gaijin.net agent the Gaijin.net agent (faq)

[relliK 3,226]

the following information only apply to the Gaijin.net agent v1.0.17 as of 02/13/2018 (on Windows systems).

things may ofc change in upcoming versions or may be different on other operating systems. they are all

gathered by myself and not ratified by Gaijin (so basically they could all be wrong... though i'm sure they aren't)

---

 

what's the purpose of the Gaijin.net agent ?

- the Gaijin.net agent is an application to (periodically) check if there are any game updates available and to launch

  games that are utilizing the agent. so it's an updating and game launching platform similar to Uplay (Ubisoft) or Origin

  (Electronic Arts). currently only War Thunder appears to be using it but technically it could also be used for Crossout

  and Star Conflict (and in the future for Enlisted as well). the Gaijin.net agent is included in War Thunder, Crossout,

Cuisine Royale and Enlisted (most likely Star Conflict as well but as i dont have it installed i cannot check this ^^

 

 

how does it work ?

- .depending on the settings it will contact the update servers only once it's getting started or every 10 minutes to 12 hours

   and compare the installed game version to the latest game version available on the update servers. in case there is an

   update available it will open the respective game launcher (to download the latest game version / patch).

 

 

 

how can i open the Gaijin.net agent / how can i change the settings ?

- just click on the Gaijin.net agent icon in the system tray and select 'details' from the menu. if you want to start a game you

  can do this in the same menu by clicking on the game instead.

 

 

 

is the Gaijin.net agent spying on me or sending any information to Gaijin ?

- no, the agent is not spying on you. the only information that are getting send to Gaijin are some statistical (or metric) data

  like the successful execution of the agent or the game launcher (and most likely failings and crashes as well if they happen).

 

  you can check what the agent is doing (or has done) by opening the application logs (in the lower left corner of the gui).

  they should look similar to this

Spoiler

BUILD TIMESTAMP:   Jan 22 2018 16:02:26

 

  0.00 [D]  Running Gaijin.Net Agent
  0.00 [D]  App language English
  0.00 [D]  Check updates each 10 minutes
  0.00 [D]  Gaijin.Net Agent 1.0.17
  0.05 [D]  Target folder D:\temp\WarThunder
  0.05 [D]  Project warthunder. Run "D:\temp\WarThunder\launcher.exe" -background for update
  0.05 [D]  Target folder E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder
  0.05 [D]  Project warthunder. Run "E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder\launcher.exe" -background for update
  0.05 [D]  Set update timer at 10 minutes
  0.05 [D]  statsd::set_prefix: setting statsd prefix: 'production.gjagent.win.'
  0.05 [D]  statsd::connect: statsd server: client-stats.warthunder.com:20010
  0.05 [D]  Sent metric "run"
  0.05 [D]  Registered gjagent.exe message 0x0000C1FE
  5.06 [D]  Creating thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php"...
  5.06 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" started
  5.06 [D]  Sending GET request to https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php
  5.26 [D] https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php loaded with HTTP status code 200 (0.203 seconds, 10 bytes answer):
  5.26 [D]  =======
  5.26 [D]  1.75.0.185
  5.26 [D]  =======
  5.33 [D]  statsd::connect: statsd server: client-stats.warthunder.com:20010
  5.33 [D]  Sent metric "target.warthunder.version.current"
  5.33 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" done
 10.06 [D]  Creating thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php"...
 10.06 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" started
 10.06 [D]  Sending GET request to https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php
 10.26 [D] https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php loaded with HTTP status code 200 (0.187 seconds, 10 bytes answer):
 10.26 [D]  =======
 10.26 [D]  1.75.0.185
 10.26 [D]  =======
 10.33 [D]  statsd::connect: statsd server: client-stats.warthunder.com:20010
 10.33 [D]  Sent metric "target.warthunder.version.new"
 10.33 [D]  Newer version available for warthunder 
 10.33 [D]  Running "E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder\launcher.exe"  -background
 10.35 [D]  statsd::connect: statsd server: client-stats.warthunder.com:20010
 10.35 [D]  Sent metric "target.warthunder.run.success"
 10.35 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" done
 11.23 [D]  External message 0x0000C1FE received, 2
 11.23 [D]  External message 0x0000C1FE received, 2
 11.23 [D]  External message 0x0000C1FE received, 2
 11.23 [D]  External message 0x0000C1FE received, 2
 11.23 [D]  Target folder E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder
 11.23 [D]  Project warthunder. Run "E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder\launcher.exe" -background for update
 15.07 [D]  launcher.exe is running in E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder [19364 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder\launcher.exe]
 15.07 [D]  gaijin_downloader.exe is running in E:\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder [17728 \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Games\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\War Thunder\gaijin_downloader.exe]
600.97 [D]  Creating thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php"...
600.97 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" started
600.97 [D]  Sending GET request to https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php
601.17 [D] https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php loaded with HTTP status code 200 (0.203 seconds, 10 bytes answer):
601.17 [D]  =======
601.17 [D]  1.75.0.185
601.17 [D]  =======
601.45 [D]  statsd::connect: statsd server: client-stats.warthunder.com:20010
601.45 [D]  Sent metric "target.warthunder.version.current"
601.45 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" done
605.96 [D]  Creating thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php"...
605.96 [D]  Thread "https://yupmaster.gaijinent.com/yuitem/get_version.php" started

 

 

  the Gaijin.net agent is not accessing any other folders than the game folder (of the game it's being set to update) and the

  folder it's installed into (and some windows files (like dlls) it actually needs to run ofc ^^ in the end it's a windows application)

 

 

is the Gaijin.net agent seeding game updates / how much network bandwidth is it using ?

- the agent is neither seeding / uploading nor dowloading game updates - it's just checking for game updates and opening 

  the game launcher if needed. the overall network bandwidth usage is minimal - pretty much any anti virus software is

  creating (much) more network traffic and even an idling Windows will most likely cause more traffic.

 

 

where is the Gaijin.net agent located ?

- by default the Gaijin.net agent is located in   c:\users\<username>\AppData\local\Gaijin\

  since the ..\AppData\  folder is a hidden windows system file folder you may not be able to see it in the Windows explorer.

  still there are several ways to access those files / folders but i'd say the most easy way would be to just open the application

  logs as mentioned above (this will open an explorer window in the app folder) and go from there.

 

 

how can i disable the Gaijin.net agent ?

on War Thunder:

- just open the game launcher, go to the launcher settings (wrench icon in the top right corner) and disable the 'auto updates'

  option.

 

 

can i remove / uninstall the Gaijin.net agent ?

yes (and no ^^). of course you can just delete the related folder, it wont affect the game(s) at all. but the next time there is a

launcher update the Gaijin.net agent will be installed again. so as long as play the game it doesn't really make sense to remove

the agent - if you dont want to have it running just disable it as described above.

 

the gaijin.net agent does not have it's own uninstaller (and cannot be uninstalled via the windows software control panel) as it

is part of the launcher.

 

upon uninstalling War Thunder the Gaijin.net agent will (automatically) be removed as well... this however only applies to the

standalone client ! if you got the game installed on Steam you actually need to remove it manually as the WT Steam install is

not using the windows installer (or got any separate uninstaller). last time i checked the Gaijin.net agent got properly disabled

when the game got uninstalled on Steam (though i have not checked if the files are getting deleted as well but since they dont

take much space and the agent isn't getting started i dont really care tbh)

 

---

 

why did i write this wall of text / faq ?

well, there are many rumors floating around, misinformation, misunderstandings and there are guides about how to get rid of

it that may rather cause problems than actually helping to achieve anything (hint: setting configuration files that are frequently

getting accessed / changed by apps / games to 'read only' is generally NOT a good idea!)

 

the most prominent / widespread misapprehensions / accusations are:

- it's (a) virus / trojan / malware

- it's spying on users / sending all kind of information to Gaijin

- it's seeding game updates / causing massive bandwidth usage (only the game launchers are seeding / establishing p2p connection)

- it's causing lag in the game (it can't as it's not really using much system resources and not establishing many connections at all)

- it's causing problems in other applications / games

- it contains / installs a crypto currency miner (there were traces of a crypto miner in a very early version but it has never been active !)

- it installs itself into several different locations (it installs itself into the default folder (the %appdata% system folder) and the game folder)

- it uses / hides into the Windows registry (errr not really... the only way it's integrated into the registry is the windows startup settings)

 

so i took my time to analyze it (as good as i can) and came to the conclusion - they are all wrong ^^. i dont say that everything

is good about it but it's not as bad as some people make it look like. btw also RedShell has never been used by Gaijin (that was

another baseless claim by some players (kinda unrelated to the Gaijin.net agent but i still wanted to mention it)

 

the tools i used to analyze it were: Systernals Process Monitor, Systernals Process Explorer, Dependency Walker, Wireshark,

several anti virus tools, notepad, the task manager and lots of 'common sense' ^^

 

---

 

v0.1 - 02/13/2018 - GA version 1.0.17 - quick draft (most likely incomplete ^^ to be continued...)

v0.2 - 09/16/2018 - GA version 1.0.20 - just some edits and additions (in purple color) 

Edited September 16, 2018 by relliK
updated + edits & additions

[Rapitor 10,702]

Pinned for easy access.

 

As usual, thanks for your hard work RelliK.

 

Side note: bear in mind that the post is not made by a Gaijin official employee.

As accurate as RelliK can be, this is not an informative post made by Gaijin staff.

[Guest nagyviktor17]

I have a problem: every time when i tried download the latest update for  game, nothing happes i mean not starting the download, and the server not responding. why? my computer is bad or the game servers is overloaded???? forward: i thanks the respond.

[vyshi 17]

Auto-updater shuting down the game in the middle of the battle.... bug or feature?

[relliK 3,226]

kind of a feature (unfortunately)...

 

the updater is checking if there is an update available and is running the launcher when there

is and then the launcher is shutting down the client to be able to update the game files ^o^

 

so the launcher does not care about what's going on but just does its job - no matter what.

[vyshi 17]

well, for years it only shut the game down after the battle ended.. since cca 2(not rly sure) major updates it shuts the game down in the battle..