Good evening Before i ask my point blank questions i would like to explain my situation briefly.

I'm playing a techno in a gritty 325 pt campaign. i rely heavily on threading for anything but exploit and defense. I'm Puny (2 in all physical attributes).

Typically I Ramp up my stealth hacking in with a 9 stealth.
Locate then Disarm the Analyze program.
Further look around the node
Then so on.

At the end of my run i always attempt to clean my datatrail, and reduce my signature (if time permits). So far Time hasn't permitted.

Current point of reference. I'm in VR vs an AR Fixer. I OTF Hack his Pan with admin access. (2 rolls 7 then 6 successes). I enter and by my second IP I've caused an alert (of which i switched nodes to a companions node to make an edit then switched back I basically did nothing on the node itself.

This AR User by my third IP loads an Ice.

Fast forwarding to the end 5 more IP's and I'm rushing to DL paydata (no time to analyze) Set off a data-bomb as the user is shutting down his PAN. i wait around until he powers it back on... Log in and Erase my data trail with the system in full alert and again... shutting down.

Continually i feel like I'm making major NOOB hacker errors. thus my 2 questions.

First I'm sure i saw somewhere that i could erase my datatrail. and I've spent 2 hrs looking for it and no dice.
I've found Reducing my signature, and Spoofing my datatrail to avoid being traced. but am coming complety dry for my datatrail quandary.

Second Being that i'm feeling a Noob all over, is there a good 4th ed... hacking Standard Operating Procedures or FAQ? I'm not looking for catalysts FAQ here.

Now that I'm done i thought of a third question.

If a Comlink is powered off. does it hold the Techno's signature?

Thanks for the help, Long time browser of these forums, First Time User.

Far from being a noob, I'd say you understand the hacking rules a lot better than most. I've never heard of a hacking FAQ but maybe someone around here has some tips for you.

I'd be happy to hear some tips. from especially with someone with experience under their belt. I'm more theory just starting to put to practice.

You might be making noob mistakes or maybe your GM is just shootig for a more challenging level of Matrix security in his game. If you ask me the exchange you describe sounds pretty exciting and would make playing a technomancer a lot more fun. If this isn't bogging down your sessions I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll pick up more 'skillz' as you go along.

As for your other question: I think what you are looking for might be the rules for "Editing the Access Log" in Unwired page 65.

Did he have something that gave him extra IPs? Normally AR doesn't give you additional IPs. If he has wired reflexes or something, those do apply in AR. Consider shutting them down if you have Admin in the PAN.

Or did I miss something? I thought IC etc. only got two IPs too, so even the node's automated defense script shouldn't react that fast...

You can erase your access logs, I'll find a reference for it later today.

otherwise I'm surprised at how quickly you were discovered - double check to make sure your GM is only rolling against your icon without you taking action if he has active IC loaded, if it's just the passive system security then it should only roll against you when you actually do something to that node.

I'll check, i marked it up to "the mysterious GM make stuff up" and didn't complain at the time, makes for a worse game session when i point out how it should have gone during game time. I'll Look at the Access log editing.

I've never really gotten "in and out" in any hacking job. the closest one i had was some guy with last years cracked OS that had an analyze program that crashed when i tried to disarm it. User rebooted upon a warning and i logged back in... that was the most mundane so far.

Aaron´s cheat sheets are always handy, even if you seem to have the matrix basics down.

As for your scene:

• You took two attempts to hack the fixers commlink on the fly. The fixer rolled firewall+analyse twice and got your stealth (9?) hits or more. Not likely for most commlinks, but quite possible.
• The commlinks Alert Response Configuration send an IC after you.
• Cybercombat ensued.

Can happen, will happen again. Be glad that your GM gives you action (like Method said).
If you think that your TM gets too little stuff done, consider increasing stealth. (But talk to your GM so that you don´t start an arms race.)

Unwired Page 65 (as I mentioned above).

Someone posted THIS recently. Not sure who the author is but its a pretty good (an more importantly concise) overview of the basics.

No need. Technomancers automatically spoof their access ID(Unwired, p.135 and your Resonance signature is only detectable by other Resonance entities(sprites, technomancers), so it's pointless to waste time reducing it.

It is possible via a resonance realm search before the actual hack, but I guess that is outside your character's reach. The easier way would be to edit the logfiles



The rules don't say anything to the contrary, but since it only lasts a couple of hours and can only be seen by other resonant beings I usually ignore it, while scrubbing the logs is always a good idea.

scrubbing the logs also makes it harder to detect that *any* incursion has happened. leaving a false trail is fine up until it makes the security harder next time around because they know they've been hit once before..

Method, that indeed was what i was looking for. didn't get the chance to track it down myself tonight. and currently downloading the matrix basics that you just linked as well. Thanks.



Even though i understand that technomancers are not a common phenomena... it's better to build good paranoid habits and live long, then get sloppy and have my killer GM... Kill me.



Sengir, i note that "scrubbing the logs" is a necessary thing. and while Resonant beings are less then common... still important as i just mentioned.



Finally, absolutely correct, Resonance realm search is out of my characters reach at the moment, but I am getting ready to submerge. I've requested that the GM put together a "Great Hack" to help with submerging cost.