Nasty little bug I've had twice now. First time an install fixed it, but now I'm stuck with it.

When joining a multiplayer game it fails at loading track info.

Connection is fine, my PC is in DMZ, uPnP on, etc...

Help!

Confirmed as a bug- by installing LFS to a new directory I can play multiplayer again.

The original LFS copy still does not work. Overwriting the install does not help.

wireless or wired? what kind of internet connection? anyone else using that connection? what kind of ping do you get to the server you're trying to connect to? need more info.

Wired using a belkin router, shared with others but currently the only one using it. An 8Mbit down, 512Kbit up connection (reallistically my download is only about 50KB/s at peak time). On WinXP SP2.

Though as said in my 2nd post- my broken copy doesn't work, my clean one does.

This is really putting me off buying an S2 license as I lose my settings every time I do a fresh install

Quote :

reallistically my download is only about 50KB/s at peak time

with 8mbps down, you should be getting a LOT more than that. i'd check with your isp to see that your modem isn't wigging out.

Quote from bunder9999 :

with 8mbps down, you should be getting a LOT more than that. i'd check with your isp to see that your modem isn't wigging out.

It's a congested line- my speed drops from 800KB/s to 50KB/s during peak time. Still, it's a stable speed.

I have the same problem. Sometimes it just won't accept track info... My internet is stable, no wifi, it's cabel. I have about 768 kB/s download and 128 kB/s upload.

In this case I always restart PC and then it works usually. But also I can't start Track Mania online and there were more online games where I had the problem. It just won't get contact with game's server or something like this. When I switched on Windows 7 from XP, Track Mania worked without problems. On Vista too.

And also, I can't upload images on photobucket. Always announce 404 error or something similar. I have no idea how to fix this...

I have no problems with any other online game.

Also, I'm in DMZ and have forwarded TCP/UDP ports 29339 and 63392.

Still no help

The plot thickens: I've been trying to run LFS today and decided to check my router security log to see if the router thinks LFS is a hack attempt. I think I might be on to something:

Quote from Belkin Router :

Apr 25 12:04:42 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 79.178.111.241. Source port is 57018, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 12:04:50 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 76.184.92.148. Source port is 2287, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 12:04:52 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 94.22.10.129. Source port is 3398, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 12:05:04 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 86.6.167.217. Source port is 1540, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 12:05:43 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 85.216.130.139. Source port is 65301, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 13:18:46 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 211.1.219.168. Source port is 28006, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 13:21:15 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 87.15.171.190. Source port is 3302, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 13:38:06 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 66.206.224.105. Source port is 3423, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Apr 25 14:17:25 kernel: PORT SCANNER ATTACK detected from 77.101.193.226. Source port is 64419, and destination port is 42266 which use the TCP protocol.

Not sure if I'm brave enough to open port 42266 to test it...

[EDIT]

I opened the port, still won't work.

Quote from jelston :

This is really putting me off buying an S2 license as I lose my settings every time I do a fresh install

Skins and setups folders don't have any config file (or whatever you want to call it), so you always can copy those folders into the fresh install


And I thing that controlls and graphics settings could be copied if you make a backup of the fresh folfer before atemp to test if that didn't cause the problem

Quote from jelston :

have forwarded TCP/UDP ports 29339 and 63392.

You don't need to forward ports for LFS unless you're hosting a server. Can't think of anything to help you with your problem though.

Quote from amp88 :

You don't need to forward ports for LFS unless you're hosting a server. Can't think of anything to help you with your problem though.

take it out of the dmz too, that's just silly.

Are there any active developers I can e-mail who could tell me the client ports i could open? Worth a shot.

Quote from jelston :

Are there any active developers I can e-mail who could tell me the client ports i could open? Worth a shot.

you don't need to open any ports at all. period. it's purely an outgoing connection to the server.

edit: if you don't believe us - https://www.lfs.net/?page=mailus

Gah so I'm stuffed? Bought a Logitech DFGT just for this game. D'oh!

I know that sometimes you have to shut your firewall off. atleast thats what i did at a friends. Give it a try.

yeah, i never thought of that... if your router has a built in firewall, for gods sakes turn it off... i was setting up my brother's wifi router a couple weeks ago and it would keep dying every 5 minutes... then i turned off the firewall and it runs great. i don't know why it even has one, it's not key to any of it's network-related functions (port-forwarding/dmz/etc)... plus being behind a NAT router is firewalled enough.

Quote from jelston :

Confirmed as a bug- by installing LFS to a new directory I can play multiplayer again.

The original LFS copy still does not work. Overwriting the install does not help.

Which directory's did you test this on, where they on the same disk, under the same credentials etc...?

Quote from CSU1 :

Which directory's did you test this on, where they on the same disk, under the same credentials etc...?

That seemed a one-off and it no longer works- so no copies work online.

Quote :

if your router has a built in firewall, for gods sakes turn it off

There isn't an on/off button for the firewall for this belkin router. The firewall subsection of the router menu has various bits (DMZ, virtual client, WAN ping block etc) and I've made is as open as I can.

[EDIT]

I'm a numpty. I found the firewall off button and disabled it. Still doesn't work.

Really bizzare as LFS was working last week (but I had problems before that). This seems totally random. I can't see it being the ISP disabling the ports as like I said I was running it previously. No changes have been made to the PC or router...

Stumped!

Quote from jelston :

Really bizzare as LFS was working last week (but I had problems before that). This seems totally random. I can't see it being the ISP disabling the ports as like I said I was running it previously.

It would be worth contacting your ISP anyway and asking them if they're blocking game traffic or throttling your connection in any way.