Microsoft banning hacked consoles, users from Xbox Live
By Ryan Block 
posted May 17th 2007 9:12PM
posted May 17th 2007 9:12PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Oh man, that really is a bummer, so much for my plans..
I say good - screw the modders. I love the way they claim it's for "homebrew" only - shove that BS!
lol jealous that he paid full price for his shit while everyone else is getting it free.
To vote down for pig ignorance? or to vote up for the barrel of laughs I got?
Oh the quandaries!
Lets see how long it takes GaryOPA and Commador4eva to circumvent this update. They thought they had it down with their most recent 'disc-jitter' trick but apparently not.
I can see it now...Xtreme
firmware 6.0Added:-undetecable by Live servers
So is this for people running unsigned code on those certain kernels or for people who have flashed their firmware to play backups?
You cannot run unsigned code on an XBOX360. This is only for game backups, which are unmodified.
Just to get one thing straight there is no way I know of that people can cheat on a modded console. Just because you have a different firmware on your DVD drive doesn't mean you can run unassigned code.
you could mod gears of war weapons
Hmm, that is unrelated to modded firmware though. If I recall that is do to with editing files on your hard drive, correct?
Not really true. ++Cracks (that is plus plus cracks) have been around for ever which are modified versions of games which have added cheat modes.
That being said - this approach is purely to scare the bones out of anyone who is not confident about their ability to either mask the mods or mask/dopple the XBox hardware ID; which would be most would be modders by my estimation...
Rather underhanded.
"does not provide details of bans"
That's ridiculous... kind of like those forum mods who don't know how to mod lol.
I'd wager it's less about preventing cheating and more about preventing piracy.
Oh boy, pretty soon it'll ask you to activate your "copy" of your games and console EVERY time you run it...
Good job, Microsoft.
Developers eat too.
Does anyone know ppl in Sydney, Aust. that can get a 360 modded to backup games? or a PS3?
Whats your e-mail DrewG. I can.
drew_geary@yahoo.com.au thanks
Apparently theres reports of un-modded 360's being banned - its WGA all over again!
heh, I love to see what will happen to Live once the PC users start to flood in. As we know all how hackable PCs are
Correct me if I'm wrong but the screen shot is talking about gateway/router issues with the NAT... Isn't that external to the 360? Surely this isn't the message a hacked 360 user would receive.
That's just the way M$ fools you.
Anyway, many confirmed ban report are coming in and the number are growing.
So careful now! Reminds me the paranoid copy of Vizda I bought.
Yeah, why is it mentioning routers and NAT ?
Actually i really do have a n unmodded 360 and i got the banned error code when i tried to sign in to xbox live to download that aegis game from the arcade. So i'm getting kind f'd in the A here.
Ps and i know everybody is going to say, "He is just lying, he really did mod his console," but it won't do you or me any good to point fingers. I just want my live access back.
HA! Not even close towards the majority of what we pay for a game goes towards developers' salary so don't give me that bullshit
Some does though -- apparently enough of an incentive to keep people producing games. Or do you write a check to the developers every time you pirate a game?
Good. :)
Wow...you guys have fun getting kicked off of LIVE while I play with my PS3 with Linux on it...PS3 > Wii > 360
Hear hear! Personally I am a PS2 gal until the PS3 is a bit more affordable though ^^
I have a completely untouched console and I got the same message today, I'm not really surprised. This is the kind of thing I expect M$ to do. I'm looking into class action in AUS.
...lol... yeah, let us know how well that class action suit goes for ya *roll eyes*
Who woulda thought, you mod your box, you break the EULA you agreed to, you get banned? Sounds like logic to me. These ass hats get what they deserve.
I modded my xbox1 because the HDD died. MS wanted about 300 to replace, a new box cost 150, and I could fix it for 100 by modding the box.
SO I had to mod to fix my box.
Is this only 360's or xbox1 as well?
only 360's in this instance, modded original Xboxs have been banned from Live for a long time (as far as I know).
man in Brazil they are begin to call the "Black day in game history"
About half of the tags registered in one Brazilian game forum were banned just today.
So let's see if I got this straight:
a blanket ban that doesn't stop modders from playing their pirated games (they'll keep playing offline and getting new ripped games just the same) while preventing them from keeping giving their money to MS in form of downloads, arcade games, subscriptions... Genius !
I suspect that your dollar on Live goes further than your dollar off the store shelf. Marketing and distrubution costs are practically nil.
Yes you own the hardware. You can do whatever you want with it including blowing it up. But there are terms & conditions to the warranty and to be able to participate in Xbox Live. People that play pirated games or mod their 360 in that manner should not be suprised when Microsoft acts. I assume this has to do with the Crackdown Halo 3 Beta, as I'm sure there may be a few pirated versions circulating.
Now, obviously if Microsoft banned a good 360 then they must repair the problem and compensate for lost Live time. Mistakes do happen, lets just see their reponse to correct their mistakes. And as for reports that non-modded xbox are being banned, I take that with a BIG grain of salt. Also, beware if you buy a used 360 it may have been modded or even tampered with. Only time will tell how much Microsoft can detect thru OS when it comes to tampering.
I agree, you own the hardware and can do with it what you please. But microsoft owns the networks and services and they can do with them what they please and that includes deciding who can and can't use them.
You might own a baseball bat, but don't expect the other team to let you play if you've 'corked' the bat. If you want to mod a system for local LAN parties or whatever, where everybody knows who has what, fine. But MS has a right to make the rules on its 'field'.
This isn't just about piracy. Someone who mods the console for homebrew, and only plays non-pirated games online, will be cut off.
Many of the gamers with modded 360s will probably want to sell them (so be careful buying a 360 on eBay!)
The best defense, if you want to do homebrew and online play, is to get a 2nd 360.
Please don't give me the HOMEBREW bullcrap. I am so sick of this argument. Use your computer then - it's better at it.
NO ONE hacks a console to run homebrew. I had 2 shipped PS2's. I would not do it again.
Homebrew doesn't just mean games, you know. It also means being able to play DivX video on your 360 as well as emulation (yes, we all know that's illegal, but hey, if you didn't want a Wii to buy them legally with...).
Actually, I do, and a lot. XBMC is one of the best homebrew applications ever created, and turning old xboxs into media centers is pretty popular
^^ I meant "chipped PS2's" - my typo.
another case of if they were not out there, microsoft would not have even had to do this
My original question has yet to be answered. Is this for people running unsigned on the old kernels? Or is it for Flashed DVD drives? Or better yet, is it for people using saves from other consoles? MY drive is flashed and I still have yet to be banned.
Just to set things straight. This is not about cheating in games. This is about stopping piracy. You cannot, I repeat you CANNOT play unsigned code on an xbox360. The games that are burnt and played on a modded xbox360 are the original games, just on a DVD+R DL disk.
Mark if you ever played a game such as Halo you would know that's not true. You see people "speed hacking" all the time, and I rarely ever played and out of 5 times I would get a speed hacker.
But I do agree, this is just to stick the piraters not really the cheaters.
Yeah, there are absolutely NO consoles being banned unless they have modded firmware, hardware, or are caught hacking.
Why do you PS3/Wii fanboys make up shit like, "haha dere are rperots of xboxs getin baned 4 no reesin".
Exaggerated, yes, but you should be more mature than to spread lies.
Jon Graft, have fun playing on an inferior, laggy online service on shitty games. Us honest Xbox and Xbox 360 owners will have fun playing Gears of War and the Halo 3 beta. :)
@tchiseen
So... You got banned? I didn't know you could get banned if you didn't have an Xbox. There is no way you can get banned if you have done nothing wrong.
You guys dont seem to understand.
1. There is not Homebrew out yet for 360 (so this is all about piracy)
2. The hack is the firmware hack that allows backups
I think they did they beacuse they found alot more people for H3 than expected. All the people that got the burnt crackdown got the beta, so easily the numbers dont match. My buddy just got shut down today, and the last update was last week or early this week i believe so it came a couple days after. The modders thought they had a fix for after the update, but i guess it didnt work lol.
You are so wrong its not even funny. There are certain versions of the kernel that do infact run unsigned code and this could be very related. Until Microsoft comes out and says it, we don't know what they're banning for.
Uh, the discs of Crackdown that sport the Halo 3 beta invite use a serial code on the disc. Once it is used, it can't be used for any other Xbox or Gamer Tag, therefore rendering cracked copies of Crackdown useless to that feature.
To all the cheating-modders and PS3 fanboys ripping on MS, grow up, stop smoking pot, move out of your parents basement, get a real job and be a productive member of society! IT'S AN F'ING GAME CONSOLE, there is more to life!
so you come on a website dedicated to gadgets that often glorifies and encourages hacking/modding and whine about people with no life...noice
Right, but to play a game on Live aren't you required to update your Dash and Kernel? If you're going to mess with the homebrew/King Kong shader hack, you won't be connecting that box to Live anyway...
THANK YOU M$!! HALO FANS LOVE YOU!
REP, do you think it's clever to use the dollar sign for the "S" in "MS"? Yeah you're cool and all, but we all know you're a failure at heart.
Diego Souto, stop spreading lies.
No, you can not modify a Xbox 360 ISO in anyway because you'd break the encryption key for the disc and it would be unplayable. You might be talking about the original Xbox and until you post proof, you are lying.
Hold on to your underpants Mark... I am making a statement about the motivations of Microsoft having a multiplayer device which detects mods and blocks the device (the point of the thread). ++Cracks *have* been around forever - since the early 80's where people modify code to create level trainers or cheats.
And just because nobody has hacked the drive encryption yet does not mean that tomorrow it won't be defeated, in fact there has already been reports on popular press (BBC) about dutch guys geting the decrypted raw data from the console; so it is almost a certainty that within 6 months a set of mods and some reproducible processes will exist allowing piracy and cheating the game-code to occur...
...honest...
HAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA
Good. Letting modders on Live is just going to lead to a repeat of the rampant Halo 2 cheating we'd seen before. Sorry folks, but if you want to play with Microsoft's toys, you've got to follow Microsoft's rules.
Otherwise, go to the PC.
u guys should listen to the true story. it's not just modded xbox users that are getting banned. there are many that are getting banned and don't have any modded firmware flashed to their drive. just have a look at xbox official forum: http://forums.xbox.com/2/12538432/ShowPost.aspx#12538432
anyway this is really a stupid move from microsoft. they better fix this because already many people with unmodded consoles are unhappy with this
Kind of.
XBOX1 is checked with EEPROM, HDD S/N, and firmware scan. As long as those check out, you're cool.
My box has a dual boot. I can boot it with original firmware, or a hacked firmware.
I am not a cheater. I never tried to get online with anything other than ALL ORIGINAL software, so I haven't been banned. BUT, I have XBMC on my HDD, and if I got scanned, I'd have a bunch of extra files.
I don't plan to ever try to cheat, but if they checked the files on my HDD, I'd be hosed. It's a catch 22 for me since I had to do that to get back on LIVE after my box failed.
What's all this nonsense about homebrew? There is no homebrew for Xbox 360 that will work once you connect to Live, the updates fixed the exploit. So if someone is running homebrew, they can't go on Live anyway so what's the f*cking difference.
What's annoying me is, what if I have 2 consoles and I backup my games to play on the other console, because I don't sh*t money?
Good timing though lol! The Halo 3 beta was like a fly zapper.
If you have 2 consoles but are backing up the game to play them on both simultaneously you're still breaking licensing agreements I'm sure.
who said I was going to play them both at the same time?
this console banning is not for piracy MS are finally banning people who had a lot of complaints against them for cheating and being general jerks. I reported a couple of ppl in my time I know. Every copy of crackdown and every other game is the same there are no serial codes or anything like that. MS cannot detect flashed firmware as that would be a breach of privacy they are NOT allowed to scan consoles for hacks. Running unsigned firmware like with a recent hack is fully detectable soon as you connect its not scanning. I got 5 ppl on my friends like right now playing Halo 3 all them have flashed firmware early versions too. Unlike Sony MS dont put individual ID's on each copy of a game only the games themselves have an ID they did this to save money on launch as it would have been a LOT more expensive to put this feature in that PS2 and PS3 have. Otherwise people would have been detected a long time ago..
Well, glad I decided to wait until my warranty is up in November to mod. I'd rather buy games and not risk getting banned.
At least MS is banning consoles and not gamertags, they could easily be banning both.
haha too be honest I think free games is more important than for an online service as live is basically windows messenger with a few perks.
Good good. Ban the modders. I have never been a fan of those Mod-chips. It's a unfair way to gain the system and most ppl just do it to be able to play pirated games so I support Microsoft big time here.
I'm guessing that the 360 is region-free? Region control is quite a legitimate reason to mod your box. I have my Wii modded for this reason (just try to tell me with a straight face that I have to buy one Wii for every region I want to play games from) and my friends with 360s where I live have them modded for this reason too (China/HK is a different region from the US-- they don't speak a lick of Chinese either so they want their games in English).
Are u serously saying that MS is banning people that other users have rated them as cheaters?
I just can believe that... I have been threatened many times by little insane kids to get a bad report because if that is the case, sooner or later I will be banned (maybe tonight).
It will be wonderful, because instead paying a therapy to those kids of their parents even with the money of my subscription, some respectful guys like me will get banned? jajajajajajajajajajaj, merci merci me...jajajajajajaj
While I am on the unbanned side I will continue giving them their usual headshot dose to loose up their nerves and prepare them for the real life.
I don't buy that, man. Continue with the piracy lead... you will get wiser as u advance that path
no its not people giving you bad feedback you can actually select an option yo complain about them and now MS are watching people who had a lot of warnings and banning.
Screw Microsoft! I will never use their products again. Long live Ubuntu & The Wii!
hhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhah check this out
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/2843/banmsfn0id8.jpg
heh my modded 360 plays on Live fine, my unmodded one got the ban. Good call M$.