↓Bring
“Bring” (http://www.winholdem.net/bring/index.html) is a software program developed by Ray Bornert. The sole purpose of Bring is to enable a dual-system configuration, and allow the casino’s poker windows from “System A” to be displayed on “System B” where OpenHoldem can connect to them.
Step 1 — Install ↓Bring on your virtual computer
You now have a real computer and a virtual computer. OpenHoldem is going to run on the real computer. The casino software is going to run on the virtual computer.
Now you need to install some software that will allow OpenHoldem (on the real computer) to see what the casino software (on the virtual computer) is doing. There are several ways of doing this. We are going to use a piece of software called "Bring".
On the virtual computer, log in as the stealth user. Now go to the official WinHoldem site and download "bring.exe" (from the "stealth" page). Download it directly into the Ninja folder: http://www.winholdem.net/bring/.
The casino software can’t see inside the Ninja folder, but it will be able to see Bring being run as a process. (If you want to see all the processes your computer is running, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then click on the "processes" tab.)
The solution is to rename Bring to something more innocent. Then, if the casino software looks at the processes you are running, it won’t be able to find out anything incriminating about Bring.
Rename Bring now. For example, you could rename it to "notepad" or “paint".
Step 2 — Install ↓software on your real computer
You can now install Bring on your real computer. You don’t need to rename it; the casino cannot see what is happening on your real computer.
Open a folder on the desktop, call it "Bring", and download into it the files "bring.exe" and “bring.ini".
Click "Start - Control Panel - Folder Options". Click the "View" tab. In the box labeled "Advanced Settings", scroll down and find the line "Hide extensions for known file types". If there is a green tick next to this line, click on it to make the tick disappear. Click "OK” to save your changes.
You should also install OpenHoldem on your real computer now if you haven’t already. Do not install OpenHoldem on your virtual computer.
Step 3 — Configure Bring
Do you remember the IP address of your virtual computer? You’re going to need it again now.
On your real computer, go into the "Bring" folder you just created and open the file "bring.ini" in a text editor. (Right-click on “bring.ini”, choose "Open with..." and select "Notepad".)
Find the following lines:
# remotehost port password -------------------------------- a 192.168.x.x ???? prompt b 192.168.x.x ???? prompt --------------------------------
Change them to this:
# remotehost port password -------------------------------- a x.x.x.x eeee secret --------------------------------
- x.x.x.x should be the IP address of your virtual computer.
- eeee is the "port" number. It can be a number of your own choice. 80 would be a good choice, and so would 800, 5000 or 8080.
- "secret" is a password. It’s not a good password, but it is fine for the purposes of testing Bring.
Here are the changes I made to my bring.ini file:
# remotehost port password -------------------------------- a 192.168.1.7 80 secret --------------------------------
Step 4 — Start Bring
Now we’re going to test Bring by playing a game of solitaire on the virtual computer, and by attempting to control it from the real computer.
Go to the virtual computer. You should still be logged in as the stealth user. Start the Solitaire programme ("Start - All Programs - Games - Solitaire").
Now open another command prompt (click "Start - Run", type "cmd" and press enter).
The command prompt window is currently looking at the "My Documents" folder. You need to move into the Ninja folder. If you followed the earlier suggestion, the location of your Ninja folder will be "C:\files". To move into this folder, simply type “CD C:\files" and press return. (If this doesn’t work you will need to learn how to use the command prompt. Do an Internet search for "DOS command prompt".)
Now type the following command and press return. Instead of bring, you should type the name of your renamed file. Instead of 80, you should type the port number you chose in the previous step, and instead of "secret" you should type the password you chose.
bring -s 80 secret
A small pop-up will appear to show you that Bring has started on your virtual computer. Click "OK".
Now go to your real computer. Go into the Bring folder and double click on "bring.exe".
Another pop-up appears to show you that Bring has started on your real computer. Click “OK”.
Another window appears labeled "Select remote connection". You should see a line that looks exactly like the line you entered in the "bring.ini" file.
a 192.168.1.7 80 secret
Click on this line so that it turns blue, and click the "OK" button.
Another window appears with a list of programs that are currently running on your virtual computer. One of them should be solitaire, so click on it so that it turns blue and then click the "OK" button. Solitaire will launch on your real computer, and if everything is set up correctly, you will be able to play it and watch your mouse clicks affecting both computers at once!
If you are unable to control solitaire from your real computer you definitely won’t be able to control a poker table. Before you continue, seek help from someone who understands networks.
Step 5 — Stop running Bring
When you have had enough of playing solitaire, you should shut down Bring.
On the real computer, just close the solitaire window.
On the virtual computer, there are three ways to stop Bring.
- Log off
- Stop the Bring process. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL. Two task manager windows will appear, one for the real computer and one for the virtual computer. Find the task manager on the virtual computer and click the "Processes" tab, find “bring.exe" (however you renamed it), click on it to turn it blue, and then click on "End Process".
- Lock the desktop. This doesn’t actually close Bring, but it does halt it and prevent your real computer from communicating with it.
Stop Bring on both computers before you move on to the next step.
Step 6 — Set up the "run as a different user" facility
When you connect to the casino’s Internet site you should always be logged into your virtual computer as the casino user. However, you will be running Bring as if you will logged on as the stealth user. In this way, the casino won’t be able to detect that you are using Bring. Here’s how to do it.
On the virtual computer, log in as the casino user. Right-click on the desktop and choose "New", then choose "Shortcut". A window will appear. In the box, type "cmd". Click "Next" and then click "Finish".
A new icon, “cmd.exe", will have appeared on your desktop. It’s actually a shortcut to the command prompt that you have used a few times before. Right-click on this shortcut and choose "Properties". A window appears and the "Shortcut" tab should already be showing. Click the "Advanced" button. Find the line which reads "Run with different credentials". Click on it so that a tick appears next to it. Click the "OK" buttons twice. "Run with different credentials" actually means "run this program as a different user".
Start solitaire again. Double click the “cmd.exe" shortcut and a window will appear, asking you which user you want to use to run the program. Click on the line "The following user". Then, enter the stealth user’s name and password, and click “OK".
The command prompt window appears. It is running as if you were logged in as the stealth user. We can safely run Bring from this window. Go into the Ninja folder (perhaps by typing "CD C:\files”). Type the following command, changing the words "bring", "80" and "secret" exactly as you did in step 4.
bring -s 80 secret
Bring’s pop-up window appears, so click the “OK” button.
Now go to the real computer and start Bring there. Try to open the solitaire window, just as you did before.
Go back to the virtual computer. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to make the task manager appear in both windows. Find the virtual computer’s task manager and select the "Properties" tab. Check that "bring.exe" (however you renamed it) is running under the stealth user, even though you are logged in as the casino user. Check that "sol.exe" - the solitaire process - is running under the casino user.
Step 7 — Check security with ↓Gaze
We’re going to make one more security check using the program Gaze. It can be downloaded from the forums at the WinHoldem official site. (http://forum.winholdem.net/wbb/viewtopic.php?t=1114)
Still on the virtual computer and still logged in as the casino user, go to the WinHoldem site. There should be two files - "gaze.cpp" and “gaze.exe". Download both of them to the virtual computer’s desktop.
Double click on “gaze.exe” to run it. A window will appear, and shortly afterwards a pop-up labeled "Windows - no disk" will appear. Click the "Cancel" button, and close the Gaze window.
The results of the test have been saved to a file on the desktop called "gaze”. Confusingly, there are now two text files on the desktop with the same name. Double click one of them to open it in a text editor. If the first few lines don’t look like this, you’ve got the wrong file.
Sat Jun 23 17:40:42 2007 == PROCESSES == == PROCESS NAME: [System Process] -- WARNING: OpenProcess failed with error 87 (The parameter is incorrect) process ID = 0x00000000 thread count = 1 parent process ID = 0x00000000 Priority Base = 0
You want to read the report on “bring.exe" (however you renamed it). Press CTRL+F to do a search for this file. When you find it, it should look like this...
== PROCESS NAME: bring.exe -- WARNING: OpenProcess failed with error 5 (Access is denied) process ID = 0x00000EE8 thread count = 1 parent process ID = 0x00000EDC Priority Base = 8 WARNING: CreateToolhelp32Snapshot (of modules) failed with error 5 (Access is denied) THREAD ID = 0x00000EEC base priority = 8 delta priority = 0
If you can see the message "OpenProcess failed with error 5 (Access is denied)", then you will know for sure that the casino user can’t find out anything incriminating about Bring. Your security checks are now complete.
Close Notepad, solitaire and the “cmd.exe" shortcut. Delete Gaze from your desktop and empty the recycle bin. Terminate the Bring process. Reboot the virtual computer.
Step 8 — Install the ↓casino software
You can now install the casino software. On the virtual computer, log in as the casino user. Create a new folder on the desktop called "poker". It’s a good idea to install all your casino software in a single folder.
The casino user currently has restricted privileges. Some casinos insist that you install their software when logged in as a user with administrative privileges. Some casinos also insist that you run their software when logged in as a user with administrative privileges. Preferably, we would like to install and run the software while logged in as a user has restricted privileges.
Here is how to set up a typical casino’s poker software.
Still logged in as the casino user, go to the casino web site. Download their software directly into the poker folder you created moments ago. Go into the folder and double click on the software. It will begin installing. When the install asks where you would like to install the software, choose the "poker" folder you created moments ago. Don’t let the install the use the default folder.
If the installation completes without complaints, all is well. However, if the installation complaints that it needs administrative privileges, this is what you must do:
Log out from the casino user’s account and log in to the admin user’s account. Open the "User Accounts" window just as you did before. Click on the casino user act and then click on "Change the account type". Click on "Computer Administrator" and then click the "Change Account Type" button. Log out from the admin user’s account and log back into the casino user’s account.
Try to install the software again. This time it should install without complaints. Now log out of the casino user’s account and go back to the admin user account. Change the casino user’s account type back to "limited". Log out of the admin user account and log back into the casino user’s account.
Now try running the software. If the software complaints that it needs administrative privileges to run, change the casino user’s account to "Computer Administrator" just as you did above. It’s unfortunate that you have to run the software with administrative privileges, but it’s not the end of the world.
Step 9 — Change your video ↓settings
OpenHoldem is quite fussy about which desktop theme you are using. Currently, only the ↓Windows XP default style and the ↓Windows 2000 ↓classic style are supported. You must change your desktop theme to one of these styles on both the real computer and the virtual computer. Click "Start - Control Panel - (Appearances and Themes) - Change the computer’s theme" to do this.
Step 10 — Start playing poker
On the virtual computer, start Bring by using the “cmd.exe" shortcut. Start the casino software and choose the table. Make sure the table’s window is not obscured by any other Windows.
Now go to your real computer, start Bring and try to get the table to appear in a window. If everything has been set up properly, you should be able to control the table from your real computer.
Now start OpenHoldem. Press OpenHoldem’s “Green Circle Button” button and you’re ready to make money!
Step 11 — How to play in the future
Every time you use OpenHoldem to play poker for you, you must follow this simple checklist.
- Boot up your real computer. Start OpenHoldem.
- Boot up your virtual computer and log in as the casino user.
- On the virtual computer, use the “cmd.exe” shortcut to run Bring.
- Start the casino software. Select a table. Make sure this window isn’t obscured by any other windows.
- On the real computer, start Bring. Find the window with the poker table.