour or two.
Read the exam guide over and over again, until you know what they want from you.
Make backups and copies of your kali VM, prepare a fallback notebook or PC, in case yours strikes the day before your exam.
Test your webcam before the exam. Get a second as a fallback.
Make sure you use a cable connection on your router, no WiFi. Buy and use a long cable if neccessary. Also have a mobile tethering WiFi as a backup for the exam day.
Book a test session to make sure the proctoring software works on your system.
Prepare your workspace beforehand, you will spend a lot of time there.
Stick with the tools you have been using before. The exam is the wrong time to switch to unknown tools for enumeration, or PE! They worked for you in the past, they will work for you during the exam.
Prepare some scripts for enumeration of all the target machines before the exam starts. So you can easily do the BoF and let your script do the hard work in the background. Once you are done with the BoF, you can analyze the output and go for the low hanging fruit. Make sure your scripts are well tested and work, maybe start developing and using them in the labs where you have a lot of potential targets. I made two scripts, one used rustscan for a quick portscan and nmapAutomator for a detailed scan in a loop to iterate over all machines. The other script then used autorecon in a loop over all machines. It was good to have the information from different tools to compare them. And indeed, I found open ports that were missing previously. NmapAutomator has been proven for me to be the most reliable tool.
Scan the machines sequentially, not in parallel. This is a difficult topic, but I was convinced by others that massive parallel scanning might have an impact on the TCP-in-UDP-encapsulation of the VPN. Better spend one hour more of scanning time than missing any ports or services because of unreliable heavy network traffic.
Take lots of screenshots. Ideally take screenshots of every step you take and every software/service you encounter and how you tackle it. You might need them later. Try to take them during your encounter, not afterwards. If not possible, try to repeat all the steps from your notes on a machine and take screenshots then.
Make checklists before you start the exam on all important stuff (ID, webcam, backups, fallback system, ...). Use the exam guide!
Make checklists for every port, software and protocol you encounter on the exam machines and enumerate them well. Google software and services you don't know yet. These will be definetly there. Don't make any assumptions about ports, versions and services.
The exam not only tests your technical competences, but also your abilities to improvise, adapt and overcome problems and challenges in a high pressure setup.
The machines are designed to be exploitable. There is a way in and a way to PE. Keep that in mind, you won't have to develop your own exploits, or do overcomplicated things like finding a bug in the kernel network stack.
If an expliot does not work, read its code and make sure you understand what it does. Insert some print()-statements on the parts where you expect the code to be broken or not working, so you can e.g. print and debug the response from a webserver. Maybe a typo occured, or the author just forgot to prefix the request with "http://". You will only know if you are able to read and understand the internals.
Not all vulnerabilities come from exploitable and outdated software. Misconfigurations and careless admins are also exploitable.
Prepare scans/copies of your ID on photo, just in case your webcam can't correctly focus it and the proctor wants to see an image.
Prepare a BoF-script you develop during the learning process, so you can quickly go over it. BoF is the only easy win, if you do it correctly.
There will be no easy wins like EternalBlue or dirtyc0w, sorry.
Enumerate, enumerate, and the enumerate again.
Reset machines when you can't find anything and then enumerate again. Compare the results of earlier scans.
Don't rely on a single tool! Learn and use different tools for portscanning, fuzzing, dir busting, etc. Use different wordlists.
Check every single port if it really hosts the service you are thinking.
Don't make any asumptions on services and versions.
Try exploits for other versions if a service you found seems not to be a vulnerable version.
Know your shells! This is freaking important, because there is no worse feeling than getting a reverse shell which immediately dies after connecting back. Learn and try different types: reverse shells, bind shells, download and execute elf-binaries via command shells, "msfvenom-CMD" with a simple bash reverse shell, etc. ...
Think of possible firewall policies and blocked outgoing ports. Try different ports for your reverse shells, before giving up. Take notes on everything you tried.
Double check your local.txt and proof.txt contents and screenshots.
Stay calm. Don't stress yourself out and stick with your notes and your methodology. In my country we have the saying: "The fear of the dentist is always greater than the pain during the visit."
Again, double check your local.txt and proof.txt contents and screenshots. You don't want to fail because you forgot them.
Tipps for the Report
Read OffSecs requirements on the report until you understand what they want from you. Then read it again and make a checklist.
Train the report on the lab machines (ideally when doing the lab report), so you have everything you will need in mind and the tools and templates ready. When your brain has molten after the exam, you don't want to deal with how to format the report or how to layout it. Do not underestimate the time and effort this takes and this can easily be prepared beforehand.
The report takes much time and effort. Don't underestimate that. Especially when you are excited and exhausted, you will be making mistakes that could cost you the exam.
Prepare your report, notes, screenshots, etc. as best as you can during the exam. Make - you guessed it - checklists.
The best would be to organize your notes during the exam in a way, you will later write in the report. I trained this in the labs, making the following sections for every system I encountered: General Enumeration, Service Enumeration, Exploitation/initial Shell, Privilege Escalation Enumeration, Privilege Escalation Exploitation (Post Exploitation). Document every command you used and a what you found from it for every phase.
There are very good posts on the topic here, search for them.
Use a markdown template if you are okay with that. It was a little work for me to find out, how to use it, but in the end it saved me a lot of time and struggle when I just rendered it after finishing the lab and exam reports. Watch out for "\"-instructions of pandoc (like when you document badchars), because they get interpreted and I was struggling a lot with finding out the problem after my report did not render anymore because I wasn't aware that you have to escape backslashes for pandoc ("\x00" becomes "\x00") This guy fucks and did an awesome post on the topic. Thank you very much!
Thanks to OffSec for this awesome journey and thanks to all folks here who took the time to share their experiencs (passed, or not) and their tools. This would not have been possible without you! Good luck and all the best for your exam!
My experience: Zephyrus G14 vs Apple MacBook Air M1
General thoughts on Zephyrus G14 (1650 version) vs Apple MacBook M1 air (base version), having owned both. First, some data: 3D mark Wild Life scores (native iOS/ARM/Metal vs native windows intel/Vulkan) MBA: 16320 (with or without plugging in, default device settings) G14: 22486 (on mains), but 17667 (on battery). This was done CPU boost off, which makes almost no difference for gpu loads, but much quieter and much less power; see the FAQ. Tomb raider benchmark. Note that this is a Windows x86 binary running through a wrapper to port it to Mac and then running under Rosetta to run on arm! This is a pretty significant handicap to the MBA but not uncommon with current games-- the 3d mark above is a better native (hardware) comparison. Also, the MBA is running at 1920x1200 instead of 1920 x 1080 (pushing more pixels), both ultra settings. MBA: 47.3 fps at 10 W SOC (GPU + DRAM + CPU, not screen) G14: on battery : 98.5 fps using 30w GPU+ 8 W CPU ( not including system DRAM or screen) G14: plugged in 122 fps, using 50 W + 8W Weights (as measured by me). G14: 1649g system + 443 g chargecable = 2100g MBA: 1273 system + 114 g (I use an anker nano, same specs as Apple but lighter.) = 1400g Usage: The G14 required a lot of tuning to get semi-quiet (What is the lead sticky thread on this reddit again?). It wakes up more slowly, has no webcam and the fully patched fingerprint reader is flakey. The MBA required essentially none of the tinkering. It has a better screen, keyboard and speakers and no fan or coil whine at all. It's completely silent which is amazing. Conclusions: if you are like the large majority of people who use your machine for web/email/zoom/light spreadsheets, and you don’t have a religious preference for Mac vs Windows, the M1 stomps all over the G14. It is fair to point out that G14 is really a gaming laptop that just happens to be as small as a large ultrabook. There are also many Windows ultrabooks that also are better as ultrabooks than the G14. IMHO, The M1 also stomps all of these but that’s not covered here. If you ALSO want light gaming (a common use case the the G14), don’t mind an occasional game that won’t run and aren’t married to Windows, the M1 still stomps all over the G14. It’s GPU is the best iGPU ever built and not far behind the 1650 in native performance (which is amazing.). It is also crazy power efficient. The difference in favor of the M1 gets even greater if weight, portability, having a webcam, noise or battery life matter. For CPU-dependent loads, the M1 is much faster at single core performance, much more power efficient and competitive at multicore performance. This is particularly applicable to coding usage. Its power efficiency also lets you do big compiles away from power. If you have some specific application (video editing, machine learning etc.) your choices are dictated by what runs YOUR software best. The M1 also has a powerful ML accelerator (separate from the GPU), the G14 1650 doesn’t; the 2060 sort of does. Not covered here. The G14 is more upgradeable (RAM/SSD). You basically can’t upgrade the MBA once you’ve bought it. If you are using that machine as a desktop replacement (weight, battery don’t matter) AND need reliable windows gaming performance for any arbitrary game, the G14 is the obvious winner. The MBA windows gaming is already very good , and improving rapidly, but is still hit-or-miss and requires a lot of tinkering (Crossover, parallels, etc.). Its gpu is very close to the 1650 on battery power (and much more efficient) but is not as powerful as a plugged in 1650, let alone the 2060. If you want to run the latest AAA windows games on the G14, you can-- it will make noise and not last long on batteries but can get the job done. On MBA, you are going to have to use Google Stadia or the Nvidia equivalent which does involve some compromises (latency, need the service and a good wifi connection; but the battery then lasts for eternity and no noise from the computer at all). I actually use Steam Remote from my desktop and am very happy with this. If you are going with the G14, you better know how to patch/upgrade/tinker if you want it to have any battery life or quietness. It’s OOB software package, configuration and performance were atrocious. You could say the same about windows gaming (games with no Mac or iOS port) on the M1. So in short— hooray for the manfacturers that are making such rapid progress this year. The G14 is a great advance over earlier machines and a fantastic Windowsgaming machine for its weight. The MBA is a major step ahead of the G14 in every way EXCEPT absolute GPU performance and Windows compatibility. We are lucky to have such choices-- pick what works for you and enjoy it!
Hello everyone! I recently got my first desktop the R11 and I wanted to give a timeline of delivery and also a step by step to upgrades I made on it as I’m sure lots of people have gotten the R10/11 because of the RTX 3000s. Also photos of the case and what I’m talking about are here. *Disclaimer this is the first PC I’ve ever had or upgraded so this may not be the best way to do everything but it worked out and I’m seeing some good results and this was written on a phone. Specs (R11): Intel 10th gen i9 10900KF RTX 3080 8Gb 2933 HyperX RAM 2Tb HDD 1000W Lunar Light with water cooling Killer Wifi Mouse/Keyboard Setup Cost: $1935.08 USD With 4 year premium warranty and tax: $2379.59 USD Timeline: Ordered 11/24 9PM Confirmed 11/24 11PM Estimated Ship 12/14 Estimated Arrival 12/17 In Production 12/1 8PM Actual Ship 12/5 3PM Actual Arrival 12/9 12PM Overall, it arrived a week early and I am super happy about that. I used the online chat on 11/27 to ask for expedited shipping and got FedEx 2nd Day so I would recommend asking or nagging them about that! Upgrades made were to RAM, SSD, paste, and fans due to price or comfort. Tools used were two screw drivers, an ESD strap, and alcohol swab/paper towels. To open the PC: Unscrew the back screw on the protruded tab and pull the tab. The left panel will pop off. Pull the top and then lift to remove the panel. Then lift the two switches on the back to release the PSU and hinge open the PSU. My PSU was quite difficult to hinge mainly because of the stiff wires so because not to pinch them. To install RAM: I installed 2x16Gb Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro. Very simple installation, press the black or white plastic tabs on the ends of the RAM ports to remove the installed card. Then install RAM of your choice. When the new card is installed, make sure the locks are open and they will close automatically when the new card is pushed in. I have heard that RAM should be installed in pairs so I believe installing just a third stick may be detrimental. Also make sure the clock speeds are the same, I had to remove the pre-installed RAM to ensure clocking compatibility would not be an issue. Once the PC is turned on Bios will note that RAM changed and reconfigure itself so I did not need to manually adjust the RAM sped to 3200. To remove GPU: This step is not necessary for just changing RAM or Drive but can help make some working space. There is a black plastic piece that supports the GPU, this can simply be pulled and it will hinge out and down. It has a rubber seal so it has flex and can be removed with some force. Be very careful when removing this however as if done too fast it can probably hurt your GPU. There are no other screws to the GPU, so remove the two cable sets by pressing the clip and pulling. Then press the blue plastic lock on the motherboard as with the RAM and unlock the GPU and finally the GPU can be removed. To install SSD: For 2.5” SSD, there are two slots and cables already built in and power and data cables can simply be plugged in making for a very easy installation. NVMe M.2 PCIe cards can be installed with or without the GPU installed although without is much easier. The port is on the bottom left of the motherboard. Unscrew the securing screw, place the SSD until it clicks and then screw down the SSD. I also removed the HDD that was built in. The blue tray can be removed by squeezing the two tabs and the drive holder can be removed by unscrewing the two screws holding it down. To remove AIO: Remove the heat sink with its 3 screws, although the bottom one is really just a pin. Unscrew the four pump screws. Unplug the pump, fan and white motherboard cable. Removing the top case panel of the PC is very helpful but not needed. Unscrew two black screws on the ceiling of the PC to dislodge the AIO radiator and remove. This will require some wiggling as it is a pretty cramped space for the radiator. To repaste: Clean off the existing thermal paste with a Qtip or paper towels and wipe clean with an alcohol swab or isopropyl alcohol. 100% alcohol is better as it ensure no residue remains but I only had swabs so I used those. Place a pea sized amount on the IHS and screw down the AIO pump ensuring that all four screws are screwed evenly. To replace fans: The from fan is a clip on fan. The clip must be pressed and the fan case pulled into the center of the case. Ensure that the wire bundle is unhooked before the fan case is removed. The case uses clips to hold the fan and these can must be unhooked. I found that the Corsair ML120 Pro fans were a little large and caused the fan case to bend and was a little difficult to reclip into the chassis but worked nonetheless. The AIO fan can be replaced by unscrewing four screws. The top panel can be removed for a push/pull method as well but I’m not sure if it will fit with the top panel on. Any 4-pin fan will work although I have heard Noctua fans can cause Bios issues. The PSU fan can be replaced as well but I would not recommend this ... I may have shocked myself by working in the PSU and thank goodness I wasn’t touching the GPU or CPU. The PSU fan is 3 pin and has zip ties bundling all the cables so it it difficult to remove anyways. I would recommend just getting a different PSU if you want to replace it. I instead added a third fan to make it two intake fans in the place where the HDD case used to be. There are no screw holes here, so they can either be drilled or the fan can be zip tied down which I did and I don’t hear an rattling or shaking of the fan. This fan was connected to a 4pin y splitter to the front fan. Since ML120 Pro fans have a lower max RPM than the original fans, AWCC will state that fans are only operating at 60% or so speed. Once these changes were made, I booted up the PC and here are the times to boot that I found. Original setup took 28.56 to boot and 25.41 to shutdown and new setup took 11.67 to boot and 7.08 to shutdown. I added ThrottleStop and underclothes by 60v to be safe and the built in 96M benchmark took 6.051 seconds. I have also noted that it is super quiet on the balanced setting but can get somewhat noisy when all fans are forced to max speed, although not loud enough to disturb me at all especially when listening to something. The fan settings were adjusted to go linear from 0% at 35C to 60% at 100C. When gaming, I found that my temps ranged from 65-75 with peaks at 85 and during benchmarks I got up to 91 max which I am satisfied with. I hope this helped and if there are any questions or additional photos requested, I’ll be happy to answer :) thank you for reading!
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