Some peculiar hosting problems.

[Fulmen]

So here's the deal: I recently aquired hosting capabilities through finally succesfully forwarding ports 17770 to 17772. Before that I was unable to host in Bz2 since the first half of 2004. After I did these port forwardings, everything worked fine. I could host in both 1.2 and 1.3. However, in 1.3 I got the following sort of errors:

"UPNP: Deleter port mapping on 17770, got result 714"
"UPNP: Succesfully determined ExternalIPAddress = **.***.***.**.
This will help you host."
"UPNP: external **.***.***.**:17770 UDP is redirected to internal 192.168.0.100:17770. This is good, and can help you host without having to reconfigure your router."

And the same for the other two ports.

Despite these errors, however, I was able to host perfectly without any lag issues whatsoever. Recently though, due to some viruses that completely messed up my system, I had to format my computer TWICE. Second format was due to some .dll being fatally damaged or something, and I had no way of repairing it. However before this I re-installed Bz2, both 1.2 and 1.3 and all the maps, utilities, mods etc. that I wanted. And unless I am mistaken, I could still host perfectly for the first day after the first format. But then something happened.

Ports were still all forwarded fine and I could host in 1.3 perfectly fine, though I still got those UPNP errors, but for some odd reason whenever I hosted in 1.2 it either didn't show or it gave me a "Client not ponging" on clients that joined my server just a moment earlier, and auto-kicked them. Sometimes when people could still see my game, they got a "Timed out" whenever they tried to join.

Since then I've fiddled with the port forwarding settings, turned UPNP on etc. and I got it to work fine in 1.2 twice. But most of the time I have the same issue as I told above. 1.3 works fine, 1.2 doesn't. At the moment people can see my games and can join, but they get thrown out due to "Client not ponging". In-game (if they manage to enter), I get hidious lag and then they get auto-kicked due to lagging. Some clients experience no lag at all, however, although I as the host am still experiencing it. I also experienced the same type of hidious lag when I joined a friend's server, though it did not kick me. However, normally when I join someone else's server it works just fine.

So what the hell could it be? I've really tried everything. What's causing this "Client not ponging" issue? Anyone?

Tommy, a.k.a. {TFF}Fulmen.

EDIT: My router is a TeleWell TW-EA501 v3 I believe (or could be v2, but I think it's a v3 - they're pretty much identical though, AFAIK).

[TheJamsh]

1.3 has very different (and FAR superior) netcode to 1.2, so im hardly suprised that 1.3 is working and 1.2 isn't. Lag is also FAR less apparent in 1.3 than it was in 1.2.

The data you posted there is NOT an error, its BZ2 telling you that it recognises the fact that you're router speaks UPNP, and is forwarding the ports FOR you. previous versions of BZ2 before TA5 DO NOT have this feature.

My advice? Just stick with the version that works, aka BZ2 V1.3 TA5.

Commenting out you're ip address above isn't overly neccesary BTW, and it would help to know it to figure out where in the world you are. Lag is probably the result of a poor connection.

[Fulmen]

I actually predicted a pro-1.3 reply, as I've seen similar answers to other peoples' questions about 1.2 problems or reports on AV'ers. That's definitely not the kind of answer I was looking for, however. I want to know what is causing this problem and fix it, not "use this patch which does all sorts of nasty physics changes and disallows fun things like MP editing instead" sort of answers.

Also, is there any way to somehow import a part of 1.3's netcode to my 1.2 install, but only keep it local, so it won't cause bad assets or anything?

And like I said, it worked fine before and normally works perfectly when I join games in 1.2. So nothing wrong with the quality of my connection itself.

I censored out my IP address just to be careful, though I was aware that it probably isn't necessary. I am in Finland, however, and am still getting the same problem with Finns who have a ping of below 30 with me. Like I said, it's all worked before and normally does, so it has nothing to do with the speed of my connection.

While these days I play more 1.3 because of its better stability, occasionally numerically superior amount of games and newer graphical and tech support, I still prefer 1.2 because of the following things:

-FAR less noobs
-FE with actually players (FE 1.3pb3 barely has anyone, and it has bugs)
-Online editor - I use it mainly in FE MPI games to create flavour such as destroyed bases
-Much faster and better physics
-ZST (when I occasionally feel like it)

To my understanding this section of the forums deals with everything related to Bz2, including bugs and errors, without looking into what version the poster is using. Thus I would like an answer to my question, what is causing this "Client not ponging" stuff and how to fix it?

[VSMIT]

There is no way to take 1.3 netcode and put it in 1.2, since it's coded in, not simply a file dropped in your addon folder.  Even if there was, it would likely cause bad assets.

Try forwarding your ports and disabling UPNP, that may work.

[Fulmen]

Ports are forwarded. Actually, the fact that I enabled UPNP might indeed be the issue. I'll try it and let you know if it worked.

Cheers.

[TheJamsh]

Its not the whole 1.3 beats 1.2 thing that drove my answer btw.

[Fulmen]

1.3 may be a Bz2 modder's heaven, but it forces the normal players to play exactly by the "rules". Even usually simply fun and undangerous things such as MP Editing has been disabled. To get a better perspective on what I'm talking about, I suggest you read TimeVirus's interview from the BZ Magazine issue #3. And like I said, there are the physics and lack of skilled players issue. 1.3 is, TBH, noob town. There's also the issue of converted 1.2 mods being buggy and have little to no players at all, where as in 1.2 they work fine and have enough players to be able to enjoy them online.

Back on-topic: I tried disabling UPNP, but it only made my games not visible to anyone. I didn't get any packets even in 1.3, though that may have been due to one reason I'll have to double-check. Whatever the case, it didn't help my 1.2/FE issue, and people over there either don't see my games, can't join due to network timeout or just get kicked due to "Client not ponging".

[TheJamsh]

Well... agree to disagree.

Anyway, does 1.2 write any logs to youre root directory (or possibly mydocs on vista)? If yes, post those and the BATTLEZONE.txt log file. Describing things like this arn't usually very helpful to someone trying to solve it. Its usuallly the logged data that tells where the problem is.

[Warfreak]

[ThisMightSeemLikeFlameBaitToSome...PLEASE DONT MAKE IT SO]
, You do understand you NOT wanting the most obvious answer is like someone using Windows 95 hearing he has to upgrade to XP to get stuff working decently.
YES, this isn't the most helpful answer in your situation but it's the first one that comes to mind.

- There is only "more noobs" because no one besides the few who played 1.2 in the beginning can actually get into 1.2 games with GOOD PLAYERS. (yes, im one of those noobs and i take your statement offensively )
- This does not surprise me as 1.3's PORT of FE is still an unstable WIP. 1.2 FE is the way to go for "stability"
- Um... while what you use it for is VERY NICE, some people use it for evil and not good, besides there is always releasing maps with the stuff already set up. (just saying)
- That would be VERY easy for us to implement if we could have some 1.2ers help us with the 1.2 Physics Recycler Variant.
- The ZST Maps and Assets(?) could be implemented into 1.3 if we got help from the other end of the community (1.2)
[/ThisMightSeemLikeFlameBaitToSome...PLEASE DONT MAKE IT SO]

[backontopic]: I think you might just be unable to host... I know I wasn't able to  before the UPNP implementation. Try making sure your router has a StaticIP (mine does not and i have to make changes accordingly) and that Bzone.exe is a Firewall Exception (I.E. not firewall blocked).

[bigbadbogie]

1.3 may be a Bz2 modder's heaven, but it forces the normal players to play exactly by the "rules". Even usually simply fun and undangerous things such as MP Editing has been disabled. To get a better perspective on what I'm talking about, I suggest you read TimeVirus's interview from the BZ Magazine issue #3. And like I said, there are the physics and lack of skilled players issue. 1.3 is, TBH, noob town.

I hereby ignore this topic for fear of having an aneurysm.

[General BlackDragon]

1.3 is more stable, however it is sometimes difficult to update things to 1.3, particularly ancient things that have no source data available. (such as FE/SF)

But it is still possible to do.

[ScarleTomato]

I actually predicted a pro-1.3 reply, as I've seen similar answers to other peoples' questions about 1.2 problems or reports on AV'ers. That's definitely not the kind of answer I was looking for, however. I want to know what is causing this problem and fix it, not "use this patch which does all sorts of nasty physics changes and disallows fun things like MP editing instead" sort of answers.

Attacking the first obvious response by bringing up old outdated subjects that have been beaten to death isn't really going to incite more people to respond helpfully. A simple "I'd like to play 1.2 as well" would have been sufficient.

It sounds to me like not all of your ports have been forwarded correctly. Make sure any intermediate and software firewalls (including windows' firewall) have been disabled or have had the proper exceptions added to them.
Make sure you have forwarded both the UDP and TCP variants of 17770-17772 and check portforward.com to see if there are any issues with your router you may be unaware of.

also read over nettips.txt in your 1.2 root folder and nettips.rtf in your 1.3 root folder and see if they give any hints as to what might be causing the problem

[Nielk1]

Ignoring all the 1.2 vs 1.3 BS.

TA5 is trying to tell your router it can forward the ports for it, and it looks like it might be. Mine spams tons of errors about it that amount to "I could toward it but you already are."

Perhaps you should see if there is a line from gameprefs.ini to copy to localpresf.ini and edit to turn the UPNP off. It might be incorrectly auto mapping now that you self mapped.

[Fulmen]

Warfreak: Done all that ages ago and nothing fixed it.

Nielk1: 1.2 doesn't have "Gameprefs" or "Localprefs". In fact it doesn't have the config folder in addon at all. So I made on myself and first made a copy of Localprefs into it, and added the line handling UPNP in Gameprefs under it. Didn't work. Then I pasted the whole Gameprefs file into the 1.2 config folder (which I created) and set UPNP off. Still didn't work.

Like I already said earlier, my problem seems to be dynamic in nature.

1) People see my games and can join, but after a few or a dozen seconds they get a "Server quit" while I see it as a "Client not ponging" message, followed by "Timed out" or something. If they however can enter the game before this happens, I will get huge amounts of lag, and most of the time so do they. And then they end up getting auto-kicked because of lag.

2) People can see my games but can't join as they get a "Network timed out" message after a few seconds upon clicking "Join game".

3) People can't see my games at all.

These problems seem to cycle. RARELY it actually works perfectly for a session or two. So what the hell could be causing this? And like told before, this doesn't happen to me in 1.3. And just about 3 weeks ago BOTH versions worked FINE. I'm so confused and annoyed by this.

[General BlackDragon]

ofc the copying of a 1.3 specific file into 1.2 didnt work, 1.2 isnt programmed to even use it.

:-/ make sure ur ports are forwarded to 17770 - 17772 and try hosting again. if it still doesnt work, kick ur router in the nuts