Sporatic Connection Problem

[OzzyOsbourneHM]

I have been searching for weeks in these forums and on the Internet in general for a solution to my teamspeak problem. I have been hosting a TeamSpeak2 using a Redhat 9 Linux PC for over a year. Several months ago I had a couple of people complain of having problems connecting to the TeamSpeak server. Since the 2 individuals were not at all tech savy and gave me very little information I passed their problem off as being "on the client's end". Well, here I am months later and the problem is now touching everyone who connects to the server.

The problem is that sporatically within an hour someone using the IP or Domain Name can connect to the server. Other times withing the same hour they try to connect and get the error "no reply from server. maybe the server is offline...". If I reboot the entire Redhat 9 Linux server anyone can connect again for a short time until receiving the error again.

To make matters worse, in the middle of last year I moved from cable to SBC DSL and updated my Wireless D-Link 524 router's Firmware (ver 1.20 at the time and today I updated the firmwere to ver 1.21). My DSL modem is a SpeedStream 5100 model. A day ago I took the approach that maybe the problem is the server and deleted the entire TS folder as well as starting over with settings and accounts. This had absolutely no effect on the problem.

Does anyone out there have any idea what the problem is or might be? This is driving me NUTS because at this point I think it's narrowed down to the Router, the DSL modem (which is my guess), or SBS themselves. I appreciate any tech savy advise.

[guldi]

just a few guesses:

- we had same problem when running TS on a home (DSL) connection for a long time: usually it worked, sometimes some peopel could not conenct but also had problems with certain game server at this time => unstable connection
Since we run the server directly on an ISP server, we not any more encountered such problems.

- The FAQ discusses a possible NAT problem when running the server one a machine with more then one IP interface => bind the server to one IP interface

- If a timeout occure (check the FAQ dealing with "no reply / timeout) you might try the debug mode of the TS client

[OzzyOsbourneHM]

I ran TeamSpeak in Debug mode and then checked my TSClient.log. Here is the error:

---------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- log started at 24-01-06 08:01 -------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
24-01-06 09:01:52,2232,ERROR,ProcedureInfo,Client Open,Exception: Timeout on recv LoginStep2 wait

I also checked the post that you referred to:

A timeout issue can in certain cases be solved by switching the client into the debug mode (Settings - Options - Other - Debug).
Some firewall can cause timeout problems as well => deactivate the firewall for testing.
Wireless networks ma as well be the cause of timeout problems => try without the wireless and use ethernet cable instead

Now, I have tried setting the DMZ on the router to go directly to the TeamSpeak server with the same results. The server is connected to the router via CAT5 cable. I have not tried using a different router. Do you think that a different router would make a difference?

I'm not completely certain, but this morning there was someone who didn't log off the TeamSpeak server last night and I was able to login for quite a while without problems until I disconnected him from the server. Could it be a keep-alive issue of some sort between the router and the server?

[palaran]

for what it's worth, I am having the same problem. sometimes everyone can connect, sometimes, only a few. The best taht I've been able to deduce is that this is a problem inhernet when using UDP. because UDP is connectionless, programs that use UDP can and do generate a lot of traffic that could be seen as frivolous from a network perspective. This means that routers and switches will drop UDP packets after they have traversed a certian number of hops (I think the number is usually 30). They do this to limit the amount of frivolous traffic, but in essence they limit the TTL that a UDP packet can have.

Basically, depending on how my residential network decides to route its traffic to other residential networks... the packets will get simply dropped. If the router changes its path for traffic to a certain network (common in BGP routing), then someone who was able to connect before might be getting "Server not up" messages now.

The workaround is to use a server that is closer (topographically speaking) to the backbone. This lowers the number sof hops between it and the client, and practically guarantees that the packets will get to their destinations before being dropped.

I guess the question is: given the problems with UDP for a product like this.... will TS3 be using TCP?

[guldi]

I have not tried using a different router. Do you think that a different router would make a difference?

It could... but unless you have easy access to an different router model, you better check some things before:

- no firewall is blocking a connection in any way
- tested a connection with TS in debug mode
- it's reported that older TS clients are a bit less tmeout sensitive then the 32.60 is. You might want to try one of the older version (try the one before 32.60), downloaded fro mthe FTP server where you get the recent version.

Do I understand you right, even you get a timeout on your own server ? Is the server in your own LAN ?

[OzzyOsbourneHM]

I can connect to the LAN 100% of the time. When I changed the server address to the WAN or Domain Name is when connecting is a problem. Over the last couple of days since posting I have noticed that if there is an account that is connected to the server via the Domain Name or WAN address that others seem to be able to join 100% of the time. I have only had the cooperation of testing this theory with myself and another member, but I will request the help of other members to test this during the next few days.

After I get more people to testing this "theory" I may try to narrow this problem down further by replacing the router itself. I have a Linksys router that my current router replaced over a year ago that I can put in place to test it's TTL and UDP packet drop rules.

Thank you for all of your help. I will post what I find out.

[guldi]

you are aware that from within the LAN you should NOT use the WAN IP / DNS to connect to the server running in the same LAN (this is stated in the FAQ) ? This is well known for causing problems but has absolutly nothing to do with the server but only with the access device (some do support it, most do not and some seem to support it half away => for example my Zyxel 642 it sometimes work and sometimes not).

Since beginning of Januar I've daily several total ADSL disconnects and as it looks the connection is very unstable during the other time as well. You might also check your connection, I more and more come to the conclusion that successfully running servers behind home DSL / cable connections is a matter of luck... for some it may work.....

[OzzyOsbourneHM]

I was using the LAN address up until a couple of weeks ago. As strange as it might sound, I conclude my portion of this post by stating that if there is at least one connection to my TeamSpeak server (WAN based address connection) that no one has ANY problems connecting to the TeamSpeak server at any time of day.

I can therefore only conclude (without testing new equipment) that the problem lies within my network or DSL (of which I am not changing because of the low price). It's possible there is a small communication problem between the modem and router and the rest of the nodes of the network. Either way, I have found a solution that is currently acceptable.

I appreciate everyone's help on this matter. Long live the TeamSpeak program and community!

[Banze]

Buy a D-Link Game Lounge DGL-4100 I went to this router 8 months ago
Fixed all connection problems, server never worked better. I run TS on 1 DSL. and play on another. 45 people
Max sounds better than phone. Use the Game fule function for your TS ports.
Router has not been reset once since I have had it. It has a 1.2Ghz cpu with 256MB ram
Its bad!

The Banz