Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Randy]

I've searched the forum, but didn't find anything that leapt out at me regarding this problem, so. . . .

First, the set up.  I have a LinkSys router that all my machines connect to, then to the DSL.  All ports are forwarded correctly, the server can be seen in FSHost, and players are able to connect - just not all players.  FWIW, this server has been up and running for over a year with few problems that weren't caused by the administrator(me)

I know that trying to connect to my own FSHost machine from my gaming PC(on the same network) is problematic.  However, within the last couple of weeks, all of a sudden, the server has decided NOT to allow more than 2 or 3 players on at a time.  Prior to this problem, we had been able to have 5 or more players(including myself!) logged into the server and playing quite well.

As noted, now only 2 or 3 players can connect at the same time.  I have looked at the server, looked and re-looked at the software, checked my router settings, had players try a couple of things, but nothing seems to affect it.  I have not changed any settings inside the router, nor changed the settings in the server software.

I cannot figure out what the issue is - there is nothing to indicate the server is malfunctioning, there have been no changes to the settings on the router, no option settings changed in the server program, and I've still got the same DSL that I had before. . .   I'm stumped.

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts?  Any help appreciated. . .

Randy
http://classiflight.com

[Russell Gilbert]

Hi Randy,

Problems like these are almost always related to networking, so you're checking the right things.  But all players connecting need to have their ports forwarded correctly also, or things won't work right.

First, get FSPortTest from this thread, and try it on your machine:

http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/forum/index.php?topic=737.0

Assuming that's ok, get every player that's connecting to your machine to do the same thing, to be sure they pass all the port tests.  Then try a test where you have multiple players, but where you're not connected.  Then if that's ok, try connecting yourself also.

I always suggest that people run FSHost and FS on the same machine, but if you absolutely have to run FS on a separate machine (and if so, why?), then do all your testing while you're not connected, since there's such a high likelihood that it'll cause problems.  There's no way to forward the same data to two machines at the same time, so even though things usually work ok when you're connected, eventually you'll have someone connect that's not using the normal network setup, and their FS will end up trying to send data to your gaming machine on a port that's forwarded to the FSHost machine, and they won't be able to connect.  FSHost uses very little CPU, so most people are able to run FS and FSHost on the same machine with no performance hit in FS.

Give it a shot and let us know what you find...

Russell

[Randy]

First things first :

but if you absolutely have to run FS on a separate machine (and if so, why?),

Well, I have a stand-alone server that runs FSHost that is online 24/7.  I don't leave my gaming machine, which is a different room, online all the time, and I have players on the other side of the planet that I connecting - I suspect it's probably not the ideal thing, but it's all I could come up with at the time.

I'll try the port thing, Russell.  I know one user recently has been reporting registry errors in his FS set-up, and he is one of the users generally connected to the server.  It seems logical that there could be some correlation . . .  but it wouldn't surprise me that this was just incidental.  At least you've given me something else I can use to try to figure out what the issue is!!

Thanks for your quick response!

Randy

[Russell Gilbert]

Ok Randy, sounds good.  Good luck with the testing.

Russell

[Randy]

OK, here's what I've found so far.  I ran the testing utility on the server, and found ports 2300-2400 weren't going anywhere.  Once I changed my forwarding in my router, and ran the test again, it passed with flying colors.

FWIW, do we know what those ports do?  Would they have caused this problem?

We haven't tested it with multiple players yet, but a quick test with one player logged in this morning worked.  Not much of a test, though, so we'll have to wait for more players to see if the problem is fixed.

I'll keep you posted.  If this doesn't fix it, we'll start having the players test to see.  we've got a couple of new users who may be the culprits. . .