NATE

Interview with Timothy Marois (Founder/Creator of Nate)

• What does Nate mean?

(Network Auto Trade Engine)

• What is Nate?

Nate is a program built off of phpAS (php arcade script), it is a specialized program for trading traffic within partners. Nate is an automatic engine that helps create, define and manage such trades. As Nate grows and more and more additions become available and installed, as the structure of phpAS script becomes scattered into the main components of Nate itself,  I could say Nate is pretty much becoming it’s own full script. It started off with just modifications and small features to improve the original script of phpAS.

• What does Nate do? (in more depth)

Well.. Like I said previously Nate is an auto engine that helps the site maintain itself. Nate tries to take on jobs that the webmaster would be doing without Nate, it has definitely helped save lots of time and continues to improve the quality and the value of the website(s) and their trades.

• I still need some more details of what Nate can do for me?

Okay, Nate will keep your site maintained (such as updated with trading and making sure your trades will not fall behind when your not around. It will email you alerts (if requested), it makes sure sites are hitting and sending the ratio you set it as. The only time Nate will not be able to send the traffic that you owe to your partnered sites; is when your site becomes flooded with credits such as you not having enough traffic to spread to your partners. Nate’s ultimate design is to help you manage your trades and make sure with all the nice little tweaks to the system that your main trading ablity does not get flooded with owed credits.

• When was Nate created?

Nate was created back in 2007 when and before there where auto trade engines (or auto trading scripts) on most and every arcade. It was more of an idea back then and was originally built with a friend of mine (at that time). Nate was originally built on the GSS (Game Site Script), later finding out that GSS was unable to handle a heavy load of traffic, so we made the decision to convert and move Nate’s main components on the structure of phpAS (php arcade script). Nate first got it’s name back in 2008 from the help of Dave (another friend/partner in the gaming industry, the owner of SevaD3 Network).

• Was Nate ever released on other websites?

Yes Nate was originally on multiple websites for a few reasons. Mainly for testing in larger quantities of traffic, and also we have had some clients that liked the idea of Nate and saw its capabilities then wanted to sponsor it. Nate versions 1-3 where only released on (SevaD3 and LTcolor Network) at that time. Nate version 4 is currently or was on some websites. Nate was never officially marked

Nate version 4

down as a completed project. We grew on the features as time went on; version 2, version 3 then version 4. So you could say during 1-4 periods Nate was never a completed product, that was mainly due to consistent amounts of changes and updates. Once a major change to the interface and the trade algorithms, Nate got a new version title.

• For 2009 what is the most current version of Nate?
  

  Nate Alpha

Nate’s most current version for 2009 is Nate 5 also known as Nate Alpha.  Nate Alpha will and should be a completed project/product for the first time in Nate’s history, hence (Alpha). Nate Alpha is also the first Nate to have a completely new security system.

• Was Nate ever on the market (for sale)?

Yes, like I’ve explained above, Nate has been sold to a few clients (most of which never got the full Nate but only has modified versions of their script with Nate features. I was not really in the mood to start selling Nate to generally everyone as it still was in beta testing and never marked as completed product.

• Will Nate go on the market in the future?

As of Nate Alpha and it’s more superior class of skills and tools built into the system. I was only going to think of selling to prime friends and private clientele, people that I can trust. With how scripts go about trading and back-selling I would lose the value of Nate very quickly if this was released to the general public.

• Will there be future versions of Nate?

Of course, there will always be more updates, and features to be put into play. I know I will want to expand the tools as time goes on, I’ve planned to create a Nate 6 calling it Nate Delta and Nate Omega (nate7) for years ahead of time; but lets not get to ahead of ourselves here and think on the task at hand. Nate Alpha is what we are currently working on and should be wrapping up as a fully completed product for 2009.

Nate Alpha (nate5)

Nate Delta (nate6)

Nate Omega (nate7)

• What are your plans for the future Nate(s)?

Well, not to get into great detail as for the upcoming versions of Nate, but I would have to say coding is a gift, some people got it, some people rather do design. You just have to think creative; think of what you would like this to do. I used to think what can I improve; what can I develop that would take task away from my everyday job? What can I do to make my site not need me anymore? Those are generally the ideas I’ve used to help develop and design a much sophisticated engine.

I’ve planned and worked towards making Nate do more and more of my work on a day to day basis; such as trading traffic more effective and evenly. Blocking and banning IPs that try to access Nates Administrative system and keeping the website(s) updated consistently. My ultimate goal for the upcoming versions is to make Nate do just about everything from managing trade sites depending on quality (not quantity), and adjusting ratios and talking to webmasters (through email) on expanding and improving trade percentages. The rest of Nates big ideas are pretty much under closed doors and will be shown when they become more realistic.

Thank you Tim, It was a pleasure to learn more about your system and future plans of development.

Interview by: Clifton A. Johnson

Aside from the new Admin Login. We’ve added the new Access Log. This log will allow you to see who comes into your admin and who has been banned for trying to access it. The access log will cover 50 recent logins. It tells you the date and time of when last logged in, and informs which IP addresses have been banned for trying. (Log can manually be cleared from IPs that have been in the log more then 30 days or it can automatically be set to remove after 30 days) The Access Log can also be turned off in the admin like most of the other features with Nate Alpha. (turning this off will also turn off the new Admin Login Ban as well, this feature is just an upgrade to the admin login)

Nate 4 was one of my favorite administrative systems. It had features that where removed and forgotten due to converting most of its basic algorithms to phpAS system. Here are some of the key features of Nate 4:

• Recent Log, you are able to see what “admin” user is doing what, from the time they login to the time they logged out. Example: [date] | [User] | [did this], great tool to keep track of staff modifications.
• Dashboard Notes, which will be or is already back into the Alpha version. You able to post notes for other “admin” members to read or just so you can remind yourself later.
• Override Controls, This is what we now call “System Admins” in the newest versions of Nate. What that is used for is enabling and disabling system features as a key component of maintaining an effective website.

H.O.D. = Hourly Overflow Dis-abler. (Originally idea by Dave). Use: It was developed to make sure that the hourly credit system would not get overflowed, such as every hour you where able to give sites so much credits. Example: twilightgamer.com give 20credits per hour (this would allow the exchange to keep the trade alive) If credits got flooded with a lot of owed credits, the HOD would disable the hourly credits from that site.

IP Tracking = Mainly speaks for itself, it logs all ip addresses into the database (which on high loads of traffic is not an effective idea) – Removed in Alpha

Anti-Recycling = This is designed so that you do not send out the same visitor to the site twice or you do not send the visitor back to the referral site they came in from (helps trades grow and quality of trades go way up) -has been added in new versions of Nate; called “No-Return“

-There was a bunch of other features, but some of them where never finished as Nate 4 was just beta testing. Nate 4 was used on a few decent websites but the lack of GSS was slowing the entire system down. It just had to be moved to a  much greater base script, if Nate was ever grow and develop into something more complex.

Nate 3-4 Admin

This version I would say it was an “Aggressive” system, it’s key point was to send traffic to the sites with the “Most” or “Higher” amounts of credits, which some sites where able to “hog” the game plugs. In that case the system would pay some sites back, and build a debt with others, and I knew that had to be changed.

The ratio idea was nice as it made credits completely useless (you need credits to get traffic) but once you reached your ratio it would stop sending traffic. (sometimes that could be good as to make sure you do not send to much, other times it could halt a trade and cause it to fail.

As of November 2008 Nate 4 was discontinued; Nate 5 also known as Nate Alpha started development.

Nate Alpha just got a whole lot more secure. 

Nates new admin login is much more secure they its ever been, no more being hacked or having people try to hack into Nate’s Admin. I have noticed since I have installed the new security system on one of my sites, it has already been blocking people left and right. Of course I designed the system to give you 3 chance of logging in. After 3 well I guess you must of really forgot, but since security these days are so much higher, I’d have to block you no mater who you think you are. (if you do not have access to the admin other then your blocked IP, you can either go on another IP address and remove your blocked IP OR go into the SQL to remove your IP from the system itself. It is still in thought of what we will do if you do not know how to get your self unblocked as Nate will not allow you to attempt the login again after 3 chances. 

Also in the admin, it logs every IP address that has been blocked and that has even logged

in successfully. You will be able to see what IP addresses are logging into your admin at what time and date. You are also able to remove IP addresses that have been blocked. The IP log system everyday will delete IP’s that have been in the log for over 48days (that is to keep your up log more up to date and clean of old junk.

After being blocked it shows this message on the side “I Warned You!” and doesn’t allow you to enter anything else into the form. Which is really a joke because I don’t warn you that was coming, its more of tricking you to get blocked. For the webmasters that want to not worry about forgetting and becoming blocked, Nate always offers a “Disable” switch for any new feature within Nate Alpha. 

In the admin it will display the recent known logged in IP addresses and the recent known blocked (banned) IP addresses, when banned/blocked, you are still able to access the site, just not able to log into the admin form. If you want to try out this new “Banned” feature here Login Page, there will be 2 more phrases upon the failed attempts. More to come…