Can join all servers except My Dedicated

[javadog]

Good afternoon and thank you in advance for any direction you can give.

I have setup a dedicated server for the use of my community and we have a single player who is unable to connect to it. he receives a 'game session does not exist' on attempt to join, even though he is able to see it in the list.

again, connects to the other servers fine, but not to our dedicated. (other community members including myself are able to connect just fine).

I know, it doesn't get much more random than this, we have attempted to check all the 'standard paths' (firewalls, NAT, port forwarding, ect) but to no avail.

suggestions are certainly appreciated. And thank you again..

-Javadog
The Candy Van

[Gamer_Kought]

Hmm... Are you able to have someone else host a dedicated server just to test and see if he can join that one?

[YoungScripter]

@Gamer_Kought, javadog said that he can join all other dedicated servers but not their community-hosted one.

[Gamer_Kought]

@Gamer_Kought, javadog said that he can join all other dedicated servers but not their community-hosted one.

I know, but I'm curious to see if the problem lies with Java's network not cooperating with his friend, or if it's the other person's connection.

Having someone else host a dedicated and seeing what happens is really the only thing I can think of off the top of my head right now.

[javadog]

sorry, appreciate the replies. after a day of playing with the dedicated server (its on its own 10MB synchronous fiber line. The machine is nothing special, but it is current hardware,) we found that each of us (5 in all) ended up having some problem at some point or another.

Sometimes it would show up in the multiplayer list immediately, sometimes it wouldn't show for a few min.

Would have to relaunch the game a few times in order to get an actual join to the server without it saying that the server was no longer there. Other times, you would join, end up in spectator mode only, quit the game, come back in and you could then join the rest of the group already in progress.

running a hosted server on one of our machines and having the others join was much more 'stable' in that respect, but you are asking a lot of the hosting computer's bandwidth, in general.

I have plenty of experience in computer networking and hardware, background in programming as well (just enough to get me in trouble these days), I had a real hard time replicating any one issue with confidence, though each of the players at one point or another had issue with being able to see the server as active and connect.

Croteam? Do you have some suggestion as to what I should be looking at in any config files for the dedicated server to make or verify any current settings?

Thank you again for any direction and help in advance.

[Gamer_Kought]

Sounds like then it might actually be a bug with the dedicated server itself. Perhaps Alen or one of the other Croteam devs could shed some light on this problem.

[alenl]

I'd need more details on that problematic server? Is it in some commercial co-loc, or is it at someone's house? How is it exposed to the internet - through an NAT, or on its own public IP? Etc...

[javadog]

I'd need more details on that problematic server? Is it in some commercial co-loc, or is it at someone's house? How is it exposed to the internet - through an NAT, or on its own public IP? Etc...

apologize, here is some more clarity:

NAT is turned on, forwarding private ips to a static WAN ip. it is not a commercial location, but a small business with a large pipe (15MB/s down 39MB/s up) (<--yes, 39MB/s out of the location).

since this machine is 'public' I have it sitting in the DMZ, so I am confident it is not a port forwarding issue.

[alenl]

Well, official statement about DMZ from Steam knowledge base says: "Steam currently does not support operation through a network DMZ. If your machine is currently in a network DMZ, you will need to reconfigure your network to play through Steam."

Now, DMZ like most terms in computer networking can get quite overloaded (as a term). So perhaps that is not the cause of your problem, because DMZ can mean many different things. But I'd still be aware of the DMZ+Steam issue. Just google around and you will find a lot of references to it.

I can tell you from our own tests that SamHD dedservers work correctly both from machines with direct public IPs, and from machines behind an NAT, as long as the server's enumeration/query port is forwarded (as explained in the samhd_dedserver readme file).

So, can you try moving it out from the DMZ (in any direction), just as a test?

[~~ArdEnuff~~]

Not sure if this is helpful but I had repeated problems connecting to my TFE dedicated server with the "This game session is no longer available" error. For whatever reason it was solved when I moved the dedicated server away from the default port (27015?) - mine is running on 27020 IIRC.

This 'fix' makes no sense of course but there you go it works on my install - and if I put server back to default port I again get intermittent connection problems.

All this is LAN side. WAN players were never affected.

[alenl]

Interesting. I think that iTunes are trying to use that port on some machines, so may be it is some kind of clash with that. Worth trying in any case.

[javadog]

Appreciate the feedback. I can certainly put it behind the DMZ and forward the ports as needed.

My question as to why this would make a difference is as follows:

there is only this single machine in the 'DMZ' of the router. And based on my networking experience, having a machine in the 'DMZ' means that it is wide open to the world, no blocking of any ports. I am not sure what you mean by moving it 'either direction', as there is no more direct connection to the machine short of running an ethernet cable from the modem directly into the computer itself, bypassing the use of a router at all.

again, though, by being in the DMZ, the computer is in essence, 'directly connected to the internet' (short of NAT, mind you), but as I said, I can certainly configure it behind the router, forwarding appropriate ports as necessary.

thank you again for the insight, and I will take into advisement as well, the moving of the server from the default port. The one question with moving ports, does this in any way effect its ability to be seen in the master server list?

thank you again,

-Javadog

[alenl]

Really, the term "DMZ of the router" can mean different things. Please google around for this. I guess you are probably referring to the "single DMZ host" feature of cheap home routers that serves as simple "forward all ports from this machine". But it may not do exactly what you expect. Note that the same NAT has to also serve the rest of the LAN, so it will have to use some ports for that. If it does, it cannot possibly respect the "all" part of the "forward all ports" promise it made. I don't know whether this was the issue that Steam techsupport had in mind, or did they consider some other issues I cannot think of right now, when they wrote their recommendation, but in any case, I'd stick with not using DMZ, if they say so - unless you can get a more detailed explanation from them.

About changing the port; it will not prevent it from being seen in the master list, as long as the enumeration port is properly forwarded. Note that when connecting from LAN, you can see two instances of the server. One is what you see by direct LAN enumeration (it has a small "several computers in LAN" icon), another is what you get from the master (this one has a small "tower chassis" icon). If you move the port too far away from the default, the LAN enumeration will no longer work, but master enumeration will still work.

Btw, if a LAN user connects to the server through the LAN connection (choosing the server's name with the LAN icon), outside users will not be able to connect to that server through him via the friends list, as they will only see its LAN address. Perhaps this is what you are experiencing? You can always check for that by examining the IP:port in the "View Server Info"/"View Game Info" dialog before connecting.