Connection troubles with TS server

[Limpo]

Hey all, been banging my head against this brick wall for what seems like ages.

My Info:

Computer running the server is sitting behind a router.
Using a sitecom DC 202v2 router, with latest firmware
Virtual server (port forwarding) has been set up to forward ports to 8767, UDP.
WinXP Home, Sp1.
My IP is provided via DHCP.
Client version 2.0.32.60
Server version latest download, and latest beta.

My problem:

I am having people connect to my external Ip, but they are having trouble connecting to my server, and get the message Terminated; connection timed out. If i try to connect to them, i have no problems. If they try to connect to other servers, also no problems. So it seems im the problem.

The funny thing is, the problem seems to br rather intermittent; some times they are able to get through and stay connected, other times they connect but then are disconnected after 45 minutes or so and cant reconnect. Most of the time however, they get the connection timed out message.

I have one friend who has no problem connecting whatsoever, and the only thing i can think of thats different about him vs. my other friends, is that he has a static IP address rather than a dynamic one.

I've tried upgrading to the .46 beta of the server, but the problem persists, sometimes they can connect, other times now.

Does anyone have any ideas? Why would they be able to connect sometimes and then not? Thanks for any help

[guldi]

1) with static IP you mean ONLY the WAN IP ? I hope you do not use port forwarding with dynamic IP's in your LAN.

2) to me this looks like a stability problem of your router. Why:
- TS .46 seems to work stable on many installation so I doubt it is a TS problem.
- There are issues with some router firmware where the NAT Implementation were not clean.
- You state that you can use server installations of your friends without a problem.

I recommand you check for a new router firmware. In the same time, check if there are known issues with your specific router.

I do not think it has anything to do with your dynamic IP. Many us TS server with dynamic IP's (me too). UNLESS your not receiving every 45 min. a new IP from your ISP (what I do not think) !

[Limpo]

Originally posted by guldi
1) with static IP you mean ONLY the WAN IP ? I hope you do not use port forwarding with dynamic IP's in your LAN.


What do you mean by this?

Otherwise, i guess it is my router being difficult. I will email the manufacturer mabye they can help me.

What i don't understand is why can friends connect sometimes, and at other times not at all? Why would this happen? Does the router decide to drop packets at one time and not at others?

Thanks for your help.

[guldi]

a router has at least two IP's:

- A WAN IP (which you get from your ISP and which is usaully given per DHCP => dynamic IP)
- A LAN IP which usually you can assign. Some Router have a DHCP server which allows a easy DHCP configuration for the LAN PCs. When ever you use port forwarding, it's a stupid idea to use DHCP in your LAN as you then have dynamic IP's with a fix entered port forwarding IP in your router. I hope you didn't do that :p
=> use static IP's in your LAN !

You do not need to email your manufacturer. Simple check in the web if a new firmware is available.

The problem you describe, could be a router firmware problem. A bad NAT implementation which loses packets or connections. Wouldn't be the first time.

[Dummer Sack]

As guldi said do not configure the PC that is running the TS server via DHCP.
This may at least solve your 45 minutes timeout problem.
If you want to know how to do it read here (http://www.teamspeak.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1521) and here (http://www.teamspeak.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8979).

[Limpo]

As it stands now, the router is acting as a DHCP server. However i tried to give my PC's a fixed IP address, and things stopped working. The router also has the option to, and i quote from its help file:

PCs which are "DHCP Clients" are automatically added to the database, and updated as required. (By default, Windows PCs act as DHCP clients.)

For DHCP clients, the DC-202 will always allocate the same IP Address. There is no need to "reserve" an IP address for a PC to ensure that the PC's IP address does not change.

The DC-202 uses the "Physical Address" to identify each PC, not the name or IP address.

This system means you do NOT need to use Fixed (static) IP addresses on your LAN. However, you can add PCs using Fixed (static) IP Addresses to the PC database if required.

Since permanently fixing its IP address made things b0rk i took the happy middle road of:

DCHP Client - Reserved IP Address - Select this if the PC is set to be a DCHP client, and you wish to guarantee that the DC-202 will always allocate the same IP Address to this PC.
Enter the required IP address. Only the last field is required; the other fields must match the DC-202's IP address.

So now i have a kinda-fixed IP adress. However problems have not been solved. I have the latest (and only) available firmware for the router. The support forums of the router have yielded little. I still have 1 friend who connects with no problems, and basically every one else gets time-out messages.

Cry for help: no one else using this paticular router has any experience getting it to work? (I can't imagine im the only one in the netherlands using this router and teamspeak :)

Any other idea's would be appreciated, and thanks for the help so far.

[Matthijs]

Same problem here. I've been on the phone with sitecom today, but coundn't fix it. I am waiting for a reply on my email.

I've tried setting up a Teamspeak server without the router (cablemodem directly connected to the nic) and everything worked great. The problem seems to be the build in firewall.

My network is set up with fixed IP's, but when you configure the virtual server on the router and forward to for example 192.168.0.2 and port 8767, one always gets the connection timed out message.

If Sitecom sends me the sollution to this problem later on I'll let you know....(as I see it now, we've bought the wrong router...)

[Dummer Sack]

You can get an older version of the TS client in the Developer Releases section (version 2.0.32.57).
This version fixed the problem for some users. Please try if this fixes it for you too.
Just overwite the teamspeak.exe and tsremote.dll with the ones inluded in the archive.

[Matthijs]

The client is not the problem.
(Not that I haven't tried offcourse. I've searched for the client version you said and installed the files. But again: nothing).

According to Sitecom there should be no problem, but they haven't been able to tell me what I'm doing wrong...

[Dummer Sack]

If it really is a router problem then you might want to check out this (http://www.broadbandreports.com/forums/18) forum.
They have good tips for many router models.

[Matthijs]

I've used the search function on this forum before, but unfortunately there's no relevant information available.

Maybe Sitecom is a Dutch brand. I don't know what's the international equivalent (as I'm sure it's not made in Holland). I've checked the router for any manufacturer information, but I'm sure you can guess what's on the sticker....made in Taiwan (and that's about it).

Since their support employees are not able to help (so far) either, there's only one conclusion: don't buy a crappy product like a sitecom router.

[Limpo]

For mathijs:

if you go to the security screen in advanced options you can turn the DoS threshold to low (I am assuming you are using around ~1024/2048 kbps service). This helped some people connect to me.

You can also try turning the DoS off completely.

I have not yet tried using the servers DMZ feature which supposedly turns off the firewall completely, but this should stop any problems.

Try these and post here again, let me know if they work :) Thanks.

[matjkd]

I had the exact same problem on my netgear dg834m router, which was solved as soon as i updated the firmware. so theres probably nothing you can do until the manufacturers of your router fix the problem.