Huali's Aggressive IP Policy Has Knocked All maimai and Chunithm Cabinets Offline: Questions Answered

0. Intro#

Previously, the maimai official WeChat account had a blocking policy so aggressive that a few taps on maimai NET would get you banned. Recently, Huali seems to have applied the same aggressive IP ban policy to game servers and the like

1. Reproducing the Problem#

After being IP banned, the following symptoms appear

All maimai, Chunithm and other machines in the arcade become completely unable to connect to the network, and restarting the machines doesn’t fix it. Meanwhile the other non-Huali machines work normally, and phones and computers connected to the arcade’s network still browse the internet fine

2. Cause#

Huali has adopted an aggressive IP blocking policy; the exact threshold is unknown. Once network requests reach a certain volume, the IP is banned. It is currently unclear whether IP ranges get banned as well, which would cause maimai and other machines in the arcade to be treated as hackers by the server and banned

3. Solution#

First, you absolutely must pressure Huali, and have the relevant arcade staff report the situation to Huali. Then try the following in order:

1. Restart the optical modem in the arcade
   • If your arcade doesn’t have a static IP, restarting the optical modem usually triggers a fresh dial-up, and the ISP will assign a new IP to your arcade’s outbound broadband, thereby bypassing the IP ban

This operation is equivalent to: Your arcade used to be called xi, and Huali’s firewall blocked everyone named xi outside. Now you restart the optical modem and change your name to Chongxi, and Huali lets you in

If the above doesn’t work, it means:

• Your region’s ISP may have a different allocation policy, and redialing cannot trigger the ISP’s IP reassignment strategy

2. Wait up to 48 or 72 hours Domestic ISPs, to prevent users from occupying the same IP address for a long time (in effect using it as a static IP), set a forced-disconnect time threshold in the background, usually 72 hours at most

3. If none of the above works, then your arcade most likely has a static IP. There is currently no way to solve this, so please make sure the arcade technician reports this to Huali so they can resolve it

4. Note#

If you run into a single maimai machine that can’t connect while the others are fine, that is basically a fake grey-out caused by swallowed cookies; just restart the machine

For disconnections caused by swallowed cookies, see: Why do maimai cabinets keep losing their connection? One article clears up all your questions about the recent maimai server problems