geeky techie chat about the ticket sale

[Room to sway]

I get what you mean now. Just have no idea how to use the info lol.

 

F5 a lot

 

EDIT: And get your friends to try from their home/work, so the requests are all coming from different IP addresses.

 

(An IP address, in my analogy, is the combination of house number and postcode - it uniquely identifies you. So if there is any filtering based on IP, all those requests from other places are treated as different, giving you more of a chance.)

Edited September 23, 2015 by Room to sway

[parsonjack]

There's also an IP 'reputation filter' in front of the load balancer....

Do I remember correctly that there is/was some tech that gave preference to 'known' customers....or was this perhaps just a misnomer to the Reputation Filtering?

[___S_o_m_a__]

 

jargon¹/ˈdʒɑːɡ(ə)n/

 

noun

1. special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.

 

 

It's the internet Phil.

 

[big__phil]

It's the internet Phil.

 

 

Inter-what now?

 

 

EDIT: But seriously, hats off to all you clever boys and girls trying to the edge on ticket day. Any help and advice is always welcomed (if not always understood).

Edited September 23, 2015 by big__phil

[carlosj]

It's the internet Phil.

Where can I buy one from?

[Pinhead]

As I say, knowing how it works gives little in the way of any perceivable advantage. The system is pretty fair really, probably as fair as it will ever get.

[MrMac]

 

EDIT: And get your friends to try from their home/work, so the requests are all coming from different IP addresses.

 

(An IP address, in my analogy, is the combination of house number and postcode - it uniquely identifies you. So if there is any filtering based on IP, all those requests from other places are treated as different, giving you more of a chance.)

 

OK. So given I'm going to be trying on friends' wifi, and that they'll be trying as well... I wonder if I should fire up my VPN and connect through there?

[Room to sway]

OK. So given I'm going to be trying on friends' wifi, and that they'll be trying as well... I wonder if I should fire up my VPN and connect through there?

 

Yeah, that would bypass the IP filtering (assuming there is some, but it sure can't hurt).

 

Alternatively you could Remote Desktop to your home PC, or spin up a PC on Azure (or similar), though that might not be simple to do depending on your technical skillz.

 

I wouldn't recommend using a web-based proxy though - in my experience they tend to mangle pages a bit, meaning some functionality won't work. You don't want to get through to the order page and then have it break...

[Pinhead]

Yes, avoid web proxies at all costs, especially the ones at work that likely contain loads of security filtering rules, though the See ticket ordering page for Glasto is deliberately simple and free of complex underlying scripts. 

[stuartbert two hats]

Yeah, that would bypass the IP filtering (assuming there is some, but it sure can't hurt).

 

Alternatively you could Remote Desktop to your home PC, or spin up a PC on Azure (or similar), though that might not be simple to do depending on your technical skillz.

 

I wouldn't recommend using a web-based proxy though - in my experience they tend to mangle pages a bit, meaning some functionality won't work. You don't want to get through to the order page and then have it break...

The Azure Vm idea is good.  I've got MSDN credits, so I'll do that. 

[Pinhead]

Or any cloud based interactive desktop session that you can utilise. There are many free trial ones out there, but they all demand information from you when you sign up naturally so that they can construct a valuable marketing database.

[Chazwozza]

Aha!  The Siblin-monitor has just sparked up, so seetickets are doing something.  Chasing the spiders out of their server farm, probably.

[Pinhead]

Adding capacity to the servers that deal out the "Glastonbury Tickets are now SOLD OUT" page......

[JayBalls]

Ok geeks (stuartbert, Pinhead etc) - Am coming in to the office to try and get tickets so r lass can use our wifi (extra chance). 

 

There'll be noone there. If I sign into a few computers and try on them all, will this be just using one connection and therefore slow it down or give me more chance (3 or 4 computers = 3 or 4 more chances). 

 

Or neither and nobody knows - it's all pot luck

 

 

I may be wrong as I'm not a geek but if you're using pcs in the same office all should be on same connection so hitting the site from same IP address so same as using one pc (I think)

[tweed1981]

I have no geek knowledge at all, but if its like my work I would assume it is all running off the same IP (which the IT guys have confirmed to me is the case) We have these little boxes on our desks but everything runs from central servers so whichever computer you log into you get all your favourites programmes etc, I have considered going into work before but didn't see any massive benefit other than perhaps being able to sign into a few different computers so that rather than having multiple tabs you have multiple computers - potentially less chance of missing a booking page. The only other benefit (for me at least) is that whenever i try and access iplayer etc, it thinks i'm overseas, I think the internet comes from belgium or something like that, so if any sort of propriety is given to overseas bookers it could give an advantage.

[stuartbert two hats]

Yeah, if you are allowed remote access to your work computers, then logging onto them from home is a better bet, assuming you're given access to a web browser that doesn't block sites like SeeTickets.

[stuartbert two hats]

I didn't say don't use multiple computers.  I just said you're better off logging in remotely so you can hit the site from multiple IP addresses.  Since you're going in anyway, I don't see a problem in trying on multiple machines, since you'll be able to send more requests that way, but it's up to you to be vigilant and make sure that you actually notice when you get through.  Depends how far apart the work computers are really.

 

My favoured approach is:

 

• Desktop machine (wired connection to internet)
  • Firefox
  • IE
  • Chrome
• Laptop - connecting via wi-fi hotspot
  • Firefox
  • Edge
  • Chrome
• Ipad - via wifi
  • Safari

And probably this year

• Azure vm (via desktop), running Chrome.

I cycle between each browser hitting refresh and moving onto the next one, allowed each request to time out.  by the time I get to the end, the first request has timed out, or automatically refreshed.

 

 

I didn't get a ticket last year. YMMV.

[Room to sway]

Yeah you're not at any disadvantage using multiple PCs - the more attempts you can make, the better.

 

Wouldn't see the need to use different browsers though Stuartbert...? I just have several tabs open in a single browser.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Room to sway

[Room to sway]

This has no advantage. You'll notice when you get through on one, you get through on all - or not on any.

 

One tab on multiple browsers counts as separate instances for each one. Multiple tabs on one browser counts as one attempt

 

Huh? How can that make a difference to the server on the other end of the connection? If you get through on one you get through on all, yes, but that's because the server is allowing requests from my IP through.

 

Also, modern browsers spawn separate threads for each tab (look in Task Manager) so isn't it functionally the same as having separate browsers...?

 

I'm happy to be proven wrong and have an advantage though!

[___S_o_m_a__]

Wait a minute. Using an RX modulator, I might be able to conduct a mainframe cell direct and hack the uplink to the download.

 

[stuartbert two hats]

It's about cookies. When you get through, it saves a cookie to your browser's storage telling the site that you've got through. This is your 'session'. If you use multiple tabs in the same browser cookie management gets confused, where your session information gets out of sync. It's better to use multiple browsers to ensure the sessions don't get mixed up.

The official site specifically warns against using multiple tabs for this reason.

[Room to sway]

But... once I've got through, why would I try to reload another tab...?

 

The official site FAQ says: "Stick to one tab, in one window, so you can focus on entering your details without confusing your browser."

 

I don't know what that means. Why would my poor ickle browser get 'confused'?

 

It also says "the [10 minute] clock will start as soon as the first one of those tabs hits the site, which may have been a window you weren’t keeping an eye on", which is a fair point, but I only have 3/4 tabs open, and I switch between them every 10-15 seconds or so.

 

Like I said, happy to be wrong, I just want to try and understand why the advice is given!

 

EDIT: Also, why would Glastonbury rely on the client to say you were OK to come through (via a cookie)? Isn't that ripe for exploitation?

Edited September 25, 2015 by Room to sway

[MoilyX]

It's about cookies. When you get through, it saves a cookie to your browser's storage telling the site that you've got through. This is your 'session'. If you use multiple tabs in the same browser cookie management gets confused, where your session information gets out of sync. It's better to use multiple browsers to ensure the sessions don't get mixed up.

The official site specifically warns against using multiple tabs for this reason.

 

Good shout but not exactly how it works - the browser session is transient and created on first connection with the host and shared between tabs in the same process. This is why launching new tabs in the same browser share the same session and you appear to the host as that same session. If you launch a new browser from cold and navigate to the same URN then you will establish a new session for that process.

 

Cookies are just fairly crude, simple files used to persist selected variables between sessions such as when you close and re-open the browser process from cold, for example restoring the last user id used on a login page. A session id is unlikely to be stored in cookies as you wouldn't (usually) re-establish the exact same session context just by requesting the same resource and supplying the session id.

[Pinhead]

Companies design their corporate Internet gateways in many different ways. Some will use a proxy server for all http/s access, meaning all browsing is essentially performed by one machine with a single IP. That private IP is then NAT'ed through a firewall to either a single public IP (in most cases), or sometimes a pool of IP's in a public IP subnet (rarer), meaning that often different sessions are exposed on the public internet with a different source IP each time they are established. Beware that pretty much all companies filter browser traffic, so if you are using your firms network on Sunday, test the week before to ensure that the See tickets website is not blocked by policy. Also beware that all sessions will be logged by your firm.

 

Tbh its not a given that the See ticket system at the destination end will distinguish between and attribute any kind of bias for unique IP's requesting a session or not - sessions may well be awarded based simply on a FIFO basis. However, on the slight chance that the reputation filter at the front end does throttle attempted connections from the same IP, then it might be worth having different source IP's.

[lucyginger]

Reading this thread makes my brain turn to goo.