Dropped from servers with a vengeance

[yurch]

I've had this through the demo, but I've never managed to figure out what's causing it.

Whatever it is, it only happens while playing dropteam online, and I get dropped from the server.

I will get a 'server is not responding' message, and from that point on, there are no internets to be found in my house. I lose connection to everything on my computer (aim, irc, even webpages), and this often also happens to the other users on my network - and they aren't even playing. This is most bizzare.

During this, dropteam "locks", as I can't exit or attempt to disconnect from the server, but I can still move the camera around, ect. Network functionality is usually gone until long after the dropteam process is killed and/or I give up and unplug the network. Needless to say this is very annoying, especially when the other members of my household network are involved.

I'd love to find a solution for it. It's rare, but I just got a rash of it again recently.

I'm on a winXP machine, on a cable connection over an oldish 4 port linksys router.

[ClaytoniousRex]

When this happens do the lights on the cable modem indicate that it's still online? I'm asking this to try to narrow it down to either the modem or the router that is going poop in the night. The 3rd possibility is that your service provider is dropping you but since we can't do anything about that, I thought we would look at the other 2 first.

I doubt DropTeam itself has anything to do with it, other than being a network-intensive application. In theory, one should be able to write the most chatty, bandwidth-hogging, horrible network application ever created and run it on your system and it shouldn't take your router, your modem, or other users on your LAN down if your modem and router are working properly.

What are the exact models of your modem and router and who is your service provider?

[mute]

I've had this problem several times, and I know our providers aren't the same. My lock acts a bit different - I have to scuttle X to recover - but that's probably a Linux/Windows thing. Either way, the network connection is down until I perform some ritual voodoo on either the modem, or the router, or a combination. Or maybe it coincidentally takes one voodoo ritual time unit for net connectivity to pop back up.

I also suffer from connection problems when scp'ing files outbound to a server that could easily take my bandwidth and then some. I always reckoned that the router's state tracking couldn't handle the traffic, but I haven't tried switching to DHCP and plugging my box directly into the modem. Or, if I did, I forgot whether it worked. Good ol' brain.

My hardware's a Motorola SURFboard and SMC Barricade. If I absolutely must I'll provide model #'s later.

... if your modem and router are working properly.

It's just that nobody's figured out how to build a proper modem or router yet.

[yurch]

The fact that dropteam doesn't let me out properly is the only thing I can really be sure of. I'd like to be rid of that... it doesn't always seem to kill the entire network.

The modem's some (probably godawful) RCA DMC325 given to us by our provider, and the linksys is a BEFSR41. The modem does not go out, I'm suspecting it's the router or my system flooding it with requests or some nonsense like that.

The seemingly dropteam related outage(s) is the only one this network has had for at least a month, with the exception of us overloading it once with a 350+ combined kb/s torrent(s) download over several computers, which was practically on purpose. It's pretty solid.

[ClaytoniousRex]

The fact that dropteam doesn't let me out properly is the only thing I can really be sure of.

Yes, this "lockup" behavior when a network connection fails really stinks. Looking into it now...

About the router, there's a very interesting thread thread here, Yurch. Many people are reporting this same problem with that router while playing online games (e.g. Call of Duty) and when using BitTorrent. A couple of guys say they had to switch all systems on LAN to static IP's and static DNS to fix it, others said they had to cool the router to get it to stop happening and a couple say they downgraded to an older version of its firmware (that does not sound like a good plan to me!) This all sounds pretty flaky. Can you borrow a router from a friend for a few days just to verify this is the problem?

with the exception of us overloading it once with a 350+ combined kb/s torrent(s) download over several computers, which was practically on purpose

Yes, that's the problem. Putting a heavy network load on your router SHOULD NOT BRING IT DOWN. Saying that was "practically on purpose" just means that you've trained yourself to accept this awful behavior. It's not normal. I put truly *ridiculous* loads on my routers both up and down. If any of them were to die and force me to reset more than once in a week, I would throw it in The Gimp Hole with other broken parts. Life is too short.

[yurch]

Yes, this "lockup" behavior when a network connection fails really stinks. Looking into it now...

This is why I waited so long to report it, have been trying to figure out something solid to report for what's been going on. I don't want to report problems that are on my end only. Not easy to get the server to drop me in exactly the same way with any reliability.

Usually this lockup is only a problem for the computer running dropteam, but I thought this other potential is worth bringing up.

A fair number of games get played here, everything from BF2 to asteriods, with no problems with any of 'em. Last time I got this hangup, dropteam was the only thing running on the network. Usually my rig is the only one to do any torrenting.

Now I'm curious, does dropteam do something more rare or unorthodox compared to other programs? Not from an accusatory point of view, I'm just curious. That thread has not improved my opinion of the router much, but it's what I got for now. This activity is too rare and sporatic to be worth me messing with firmware. Unfortunately, both my neighbors have linksys routers, and I think even the same model.

Comcast will drop us on occasion under heavy downloads (the modem will visibily wink out in those circumstances), which I suspect may be what the overload outage was. I'm not necessarily sure that was the fault of the router. At any rate I don't think dropteam is putting that kind of strain up.

Edit: I'd like to add that I've not been happy with comcast's modems/service. We've had all manners of unfortunate stuff happen to us, everything from a (now replaced) modem that would die (overheat?) at the drop of a hat, to Comcast service personel whacking at our cable box with a sledgehammer. I am not making that up.

[ June 30, 2006, 10:27 PM: Message edited by: yurch ]

[yurch]

Naturally, since I can't leave well enough alone, I've started swapping firmwares around and have already caused the deminse of several innocents.

Will hollar if dropteam (or other things) does somethin' wierd again.

[ClaytoniousRex]

Well, DropTeam doesn't *deliberately* do anything unorthodox. There's a brief TCP connection when listing servers. From then on it's 100% UDP both up and down. The bandwidth used definitely does vary up and down so this might be different from some other games where the rate is more steady. In particular, when lots of voice chat is going on the bandwidth will spike. This is equivelent to running TeamSpeak along side some of those other games, probably. The failure here might be pretty similar to the failure when using BitTorrent - just lots of sudden traffic making the router scream in agony?

Sorry I don't have any concrete theories yet. We'll get the problem fixed that makes it hang when the connection is lost and maybe something within that cleanup will accidentally help with your more general problem (but I doubt it).