Greetings, Dumpshock!

Relatively new to Shadowrun (I picked up the SR4A Core book at GenCon last year and finally managed to convince my gaming group to give it a go after this year's trip), and I had a couple quick questions on some Matrix things that, looking at some other threads seems to have been possibly left out of SR4A (or my brain is failing to make some connections somewhere...)

First off, How does one locate a node? I recall looking over the SR3 Matrix Overview thread someone linked to elsewhere where it described jacking in to an MSP jackpoint somewhere, calling up a directory of nodes (either on the LTG or after moving up to the RTG,) and then using the node's "phone number" (commcode?) to travel to it. Does this still hold true in SR4 (minus the jacking in part)? Are there tests associated with this?

2. What about a node that doesn't actively broadcast or isn't "registered" with the LTG/RTG directory? Would a Browse + Data Search Extended Test be needed to uncover "location" information regarding such a node, providing the hacker doesn't already have any sort of this information already? Also, do unregistered nodes like this still have commcodes? (To me, a commcode sounds more like a cell phone number in modern tech, not something I expect a standalone server node to maintain. If I should be thinking of commcodes more like IP addresses or MAC addresses, that might make things easier if that's the case.)

3. From what I can tell, in SR3 the "Alert" system used to be a tally system where certain preprogrammed responses were let loose by a node/system once a certain number of successes were accrued by the system when checking for intrusion. Is there any optional rule like this for SR4? The standard Analyze + Firewall vs Stealth that triggers "Whatever" just seems a little...flat to me. Also, being an extended test versus the hacker's Stealth program rating seems like it makes it far too easy for a system to detect intrusion. (I understand that if they take their time and probe the target, the target only gets a single test versus a test each attempt for a Hack on the Fly action, but even a Rating 6 Stealth program seems like it can get overwhelmed quite quickly...)

4. Also like the above, there seemed to be multiple types of Attack programs in SR3, which appear (to me) to have been condensed into one "Attack" utility program in SR4. Unwired has "options" for them (like area-effect), but this seems like it loses some of the "flavor", to me. Is there anywhere that might have multiple types of Attack programs with different effects? Or are the Unwired program options designed to try and replicate this and the "flavor" is shouldered by the hacker buying/coding them (names and so-forth)?

Thanks in advance.

Nodes have an Access ID, which would be similar to an IP address.
You can get the IDs of all actively broadcasting nodes in signal range with a Data Search + Scan test. Unfortunately 4th Ed does not really discuss network topology any further that your immediate surroundings, so you should just assume that each node "knows" the nodes it is connected to.

For hidden nodes there is the "Detect Hidden Node" Action which again nets you the ones in signal range, apart from that Browse could obviously find the access ID of a target (provided somebody has put that information on the matrix)


Unwired has an optional rule for a "Security Tally"


Remember that the average node is only R.3, even if it's running Analyze 3 that means a puny 6 dice to get past your Stealth...


Well, besides Attack you still have Black Hammer and Blackout (non-lethal variety of the hammer), Unwired also introduces Nuke (reduces the target's matrix attributes)

I highly suggest reading the article from the Dumpshock Datahaven, volume #2 on hacking for questions 1 & 2.

Thanks for the answers so far. I've taken a look at the mentioned Datahaven article, and that does help. I'll have to print a copy of that article to keep with the cheat-sheets I plan to give out at our next session. (I forgot about Pavao's cheat-sheets when I started this campaign, and they cover more types of actions than the ones from the Runner's Toolkit. At least we're only one session in, and they're still on the 'planning the legwork' stage.) I suppose I'll just have to wing it for anything not covered rules-wise.