Halo Infinite Geo filter

[dmatt51333]

I setup the geo filter for Halo infinite and it kind of works, If I'm playing solo it works fine. But when I'm with friends it still connects me to the unwanted servers then it says "cannot connect to server". The issue I'm having is it's putting my teammates (friends) into the game man down(3v4). Is there anyway around this? Any help is appreciated 

[Netduma Fraser]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

@Zippy may be able to comment on whether this is possible as he plays Halo a lot. 

Are you the party leader when you're with friends? Have you added your friends to the allow list?

[Zippy]

As Fraser has mentioned above in order for you to have your friends with you and use the Geo you have to be party leader. And when your friends are in your party look at the Geo Filter and you should see them pop up! Once you see them add them to your allow list. That is the only way to play with your friends and use the Geo. Your friends should appear on the Geo as a Player..  You will have to allow each player to your Allow list. Before you invite them to your party/fireteam have the Geo up and running as that will help you spot them on the Geo. You will have to watch close because they show on the Geo for a bit and can disappear.. Usually just having them in party chat will trigger the Geo to spot them. 

Hopefully this should give you good results. As its worked for me thus far unless something has changed. But I doubt anything has. I just did this the other night with no problems..

If you want to test this before playing ranked so your fireteam doesnt go a man down play a couple of Bot Boot Camp games.. Once you have played a couple of those with no issues you can then move to Ranked Matchmaking of your choice..

If you have any other questions feel free to ask away! 

Good luck!

Zippy.

[dmatt51333]

45 minutes ago, Zippy said:

As Fraser has mentioned above in order for you to have your friends with you and use the Geo you have to be party leader. And when your friends are in your party look at the Geo Filter and you should see them pop up! Once you see them add them to your allow list. That is the only way to play with your friends and use the Geo. Your friends should appear on the Geo as a Player..  You will have to allow each player to your Allow list. Before you invite them to your party/fireteam have the Geo up and running as that will help you spot them on the Geo. You will have to watch close because they show on the Geo for a bit and can disappear.. Usually just having them in party chat will trigger the Geo to spot them. 

Hopefully this should give you good results. As its worked for me thus far unless something has changed. But I doubt anything has. I just did this the other night with no problems..

If you want to test this before playing ranked so your fireteam doesnt go a man down play a couple of Bot Boot Camp games.. Once you have played a couple of those with no issues you can then move to Ranked Matchmaking of your choice..

If you have any other questions feel free to ask away! 

Good luck!

Zippy.

Ill try that tonight, thank you!

[Zippy]

2 hours ago, dmatt51333 said:

Ill try that tonight, thank you!

Welcome! Give it a go and see how it works for you.

Good luck!

Zippy.

[dmatt51333]

18 hours ago, Zippy said:

Welcome! Give it a go and see how it works for you.

Good luck!

Zippy.

Hey Zippy, So I played about 10 matches after allowing them and being host, but it's still connecting me to a bad server then disconnecting me.. For example I'm filtering so I only get the 2 east coast servers, then we connect to a lobby and I see it ping the Texas or west server and it shows the orange server icon (denied server) then it says  "unable to connect to server" then continues to put them in the game 3v4. maybe there's no way around this idk lol

[Netduma Fraser]

It may be something that has changed then, I'm not sure why they would allow it to happen really, is this in every playlist you're seeing this behaviour?

[Zippy]

How many games are you able to play with your friends before this happens?

Do you and your friends live on the East coast?

Also what time of the day have you experienced this at? Like does it seem to happen at about the same time frame?

Right before you get disconnected is it this Texas server that pops up? Like does it seem to always be that same server before you get disconnected?

Like Fraser has mentioned as well does this happen in all playlists? Or only Ranked?

Thanks!

Zippy.

[dmatt51333]

43 minutes ago, Zippy said:

How many games are you able to play with your friends before this happens?

Do you and your friends live on the East coast?

Also what time of the day have you experienced this at? Like does it seem to happen at about the same time frame?

Right before you get disconnected is it this Texas server that pops up? Like does it seem to always be that same server before you get disconnected?

Like Fraser has mentioned as well does this happen in all playlists? Or only Ranked?

Thanks!

Zippy.

It's all different sometimes it's 2 games or could be every 10 games.

1 west 3 east

Usually at night

Sometimes it's Texas but I've seen Cali and Washington too

only tried it in ranked

 

But I've noticed it does it when I'm playing solo too. Connects to bad server then just says unable to connect and I have to search for another lobby. Maybe it's just kinda broken for halo lol But i've heard other people using it no problem so who knows lol

[dmatt51333]

1 hour ago, Netduma Fraser said:

It may be something that has changed then, I'm not sure why they would allow it to happen really, is this in every playlist you're seeing this behaviour?

yeah its weird, but I only really play ranked so that's all i've tested it in

[K0NSPIRACY]

@Netduma Fraser there’s talk about 343i banning players for use of geo filter having publicly announced that they consider it to be cheating and anyone using geo filter is a “bad actor” (whatever that is supposed to mean).

Are Netduma aware of this and doing anything to potentially counter geo filter no longer working in the game if they patch the game to prevent geo filter working?

[Netduma Fraser]

47 minutes ago, dmatt51333 said:

It's all different sometimes it's 2 games or could be every 10 games.

1 west 3 east

Usually at night

Sometimes it's Texas but I've seen Cali and Washington too

only tried it in ranked

 

But I've noticed it does it when I'm playing solo too. Connects to bad server then just says unable to connect and I have to search for another lobby. Maybe it's just kinda broken for halo lol But i've heard other people using it no problem so who knows lol

Would you mind playing a non ranked playlist? It could be that the population for ranked is smaller and therefore less options for servers etc.

36 minutes ago, K0NSPIRACY said:

@Netduma Fraser there’s talk about 343i banning players for use of geo filter having publicly announced that they consider it to be cheating and anyone using geo filter is a “bad actor” (whatever that is supposed to mean).

Are Netduma aware of this and doing anything to potentially counter geo filter no longer working in the game if they patch the game to prevent geo filter working?

Do you have a link to any official statement on this? I don't see how it would be possible given all it would look like is that they cannot connect to a server for some reason - they couldn't ban everyone that can't connect to a server, people with legitimate network issues would then be banned.

[K0NSPIRACY]

@Netduma Fraser Unyshek posted about it on his Twitter calling geo filter users “bad actors” and essentially cheaters. This has also been picked up by at least one Halo YouTuber who states that there are 3 methods of cheating…walls, aimbot and geo filter. From what I’ve heard they are releasing an update in February to address cheating issues so that may or may not involve players using geo filter.

It just so happens that I’m currently experiencing issues trying to find a game in all playlists on Dublin/Amsterdam servers…it just fails to progress at 0% loading map. I’m going to presume it’s because it’s 3am and everyone in Europe should be asleep…but I hope they have released a stealth patch just by coincidence! 😂

[K0NSPIRACY]

1 hour ago, GBDJG said:

you on pc or xbox?what game mode you trying?

Your Geo looks pretty much identical to mine. I play on Xbox Series X and it was happening in Team Slayer, Attrition and SWAT. The only way I could get a game was to restart Halo then it would happen again after one game…then fully reset console then it would happen again…then I just gave up and did a bit of campaign. Hopefully it will be back to normal tomorrow evening, but I’ll post again if issues persist. 

[Netduma Fraser]

Looks like they're referring to people editing the hosts file on PC more so than using the DumaOS Geo-Filter so I don't think this should affect anyone using our Geo-Filter!

[K0NSPIRACY]

47 minutes ago, GBDJG said:

SWAT?? i dont see this in the playlist.

SWAT = Tactical Slayer 😂

[K0NSPIRACY]

2 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Looks like they're referring to people editing the hosts file on PC more so than using the DumaOS Geo-Filter so I don't think this should affect anyone using our Geo-Filter!

Hi @Netduma Fraser. Here’s a link to another BS article that follows up and reports on this, and includes link to Unysheks original Twitter post:

https://piunikaweb.com/2022/01/25/halo-infinite-geo-filtering-system-exploit-causing-high-ping-on-matches/

The comments are quite alarming from people that don’t know what they are talking about…and I still don’t know what a “bad actor” is supposed to mean! 😂

[Netduma Fraser]

13 minutes ago, K0NSPIRACY said:

Hi @Netduma Fraser. Here’s a link to another BS article that follows up and reports on this, and includes link to Unysheks original Twitter post:

https://piunikaweb.com/2022/01/25/halo-infinite-geo-filtering-system-exploit-causing-high-ping-on-matches/

The comments are quite alarming from people that don’t know what they are talking about…and I still don’t know what a “bad actor” is supposed to mean! 😂

We will keep an eye on it but I don't see how they could block the DumaOS Geo-Filter in any way

[Zippy]

3 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Looks like they're referring to people editing the hosts file on PC more so than using the DumaOS Geo-Filter so I don't think this should affect anyone using our Geo-Filter!

Thats what im hopping 343 meant. That Tweet was a bit out of line to start calling people bad actors when not fully saying exactly who they are referring too. This really all started from that one Pro Player and of course people on waypoint took that and ran with it to no end in sight.

Zippy.

[K0NSPIRACY]

4 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Looks like they're referring to people editing the hosts file on PC more so than using the DumaOS Geo-Filter so I don't think this should affect anyone using our Geo-Filter!

What’s the difference between using DumaOS geo filter and editing the host files on PC? They refer to exploits so is this something that could negatively effect the game or impact other players if someone did edit the host files?

[Netduma Fraser]

12 minutes ago, K0NSPIRACY said:

What’s the difference between using DumaOS geo filter and editing the host files on PC? They refer to exploits so is this something that could negatively effect the game or impact other players if someone did edit the host files?

I don't know all the in's and out's but it seems like you enter in just an address for the region you want, essentially blocking all others. How this could impact other players I don't know, I suppose that really depends on how their matchmaking system works.

The only scenario in which I could see it making the connection worse for others is for example, player A & player B both located in the UK search for a game at the same time. Player A has used the hosts trick to force UK, Player B hasn't and there is just one UK server instance with one player slot available, the game is forced to choose Player A as they can't connect to anything else, thereby forcing Player B to play on an EU server.

If that was actually happening then I have a few problems with that - there are many many servers located in each region, if they're literally getting full and forcing others onto further away servers then that would indicate to me that they need to provision more servers in that location. 
If a player is getting forced to a different server then the above is still true, each region has many servers - I would barely notice a change between a UK (London) server and a French server as networking speaking they're so close, so if it is noticeable how far away are they actually being placed? That would seem like another issue on how they dictate what server you play on.

This is all just speculation though, I'm just providing potential scenarios based on the information we have so far.

[Zippy]

For me that is the confusing part. Some PC players must know how to change the files. Sounds like a back door job is being exploited..  I know one can also use a Static Route and block servers as well in there router. Which is something ive done before and that seems to work as well.. But is that considered as changing the files? I personally wouldnt think so since all im doing is blocking servers. That has really gave me good results..  DumaOS doesnt change the files either. It just blocks servers.. No changing of files..

At the end of the day I guess we will find out soon enough in February.. I just hope if we are doing something wrong they dont come out with some crazy perma ban..  That would be most unpleasant..

Whats interesting though is when I block servers using Static Routes in the router I see different servers on my Geo map. So basically I use the Geo to monitor what servers I get put on to. Im not filtering..

Thanks!

Zippy.

[Zippy]

3 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

I don't know all the in's and out's but it seems like you enter in just an address for the region you want, essentially blocking all others. How this could impact other players I don't know, I suppose that really depends on how their matchmaking system works.

The only scenario in which I could see it making the connection worse for others is for example, player A & player B both located in the UK search for a game at the same time. Player A has used the hosts trick to force UK, Player B hasn't and there is just one UK server instance with one player slot available, the game is forced to choose Player A as they can't connect to anything else, thereby forcing Player B to play on an EU server.

If that was actually happening then I have a few problems with that - there are many many servers located in each region, if they're literally getting full and forcing others onto further away servers then that would indicate to me that they need to provision more servers in that location. 
If a player is getting forced to a different server then the above is still true, each region has many servers - I would barely notice a change between a UK (London) server and a French server as networking speaking they're so close, so if it is noticeable how far away are they actually being placed? That would seem like another issue on how they dictate what server you play on.

This is all just speculation though, I'm just providing potential scenarios based on the information we have so far.

Fraser you know what I find interesting.. If I let the game pick a server for me It almost always passes up the first two servers im closest too. And it puts me on the East coast.. Which really makes no sense.. Ive noticed this several times and cant for the life of me understand why that is..  There match making system I feel could be broke or isnt doing something correct to place me accurately.. Which I feel compounds the issue..

Thanks!

Zippy.

[Zippy]

44 minutes ago, GBDJG said:

I cant get in to a ranked game tonight under 100ms ping guess its time for GEO

Ha ha im still Geo Filtering.. I need to or my games are a hot mess..lol.. 

Zippy.

[Netduma Fraser]

8 minutes ago, Zippy said:

Fraser you know what I find interesting.. If I let the game pick a server for me It almost always passes up the first two servers im closest too. And it puts me on the East coast.. Which really makes no sense.. Ive noticed this several times and cant for the life of me understand why that is..  There match making system I feel could be broke or isnt doing something correct to place me accurately.. Which I feel compounds the issue..

Thanks!

Zippy.

I mean that's the question isn't it, why is that happening - is it because they've done that purposefully and so they don't want people getting around it or is it because some how other people forcing closer servers is pushing others further away. I can't imagine that a significant portion of the player base is using methods to force close servers to make that a real problem.