Set access group or list, eject intruders, welcome visitors, give gifts, & more!
The Bright Security System secures your land, or group land, or even someone else's land (with their permission).
You can control access by group membership, or through a list of whitelisted or blacklisted names: unauthorised visitors are given a warning (in line with Second Life TOS), and then ejected from your land, or teleported home - and optionally banned to prevent their return.
You can also greet visitors as they arrive with a custom message, and send them another when they leave, and even give them a folder full of items - notecards, landmarks, free gifts, whatever your venue needs.
The system can optionally notify you of arrivals, departures, and expulsions, and display a list of current or recent visitors.
You can define the *space* you wish to protect with absolute precision. You can simply say "anywhere within 96m", you can automatically exclude anywhere within range but outside your parcel, or you can even use pairs of X, Y and Z region coordinates to define a space absolutely precisely. For instance, you can secure a single, rectangular room within your house, without affecting anyone outside, above, or below.
Whether you want to greet visitors to your shop and give them gifts, or ensure that your beloved Second Life home is private from intrusion, or both (as the system is copyable), the Bright Security System can help you.
* Optional suppression of multiple greetings to a single avatar within a given time period.
* Two scanner scripts reduced to one - less memory, more speed!
First, unpack the box. Drag the "Bright Security System boxed" from your Inventory onto the ground to rez it. Right-click it to open a pop-up menu, select "Open" to display the contents window, and click "Copy To Inventory" at the bottom. This will create a new folder in your inventory.
The system consists of two parts: a *sign*, and a *scanner*.
You ONLY need to install this sign if you wish to eject intruders from your space. If all you wish to do is monitor arrivals, send greetings and goodbyes, give gifts, or relay chat, you can skip straight to installing your scanner below.
But if you wish to eject unauthorised visitors, drag the "Bright Security System sign" from your inventory onto the ground to rez it.
ON YOUR OWN LAND, you will see this...
System owner: Shan Bright
Sign owner: Shan Bright
Land owner: Shan Bright
Sign owned by land-owner: expulsions ENABLED.
ON GROUP LAND, you will see this...
System owner: Shan Bright
Sign owner: Shan Bright
Land owner: (group owned)
Sign NOT owned by land-owner, expulsions DISABLED.
To enable expulsions, deed this sign to the land-owning group.
Right-click the sign, and click "Edit..." to display the object window.
A little way down the window, you'll see "Group:...": click the "Set..." button to the right, click on the name of the group which owns the land, and click "OK". Then, underneath, tick "[X] Share with group", and click "Deed...". You'll be asked to confirm this: click "Deed". The sign now belongs to the group (but the controlling security system is still yours), and the installation of the sign is complete.
If you aren't a member of the group, or you don't have permission to deed objects to the group, you will need the help and agreement of someone who *can* deed things to the group to install the sign.
ON OTHER PEOPLE'S LAND, you will see this...
System owner: Shan Bright
Sign owner: Shan Bright
Land owner: Philip Linden
Sign NOT owned by land-owner, expulsions DISABLED.
To enable expulsions...
1. Set this sign [X] For sale, Price: L$[0], [X] Original.
2. Ask Philip Linden to buy it to transfer ownership.
Naturally, this will require Philip Linden's agreement.
The instructions here are self-explanatory: but clearly, as this is someone else's land, you'll need their co-operation to set up your security system there. Why would you do this? Well, if you are (for instance) a professional venue manager, with their permission you can use your security system to control access to your client's land, even if they own it personally.
Note that you only need *one* sign on any parcel, no matter how many scanners are on that parcel.
Drag the "Bright Security System scanner" onto the ground to rez it.
You may wish to rename it - the scanner is the object which sends greeting messages to your visitors, or notification messages to you - so changing the scanners name to make the source of these messages friendlier and more recognisable is a good idea. To rename it, right-click it to pop-up a menu, click "Edit" to open its edit window, and change the text in the "Name:" box.
Then click it to display its configuration menu.
The "ON" and "OFF" buttons enable and disable your security system.
The six buttons "Mode", "Access", "Time", "Text", "Area", and "Signals" each control a different aspect of the way the system works. Each is explained in more detail below.
MODE
The mode menu controls what the system does. Choose from...
Monitor: sends greetings and goodbyes, and distributes items, but doesn't warn or expel anyone
Eject: as "Monitor", but will first warn and then eject unauthorised visitors to your boundaries
Teleport: as "Monitor", but will first warn and then teleport unauthorised visitors home
Ban: permanently adds anyone ejected or teleported home to your parcel's banned list (this means Second Life itself will display those red "NO ENTRY" bars if they try to fly anywhere over your land in the future)
Notify: sends you an IM each time the system sends a message or expels someone
Give: gives visitors a folder of items. To load the items to give out, right-click the scanner, and click "Open" to display its contents window. Then drag the items you wish to distribute from your Inventory to this window: they must be copyable and transferable.
Listen: sends you IMs relaying anything said in chat near the scanner. Please note that using this anywhere except your own land, without people's knowledge, may be in violation of Second Life's Terms of Service. (These IMs are sent to the owner of the system, so no other user accessing the menu can enable or disable them.)
ACCESS
Menu owner/group/all: determines who can use the menu system - just you, any member of the group the scanner itself is in, or anyone at all.
Admit owner/group/all: determines who is allowed into the area controlled by the security system: again, just you, group members, or anyone at all.
You can also control access by modifying the "Names" notecard. Right-click the scanner and click "Open". Then double-click the "Names" notecard to open it. Begin names with a "+" to grant them access, a "-" to ban them, or a "*" to let them use the security system itself. For instance...
*Shan Bright
+Red Mills
-Philip Linden
... will let Shan Bright use the menu system, let Red Mills into the area, and ban Philip Linden. Quite right too.
NOTE: All users with only one name are deemed by Second Life to have a surname of "Resident", so if an avatar has only one name - like "jane123" - use "jane123 Resident". Don't use "display names" - the system ignores them, as they are useless for security purposes, as an avatar can change their display name at will.
TIME
Interval 30/Interval +5/Interval -5: The system works by regularly scanning your space to see who is there, and these buttons control how frequently it scans. Click "Interval 30" for the factory setting of every 30 seconds. You can make this longer or shorter by clicking "Interval +5" or "Interval -5": but bear in mind that scanning too frequently can cause lag, and makes very little difference to the system's effectiveness in practice.
Grace 30/Grace +5/Grace -5: When an unauthorised visitor arrives, they are warned that if they do not leave, they will be expelled. The "grace period" determines how many seconds they are given to leave before being thrown out. Please bear in mind that giving little or no warning may be considered harrassment or an abuse of Second Life's Terms of Service. The factor setting of 30 seconds is a reasonable value.
Greet all/Greet +1hr/Greet -1hr: The system will normally send a welcome message when visitors arrive, and a goodbye message when they leave. But if visitors frequently hop into and out of your space, you may want to avoid welcoming them every time they arrive. Clicking "Greet +1hr" adds an hour to the minimum time gap between welcome messages to any one visitor. (To disable greetings altogether, simply delete the messages from the "Messages" notecard - see below.)
TEXT
No text: no floating text is displayed by the scanner
Description: the name of the system is displayed
Status: a summary of the system's current settings is displayed
Current: a list of visitors currently present is displayed
History: a list of the ten most recent visitors is displayed
AREA
The area monitored by the Bright Security System can be controlled in three ways...
By range: if you specify a range of 50m, only people within 50m of the scanner will be monitored. To specify a range of 50m, say "/900 range=50". Please note that at present, Second Life only allows scanning up to 96m, even if you specify a higher range: but the system will allow you to specify a higher range in case this limit is increased in the future.
By parcel: if you click the "Restrict" button, only people on the same land parcel as the scanner will be monitored. This ensures that even if the range extends onto your neighbours' land, they will not be spammed by your system. If you click "Unrestrict", the system will monitor and greet people even if they are not on the same parcel: but note that you cannot unrestrict this setting if you have chosen eject or teleport modes above.
By region coordinates: positions in a region are measured from its south-west corner. If you look at the top of your own Second Life screen, you will see three numbers giving your coordinates east from that corner, north from that corner, and above sea level respectively. You can use these same region coordinates to limit the area monitored: for instance, if you say "/900 east=200", anyone further than 200m east from the south-west corner of the region will be ignored.
These three rules work together, so someone has to be within range, in the parcel (if the scanner is restricted to the parcel), and within the coordinate limits, to be monitored. This diagram below may make this clearer...
SIGNALS
Scan sound: enables or disables the tone played each time the system does a scan. Enabling it plays a sample of the tone.
Scan flash: enables or disables the green colour flash round the edges of the system unit used to signal a scan. Enabling it causes a sample flash.
Arr. sound/Arr. flash: as above, but to signal the arrrival of a visitor. (Purple flash)
Dep. sound/Dep. flash: as above, but to signal the departure of a visitor. (Blue flash)
Exp. sound/Exp. flash: as above, but to signal the expulsion of an unauthorised visitor. (Red flash)
MESSAGES
The system sends five messages to visitors: a greeting, a goodbye message, a warning, a message to a visitor who has been ejected, and a message to a visitor who has been teleported home.
You will find the text of these messages in the "Messages" notecard inside the scanner. Right-click it, click "Open", and double-click the "Messages" notecard to open it. Inside, you will see...
*greeting,Hi @, and welcome!
*goodbye,Goodbye @, thanks for visiting!
*warning,Hello @. You are in a private area. Please leave, or you will be expelled automatically.
*ejection,@, you have been ejected from a private area.
*teleport,@, you have been teleported home from a private area.
The "@" symbols are replaced with the name of the person who receives the message. If you want to change the messages, simply edit the text, and then click the "Save" button at the bottom of the notecard.
If you want to supress a message, just remove the line entirely - but this is inadvisable for warning, ejection, and teleport messages, as avatars will otherwise not understand that they are being asked to leave, or what has happened to them when they are expelled.
1. You *can* rez more than one scanner, but it's not a good idea to let the areas they scan overlap, because anyone arriving in the overlapped area will receive *two* welcomes (or warnings, or goodbyes...) - one from each scanner. But you could (for instance) have one scanner at ground level welcoming people to your art gallery, and another way up above in the sky protecting your private skybox, and letting in only your friends.
2. Don't rez more than one sign in any parcel: even if there's more than one scanner, they only need one sign between them, and it can be anywhere on the parcel. If you have more than one, unauthorised visitors will be subjected to multiple ejections, which isn't as much fun as it sounds, and may even be construed as harrassment. If you'd like some extra signs up just to warn people the area is private, rez copies of the "Bright Security System unscripted sign".
3. Be reasonable. Give people warning, and a little time to get out of the way. Most "unauthorised visitors" aren't griefers - just people flying about investigating Second Life. In a few seconds they'll usually be out of your airspace anyway. 30 seconds grace will distinguish between those innocently passing through, and those snooping. If you don't offer warnings or time, you'll attract abuse reports: please bear in mind that how you use this system is your responsibility.
4. Security isn't just about exclusion: welcoming people, saying goodbye to them, and giving them *worthwhile* gifts and information will give them stronger, happier memories of your venue, and make them more likely to return. Just make sure of the quality: misspelled greetings and poor quality give-aways can have precisely the opposite effect :)
5. If you run an automated venue, and you are not often there, try switching "Notify" on for a fixed period, and logging and analysing the greetings and goodbyes. They can tell you not just how many people are visiting, but *when* they are coming, and how long they typically stay. If you make sure your IMs are routed to email when you are offline, you can collect data over one or more 24 hour periods which can help you understand your customers, and plan your venue accordingly.
6. Weirdly and frustratingly, banning an avatar from your parcel won't prevent them flying over it at altitudes over 768m, even though you can build right up to 4096m. Your Bright Security System will still eject them, and will still add them to your ban list (if you've asked it to), but Second Life only applies bans up to 768m. This is a hangover from the time when the maximum height at which you could build was 768m. When this build ceiling was raised to 4096, the maximum height of a ban restriction wasn't raised with it. You can see the report of this anomaly on Linden Lab's own issue tracking system here - https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-2546 - if you think this should be changed, vote for this issue!
7. You might want to consider buying an impressive desk and executive office chair, and practicing leaning back in it, laughing cruelly, and saying "So you thought you could fool me, Mr Bond", each time an enemy agent is hurled out of your secret Second Life headquarters by your new security system. It's not strictly necessary as the system will (we have tested this) work without it, but it *is* strangely satisfying.
Shan Bright
Chief Executive Officer