Topic: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

Over the past week I've been trying to get a Team Fortress 2 server running on my old Athlon FX-53. I use the HLDSTOOLUPDATE to run the server thus avoiding any account problems allowing me to play the game and run the server. Also, I use the following router to setup the system:

D-Link DI-524 Wireless G Broadband Router Version C1

Obviously, my ports need to be configured to allow others to connect to my server. This is where things get confusing. After looking at some guides online to determine what ports need to be configured, I come up with this:

Virtual Servers List     

      Name                 Private IP               Protocol               Schedule
Dedicated Server    74.56.144.159       Both 27015/27015        always

Having forwarded only this port on my static public IP address, I had Taknarosh and Project_Demon try to connect to the server. At this point, neither of them could see the server on the Main Server List. However, by connecting to that IP directly, Project_Demon was able to get in. On the other hand, Taknarosh kept receiving the message (Server is not responding). I then went back to the router's virtual servers list and changed the IP of port 27015 to the LAN IP of the server PC:

Virtual Servers List     

      Name                 Private IP               Protocol               Schedule
Dedicated Server    192.168.0.100       Both 27015/27015        always

This time, both Taknarosh and Project_Demon could see the server on the Master server list with the IP: 74.56.144.159:27015 and to both of them the server was indeed responding. Project_Demon again was able to connect without a problem. This time, instead of getting the "Server is not responding message", Taknarosh got "Could not connect after 4 attempts" during the "Connecting to server" phase of the connection process.

Upon further investigation, it seems that the people connecting to the server are being forwarded to a different port every time they attempt to connect. If for example you look at the server on the Steam server list, the IP is written as 74.56.144.159:27015. On the other hand, after connecting to the server and entering the console, at the top right of the screen it indicates "Connected to 74.56.144.159:60070" or some other port variation. This can also be confirmed by looking for the server on game-monitor.com where the system indicates that 27015 is not the hostport.

We've tried solving the problem by enter the -hostport 27015 command in the shortcut used to launch the server with. We've also used "hostport 27015" in the server.cfg and config_arena.cfg files. Both did not work. In all, Taknarosh was never able to connect to the server because we had no idea what port he was trying to connect to (his attempts to connect are not recorded in the console because he can't connect to the server) and therefore I never knew what port to forward for him. If anyone can help me out with something, it would be much appreciated. thanks!

I forgot to mention that this issue also occurred using the Team Fortress 2 Dedicated Server program in the steam "tools" tab.

Last edited by the.doomhammer (2008-08-26 17:48)

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

try forwarding ports 1200, 27000-27015, 27020, and 27030-27039 to your LAN IP and have him try again

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

The ports listed were forwarded, but Taknarosh still could not connect (the "Could not connect after 4 attempts" message shows up). If I connect to the server using my public IP, the port number of the server is still "randomized"... This time it was 74.56.144.159:61853.

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

-hostport isn't what it should be. its -port, unless the windows version is different than the linux one. also, if you don't specify a port, 27015 should be the default. are you sure that random port isn't the outgoing port of the client, not the incoming port on the server?

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

If I locate my server on game-monitor.com or gametiger.net, the IP of the server is shown with the random port (ie: 74.56.144.159:61853). Another thing that leads me to believe it is in fact the server port is when I successfully connect to the server through my public IP the console reads the following:

Connecting to: 74.56.144.159:27015...
     Connected to: 74.56.144.159:61853

For some reason, clients are being redirected to that random port. I tried forwarding that random port to my public IP. The server worked with no problems. The next day, however, that port changed without me having to restart the server?? What bothers me is the fact that the server is not taking port 27015 but instead generates a random port.

I might be routing the ports incorrectly. I'll provide a list of screenshots showing what I'm doing.

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5724/virtualserverwv8.jpg

These are the Virtual Server options available to me. Note that I can't forward a port range here which is why i tried doing it from the Firewall section as seen below.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3474/firewallforwardingrr9.jpg

Last edited by the.doomhammer (2008-08-27 11:37)

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

have you tried connecting your computer right to the modem and bypassing the router, to see if it still does the random port thing? also, can you paste your config files, i wanna see if i notice anything that might cause this.

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Re: Assuming router-related issue... can anyone help?

I've tried a number of methods to bypass the router. Direct connection worked as it should and the server immediately had port # 27015. Another thing I tried was connecting my modem to the first Ethernet port on my PC, and connecting the 2nd ethernet port to my router. I bridged the 2 connections to get the internet access available and then hosted the server on my Quad core. This also worked without a problem, I just could not get my other PCs to work on the router and the connection to the server wasn't as strong. It would cap and lag at about 10 players where normally it would at about 16.

Here is my server.cfg file. The config_arena.cfg is the exact same thing

// Team Fortress 2 Server Configuration File, To be used with TF2 only!


// Server Name
hostname "24/7 Arena Gaming Server DoomHammer PUB"

// Rcon Cvars
rcon_password "qwerty" //Set's remote control password
sv_rcon_log 1 //Enable/disable rcon logging.

// Server Cvars
mp_allowspectators 1 //Toggles whether the server allows spectator mode or not
mp_autocrosshair 0
mp_autoteambalance 1 //Toggles server autoteambalance
mp_bonusroundtime 12 //Time in seconds after round win until round restarts
mp_chattime 12 //amount of time in seconds players can chat after the game is over
mapcyclefile "arena_mapcycle.txt"
// Team sizes are derived from maxplayers. Each arena match has 3 teams, two playing and one waiting in the queue. So maxplayers 18 will give you a max team size of 6 (18/3).
tf_weapon_criticals 0 //Nocrit

mp_decals 1
mp_defaultteam 1
mp_disable_autokick 1 //Prevents a userid from being auto-kicked
mp_enableroundwaittime 1 //Enable timers to wait between rounds.
mp_fadetoblack 0 //fade a player's screen to black when he dies
mp_falldamage 15 //Amount of damage players sustains from a fall
mp_flashlight 0 //Toggles flashlight on or off
mp_footsteps 1 //Toggles footsteps on or off
mp_forcecamera 0 //Restricts spectator modes for dead players
mp_forcerespawn 0
mp_fraglimit 0
mp_idledealmethod 1 //Deals with Idle Players. 1 = Sends them into Spectator mode then kicks them if they're still idle, 2 = Kicks them out of the game
mp_idlemaxtime 10 //Maximum time a player is allowed to be idle (in minutes)
mp_maxrounds 16 //max number of rounds to play before server changes maps
mp_teams_unbalance_limit 2 //Teams are unbalanced when one team has this many more players than the other team. (0 disables check)
mp_time_between_capscoring 5 //Delay between scoring of owned capture points.
mp_timelimit 25 //game time per map in minutes
mp_winlimit 5 //Max number of rounds one team can win before server changes maps
sv_allow_color_correction 1 //Allow or disallow clients to use color correction on this server.
sv_allow_wait_command 0 //Allow or disallow the wait command on clients connected to this server.
sv_allowdownload 1 //Allow clients to download files
sv_allowupload 1 //Allow clients to upload customizations files
sv_alltalk 0 //Players can hear all other players, no team restrictions
sv_alternateticks 0 //If set, server only simulates entities on even numbered ticks.
sv_autosave 0 //Set to 1 to autosave game on level transition. Does not affect autosave triggers.
sv_bonus_challenge 0 //Set to values other than 0 to select a bonus map challenge type.
sv_cacheencodedents 1 //If set to 1, does an optimization to prevent extra SendTable_Encode calls.
sv_cheats 0 //Allow cheats on server
sv_clearhinthistory 0 //Clear memory of server side hints displayed to the player.
sv_consistency 1 //Whether the server enforces file consistency for critical files
sv_contact "thomas_g32@hotmail.com" //Contact email for server sysop
sv_enableoldqueries 1 //Enable support for old style (HL1) server queries
sv_pausable 0 //Is the server pausable.

// Lan or internet play, Server region cvars
sv_lan 0 //Server is a lan server ( no heartbeat, no authentication, no non-class C addresses )
sv_region 0 // Region Codes: 0 - US East coast, 1 - US West coast, 2 - South America, 2 - South America, 3 - Europe, 4 - Asia, 5 - Australia, 6 - Middle East, 7 - Africa, 255 - world

//server Logging
sv_log_onefile 0 //Log server information to only one file.
sv_logbans 1 //Log server bans in the server logs.
sv_logblocks 0 //If true when log when a query is blocked (can cause very large log files)
sv_logecho 0 //Echo log information to the console.
sv_logfile 0 //Log server information in the log file.
sv_logflush 0 //Flush the log file to disk on each write (slow).
sv_logsdir "logs" //Folder in the game directory where server logs will be stored.

//Server Rates
sv_maxcmdrate 0 //(If sv_mincmdrate is > 0), this sets the maximum value for cl_cmdrate.
sv_maxrate 0 //Max bandwidth rate allowed on server, 0 == unlimited
sv_maxreplay 2 //Maximum replay time in seconds
sv_maxupdaterate 100 //Maximum updates per second that the server will allow
sv_mincmdrate 0 //This sets the minimum value for cl_cmdrate. 0 == unlimited.
sv_minrate 0 //Min bandwidth rate allowed on server, 0 == unlimited
sv_minupdaterate 30 //Minimum updates per second that the server will allow

I'll also give you the runserver.bat line

c:\HLserver\orangebox\srcds.exe -console -game tf +tf_birthday 0 -port 27015 -tickrate 100 +maxplayers 20 +map arena_badlands

Last edited by the.doomhammer (2008-08-27 14:45)

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