Verifying The Integrity Of Updates Or Game Download

This information should be used in the following situations:

1. You just downloaded a copy of the latest version of Perfect World or the latest patch and you want to verify it is not corrupted.


By using the method below, You can prove 100% beyond any doubt the download of the game or latest path was or was not corrupted. Try it youreself.

It is not used to fix or diagnose connection problems, ONLY to verify whether your download was corrupted or not, saving you from a re-download.


This guide works with all versions of Windows.

Users with little or absolutely no computer knowledge can follow this guide. Step by Step instructions are written for you.

**Before proceeding you need to make sure you are logged into a user account in Windows that has administrative rights. You can check this by attempting to change your system clocks timezone in the bottom right hand corner.

Attempt to change the timezone by:

Windows XP:

1. Right-click the system clock, and then click Adjust Date/Time.
2. Click the Time Zone tab. Click the list, and then click on a different time zone, then click ok.

Windows Vista:
1. Click on the system clock on the taskbar.
2. Click on Change date and time settings.
3. Click the Change time zone button.


**If you can edit that information, You do have administrative rights. If you get an access denied error message, You must log into a user account with administrative rights before continuing. Other versions of windows do not have administrative accounts. This information does not apply to you.

For the rest of this guide, I'll assume your logged in as an administrative user in Windows.

At the time of this writing, All information is correct.


This guide assumes you meet the minimum system requirements for the game and you have already downloaded a copy of Perfect World or manual patches from the official location:

http://pwi.perfectworld.com/download

****This information was written to verify Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008. You can navigate to the official download link and read the text underneath “Download Client”.****


Instructions will be provided to verify your download was not corrupted in transit or is now corrupted on your hard drive if you downloaded it

( Verification information for manual patches are included at the bottom as an added bonus )


Why verify my download wasn't corrupted?

Often times, people can have trouble installing or running online games after they download it and attempt to install it or run it. After downloading the game, it is HIGHLY recommended you verify the download was not corrupted in some way before attempting to install it.

The reason for this is simple: If you meet the system requirements, The next problem you are likely to have is a broken download. It's better to take certain precautions while your going through the installation process to minimize the chances you will encounter a problem and to isolate the cause for any problems if you encounter any. This potentially reduces the number of troubleshooting steps required to resolve any problems you may have and greatly limits the causes. The same information can pply to the latest patches released for the game.


Verify your download of Perfect World was not corrupt ( Torrent ):

**It's imperative that you use Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008. Using any other copy will not pertain to and void this process. It should already be stored on your computer some place. Perhaps the desktop. The filename will be Perfect_World_International.exe**


In order to verify your downloaded Perfect World installation file, We need a program do this. You can get it here:

http://www.irnis.net/soft/xcsc/

It's called eXpress CheckSum Calculator, Its a free program and does not install onto your computer. It's a stand alone file and is very small.

Scroll down a bit, Underneath Download it says xcsci.exe
Click the link, Click save and click desktop

Double-click the xcsci.exe file and click install. This doesn't install the program, It unzips it into.

C:\Program Files\eXpress CheckSum Calculator\

After the program unzips it will run automatically.
Uncheck Crc32 and uncheck MD5. Only leave SHA-1 selected.


At the top of the small windows It reads filename. On the right side there are 3 ellipses where we can browse to the setup file for Perfect World. Which would be the Perfect_World_International.exe file.

Browse to the Perfect_World_International.exe setup file and double-click on it. The path to the file is now displayed in the window. Next click start. You will notice a progress bar in the lower left hand corner as the cryptographic hash gets calculated. It will take a moment.

The correct SHA-1 cryptographic hash for Perfect_World_International.exe Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008. is:

D9BC06687469DC40F55F3AE32E44CC5857CA448A

You can copy my hash and paste it into notepad or a word processing program and compare yours to mine.

If you calculate the hash and get something else the download is corrupt. You must re-download a new copy. If it calculates the same, You have just proven your download is not corrupted.


Verify your download of Perfect World was not corrupt (Direct Download):

**It's imperative that you use Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008. Using any other copy will not pertain to and void this process. It should already be stored on your computer some place. Perhaps the desktop. The filenames are:

PW_International.part1.exe
PW_International.part2.rar
PW_International.part3.rar
PW_International.part4.rar


In order to verify your downloaded Perfect World installation file, We need a program do this. You can get it here:

http://www.irnis.net/soft/xcsc/

It's called eXpress CheckSum Calculator, Its a free program and does not install onto your computer. It's a stand alone file and is very small.

Scroll down a bit, Underneath Download it says xcsci.exe
Click the link, Click save and click desktop

Double-click the xcsci.exe file and click install. This doesn't install the program, It unzips it into.

C:\Program Files\eXpress CheckSum Calculator\

After the program unzips it will run automatically.
Uncheck Crc32 and uncheck MD5. Only leave SHA-1 selected.


At the top of the small windows It reads filename. On the right side there are 3 ellipses where we can browse to each of the the setup files for Perfect World. We will start with the PW_International.part1.exe file.

Browse to the PW_International.part1.exe file setup file and double-click on it. The path to the file is now displayed in the window. Next click start. You will notice a progress bar in the lower left hand corner as the cryptographic hash gets calculated. It will take a moment.

The correct SHA-1 cryptographic hash for PW_International.part1.exe file Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008. is:

E615ECDB5A909235E45921880C7837CEAFE8553B

You can copy my hash and paste it into notepad or a word processing program and compare yours to mine.

If you calculate the hash and get something else the download is corrupt. You must re-download a new copy. If it calculates the same, You have just proven your download is not corrupted.


Here are the cryptographic hashes for the all the Client version : 3 - Released: August 2008 files and manual patches:

Direct download Files:

PW_International.part1.exe: E615ECDB5A909235E45921880C7837CEAFE8553B
PW_International.part2.rar: 2F0C579486E8D126EC77E31896A260740F3A5E1A
PW_International.part3.rar: 1E72955D8090079B658C276DCA45F8D9C8B30871
PW_International.part4.rar: 6B8FF3F98FB4B0D117037BDBB665C5173F14F1A4


Torrent Download:

Perfect_World_International.exe: D9BC06687469DC40F55F3AE32E44CC5857CA448A


Manual Patches:

ec_patch_1-52.cup: 1F28B861CC45BA91438C4F765F0A7844BF0F7401
ec_patch_52-166.cup: 047311E3737E0F041B985BBB4BE56A82D5638939
ec_patch_161-166.cup: 79BF37C1444FB3776A41D938E41742675C3EE02C
ec_patch_166-168.cup: 47EA21B8EF64625C2C12448D9B81E8E6490674A5


Regards, SemperHacker.

For anyone wondering how or why this works:

Security:

There are three main concepts surrounding security in general:

1. Confidentiality which aims to ensure only authorized parties can access data.

2. Integrity which verifies the data has not been modified or is private.

3. And Availability.

We're going to focus on a very small implementation of integrity, specifically hashing cryptography.

Hashing cryptography can be used for several things:

1. Ensure the data has not been modified by unauthorized means, like people or code ( Viruses )

2. It can ensure data is modified only when it is intended to be modified or has not been modified.

3. It can be used to verify data has not been corrupted, either while stored statically on the hard drive or in transit from one location to another.

Let me give you A real world example of how hashing cryptography could used without explaining anything about it: The RIAA could create a special cryptographic hash of a music artists songs. This hash could be given to YouTube, Which could then be used to verify which members have committed copyright infringement, That way YouTube can mute any music in the video..Heh..

You have probably heard the term binary. This is a system of storing and reading information using only two states, On or off, Yes or no, True or false and realistically positive and negative via electricity..Every calculation your computer does, no mater how complex is always reduced to a simple yes or no. On or an off, Positive or negative.

Technically, Information is stored on your computer in binary. A series of 1's and 0's that people can't read and understand but computer's can. Of course every file is different, Which means they all have a different makeup of 1's and 0's. So generally you can say that most files are unique.

If I create a document, and send it to someone. That document is composed of the same number of 1's and 0's on both computers though. It would be the same for any file shared or copied as long as the other person doesn't change it.
If I take the same document and change even just one letter in it. The file has a whole different makeup of 1's and 0's.

You might be thinking what the fudge is a cryptographic hash? o.o

To know the answer to that, We need to understand a strange word which is algorithm x.x. An algorithm is just a complicated mathematical formula. That's basically it. In order to generate a cryptographic hash, We need a software program to take a look at all the 1's and 0's that make up the file in question and run all those 1's and 0's through an algorithm, Some really complex math formula.

For example. Here's something an algorithm might do, ( Of course this is very simplified )

If we have a piece of data like a song and it's composed of the following ( Which we can't see ) 111000 An algorithm might look at those things and say: For every “ 1 ” I find I will output the letter A and for every “0” I find. I will output the letter B. So when the algorithm is ran on this piece of data it reads the ones and zeros then displays aaabbb.

In this example the aaabbb would be referred to as the hash of that piece of data.
Of course in the real world. Algorithms are extremely complex and are usually created by mathematicians. They are used to make secure connections, like Log you into banking websites such For generating and verifying hashes, we can think of an algorithm as a mathematical formula that analyzes some data, Which can be any size and outputs ( Displays on your screen ) a unique set of characters containing letters A-F and numbers 0-9 after it gets ran through the complex math formula.

There are some very popular algorithms used to create hashes. You have probably seen them on websites that have software downloads. For example you may have seen MD5 or SHA1. These are two very popular algorithms used to verify internet downloads.

Using specific illustrative examples:

A hash can be from 8 characters, using the CRC32 algorithm

32 characters using the Message Digest 5, or MD5 algorithm

To 40 characters using the Secure Hash Algorithm, or SHA-1 algorithm.

Here are a few samples example of various hashes from the same file:

CRC32: EA58716C

MD5: AFB30663ADFDE53263CB98AE79CDB4F7

SHA-1: F07C1D5D1F8495B420C0464AA5CB22412CA28A1E

SHA-1 is the most complex algorithm and the hash is the longest and most complex. This means that it is very unique. The same hash should NEVER appear if ran on two different files. It should only be the same if it gets used on the same file and that file has not been modified. It does happen but theoretically, it should NEVER happen ever. Generally the longer and more complex the algorithm, the more unlikely it is the same hash can or will be generated. If this does happen it is referred to as collision and is not a good thing.

**This is important because if the same hash can easily be generated, or is generated often, then the data can be altered and still produce the same hash. This means someone could inject a virus into a piece of software without anyone knowing about it because the hash was the same, suggesting it had not been modified.

Also without complex troubleshooting you may be unaware the data set you are working with has been corrupted.

This will often happen with CRC ( It generated the shortest hash) , because of the way it works, The formula used to calculate the output is not very complicated compared to modern algorithms, and it only generates an 8 character hash, How many possible combinations do you think there can be using only 8 characters?

Not very good compared to a 32 character hash generated by the MD5 algorithm or a 40 character hash using SHA-1. Many websites post a hash to verify the INTEGRITY of their software, This proves after their engineers wrote the program, It wasn't modified by anyone else, It has no viruses and is EXACTLY the same when you download it onto your computer as it was right after the software engineer compiled it.

Usually they post the MD5 hash Or SHA-1. Both of these algorithms is widely used and are considered sufficient for verifying integrity, by generating a unique hash and consuming an acceptable amount of processing power. After all, the more complicated the algorithm the more processing power it will take.

Personally I like to use SHA-1 or anything more complex Like SHA-256 and SHA0512. I highly recommend that anyone use SHA-1 at a minimum when verifying downloads when possible.


Conclusion

That is why we can use this method to verify your direct download is not corrupted or your manual patches were not corrupted during the download either.

Most torrent programs use SHA-1 to verify you recieved each piece of data that it downloads and it is not corrupted. This is why downloading using the torrent usually resolves any sort of problems using the direct download.

Although data downloaded using torrents can get corrupted as well, There's a much better chance it won't because of this method of verifying the data hasn't been changed or corrupted. If torrent downloading programs download a piece of broken data, it should detect this and download that piece of data that matches the hash.

As I said above, I hope developers will decide to post MD5 or SHA-1 hashes for client downloads as well as manual patches for the community to use for verification in general, An so we can use a similar process for troubleshooting patches and direct downloads.

I hope you understand a bit more about hashing cryptography and how it can help you troubleshoot Eso problems as well as give you ideas on how you can use this technology to your advantage.

Regards, SemperHacker.