Talking about NCN...
I'd just like to mention that people often requested IP information for connections. Of course that info can be retrieved from logs in a way, but would be more convenient to have it documented and accessible anytime. IP address can fit into 4 bytes, but as there isn't spare 4 bytes, that would require changing insim version... IP information would arrive only in case it's a server insim.
*I absolutely have no needs for that info, just wanned to mention.

Having info about users settings (Speed display) mph or km/h would be more interesting IMO and even easier to implement (both for Scawen and insim developers). It require only one bit that we certainly can find. Flags and Admin seem to be using only one bit out of whole byte. That info should be sent only to server insims IMO, in case of local insim only for local connection.

Of course Language just like Speed display can change while user is online, what should we do in that case? Just ignore or introduce a special packet for handling that ...

Not end user but server insim. It's already being retrieved from the logs but it's not that great performance and logical wise. Also bit of an annoyance in case the InSim is remote and the logs are somewhere else.

I think Scawen would say that this is one and the same, but if they are being exposed via the log, then really there is no good reason to keep them away from the InSim application, as this information is already available programmatically albit in a roundabout way.

Why would he say that.. I don't get it. It's you thinking that an IP address should be some sort of secret? While it isn't because a proper server owner will see it anyway @netstat

He's said it before.

IP address wouldn't be in the NCN packet as all guests output that packet to their local InSim connection and they don't know the new guest's IP address. Obviously I will not transmit the IP of guests to other guests. When a guest joins a host, if they know anything about the internet, they know they are revealing their IP (just as when they visit any internet site) so that is a different matter.

But I suppose the new guest's IP address could be shown on the host's InSim connection, in a new dedicated packet that follows the NCN. Is there any security risk with this? Maybe only show it if there is an admin password, so it isn't shown on fully open InSim connections?

About language, would anyone not want their language revealed or can we just forget about that? I guess if they don't want to reveal their language, they'd better select English before joining a host.

Host doesn't know guest's language in any way at the moment so it's not just as simple as adding a byte, Guests will need to transmit this info to host on connection. Not hard but just saying, it's not a 1 minute job.

Quote from Scawen :

IP address wouldn't be in the NCN packet as all guests output that packet to their local InSim connection and they don't know the new guest's IP address. Obviously I will not transmit the IP of guests to other guests. When a guest joins a host, if they know anything about the internet, they know they are revealing their IP (just as when they visit any internet site) so that is a different matter.

But I suppose the new guest's IP address could be shown on the host's InSim connection, in a new dedicated packet that follows the NCN. Is there any security risk with this? Maybe only show it if there is an admin password, so it isn't shown on fully open InSim connections?

That would be an improvement over the current system for sure.

Quote from Scawen :

About language, would anyone not want their language revealed or can we just forget about that? I guess if they don't want to reveal their language, they'd better select English before joining a host.

Host doesn't know guest's language in any way at the moment so it's not just as simple as adding a byte, Guests will need to transmit this info to host on connection. Not hard but just saying, it's not a 1 minute job.

That's what I wanted to discuss with you about. How is it defined in the engine what language a user selects? Can we take the information directly and just port it into a InSim Packet? Without knowing a lot about how the internal parts of the engine stores this information, we can only speculate as to the correct implementation.

Well.. Hmm.. If language revelation can be something to bully/racist about then there could be an option "do not reveal this to online servers" somewhere? If the InSim don't get this info it can go to any default mode?

Something like language not disclosed or 0. Defaulting to English is not that great, it could give a false assumption that somebody understands English while it's not the case.

[different discussion]
IP address discussion I do not find that important, it's a bit of a hassle to retrieve it from deb logs but possible. In my opinion link quality (average ping / packet loss) is extremely more important to have available in an InSim packet. Online casual racing suffers a lot from people having bad connections. I now need to ban complete 3G/4G mobile IP blocks from various countries like Germany, Finland etc while it sometimes is not necessary. I noticed also on the demo environment that people with bad connections can mess up complete races for everybody else which have a proper connection. I have really a hard time with this, it results in having people which cannot race/connect while they know what they are doing and/or are very nice. Due to these generalized IP block bans (mobile connections have a dynamic IP pool which makes it difficult to target one person).

The good have to suffer from the bad so to speak. Would be extremely convenient that everybody can connect but that an InSim can produce a message in a way like; "your connection seems poor, please improve this before you join the track" and in worst case scenario spectate somebody currently in race. The N-list improvement from B->E patch was/is awesome but it's still manual. Luckily there are a lot of regulars who do put up a discussion about link quality towards each other but I would be overjoyed when it can be automatized. In the end two/three or even more people with a good connection leave the online environment when somebody with a bad connection enters the scene and start to crash around! And I know the InSim system already has a lag indicator but it's not sensitive enough.
[/different discussion]

I'd love to split this topic now. As we are talking about two different things and should be two separate RFCs.

Do you have an option to split or do I need to remove some text and create new topic?

// I have to say I am not that good in making good introduction postings.

Quote from cargame.nl :

Do you have an option to split or do I need to remove some text and create new topic?

// I have to say I am not that good in making good introduction postings.

I've requested Moderator power for the Programmer Forum, hopefully I'll be able to do it. Otherwise I'm hoping that a current mod will pick up the change. And I should be able, built the next RFC regarding getting IP address from Scawen's remarks now that we have a direction.