Does the Skin Link upgrade provide DNI? I have noticed that there is a Touch Link cyberware but the description for it is limited. Does it work in tandem with Skin Link to provide DNI? If none of it provides DNI how does skin link work exactly?

Those are two very different things.

A Touch Link is an implanted device that interface with your nervous system and allow you to receive tactile sensations from other sources than your natural sense, the same way an Image Link allow you to see images or an Audio link allow you to hear sounds.

A Skinlink is simply replacing the radio connexion between two devices by a physical connexion using the superficial electrical field of your body as a wire. In itself it does not provide DNI, it simply gives you a channel for DNI informations that more difficult to hack than radio but requires you to touch the devices you want to connect.

Okay that clears it up for me thanks

Skin links are also a Top runner tool to keep hackers off you.

I'm sure other can explain it better, but as I understand it...

If you have a data jack or even trodes, you just put a skin link in to every piece of gear you have.
Get gloves (clothes for that matter) that allow the skin link to connect.
All your gear goes through the skin link routing through the master and your data jack. All has to be registered. That includes cyberware.

Now you have your public comlink, then you have your hidden one, then you have the master jacked in. All are using a comlink.
The public comlink is disposable. The private one is secure, but also ultimately disposable.

Now except for your public and private comlink, you set the rest of your gear to only use the skinlink. Your private comlink has it's link off normally.
For critical gear like your primary weapon, you set it to activate the wireless link to your private comlink if the skin link is lost.

If you have to connect to some places you route either though the private (for team communications) or the private to the public (for normal activity).

If anyone does any thing but route through your private comlink, you lock it out.


To get to any thing the Hacker has to get through 2 very secure comlinks, one of which is a trip wire.

It is expensive, but it provides anonymity and just about as much total security as you can get.

Or an implant commline, datajack and 2 cheap commlinks..... set everything up to skinlink, burn out the wifi on your implant commlink where you have everything skinlink to, burn out the signal on all your gear, and have your commlinks hooked to nothing, and loaded with worms, virii, and malware....

You don't need to burn out the signal of the implant commlink, just have firewall 6 and encrypt 6. Cluster all of your cyberware into one system and then slave it to your implant commlink. Have IC running on the cluster as well as your implant commlink. Also slave all of your skinlinked gear to the implant commlink and if you lose the skinlink connection then it drops out of the system, do NOT allow wireless at all, unless the weapon has a secure commlink as well (System 6 running Firewall 6 & encrypt 6 and IC)... and that is pushing security a little bit.