I'm having trouble with the Bump and Jump server - or, more specifically, staying in it.

I'm being disconnected at random. People say the message 'Lost connection to [LXC] Sam GBR' is being shown, and I'm getting no lag whatsoever right before the disconnection, so it's not a problem with lag, timeouts, anything like that.
My Internet connection isn't to blame either, as I can immediately reconnect to the server. It seems the host is just disconnecting itself from my client, or vice versa, at random... What could be causing this?

I've been noticing it for a couple of days now, and it's starting to cost me a lot of points

Sam

Who is your ISP? Have they a traffic shaping policy/fair usage policy?

What you're describing sounds like one form of traffic shaping employed by ISPs to discourage P2P networking. Our servers are not in the typical P2P range, because we're specifically trying *not* to attract the attention of ISPs, but if your ISP is periodically interrupting any/all streams as a method/means of discouraging P2P, it's possible this is the cause. The most knowledgeable chap I know on this topic is the_angry_angel but I haven't seen him post much recently and I don't know if he's around much.

I'm using Tesco Broadband, and I don't know of any P2P blocking employed by them - it's a very good thought, but as this has only started happening in the last couple of days I don't think that's what's doing it. It might be an absolute fluke that it's happened to me half a dozen times in two days, but it used to be that I could trust my connection entirely.

Perhaps it's just having a bad couple of days - my Internet connection is occasionally cutting out and refusing to reconnect (although not at the same time as my LFS disconnects), which started at around the time this problem came up. Doubtless the issues are related, but I can't figure out how. I'll keep racing, and if it happens again I'll post the situation.

EDIT - It's just happened twice, within about a minute. As soon as I reconnected and left the pits, it cut me off again. The first time, I was in spec. No lag and no Internet trouble either time. I have no idea what could be causing this, but it's @#%~ing annoying....

Sam

are you using a broadband modem (usb?), or a router with modem built in ?

sometimes if its the USB modem type it draws power form your PC's power supply (which could be stressed when you play games) and could cause this kind of issue.

Also after talking with my ISP about shaping and port blocking, some ISP's are using a packet inspection system and only blocking by content.

SD.

If your using Modem USB i recommend trying to use a different modem. If your using a router, try rebooting it?

Matt

Thanks for the suggestions,

I'm using a Speedtouch 330 USB modem, and have been for over a year with no trouble - however much stress I put on the rest of my system (a lot ). It doesn't seem to be the modem's fault either, as the lights on it aren't changing when this happens or anything, implying that something somewhere down the line is playing up. I wouldn't know if the problem had stopped, but it hasn't happened again for about fifteen minutes.

Interestingly, when I'm just browsing, the problem will be a disconnection from the Internet, but if I'm on LFS, it will just disconnect me from the host and not the Internet entirely. This could be coincidental, but that's what I've noticed so far. My Internet connection hasn't actually closed while I've been playing yet.

This gets more confusing by the hour...

EDIT - Done it again, cutting me off from Race 1 this time.

EDIT2 - Again, another ten points lost from my Bump and Jump licence.

EDIT3 - Within about two minutes, my Internet connection has cut off entirely while browsing. It took about two minutes to get it to connect, until then it was giving me the 'No Dial Tone' 680 error.
Does anyone have any ideas what's happening? Could my modem be dying, or something? I've just disconnected and reconnected all the connections to my modem and PC in a final attempt to keep it going...

EDIT4 - That's done nothing, it's disconnected me from the Internet again whilst browsing.

Sam

Hi Sam, a frustrating problem I bet, where do you plug in your modem, I mean where is the phone socket, is it the master point (the BT one where it enters the property) or a secondary (slave) socket, the reason I ask is BT only garantee a good signal to noise ratio at the master. Internal telephone cabling in some houses is poorly installed low quality and old. if you can test it at the master point you might be able to pinpoint a potential problem,

does that 330 modem get hot? has it enough room to cool?

have you installed anything new just before this started? USB? or new telephone?

If you have a friend with a spare all in one router you could always try that, Im not a fan of the speedtouch modems.

are you running any P2P clients in the background? ISP might be knocking you off for that.

run a full virus scan and spyware one too then try a hard reboot, might help

SD.

Oooh.. actually.. is the modem powered with a powerpack? I had a problem with my router crashing. That turned out to be a problem with the powerpack being plugged in next to another powerpack. The cumulative heat at the plug caused problems. I separated them with a normal plug between them (on a plug bank) and the problem went away instantly.

Just another idea in the pot of possibilities

Excellent help, guys... Let's see if we can trace this...

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where do you plug in your modem,

It's in a secondary socket - although, oddly, the phone in that socket seems to have better quality in calls than the one in the primary (probably more to do with the phones themselves, that) - but then, it always has been, and I don't think anything's happened to that since.

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does that 330 modem get hot? has it enough room to cool?

It can get a bit warm sometimes, but it always copes with it. I haven't noticed this happen when it is warm, it's generally not connected long enough to heat up. It's in an open place, anyway, so it should be OK for heat.

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have you installed anything new just before this started? USB? or new telephone?

Nope, most recent thing was my DFP, about two months before the problem.

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If you have a friend with a spare all in one router you could always try that, Im not a fan of the speedtouch modems.

If this persists, I'll try and find one.

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are you running any P2P clients in the background? ISP might be knocking you off for that.

Sometimes, but they seem to keep the connection alive, for some reason. Although, it never disconnects entirely when I'm on LFS, and I'm never running P2P clients then, so that might have something to do with it.

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run a full virus scan and spyware one too then try a hard reboot, might help

I'll get that done tomorrow, see if it throws anything up.

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is the modem powered with a powerpack?

Nope, it runs on USB power only.

I wonder if this helps with any solutions... Although, having said that, I've been connected for about three quarters of an hour now with no issues when browsing normally, which seemed to cause the most frequent disconnects earlier today. I tinkered blindly with some random settings earlier, and that might have sorted it.

Menus & Me: :jedi:

Thanks for your help and suggestions, guys, I really appreciate it

Sam

Just a small note.. there's a big difference between browsing the internet and playing a game. If your connection dropped for 15 seconds, browsing the internet, you probably would never notice. In an online game, if it barfs for a few seconds it's game over.

Is it possible that you've changed the USB port that the modem is plugged into? If that's possible, try and figure out which it was in before, and put it back there. It shouldn't make a difference, but it often does. My webcam will only work on the USB port I installed it on.. none of the other 7.

Last idea.. has anyone plugged a phone into your line without using an ADSL filter. This is a notorious problem. If any phones are plugged in without one of these things, your internet connection is likely to get dodgy.

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Just a small note.. there's a big difference between browsing the internet and playing a game. If your connection dropped for 15 seconds, browsing the internet, you probably would never notice. In an online game, if it barfs for a few seconds it's game over.

I know - but when chatting on MSN (which I didn't mention as it takes very little bandwidth/CPU time), you notice things pretty quickly it likes to sign itself out at the slightly provocation.

I haven't moved the USB port - I unplugged it and put it back in the same one again to see if that did anything, but I might move it to see if it's suddenly started to dislike the one it's in.

No changes to the phones in the house, I've always made sure they have filters. Having said that, I'll go around and check the filters themselves on the other two phones on this line.

Thanks again - all is still well here. I'll see what happens when I try and race tomorrow

Sam

Well I had a problem last night. I couldnt connect to LFS, LFS world or Forum. It seemed that there are some DSP problems. I was giving a solution by Sam. GIVE HIM A BEER !!!! .

And after that i could connect to LFS again. Oeff thank god for that.

Before all this i had aso weird connection problems. Couldnt get connected. Got kicked out off server for no reason.
Hopefully it is now gone

At least try this the solution Sam gave me, works briljant !!!

Sam solution : People have been changing over to use OpenDNS - www.opendns.com - and everyone who's done that has had their problems solved. There are instructions on the opendns site on configuring your router/computer

It seems this problem might have sorted itself out after all, but this looks good - so I'm doing it anyway

*clicky*

EDIT - After a restart, I'm not convinced that it's running any faster - in fact, it might just be me, but it seems a tad slower - but at least now I'll be racing with confidence that it's not going to destroy me.
Thanks again, guys.

Sam

This is the same problem I've been having as well.