Cannot connect to a NAT facilitator

Quoting just_dont_do_it,

Either way, it's clearly a piece of shit. At least we've identified some hardware that will only be trouble with Demigod.

I'd say that given a hard choice between a modem and Demigod, the choice will be "modem".

If some shitty network code can't do it on my equipment, then the blame lies on the code, not on equipment. ESPECIALLY given the fact that the same code worked quite decently (if not very fast) before the patch.

Oh jeez. What speed is your connection?

1Mbit/s down, 512Kbit/s up. Now go on and say "your connection is too shitty to play this godly game properly".

Now wait a minute, asshole. I'm not going to say that Demigod's network code isn't shitty, in fact I've said that numerous times. But trust me when I say your equipment and your connection are shitty too. Just_don't characterize me as some fanboy for trying to help you by saying so. Don't take it personally.

NETWORKING IS COMPLICATED. Luckily, there are plenty of hardware manufacturers that make it easy for you. Unfortunately, that's not the kind of hardware you have. If you want to be able to do this stuff reliably, then you should invest in it. Tons of people have no problems, and it's no coincidence that people who do have problems have equipment I've never heard of before this thread. Just about everyone with Actiontec or similar router/modem combo garbage has issues. How many threads have you seen with people having problems with stock Linksys routers?

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I talked with Cari again. There will or might be another update today, which could fix the problem (or one cause of the problem) and then they'll look at putting back in some throttling again.

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NETWORKING IS COMPLICATED.

1) No, it's not.

2) You shouldn't help me, I've already fixed my problems

3) I'm still not buying new equipment specially for Demigod, too

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Quoting just_dont_do_it,

reply 3

NETWORKING IS COMPLICATED.

1) No, it's not.

Sure, whatever you say! You seem to be an authority on the subject.

Quoting just_dont_do_it,

reply 3

3) I'm still not buying new equipment specially for Demigod, too

Quoting ShunKeets,

reply 16

Realize I'm hesitant to recommend you buying something else especially if it's just going to cause you more problems, time, and money.

But you do have a good point, if DG is the only thing that is causing you problems and you've had good luck in the past, then no, it's not worth it. "Just getting by" isn't my personal style, however.

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I can't connect to any online mp (custom) game while in my router is set to "Routing mode". ONLY changing the settings to modem, it was possible to connect. I was able to with some BETA versions, but lately it really got worse - i can't connect to anyone. I don't get into the lobby. Modem-mode ist not an option for me, as I am not the only one using internet. I really don't understand why i could connect in Beta but now with the newest updates it's totally screwed. If I can help to figure out this one, please ask. I'm pretty sure I won't be the only European player with this problem. Thanks.

Heres my impulseReactor.log:

[05-19-2009 17:26:58 781] Setting App Directory: G:\Spiele\Demigod\bin\
[05-19-2009 17:26:58 781] loading file G:\Spiele\Demigod\bin\ImpulseReactor.xml
[05-19-2009 17:26:59 546] CVPIsAppUpdateRequired
Installed version: 1.00.084
Latest version: 1.00.084 (server 1, beta 0)
[05-19-2009 17:27:04 375] GetPlayerDataByID: 36552 not found
[05-19-2009 17:27:15 437] Updating user player data.
[05-19-2009 17:27:15 734] CVP: JoinGame 444724
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 031] Updating user player data.
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] Timeout time set to 30000
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] CVPMultiplayerEngine: NAT punchthrough is enabled.
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] CVPMultiplayerEngine::SetupNATPunchthrough()
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] CVPMultiplayerEngine: setting up NAT Punchthrough Client
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] CVPMultiplayerEngine: Attaching NAT Punchthrough plugin
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] CVPMultiplayerEngine starting as database client
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 078] client starting with 1 socket descriptors.
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 093] CVPShowConnectionMiniWindow
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 109] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 1
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 671] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_REQUEST_ACCEPTED from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 29217796.2542253575.3116889127.2886696353
[05-19-2009 17:27:17 671] Connected to facilitator at 209.124.63.249:6000. My External: 78.51.166.110:11982 My Internal: 192.168.1.2:6002 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)

[05-19-2009 17:27:17 671] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 1
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_DATABASE_QUERY_REPLY from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 29217796.2542253575.3116889127.2886696353
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] ID_DATABASE_QUERY_REPLY RECIEVED, numofplayers 4 tickcount 41000796 (Server Timestamp: 11:27:52.0203)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] UpdateGameData table with 4 rows
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] CVP: Game Data Updated with 4 records
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Record Index 0: TitleID: 444, GameID: 444724, PlayerName: Levy92 PlayerID: 18978 SystemAddress: 89.156.6.191:6112, Connected to: 42930,48022 PendingConnections:
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] GetPlayerDataByID: 18978 not found
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Proxying-Via-Peer: (REGISTERING PROXY) Registering player # 18978 at 89.156.6.191:6112 (At index 0)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Pinging player at Levy92 (18978) at 89.156.6.191:6112 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Pinging player at Levy92 (18978) at 89.156.6.191:6112 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Record Index 1: TitleID: 444, GameID: 444724, PlayerName: Vashan PlayerID: 36552 SystemAddress: 78.51.166.110:11982, Connected to: PendingConnections:
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Record Index 2: TitleID: 444, GameID: 444724, PlayerName: Poewo PlayerID: 42930 SystemAddress: 81.56.108.33:6112, Connected to: 18978,48022 PendingConnections:
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] GetPlayerDataByID: 42930 not found
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Proxying-Via-Peer: (REGISTERING PROXY) Registering player # 42930 at 81.56.108.33:6112 (At index 1)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Pinging player at Poewo (42930) at 192.168.0.14:6112 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 078] Pinging player at Poewo (42930) at 81.56.108.33:6112 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Attempt to connect to player 42930 was not made because local client is not connected to host
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Record Index 3: TitleID: 444, GameID: 444724, PlayerName: Mainframe897 PlayerID: 48022 SystemAddress: 84.197.106.68:62829, Connected to: 18978,42930 PendingConnections:
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] GetPlayerDataByID: 48022 not found
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Proxying-Via-Peer: (REGISTERING PROXY) Registering player # 48022 at 84.197.106.68:62829 (At index 2)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Pinging player at Mainframe897 (48022) at 192.168.0.5:6112 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Pinging player at Mainframe897 (48022) at 84.197.106.68:62829 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 093] Attempt to connect to player 48022 was not made because local client is not connected to host
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 109] CVPOnPlayerDataUpdatedCallback
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 109] CVPDefaultPlayerDataUpdatedCallback had 4 players
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 109] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 0
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 125] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_PING from 84.197.106.68:62829 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 156] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_PING from 89.156.6.191:6112 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_PONG from 89.156.6.191:6112 GUID: 3158290071.1700146402.3403993316.1921985492
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Received PONG with data
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Received PONG from player 18978 with address 89.156.6.191:6112
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_PONG from 89.156.6.191:6112 GUID: 3158290071.1700146402.3403993316.1921985492
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Received PONG with data
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] Received PONG from player 18978 with address 89.156.6.191:6112
[05-19-2009 17:27:18 203] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 0
[05-19-2009 17:27:20 218] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 0
[05-19-2009 17:27:38 437] CVP: Refresh Login called
[05-19-2009 17:27:48 015] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_LOST from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 29217796.2542253575.3116889127.2886696353
[05-19-2009 17:27:49 093] Updating user player data.
[05-19-2009 17:27:49 109] CVPShowConnectionMiniWindow
[05-19-2009 17:27:49 109] UpdateDatabaseRecord with row ID 36552 and priority 0
[05-19-2009 17:27:53 343] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_FAILED from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:27:57 531] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_FAILED from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:28:01 750] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_FAILED from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:28:05 906] Message received by CVPMultiplayerEngine: ID_CONNECTION_ATTEMPT_FAILED from 209.124.63.249:6000 GUID: 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295
[05-19-2009 17:28:06 000] CMultiplayerEngine::Shutdown for CVPMultiplayerEngine. Send Disconnect notification: 1, Restart: 0
[05-19-2009 17:28:06 562] GetPlayerDataByID: 36552 not found
[05-19-2009 17:28:06 953] GetPlayerDataByID: 36552 not found
[05-19-2009 17:28:13 375] GetPlayerDataByID: 0 not found

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Just wanted to report that the recent patches have not fixed this for me yet. Though Cari is still working on it. She built me a custom ImpulseReactor.dll and a Custom server, where she tuned the message handling, implemented a little bit of throttling etc. And this did in fact help, in our tests I was able to sustain the connection to the NAT facilitator indefinitely. However, I was not able to connect to other players and others weren't able to connect to me or sustain the connection. So something was still off.

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Hello, i'll just add my 2 cents, which isn't very much.

I just bought the game today and getting past initial problems was able to play online fine for about 6 or 7 games. All of a sudden I am getting this same NAT error. I did not change a thing, I didn't even close the game. So what i'm saying is I haven't a clue why its broken but I just want to play it

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Vashan - this line is your problem most likely

[05-19-2009 17:27:17 671] Connected to facilitator at 209.124.63.249:6000. My External: 78.51.166.110:11982 My Internal: 192.168.1.2:6002 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)

I see people who have problematic times connecting in custom games often have a different random port on their external IP. This is what everyone will attempt to connect back to you on. However some routers are more paranoid than others and will not allow data to come from other IP's, other than the one your pc sent out to originally (in this case the facilitator ip).

Now if other players Demigods actually tried to connect to you on port 6002, it would work if you had forwarded these ports. This is why people who have forward ports are still having problems, because if your router is of the type that randomises the output ports (called symmetric NAT routers) then demigod will not use your open ports!

Demigod should try to send data to 6002 in your case, and if that fails to work send it to 11982, and if that fails do NAT punchthrough, and if that fails do proxy.

I hope a stardock dev sees this, i've mentioned it a few times on various posts and to a couple of people in stardocks IRC chat, i believe i am correct in that a lot of people still having problems are having them because demigod does not take advantage of forwarded ports when the router is a symmetric NAT router - which a lot of recent routers are.

+2

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@Rocah: are you Aprogas from the chat? .

I've mentioned in my last e-mail to Cari, that they also should try the internal port and not just the external port, just as you say. I also mentioned that in the previous patches (before the dreaded May 14th patch), the log says this:

[05-05-2009 10:55:28 204] Connected to facilitator at 209.124.63.249:6004. My External: 78.142.167.74:6200

where as now it says this:

[05-26-2009 18:15:57 593] Connected to facilitator at 209.124.63.249:6004. My External: 78.142.167.58:10894 My Internal: 10.0.0.100:6004 (CONNECTION ACTIVITY)

Which seems to indicate that they actually had it right before.

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No, same name. Rocah.

I'm not to sure on why the external port is in the same range on the older logs.

As i understand it the external port on the routers that do this is picked at random by the users router. When the user communicates with the facilitator server, the server can see what port the router has picked. The facilitator server that then tells the user what port it is talking out from, which gets stored in your impulse log. It also then stores this info on the server and passes it to the other players in the lobby, which then attempt to a direct connect to this user at this external ip/port combo.

This works for some routers that generate a random external port, it really depends how paranoid they are. As i believe some routers will only allow incoming traffic on the random port from the facilitator server ip it originally talked to, and not the horde of other players trying to directly send traffic to this port.

So i believe this is why you get people who swear they have opened there ports having major problems with people connecting to them, its purely depends whether the router they have randomises external ports + only allows incoming traffic in through this random port from the IP it originally sent data to, which in demigod's case will be the facilitator server.

Ideally to repeat, I think demigod clients should try sending data the "external ip + internal port" first, then the "external ip + external port", then nat punchthrough, then proxy.

You could even say if the first two fail, and the person has a external port that is different than the internal port go straight to proxying, because it is highly likely the NAT punchthrough will fail. It would depend on how the router generates it random port numbers, truely random or sequential.

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I would just add, this could be one of the reason some people connect ok but ping spike. As routers that randomise outbound ports but allow traffic through from other ips, and connect ok in lobby may be doing stateful packet inspection (SPI) on incoming data going through this port if they have an SPI firewall on their router. This may overload the router due to the mass of traffic coming in, and hence cause lag in game.

I do wonder if these connections were going through forwarded ports they would bypass the SPI and reduce problems for some people.

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You can use a tool called WinSTUN in combination with a public STUN server from the VoIP Wiki to check if your NAT preserves ports (i.e. mapped external port is the same as the internal port).

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Btw. keep in mind that at least for me the different external ports are not the reason that I cannot connect to a NAT facilitator. I can initially connect to it, but I can't sustain the connection, since the NAT facilitator spams me with UDP packets when connecting to multiple players which will be blocked by my Router or ISP.

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'Xcuse the double post(http://forums.stardock.com/347470/page/11)... consider it as my urgent need to get it fixed.

But the most funniest thing is, how I "got" it. I was playing for a few days just fine, but had huge lags all along. I tried to find out why and read that I should turn of UPnP. So I did that.

Turns out that I get the message above. I turn UPnP back on, and the problem is still there. So since a few days, I keep fighting the suicidal AIs and searching for a solution. I have a D'link Router 524. Here's what I did so far:

* Added entries to Firewall and Router for Ports UDP 6000, 16000, 6073, 6100-6200. (PFPortChecker reports me that only 6000 is reachable, though)

* Tried to turn all Safety Programs and Protocols off, includig DMZ

* Ping to Stardock cvp Stuff works well, no packet loss

* Used the patched(!) version of that "Specify NAT Ports" gadget in the bin Folder

* Some also advice to set the router not to do a "Symmetric NAT", but turns out my router doesnt offer that option. In fact, I cant find anything about changing the NAT protocols of my router at all.

So... I BEG YOU gimme some advice! I loved playing online, even with the lags, and miss it so much. How could it suddenly stop working without having done anything that has to do (at least from my point of view / knowledge) with that NAT facilitator thingy?

Is it because my the ports other than 6000 are unreachable? Then why did it work before?

Arg...

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Heyho,

the recent update enabled me to play again.

But still, only 1 out of 5 attempts to get into a game are successful. The rest of the time Im just stuck connecting to players, most of the time not being able to connect to ANYONE, sometimes only a few guys... and very seldom, to all

I turned the "Specify NAT Range" on, turned UPnP off, forwarded Ports 6000, 6073, 6100-6200 (again, ShieldUp reported only 6000 is reachable)

and added exceptions to all the security software I know of. Besides, the lagging became only little less than before

Well well, at least it seems you are engaging the problem. I hope you find a working solution soon and you are able to improve those algorythms or whatsoever to a degree where playing online actually becomes something entirely fun, at least from the technical point of view!