GPORTAL

If you still need proof that modifications increase the longevity of your game, take a look at Fallout London and the surge of players returning to an essentially 9 years old product. Congratulations to Team FOLON for releasing their incredible piece of work! We're at GPORTAL are always advocating for strong mod support, with easily accessible tools for everyone, to make the experience as smooth and hassle-free as possible. That's why we're proud of our inhouse game control panel that allows our players to activate mods, maps or any other features on the fly. In the past, we've also partnered with CurseForge, making it easy for players to set up CurseForge mods on their servers. This won't be our last effort to offer the best possible solutions when it comes to hosting in general but also dedicated modding servers in particular.

Many of you might have felt minor, or, in numerous cases, major troubles due to the CrowdStrike update and the following crashes last week. From hospitals to banks and airports, millions of systems around the globe were affected, basically rendered useless due to reboot spirals of doom. A single line of unchecked code can make quite the difference in a world that has become more and more dependent on connectivity and technology. Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t the first time that faulty code or unexpected errors affected our economy. The 512K Day, or Internet's Bogon Filter Overflow, was such an event. On August 12, 2014, the global Internet experienced significant disruptions due to a fundamental limitation in the routing hardware used by many Internet Service Providers. The issue arose when the number of entries in the global Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing table exceeded 512,000, the default maximum limit for many older routers. BGP is a protocol used to exchange routing information between different networks on the Internet. Each router maintains a BGP routing table to determine the best paths for data to travel. Back then, many older routers were configured to handle a maximum of 512K routes in their memory, which is split between IPv4 routes and other types, such as IPv6 and MPLS. When the number of routes exceeded this limit, some routers began to malfunction, causing slowdowns and outages for some internet users. This was especially pronounced for ISPs and data centers that had not upgraded their infrastructure or applied recommended configuration changes and forced many providers to upgrade their routers to newer models capable of handling more routes. The Internet’s Bogon Filter Overflow was less disruptive than last week's update but interestingly, network engineers had actually predicted this event, dubbing it 512K Day in advance.

Looking back at a milestone: In late 2023, GPORTAL partnered with Double Eleven to bring private servers to Rust Console Edition. This brief article explores this collaboration, detailing the process of integrating this long-requested feature. We discuss our roles, challenges faced, and the positive reception from the gaming community. If you're interested in the technical and collaborative aspects of expanding console gaming capabilities, this piece offers some insights from our experience. A big thank you to everyone at Double Eleven and the dedicated teams at GPORTAL!

CVE-2011-3389 is the Number of the BEAST! Worry not ─ We're not arguing about religious motives. This Weekly Bit is about cyber security and this specific BEAST lurks in your browser, ready to exploit SSL/TLS vulnerabilities. CVE stands for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures and CVE-2011-3389 describes the security vulnerability exploited by the BEAST attack on SSL/TLS 1.0. BEAST, which stands for Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS was a critical security flaw that shook the cybersecurity world in 2011. It targeted TLS 1.0 and earlier SSL protocols, potentially decrypting sensitive data on HTTPS connections. This vulnerability allowed attackers to recover small amounts of plaintext from encrypted sessions, such as session cookies, potentially compromising user security. The BEAST attack was performed in multiple steps and exploited a vulnerability in TLS 1.0 and earlier SSL protocols. It required a man-in-the-middle position to intercept traffic and capitalized on the predictable Initialization Vector (IV) in the cipher block chaining (CBC) mode: it was the last ciphertext block of the previous message. By injecting known plaintext into requests and analyzing the resulting ciphertext, attackers could deduce unknown parts of the message which then allowed byte-by-byte decryption of sensitive data like session cookies. BEAST worked iteratively, guessing each byte and confirming it based on ciphertext changes. This method potentially exposed encrypted information, compromising the security of HTTPS connections. To mitigate BEAST, the cybersecurity community recommended moving to TLS 1.1 or higher, which used explicit IVs for each message, making the attack much more difficult to execute. In the end, the attack led to significant improvements in TLS protocols to prevent such vulnerabilities.

Did you know? The online global gaming market grew by nearly 10% in 2023, even after the post-pandemic gaming boom. What's driving this sustained growth? One often overlooked factor: private servers. For game developers and industry professionals, incorporating private servers is a strategic move. They serve as invaluable testing grounds for new ideas and can maintain an active player base long after official support ends. That's only the tip of the iceberg however. Read our full article to learn more about why we consider private servers to be the best option for multiplayer games.

If you're familiar with the Infinite Monkey Theorem, you know that its essence boils down to this: Give a monkey an infinite amount of time hitting keys on a typewriter and he'll end up writing every text in existence, ever written, even the works of William Shakespeare. Now, at GPORTAL we're less invested in animals but technology. One such example, mildly comparable to the Monkey Theorem, is NaNoGenMo - National Novel Generation Month. Inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), NaNoGenMo is an annual event where participants create a computer program that writes a novel of 50,000 words or more. It was started by Darius Kazemi in 2013 and follows a set of rules. Participants share their code and results openly on GitHub, encouraging a collaborative environment where programmers, writers, and AI enthusiasts can explore the potential of machine-generated literature. The outcomes range from random gibberish to surprisingly poignant pieces and even AI attempts at mimicking classic authors' styles. While the resulting "novels" may not be destined for bestseller lists, NaNoGenMo serves as a vital experimental ground. It challenges our understanding of authorship, creativity, and the role AI might play in future literary endeavors. In the year and age of prominent, generative pseudo-AIs like Chat GPT we might find the scale and scope of NaNoGenMo lacking but it can be seen as more interesting and, in many ways, more ethical. NaNoGenMo participants openly share their source code, making the entire process transparent and the event is explicitly framed as an artistic and experimental endeavor. The goal is not to replace human writers but to explore the boundaries of computational creativity. NaNoGenMo makes it clear that the generated novels are the result of algorithmic processes, and there’s no pretense of the text being authentically human-produced. It encourages a broader, more ethical consideration of what AI can do and how it should integrate into human endeavors, particularly in creative fields.

We are thrilled to announce that GPORTAL is now a proud member of the German games industry association "game"! 🎮 The gaming industry is booming, and Germany is no exception. For over 20 years, we've been dedicated to delivering top-notch multiplayer experiences with our reliable, modern, and lightning-fast game servers. Our commitment to constantly updating our server selection ensures that every gamer finds the perfect match. Joining "game" allows us to further champion Germany as a premier gaming hub while continuing to provide unparalleled experiences for our players and studio partners. This membership is both an honor and a mission for us, reinforcing our dedication to our motto: "By gamers - for gamers." Together, let's level up the gaming industry in Germany! 🕹 💪 #gportal #GamingIndustry #gameserver #GermanGamesAssociation #ByGamersForGamers #GameOn

🚜 FarmCon24 is over and it was breathtaking! 🚜 The Farming Simulator series from developer GIANTS Software has a very passionate and loyal community. And this year's FarmCon at the Fendt Forum in Marktoberdorf (Bavaria, Germany) was the best proof of this. So many fans and players, content creators and partners, developers and exhibitors, an event that must be witnessed. Whether it was state-of-the-art agricultural machinery or classics like the Fendt F25 and of course the great anticipation for the eagerly awaited Farming Simulator 25, which will be launched in November 2024, there was plenty to gaze at. It was both an honor and a pleasure to have been part of FarmCon24 and to have met so many great people and we can only recommend everyone to experience this great event for themselves. 💯 A heartfelt thank you to the organizers, GIANTS Software, Fendt and everyone else involved. We are already extremely excited about FarmCon25 and hope to see many familiar and new faces there again. #FarmCon #FarmCon24 #FarmingSimulator Catch you next year. 👩🌾 👨🌾

🌟 Exciting News from TwitchCon Rotterdam 2024! 🌟 What an incredible experience at #TwitchConRotterdam2024! 🎮⭐ From the vibrant energy of the gaming community to the inspiring panels with industry leading companies and jaw-dropping cosplay, this year's event was nothing short of spectacular. Highlights: 🔹Met with amazing streamers and content creators from all over the world 🔹Attended insightful sessions on the future of streaming and gaming 🔹Explored innovative tech and the latest gaming gear 🔹Enjoyed fantastic live performances and esports tournaments 🔹Connected with industry leaders and fellow enthusiasts A huge shoutout to everyone who made this event unforgettable!⭐ Whether you’re a gaming company, a seasoned streamer, an aspiring content creator, or a dedicated fan, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2024 truly had something for everyone. Let’s keep the spirit of creativity, community, and collaboration alive! Can’t wait to see how the connections and ideas from this weekend will shape the future! #TwitchCon #GamingCommunity #StreamerLife #Esports #Networking #Innovation #TechTrends #ContentCreation #TwitchFamily 🚀See you all online and at the next TwitchCon! 🚀

Always first! After the huge success from January, Pocketpair, the developers of Palworld, are really stepping up their game! It is important to us at GPORTAL that our customers and partners are always up-to-date. That's why we do everything we can to make updates like this one available on our servers at lightning speed. Our customers and partners can therefore always expect a first-class gaming experience on a GPORTAL Server, whether on PC or XBOX! #GPORTAL #Palworld #Gameserver