[CQ-Contest] spotting game, changes proposal

[Felipe Ceglia - PY1NB]

Hello folks,

I've been watching these threads about spotting and not spotting and all.

What do you think about proposing some changes in the packet cluster 
network?

The packet cluster network has been designed maybe more than 20 years 
ago, and probably restricted to packet radio use. These days there 
werent all those  security problems and cheating in mind.
Nowadays  I cant know for sure, but probably  more than 90% of cluster 
access are from internet.


Somethings that it seems (to me) urgent to deploy:

- exchanging of origin (TCP/IP address, radio frequency, port, home 
node) for users between cluster nodes;

- limiting user logins, so a user would not be able to login with the 
same callsign to more than one cluster, unless he connects as CALL-1, 
CALL-2 (sometimes the user opens a log software, a webcluster and other 
aid software that also connects to the cluster);

- think about authentication... at most of the clusters now, one can 
simply login as wish, no passwd, no control. we could think of using a 
couple of centralized servers for controlling authentication (ISPs and 
TI industry already do that with a software called radius), or using 
some key exchange like lotw does.

I know these are not trivial changes, and probably there are more 
changes needed that didn't come to my mind.
This would require upgrading all the servers, but could be scheduled to 
do in a couple of years.

At least this would let us keep closer attention to cheaters, and 
probably after getting identified, the cheaters wont behave badly again, 
right?


73,

Felipe Ceglia - PY1NB
http://www.dxwatch.com