It's started with this about 3 months ago. It hasn't gone better since. Lately I finally decided to switch ISP because the disconnections are just unbearable anymore.
All other network activity works fine, bittorrents, browsing, downloads etc. Super smooth and no bandwidth "glitches" (I have a network monitor that shows the activity in real time).
Only LFS suffers extreme issues. Mainly: takes VERY long untill I connect to the master server for the list of games, many times with failure, when I try to connect to a server about 80% it just fails (on various errors during the connection), and when I'm able to connect it often disconnects. Network debug (SHIFT-F8) shows nothing interesting.
As a last measure, I tried connecting to the same ISP, with same telephony provider, but with my 56K dialup modem instead of my ADSL connection (1.5M/96K, Alcatel Speedtouch 510E firmware 4.2.7).
Amazingly, it worked beautifully. List of games comming very fast (with a bit higher pings: about 300ms with dialup vs 100-200 with ADSL), but other than the pings, it all worked flawlessly 100% of the times. I managed to connect to every server I tried, The connection monitor (bottom left when connected to a server) "pulsed" very regularly (vs WAY too many glitches and "stucks" through the ADSL), etc. Tried again with ADSL --> crap. Dialup again --> silky smooth.
So, 2 things:
1. Congrats to Scawen for absolutely amazing network code that works just perfect even with a dialup modem
2. WTF is going on with my ADSL connection? and why does it only affect LFS?
Some more data I have gathered:
- ping to liveforspeed.net is constant 115ms +/-5
- During the night GMT (now) it works MUCH better with ADSL. It nearly never disconnects, and works quite well in general, ALTHOUGH, the connection monitor still don't pulse regularly. Better than during evening time, but not as smooth as it used to be before november (or as smooth as with the dialup). As far as I've noticed, it's unrelated to the number of users on the server, i.e. it also mostely disconnects or unable to connect even if the server is empty.
- just before november I upgraded my ADSL modem's firmware to 4.2.7 to add support for 1.5Mbps (upgraded my adsl account), but it seemed to work well afterwards.
- The ADSL modem isn't configured in any special way. It doesn't act as NAT and/or firewall (as far as i know).
could it somehow be related to UPnP (I don't know much about it though, but I think it only matters if the modem is configured to block ports etc)?
- The same telephony provider and same ISP more or less eliminate all routing issues outside of the ISP.
- The fact that it runs smooth on dialup eliminate OS issues (spyware, firewalls, etc)
- The fact that it DOES work better (note: not perfect) during the night reduces the possibility for ADSL modem issues.
If anyone has some tools (or procedures) to try and pinpoint the difference between the 2 types of connection and gather "LFS net quality" I'll gladly use them. If anyone has any kind of Idea what might be going on, I'd appreciate the help.
thanks,
avih
All other network activity works fine, bittorrents, browsing, downloads etc. Super smooth and no bandwidth "glitches" (I have a network monitor that shows the activity in real time).
Only LFS suffers extreme issues. Mainly: takes VERY long untill I connect to the master server for the list of games, many times with failure, when I try to connect to a server about 80% it just fails (on various errors during the connection), and when I'm able to connect it often disconnects. Network debug (SHIFT-F8) shows nothing interesting.
As a last measure, I tried connecting to the same ISP, with same telephony provider, but with my 56K dialup modem instead of my ADSL connection (1.5M/96K, Alcatel Speedtouch 510E firmware 4.2.7).
Amazingly, it worked beautifully. List of games comming very fast (with a bit higher pings: about 300ms with dialup vs 100-200 with ADSL), but other than the pings, it all worked flawlessly 100% of the times. I managed to connect to every server I tried, The connection monitor (bottom left when connected to a server) "pulsed" very regularly (vs WAY too many glitches and "stucks" through the ADSL), etc. Tried again with ADSL --> crap. Dialup again --> silky smooth.
So, 2 things:
1. Congrats to Scawen for absolutely amazing network code that works just perfect even with a dialup modem
2. WTF is going on with my ADSL connection? and why does it only affect LFS?
Some more data I have gathered:
- ping to liveforspeed.net is constant 115ms +/-5
- During the night GMT (now) it works MUCH better with ADSL. It nearly never disconnects, and works quite well in general, ALTHOUGH, the connection monitor still don't pulse regularly. Better than during evening time, but not as smooth as it used to be before november (or as smooth as with the dialup). As far as I've noticed, it's unrelated to the number of users on the server, i.e. it also mostely disconnects or unable to connect even if the server is empty.
- just before november I upgraded my ADSL modem's firmware to 4.2.7 to add support for 1.5Mbps (upgraded my adsl account), but it seemed to work well afterwards.
- The ADSL modem isn't configured in any special way. It doesn't act as NAT and/or firewall (as far as i know).
could it somehow be related to UPnP (I don't know much about it though, but I think it only matters if the modem is configured to block ports etc)?
- The same telephony provider and same ISP more or less eliminate all routing issues outside of the ISP.
- The fact that it runs smooth on dialup eliminate OS issues (spyware, firewalls, etc)
- The fact that it DOES work better (note: not perfect) during the night reduces the possibility for ADSL modem issues.
If anyone has some tools (or procedures) to try and pinpoint the difference between the 2 types of connection and gather "LFS net quality" I'll gladly use them. If anyone has any kind of Idea what might be going on, I'd appreciate the help.
thanks,
avih