Dedicated Server Dropping Clients

[CrashDome]

I'm at my wits end here.

Perhaps someone can relate? or provide a possible solution?

Situation:
Windows 2003 Server
OFP Dedicated server (1.96)
2 Nics (One routed for external clients - One for LAN and VPN clients)
Also running Teamspeak

Usual Scenario:
One external client, one VPN client, and one LAN client (me)

Problem:
Sometime during play.. could be 10mins, could be 2hours suddenly all external clients AND VPN clients get yellow square... suddenly massive traffic on my router and cable modem. OFP and Teamspeak ceases to function for them until I disable my LAN client or the server (i.e. shutdown OFP). Traffic returns to idle and TS auto-reconnects them (usually to them saying "What the hell just happened?" even though this has been happening for months )

During this crisis my LAN client is talking to the server just fine.


I've reinstalled OFP on every machine. I've changed routing configurations. I've disabled Dos and SPI on my router. I've forwarded all OFP ports to my LAN machine just in case any packets coming in via my router from WAN side are hitting both NICs on my server.

Note, I've also played with one person each (once with VPN client and once with regular external client) and still had the issue pop up.

Never had this problem until I upgraded my server and added two NICs and a switch. I've run both Windows XP and Windows server OSs on it since and disabled one NIC and still see the problem regularily.

Only happens with OFP. More frequent the more people that are playing.

It is driving me insane.

I did search and came across this: last post sounds very familiar... http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bi...;hl=disconnect

Any help?

[DBR_ONIX]

Odd.. One thing to narrow it down could be to download a file, limit the download speed to, say, 10 kbs, and use some form of monitoring program.. When the clients get disconnected, see if the download dies or not (Some kind of bandwidth monitoring thing like DUMeter or Down2Home might be usefull, as they have shiney little internet-speed graphs).
If all bar the LAN client keep working, chances are it's your internet, if not, it's the game screwing up
That other thread with a similar problem seemed to be about problems in v1.93, kinda obvious, but you have the latest server version?

Another unlikely problem (it doesn't seem like it should be as regular as it is) is the server is using too much upstream, and is choking your upstream, and causing the clients to lose the connection (explaining why the LAN client is fine)

Final thing I can think of, if it's worked on WinXP, it could be an idea to go back to that

Doh, Just remebered about the teamspeak thing, so it's probably not a game-realted problem.. Although teamspeak can use a lot of bandwidth, have you tried without it..? You say it happens more when more people are playing, which makes it more likely it's something to do with your connections upload-speed
- Ben

[Rhodite]

What is the server doing at the time of the problems?

Also, could it be that your router is faulty?

Do you experiece this problem with any other game you may host? (dare I say it )

[whisper]

perhaps also check for the NAT table in your router, and how often it is refreshed

[CrashDome]

Thanks everyone.

It worked prior to upgrading and [edit]after upgrading[/edit] I had WinXP on it again and it failed. I thought it was because I was using the crappy WinXP Pro Routing command so I upgraded to Win2003Server (and for other reasons).

Better routing abilities, but still has issues.

The weird thing is it only happens with OFP. I run Scroched3D, Falcon4 AF, AND various others along with Teamspeak and never have an issue with any of them.

I did try multiple versions of a server config reducing upload by alot but it just lagged when I went TOO low.

I really think it might be my router. I know alot about networking but I am no guru. It's just weird because it seems like there is a TON of traffic for no apparent reason which chokes everything including the VPN client. If it were routing tables the VPN client would also be fine.

The router isn't a cheapo either. D-Link 824VUP... not the D-Link DFL-700 liike I wanted, but it has wireless. Come to think of it, I did upgrade the firmware to.

It's just so hard to pinpoint the exact time of problem because I hadn't run an OFP server for so long and everything else works A-Ok. I have modified so much of my setup since it worked.

I was running ActivePorts to monitor connections at one point and I didn't see anything obvious.

Any suggestions of a way to log what happens? This router doesn't support syslog so I am screwed w/ a hardware logging system.

[DBR_ONIX]

If you think it's your router, is there any way you could borrow a router, or directly connect the server to the internet temporarily? (For example, I still have my old USB ADSL modem lying around I'd use if my modem or wifi card screwed up on my main PC)

It'd help narrow it down, if it is your router thats screwing up, they're cheap enough to replace now, but theres no point doing that if it's just Windows setup wrong
Another possible way to narrow things down is to use a linux live-CD, and install the OFP dedicated server on that, and see if you get the same problems

Only other (fairly obvious) thing I can think of is the cabling to the server, but if the LAN client is staying it can't be that..
Other than that, I've no idea

{Edit} The router you have, it has SNMP support, which allows the Multi-router traffic grapher (MRTG) thing to work, if you can be bothered setting it up, it'd show how much data is going though the router at the time, if it suddenly dips (with no LAN client) it might be your internet connection screwing up and causing the clients to lose connections.. Though it's kind of unlikely, as it's only with OFP (which could mean it's more likely a game/server problem)

{Edit2} Kind of obvious, but the router has been rebooted recently? They screw up sometimes, but I seriously doubt it would be that regular..
- Ben

[CrashDome]

If you think it's your router, is there any way you could borrow a router, or directly connect the server to the internet temporarily? (For example, I still have my old USB ADSL modem lying around I'd use if my modem or wifi card screwed up on my main PC)

It'd help narrow it down, if it is your router thats screwing up, they're cheap enough to replace now, but theres no point doing that if it's just Windows setup wrong
Another possible way to narrow things down is to use a linux live-CD, and install the OFP dedicated server on that, and see if you get the same problems

Only other (fairly obvious) thing I can think of is the cabling to the server, but if the LAN client is staying it can't be that..
Other than that, I've no idea

{Edit} The router you have, it has SNMP support, which allows the Multi-router traffic grapher (MRTG) thing to work, if you can be bothered setting it up, it'd show how much data is going though the router at the time, if it suddenly dips (with no LAN client) it might be your internet connection screwing up and causing the clients to lose connections.. Though it's kind of unlikely, as it's only with OFP (which could mean it's more likely a game/server problem)

{Edit2} Kind of obvious, but the router has been rebooted recently? They screw up sometimes, but I seriously doubt it would be that regular..
- Ben

I'll think I'll try the MRTG thing.

I've since rebooted the router several times. It's been like months since this started up. I thought it was bad install but I've reinstalled on both Game PC and server.

the reason why I think it's my router is because I have my network setup like this:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">
Cable Modem ----&#62; Switch ---&#62; Server NIC 1 &#40;ISP IP address #1&#41;
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** &#92;
****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ******&#92;---&#62; Router ----- &#62;Game PC
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** &#92;------&#62;Server NIC 2 &#40;ISP IP Address #2&#41;
[/QUOTE]

I have Windows Server setup and routing properly or else nothing would work.

I think the router problem is either related to not forwarding the packets properly or OFP at some point gets the NICs screwed up.

Anyone else run OFP on a server with multiple NICs on different subnets?

and yes routers in general are cheap... but VPN and Wireless routers are NOT cheap&#33;