Here is something that has been bothering me for a while now.

Apparently, from what I read around here and a few other places, PANs and wireless functionality are OPTIONAL. This was fairly shocking to me because it came across, to me, as an enormous nerf to hackers, especially NPC hackers.

Not that long ago, I had a PC (Street Samurai) tell me that he was setting his commlink to 'off'. I said (because this was my understanding of the Matrix rules): you can't turn your commlink to off. Your commlink is the center of your PAN and is required to run your cybereyes, other 'ware, etcetera. No one turns their commlink off, ever. And then I read a thread recommending that ALL runners should have their commlinks physically shut off on runs. I thought that is what hidden mode was for!

Basically, my assumption was that all 'ware and tech was wireless. That that was the main difference between 4E hackers and 3E hackers. 3E hackers need to slow down the game with a lot of snirbling in order to do their hacking stuff while everyone else sits around. 4E hackers can roll up with the rest of the team, hacking everything from cameras' to enemy smartilinks AT-WILL i.e. on the fly.

I read that 'wired' functionality existed for devices but I assumed that it was viewed as cumbersome, awkward, and inefficient from the way it was written about. i.e. that maybe your character does have a couple of wires he can plug in from his glasses to his gun and from his glasses and his gun to his commlink in order to keep your smartlink working, but doing so is hugely inconvenient and awkward when every device has wireless functionality.

One thing I am fine with having a 'wired only' mode as a default is cyberware. You pay essence for cyberware. It is part of your body. Cybereyes, for instance, can have a wired, physical connection to your body. But if you have something like, say, Contacts, with Image Link, Smartlink, Lowlight, Flare Compensation) how can that possibly be wired? How can you plug a wire into contact lenses? And what do you plug the other end of the wire into? But this gets into other, weirder assumptions, like how different devices work.

For instance, I assume that (non-internal) optics simply work as lenses. Low light contacts don't need to transmit to anything, they're just super-futuristically-miniaturized nightvision goggles. But if you have something like Smartlink Contacts that requires a wireless connection to your gun (by way of your commlink) which can be hacked.

So, assumptions:

1. That a commlink is essential for coordinating a PAN and keeping wireless devices (including 'ware) in communication with each other. I am now under the impression this assumption was WRONG.
2. Devices cannot be hacked directly. The commlink is the control node for all devices. The commlink must be hacked first, THEN devices subscribed to the commlink can be controlled. I am starting to lean towards the possibility that this assumption was WRONG, but I don't know.
3. That ALL DEVICES are wireless by default and that switching most devices (especially non-internal ones) to 'wired' mode is inconvenient, cumbersome, and rarely done. I do not know if this assumption was wrong or not.

Any help or clarification--especially from anyone hanging around here who works (worked?) for Catalyst on writing these rules, would be majorly appreciated. The matrix rules have always been something of a weak spot for me.

If you were a comlink manufacturer, would you build in the ability to shut the link off? I wouldn't.

I would want you to be logged in all the time. I want to datamine everything you do and sell the information.

Of course you can turn the wireless off.

I would really like some more in-depth responses than that. I am trying to be able to say, once and for all, that I understand these rules and never have to think about them again. But thank you for not including a smiley face. : )

Anyway, what does a wired connection between cybereyes/contacts and a firearm look like? How do you plug a wire into contacts?

The way I see it, if I still have to turn my cell phone off so the plane can taxi to the runway, then anything with a wireless mode can be turned off to sate those continuing regulations. I don't see semiballistics and suborbitals allowing folks to have any transmitters like that turned on during flight - the last thing they need is a suicidal hacker hopping on and crashing the flight control software on re-entry.

it's called skinlink -.-

Assumption #1 is clearly wrong. There is no conceptual reason, and no rule that I am aware of supporting the idea, that a smartgun cannot talk directly to the smartlink module in your cybereyes without a commlink as mediator. Also of note is skinlink functionality, which can be added to any device to make it effectively unhackable by allowing it to use your body's own electrical field as a transmission medium.

Assumption #2 is conditionally correct. If a device is slaved to another device, it cannot be hacked directly. A hacker must first hack the master, then hack the slave to gain access to the slave device's functionality. A common anti-hacking defense is to slave all devices to one's commlink to create a chokepoint, thus alleviating the need for high-grade firewalls and other defensive measures on every single device.

Assumption #3 is substantially correct. Hardwired connections for things like commlinks, smartguns, etc., are rarely used, if ever; however, see skinlinks again (SR4A, p. 328).

It seems like I was operating under two assumptions.

1. All devices are slaved.

2. All smartguns have skinlink.

I guess I was assuming (whenever the hackage of a player's device has come up) that all my players were A) Slaving all devices to their commlink and B)Had their smartguns skinlinked. This was kind of like giving them a free layer of professioanlism in exchange for weird things like "no you cannot turn off your commlink your stuff will stop working". : /

Speaking of which, does a PERSON require any kind of special ware to use a skinlink or is having a bio-electrical-field enough?

Also, assuming that all devices you have are slaved to your commlink, then you normally never WOULD turn your commlink off, right?

Mot equipment (smartlinks, lenses and the like) are wireless and can communicate with each other. The catch is that it's usually with a pidly emissio nthat's rated in meters at best. Which both saves power and limits vulnerability to hacking : even if the individual systems are near-brainless and can easily be penetrated, the poor signal means you have to be amost at arm's length to hack them. It also makes them very vulnerable to jamming.

You can go the wired route, but it's less convenient as you'll have to effectively plug the various bits of equipment together and make sure the wires are secured ou you don't want them get caught at the most inconvenient times.
-----
skinlink : all you need is for the equipment you want to link throuhg it to be close enough to your skin and equiped for skinlink. If you want some sort of neural command you'll need a datajack or implanted comlink wwith a skinlik emitter/receptor linked ot it.

Slaved devices : you can turn it off and still have the variou systms linked together If they have the ability to interact directly. If you have a mix of wired, skinlinked and wireless bits with the comlink having all three connexion modes and acting as a hub, shutting it off will leave you a three speratae batches of hardware with can tolk to the other in their btch but not to the rest. What you should do is to put your comlink in passive or hidden mode rather than shutting it off.

Psh, Neurosis. I gave you chapter and verse. I just didn't address the rest of your post (yet?).

Nope, skinlink just requires close enough contact (through street clothing or directly to skin) to work.

I would say yes to the second assumption. Can't access the intertrons (or that sweet porn stash in your roommate's fileshare) if your router's off - unless you've got a hardwired connection that bypasses it.

Slaving only re-directs incoming connections from the slave to the master. It doesn't otherwise affect their functionality.

You know, I use the 4E corebook, I use Arsenal heavily (where skinlink *is* discussed but as a fairly exotic (to me) weapon modification that has never specifically come up in my game), and I use Street Magic heavily. The other books, including SR4A (which really should have been billed more specifically as a 4.5 Edition since its rules changes were really underplayed compared to the improved production values), I have only skimmed. So I really don't think this was all that dumb of a question.

Skinlink is in 4E, p. 318.

I'm pretty sure Skinlink's been there forever, but it's okay.

Better question. How do you fit any of that technology into contact lenses that aren't so bulky as to be uncomfortable and irritate the eye enough to trigger the body's natural responses to foreign objects in the eyes? Even better, how the heck do you fit all of that in and still have room for the wireless antenna? Best to not think too hard about contact lenses. They make no sense as written.


The original smartgun system could be tied to the goggles or eyes by wires. It would be no sweat to run a cable from a set of gloves and a touch link to a datajack, or use a skinlink. And if it was secured properly with slack in the right places, then it wouldn't really even be that big of a risk for snagging or anything. If by 2070 we can buy into all this other bullshit technology Shadowrun passes off as possible, certainly this is a minor concern.

This would be true for most people running mundane devices with no real worry about system integrity. For shadowrunners or security personnel or other such types, for whom security is a paramount concern, turning off all non-essential wireless functions would just be normal.

Most gear should not require a persistent wireless connection to function. And thus not require the commlink or a PAN to function. Would some things be more conveniently accessed via the PAN? Possibly, but not having it doesn't necessarily make it inconvenient.

Does it nerf or gimp hackers? I don't believe it does. They never had the power to do most of that silly shit in the older editions, so it isn't like the new rules eliminate that. If you want to maintain a ludicrous world where everything is wireless and it makes things easier and more fluid at your table, that's fine, but it doesn't make any sense. The whole "everything wireless" thing was a gimmick they came up with for 4e.

I always default back to the question: If the PAN runs all of your shit, what happens that one morning after you fell asleep and forgot to charge your commlink?

Or datajack.

While one can turn the wireless capability off on most devices, any devices that need to need to communicate to each other still have to be able to be connected. If a street sam wants his smartgun to work with the smartlink in his cybereyes then he either needs a cord to plug from his gun to his datajack, or the gun needs to be modded with a skinlink. This is why I don't generally use contacts for vision enhancements, they don't have a skinlink option and plugging them in seems a bit odd.

The average person does not have much reason to turn the wireless capabilities on his stuff off, after all the wireless is there to make his life more convenient. If everything you owned had flawless wireless functionality and could be controlled/monitored by a palm computer you would probably use the wireless connections. Now if someone kept hacking your stuff, aiming a jammer in your direction, or if you were using those devices for illegal means then you'd probably consider buying some cables. A shadowrunner has reason to switch to hard wired gear sometimes.

Why can't you skinlink your contacts?

It's like networks today. You can have a wireless network grouping all the devices in your network. But is you don't have a modem you cannot hook up to the internet.

You can still hack a functioning PAN that is off the net. However due to the range of a PAN you have to be right on top of the person. Don't they have a range of like 4 feet?

SO if you turn off your commlink it's like turning off the modem. The PAN should still work but the outside world can't see it.

It depends on the individual devices, Yama King. A PAN isn't a separate thing, of course; it's merely your collection of linked electronics. If your PAN includes a Signal 1 device, it can be accessed from 40m, but the range on Signal 0 is 3m.

Your modem analogy is not correct for Matrix 2.0, unfortunately. All wireless devices are Matrix devices, essentially. The mesh system doesn't even really let you opt to be 'local only/non-Matrix', because the Matrix is everything. Even Hidden Mode devices technically keep routing everyone's traffic, automatically and silently.

Well, for me it all hangs one the entry in the "Unwired" where it states that (manymany years ago) some dude found some kind of quantum-algorythm which makes it possible to decrypt ANYTHING in realtime.

It is given as fluff to enable hackers to HACK EVERYTHING... And then there was the technomancer scare... then AI's everywhere.

You really think ANYONE who has something to lose uses the wireless matrix? There are Data-couriers still (in my game) just because you NEVER know who will intercept the data. Hell, the technomancer even have an echo CONJURING THE DATA up from nowhere, if it ever has been sent through the net... you just need to know what you are looking for (and roll high enough).

Likewise anyone who REALLY knows what he is doing and has the money, shells out 100 bucks for skinlinking his gun and his datajack (or contacts etc.). Or do you WANT to get hacked in a firefight?

But of course many people (those who can afford security and would like a Tacnet- or just normal communication) have a normal, hidden net... very hackable. And of course the layman,dudes who don't know any better... and those who really HAVE to broadcast their kills live on the net... all run around for your hacker to destroy *g*.

The vast majority of people aren't worth hacking, though.

This subject seems to come up every month.

I think the term we came up with for the NO WIRELESS crowd as Neo-Luddites?

It is possible to have separate PANs for communications and personal gear.

You have a commlink for talking to your teammates. It has wireless. Maybe you have a set of goggles or glasses with image link and some sensor enhancements for a TacNet.

You have a separate commlink for running all your other personal gear. This commlink has wireless capacity completely removed and connects to other gear purely through skinlink or old fashioned cables.

The two PANs never interact. The wireless PAN might be hacked, but you can dispose of it or turn it off easily, and even if hacked the intruder won't be able to access the wired PAN.


-k

Its under commlink accessories, so I always beleived it was an accesory for commlinks, with guns and cars having thier own entries to get skinlinks. I do see now that it says for any electronic device, which makes me wonder why cars and guns have thier own entry for it.

Probably to eliminate confusion. Cars and firearms are traditionally looked at as mechanical objects, not electronic ones. This way there is no argument that you can't skinlink a gun or vehicle on technicalities. Reference some of the extreme semantics and rules-lawyering threads here.

For cars, I think it's just because they're really big. There's options for driver's skinlink, and for 'total skinlink', right?

Cos the mod rules are FUBAR we all know that if you buy your gun with the smarlink it permodded it dosesn't use a slot up either.

You can go mostly wireless, if you don't want to get feeds from your drones, talk to your team mates, or run tac-net.
Not to mention run security feeds or or wireless open doors. Any spider worth anything will run a flyspy to land on your shoulder and hack your skin link.

Yeah, which is why my 67 year Grumpy Old Man 'runner still uses a fiberoptic harness with all his critical gear wired to it, and at least two OTHER separate PANs, one for wireless stuff, one as a decoy. And Shock Frills on his armor will be a nice surprise for the FlySpy.

"Son, I've got 'ware older than your DAD. Been running since before there WAS a matrix. So shove all yer fancy wireless crap and let me get on with what I'm doing. And if that isn't enough, I have two words for you. Vindicator Minigun."




-k

Pricing and modification of gun and Vehicles have their own rule sets while there is no "device" modification rules, just suggestions on how you might build them.

Now that is a special level of Paranoid. As if we need anymore motivation to add non-conductive to every piece of clothing your character is gonna wear.

If you're wearing non conductive then you don't have skinlink.

Btw, in my World View.. 'Serious' People with 'Serious' Money.. have internal links.

It costs an extra 10% essence, but the cyberware is powered and connected via implanted wiring.

So imagine a smartgun link in the palm of your hand that connects to your gun when you hold it. That's directly wired to your DNI that's implanted in your brain.

Your cyberlegs, hardwired to your DNI.

I also think they need to include an Implanted DNI as an actual cyberware item.

You can have nonconductive armor and skinlinked items.

That's the old SR3 internal router way, but you're also mistaking what a DNI is. Every cyberimplant that needs control already *has* its own DNI; your cyberlegs certain don't need to be connected to anything else, and they couldn't function without their DNI in the first place. Induction pads (as you describe) also used to exist, but they're simply not needed: skinlink is induction pads with the bookkeeping taken out.

It's confusing because of the way some stuff is worded. It says that internal commlinks, sim modules are 'DNI' and there are implants that imply you need a seperate DNI to make use of them.

It doesn't. I swear someone (you?) asked that same question in another thread, and we answered it there.

It says that the ways to get a separate DNI (for VR, mental computer controls) are internal commlinks, trodes, datajack, or implanted sim module. Because you can't use the DNI on your cyberhand for VR/AR/etc. I'm not going to quote them all, but certain things are listed as using/requiring a DNI: any simsense info (often AR, both input and output), VR, Change Linked Device (optional), nonverbal communications, sim modules (obviously, for simsense), KnowSoft/LinguaSoft, …

Later, for cyberware, it says this:

It might have been me
I'm reading the Unwired stuff right now.
Trodes, Datajack are a DNI. But it talks about most cyber including DNI.

So, that kind of makes sense, there isn't a central processing chip in your brain that does the DNI, but there's a whole bunch of them. in seperate areas depending on your implants.

Mhm. Specifically, it says (some) cyberware includes its own DNI for controlling *that* item (and, for limbs, receiving pain signals); it's a sort of item-specific DNI. Trodes/etc. provide a more general 'control my stuff', 'receive simsense' DNI.

But, if you houseruled no-skinlink-with-nonconductivity, it *would* be fair to allow a 'induction pad' cyberware or glue-on wired patch; however, this wouldn't be nearly as functional as skinlink (which can connect everything you're wearing, DNI or not, under clothes or not).

I still like the idea of a piece of tech implanted in your brain with access to your central nervous system that is there to translate electronics into neural impulses. But I guess that's what a Datajack is for.. and what trodes do without implants.

Btw.

If I had trodes surgically attached to the top of my skull, under my scalp.
Would you consider that to be essence losing surgery?

HA. You mean fluff-wise or balance-wise? We know that Essence is more about balance than fluff, after all. I'm pretty sure you just described a weird Datajack, though.

Yeah, but no more than .1 Essence (or 1 capacity in a cyberskull).





-k

A bit of both.

to me, I would argue that it should cause the same essence loss as a Datajack, and I'd explain it away as a new style of datajacks from the 2070's. Maybe with a surgical modifiers and healing times, but the same 'essence' loss.

You know, low device signal really shouldn't protect it from hacking. If its ON and has any RF signal, an active RF sweep can find and send data to most wireless devices as of 2010.

Take your car radio. if you tried to use it to talk out, your range would be pretty low. But you can RECEIVE transmissions from the big city radio station even out in the boonies.

Your cell phone, as a more complex example, is actually a very small radio, that happens to transmit digital information along a series of frequencies determined to best suit it by the carrier. Right now, it doesn't make commercial sense to expend the resources to have your phone "found" by a process of directed RF sweep (it requires a dedicated tower) and then have your messages sent to you (especially since you won't be able to talk back), but it is very technically possible to find your cellphone both electronically and physically if there's a limited physical area to search. Its used quite often in missing person recovery and law enforcement.

In short, if a hacker points point a big enough signal sender down a hall, and blast the most likely range of freqs for cyberware, he can send data in to hack your system even if he can't "see" the results on his system. Pull the ballistics data from your smart gun or cyber eyes? No. Give them a simple turn off command with binary data or set up false inputs? Yes.

That's spoofing, not hacking. Hacking is a two-way process.

Ah. Excellent. Can I find that in the core or unwired?

The one lacking cables.