The Curse of 17th Parallel

[Delic]

For several years now certain players have been unable to connect to the server for some reason.

 

err I got no details atm, but I know Sama said it's happening to him too now.

 

I just know that the zone remains green on the list but when they try to connect I think it says "unable to connect to server" or something.

 

Just thought I'd spark a discussion to see if anyone can figure it out.

 

Sama, any info?

 

I'll probably try to fill in later if Sama doesn't.

[Samapico]

it's not happening to me anymore... but yeah, for a couple of weeks/months I couldn't connect to 17th parallel (zone green, and even TW worked fine, and TW is on the same IP)

 

It seems to happen to random people, and the 'curse' can last a few days, or some people had it for years...

 

We once thought it could be because of the port used (9000 I think), and we tried to had it changed once, but ... let's just say it didn't go well.

[»Maverick]

Most likely cause I could think of is being temporarily (IP) blocked by the server for whatever reason. Its symptoms to the client are exactly as described.

For example, if someone gets kicked from the server for Timer Synchronization errors or bad settings, he will not be able to login to the server (zone is green but he will get a "unable to connect to server" message). This bloccade is usually lifted after 10 minutes.

[Samapico]

An IP block only effective on one port? Remember that I (and other currently or formerly cursed people) could enter Trench Wars, which is on the same server than 17th (same IP)

[»Maverick]

It's most likely an IP block per server. Notice that Trench Wars runs a different subgame server.

[Samapico]

subgame ipblocks are defined by sysops, and last time I checked we didn't have any ip block

 

Edit: yeah, no ipblock.txt file; idblock either

[Delic]

It's happening to Vulcan now too, and he was actually in the zone when it started (got disconnected and unable to get back).

 

I've never seen or heard of it only happening for 10 minutes. Anything from days to years like Sama said, but yeah it does show those symptoms.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Delic

[Guest Guest]

Lol i thought this post was every zone 17th parallel players go into dies we are a cursed bunch . But this has happened to me once for i think at least a month.

[Bran]

BRAN MAN^^

[»Maverick]

subgame ipblocks are defined by sysop

This is not a block imposed by a sysop, it's done by the server automatically. Just try doing something that would set off a load of Server Errors/warnings. You would see the server kicks you and you won't be able to enter for a while.

[Incomplete]

I don't think that's the case. This happened to SeVeR at least a year ago now and he still can't get in.

[Samapico]

hmmm, I think I remember seeing someone triggering a packet flood error, then was stuck outside the zone... I think it was Polix lol, it lasted at least a day, if I remember right.

I don't know about other zones, but I see packet floods pretty often in 17th parallel... even in an arena with few players, and almost no weapons. By pretty often I mean, I'm not surprised at all when I see one pop up. Yesterday I witnessed 2. One was from L Y N X and I don't remember him coming back *horror movie music*

 

But yeah, there's something wrong if a packet flood kicks you out for a year. ALSO, we did a recycle once, and even a shutdown (and wait for the server to restart us automatically), and the curse wasn't lifted.

[Incomplete]

Well SeVeR stopped trying to get into 17th because there wasn't much point. Wouldn't it be hard to record something like this? even to see if it has been fixed.

[Samapico]

Record it? What you mean?

[Dav]

does any obvious point of failiure come on on the trace?

[Delic]

actually sever was finally able to login after like 1-2 years? he was able to a couple months ago.

 

so i guess his sins were finally forgiven by mother 17th

Edited January 5, 2010 by Delic

[»Maverick]

Maybe it's Priit K.'s firewall in combination with the port 7000 of the zone? I don't know, it's pretty much guessing in the dark without any logs or evidence.

[Incomplete]

When I say to record it I mean how could we tell if it's even fixed? How would we know if it's stopped happening to people?

 

Didn't SeVeR play at 2 different places? Like Uni and home or something?

[Samapico]

The Curse strikes again... we were just playing Sockey, and one of the guys suddenly lags out, and 2 minutes later he tells us from another zone he can't get in 17th Parallel for some reason.

2 minutes later, I lag out (kept receiving data for a few seconds, while apparently the server wasn't getting any of me, cause I heard things in the chat like "sama too??")

And I can't get in the zone anymore... Even with the sysop password.

 

 

It has to be a firewall issue somewhere, I got kicked off the server because it wasn't receiving any data from me, not the other way around, and I can connect to Trench Wars which is at the same IP.

 

I'll try to get some traces

[L.C.]

Do you guys need a new host? O_o

[Samapico]

We're hosted on trench wars' server, I fail to see how the host would be the problem, to be honest...

[PoLiX]

Actually sounds like zone settings. Like you guys are flooding out, which subgame will automatically block connection flooders for some time.

 

The zone will look up, you'll be able to connect to other zones on the server, but not that zone itself. I have had it randomly happen in other zones before, but pretty rare. So I'd assume something in 17th's settings or server.ini is set wrong.

[Guest Candlelight]

Jus' wanna report it's happening to me as well... I can get into any other zone all right

I got kicked randomly a couple days ago

[Yupa]

17th should be on ASSS.

[Samapico]

Candlelight, can you post a trace with about 50 cycles?

 

Here's mine:

 

Tracing Zone: SSCU 17th Parallel  IP Address: 66.36.241.110

Hop IP Address      Host Name                        Loss(%) Min/Avg/Max Ping
--- --------------- -------------------------------- ------- ----------------
 1 192.168.0.1     <unknown>                           0.0      0    0    0
 2 208.92.17.61    dsl-208-92-17-61.cooptel.qc.ca      0.0      0    0    0
 3 216.113.13.21   ia-cnnu-gw09-vl1346.vtl.net         0.0      0    0   60
 4 216.113.123.17  <unknown>                           0.0      0    0    0
 5 216.113.122.74  <unknown>                           0.0     20   20   20
 6 144.232.26.69   sl-crs1-chi-0-4-0-1.sprintlink.n    0.0     20   20   30
 7 144.232.18.153  sl-st20-chi-4-0-0.sprintlink.net    0.0     10   20   20
 8 205.171.1.137   chp-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net          0.0     20   20   20
 9 205.171.139.149 cer-core-02.inet.qwest.net          0.0     20   20   20
10 67.14.36.6      dca-edge-18.inet.qwest.net         95.4     30   30   30
11 209.160.62.134  ge4-2.core2.dca2.hopone.net        95.4     30   30   30
12 66.36.224.17    <unknown>                          95.4     30   30   30
13 66.36.241.110   sls-cb9p7.dca2.superb.net           0.0     30   30   30

Cycles: 22

 

But the zone settings thing could make sense... I can't get in the zone to grab the settings though lol. I have a somewhat old version of them:

 

 

 

[Comms]

MaxQueueToLogin=16

PacketHistoryMax=2000

IncomingBufferSize=512000

OutgoingBufferSize=512000

EncryptMode=1

UnreliableBufferSize=350

TransportBufferSize=350

FlushTime=20

SleepTime=10

SelectTime=10

BandwithIdleTime=600

 

[Misc]

CheckWeapons=1

MaxPlayers=300

MenuKickOutDelay=60000

LogPoints=0

PointUpdateDiff=700

LowBandwidthWatermark=500

JackpotBroadcastPoints=5000

ServerLog=1

KeepAliveDelay=600

DefaultLevelFile=17thmainmap.lvl

Port=5899

WarpPointDelay=6000

DecoyAliveTime=3000

BounceFactor=22

SendPositionDelay=8

SlowFrameCheck=0

AllowSavedShips=1

SafetyLimit=90000

FrequencyShift=900

TickerDelay=1000

ExtraPositionData=2

PositionDataAccess=2

WarpRadiusLimit=1024

ActivateAppShutdownTime=1500

NearDeathLevel=0

VictoryMusic=1

FrequencyShipTypes=0

BannerPoints=0

MaxLossesToPlay=0

SpectatorQuiet=0

TimedGame=0

SheepMessage=MMMMMmmmmoooooooooo!!!!

ResetScoreOnFrequencyChange=0

MaxPlaying=0

DisableShareware=0

RegisterKickShareware=0

MaxSharewarePlayers=1000000

DisableSharewareShips=0

DisableSharewareNames=0

DisableSharewareScores=0

MaxSharewareTime=9000000000

ViewExtraPositionData=1

SendPositionDelay=9

NoAntiInSafe=1

LockFreqs=1

AlertCommand=Cheater,Help

AllowPubScorereset=1

AllowPvtScorereset=0

LocalChat=

// A chat channel that will only work inside the zone

CheckFastBombing:1

// Tells the sysop if the person is using fast bombs

FastBombingThreshold:30

// The calculation of fast bombing between 2 bombs/mines is less than

// ship:BombFireDelay - Misc:FastBombingThreshold, reccomended is 30

ForceObsceneCheck=0

// Block out obscenity, ?obscene to disables it for the session

AllowVIEClients=0

StaffChat=******censored******

ServerIP=66.36.230.41

ForceContinuumOnly=1

 

 

 

AllowPrerelease=1

 

[CPU]

LoopDelay=0

ProcessMaxTime=4

SleepPerIteration=0

SlowIterationWarningLevel=100

SleepTime=0

 

[Routing]

QueuePositions=1

queuepackets=1

PosSendRadar=100

PosSendEdge=20

 

[Permission]

AllowBadMachineId=1

AllowLowBandwidth=1

MinimumSecondsToLogin=0

PermissionMaxPoints=0

PermissionMode=0

AutoPermissionPoints=0

AutoPermissionIDList=0

 

 

 

I think I saw a couple of settings that actually belong to the .cfg's, but whatever