The Commlink used as a Repeater, Just what it says Options

[Wasabi]

He-Man can hack a commlink and then unsubscribe the poor sap carrying it and then subscribe himself. His own commlink and the target commlink must both be within each other's signal range.

Once the target commlink is hacked He-Man uploads his hacking programs and uses the target commlink to hack into building security which is within the target commlink's range but not his own personal commlink's signal range.

He-Man now has 1 global PAN (so he can be hacked and traced normally) but his range is now based on the signal rating of *either* commlink.

This seems valid to me, am I missing anything? The only thing I can think of is that a commlink subscribing a second commlink would violate the only-one-firewall rule, which possibly would require unloading the firewall on the target commlink (its a program, after all) and then hacking in using his personal commlink's firewall as the PAN firewall.

Legit or not?

[apple]

It seems legit.

SYL

[Dashifen]

Has a good beat, I can dance to it. Applications of the technique may need to be carefully prepared in advance, and the wallpaper or paint or whatever it was that reduced wireless signals within a building could put a big crutch in pulling this one off. Plus, if you dump the original person from their commlink, wouldn't they notice? And, I'd definately apply the +6 for admin access to the commlink (as it's an everday device and thus only has amin access).

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Keep in mind that the hacked commlink will usually have a smaller Response rating, though - so limiting the usage of all Programs.

[RunnerPaul]

Conceptually, I like the feel of this. Very much reminds me of the present day technique of pwning some poor n00b's computer and turning it into a zombie box to launch your nefarious schemes from.

Though these days, it's usually hundreds of poorly secured boxes getting co-opted all at once by a virus or other malware, and then the whole colection of pwned machines being used for a distributed attack.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

..that would be inserting Agents into named systems, and subscribing them as one... sweet.

Talking about repeaters... yet I missed a single device just boosting signal strenght.
Shouldn't it be possible though, to just use a comlink a booster station?
(This becoms relevant to users of implanted commlinks, as their signal rating should be limited to 2)

[Lindt]

But suddenly the idea of hacking 200 people acros the city and creating your own WAN seems wicked entertaining.

[kigmatzomat]

Could also work as a decoy; give the troll a spare comm to carry around just for use as a relay. You can stash an Agent program on the spare instructed to crash the system or shut down all communication in the case of a breach. Maybe add a biomonitor to the link so if you passout it'll be able to shut things down. Should you get dropped by BlackOut/Hammer, any security that tries to access your Comm will have a nasty surprise.

And the reason I give it to the troll is in case they get a GPS fix on it via triangulation or breaking into it.

[mfb]

99% of the time, the signal rating of your commlink isn't going to matter. that's the whole point of mesh networking; everybody in the mesh acts as a mini-repeater as your packets get routed to where you want them to go. there's no real need to even unsubscribe the main user (and if you do, he'll just reset his commlink and boot you anyway), you can already accomplish the same level of anonymity just by spoofing your datatrail. it's a neat, clever way to do something that's already possible through much simpler means.

[Slacker]

[Dashifen]

Not without 20 of your closest friends :D

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Yes, you can - you can subscribe multiple Agents or Drones as one Subsription...

[mfb]

actually, you could create a seperate-from-the-Matrix mesh network comprised solely of the commlinks you've hacked. just subscribe them to other commlinks you've hacked, which subscribe to yet others, which eventually you have subscribed.

granted, though, this network will take about six seconds to fall apart. that's about how long it takes to do a perception check to notice your commlink's on the fritz, and then reset it.

[RunnerPaul]

[Dashifen]

[RunnerPaul]

[Dashifen]

Good point :D

[Kesh]

My big problem is that, once you unsubscribe the poor sap, he's going to be wondering why his AR glasses just went dead, he's not recieving messages, etc. and reboot the system. Meaning you'd have a minute or two to use the hacked unit before you're booted off again.

[Wasabi]

So it most valid for a team of shadowrunners who are geographically seperated. Sort of a leap-frog thing.

[Elldren]

Hooray! Zombie-bot DDOS attack networks of the future!

[RunnerPaul]

[kigmatzomat]

I think the easier thing to do is not do anything to alert the user. The zombie-spam bots work just fine for the idiot Comcast user who wants to get email and surf the web for porn. It may be a tad bit slower at times but he won't really be able to tell that it's not the sites he's visiting.

From my read of the rules, the use of a Comm's standard functions cause no load. Meaning you can have your AR glasses, headphones, gloves, and walk around IM-ing, listening to "the radio", etc without running a single System-draining application. Hackers will have full use of the CPU for their own nefarious needs. At the very worst, they'll be at Response-1.

[hahnsoo]

[mfb]

meh. easier to just copy his account info onto your commlink. unless they've got some kind of special hardware built in, the network won't be able to differentiate.

[hahnsoo]