chaos Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 I'm having a problem playing a game of CMAK and CMBB (both US version) over my wireless lan. I can connect from both computers with no problem, but when we get to the data transfer, it locks up every time. Sometimes the progress bar doesn't fill at all, and sometimes it goes halfway, but it never completes. I've tried hosting from both machines, reloading turns, etc, with no success. One machine is XP Serv2, the other is win 98. Any ideas? chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim The Enchanter Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Do you have file sharing turned on? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Within my network, yes. chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim The Enchanter Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Do you have the proper ports opened? Are you using a router, or a firewall, or both? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 If you were to copy large files back and forth between the two machines over your wireless network do you have any problems then (file corruption, excessive time to complete copy, etc.) ? I have heard of some issues with networking WinXP and Win98, though you would probably see this with file sharing. I can't recall what they were, but you may want to make sure that Win98 is fully updated via Windows Update. Wireless networks can be quite a pain (despite their convenience). I assume that there is a "base station" and that the adapters aren't set to "Ad Hoc" mode (allowing them to connect to each other without the base station). Which 802.11 category are these adatpers "b" or "g" ? Do you have anything interfering with their communication (cordless phones, etc.) ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Thanks for the input, men. I'll check these things and update you tomorrow! chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 If he can connect and select units'n'stuff none of the firewall or IP addresses stuff can be the problem. If the small stuff works and bigger transfers do not then there is usually one piece of crap equipment involved which is throwing big network packets away or fragmenting them incorrectly, or one computer does not understand the packets as fragmented by a router. Try reducing the MTU on the network interfaces on both computers. 573 is a good value, as low as 200 does no harm. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Well, I've tried just about everything I can think of (fully updated Win 98 SE, updated firmware for "g" router, updated driver for "b" card, fiddled with MTU, etc.), and it still won't work (I did get one turn to transfer fully, but that was it), so I guess I'll just chalk it up to the vagaries of wireless. chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 What does the count of packet errors on the network interfaces say? You really reduced the MTU? And where does the router come into play? I thought this is a LAN game? Please give us a diagram of the setup. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 According to my "ping", there are 0 packet errors. I reduced MTU to 576 (that's as low as it would go, normal setting is "auto") Cable modem connection goes into back of WRT54G Linksys router/Access point. Cable from router goes into network card on host unit. Wireless network card goes in client unit. chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 How well do large file transfers work with this setup (between the two computers). As Redwolf is asking... is this a game on your local LAN (against another computer also sitting on this same LAN) or are you playing someone via the Internet to your wireless laptop/desktop ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I didn't mean to run a ping. There must be a count of past errors on the ethernet interface, probably to be gotten with some `netstat` arguments in Windoze. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Yes, I'm trying to play the computer on my in house network. Large files seem to transfer fine, although not that speedily (but they do transfer without hanging up/errors). chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I suggest turning off any Internet-based applications that may be running in the background (IM clients, file sharing clients, etc.). If you have a software-based firewall (ZoneAlarm, etc.) on either computer turn that off for now too. If you have any protocols other than TCP/IP running on your network connections, I'd suggest uninstalling them (NetBIOS can be very 'noisy', though I don't know if it would cause a large problem with CM). File & Printer sharing can be disabled too (with the 'checkbox') and that may help too. Which computer is acting as the 'server', the WinXP or the Win98 one ? Have you tried reversing the setup (which computer acts as the server) to see if the problem remains the same or the behavior changes ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 I do have ZoneAlarm installed, as well as Avast antivirus and MS Messenger, but I've disabled all of them before running CM. TCP/IP is the only protocal installed. File sharing is on, I'll try turning that off. I've tried to "host" with both machines, and large files transfer ok, although rather slowly. Thanks for the replies guys. chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Check the ^&^#*&^*^*# error rate on the interfaces. There is a reason why file transfer is slow, it shouldn't be, and it will be the same reason that makes CM fail. **(#^&@(@!!! Just to hammer the point in 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 To check for the 'error rate' that Redwolf is talking about go to a command prompt and type in netstat -e. This will work on your WinXP install, but I'm not sure if this switch (-e) is available on the Win98 version of this command. What 'channels' are your cards on (typically 1-11) ? You should be able to find this info from the configuration utility for your wireless adapter. You want to make sure that each adapter is using a different channel so that they don't interfere with each other. You may also want to experiment with different channels to see if that speeds up things since there may be interference on a particular channel from sources outside your home (a neighbor's wireless network, etc.). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted October 21, 2004 Author Share Posted October 21, 2004 OK, here's what is says when I run netstat -e on my base machine (Win XP) Sent Received Bytes 1204250 197012 Unicast packets 1584 1390 Non-unicast packets 82 71 Discards 0 0 Errors 0 1 Unknown protocols 2 What does this mean? Also my network runs on channel 6. I'll try changing that and see what it does. chaos 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Looks like you're OK with the Netstat report. Apparently you've received one bad packet, which should be fine. The unknown protocols are packets that don't seem to be associated with some application/service that the TCP/IP stack recognizes. Experiment with the channels to see if this helps. I suggest making sure that both wireless adapters are using different channels. You may want to test with a large file transfer or just check the signal quality level with your adapter's utility (or WinXP's). If you have several neighbors who may be using wireless also, you may find it hard to get an unused channel. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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