My son has recently created a Minecraft server in our home using a leftover PC.
He is using a whitelist to allow only his friends' legitimate accounts to join the game.
However, I have discovered that one of the friends is connecting with MineChat client.
I have read their site, and they seem like a legitimate app, but I don't want to allow any clients except the official Mojang(microsoft) clients.
Is there a way to prevent other clients like MineChat from connecting to my son's server?
This is a vanilla 1.8 server running on Debian behind my firewall, using NAT and a non-standard Minecraft port. Further, I have the domain running through the CloudFlare DNS, and I have not used their protections service yet, as I had to disable it for the friends to connect via Minecraft client.
Best Answer
There is no possible way to distinguish MineChat from a standard client. It's the same with many hacked clients, cracked clients, or similar. From the sound of it, neither of those are a problem, though. A thing that you could do is, if you would be willing to run a Bukkit or similar plugin-supporting server, is have a plugin that isolates players from everything until they move. This would deter anybody with MineChat. I could try and show you how to make it with command blocks, but I doubt you want me on your server, as I am a stranger. I hope that I helped in some way. Have good luck.
EDIT: I may have worded my answer in a confusing way; I'm sorry for that. There would be a way to prevent people with MineChat from doing anything on the server, but there is no way to prevent somebody with a cracked client from doing anything. If you wish me to, I could set up an anti-MineChat thing with command blocks, and I could send the MCEdit schematic for you to put it in your world. That's the best that I can do without just building it on your server.