Server Hosting Problem - Repeated Reconnection to List Server
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Greetings all,
I successfully hosted a server for just over a year, until a problem described in the title began around October 2021. If you have any input or suggestions on this matter, I would very greatly value your feedback! I thank you in advance for taking the time to read.
My server’s basic details:
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Name: [ZA] South African Freelancers
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Vanilla, with only an adjustment made to one file, which grants a very small XP boost for all factions when killing Nomads.
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PvE (PvP is disabled).
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Installed to and running on Windows 7.
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Hosted from a home network via cabled ethernet.
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200Mbps fibre connection, upload and download.
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Set up to reliably run 24/7, with a large UPS backup in case of power interruptions.
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I do not (yet) have a static IP for my internet connection. I do not know this is required or not, as I have not seen mention of it in any tutorial so far.
Problem:
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Server repeatedly connects, disconnects and reconnects to the list server.
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My server’s graphs are no longer generated on flserver.de
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Server is likely no longer visible to anyone outside of my own local network. I have not yet been able to conclusively test this, but since flserver.de no longer sees the server, it’s likely not visible to anyone else either.
Symptoms:
- The following code repeats many times, starting about half a minute after the server is started up:
Connecting to list server…
Established connection to list server…
Sending game information to list server…
Lost connection to list server…
Connecting to list server…-
Server is no longer listed on flserver.de, and no graphs are generated for it.
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I saw minimal, yet reliable traffic before the problem started. Most players only stopped by for very short periods, with the occasional player staying to rank up a character. However, no connections have been made to the server at all, from outside my home network, since last year.
What I have tried to troubleshoot the problem:
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Turned off all other devices connected to my router to ensure that only the machine the server is running on has all the available bandwidth.
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Ran only FLServer.exe, without any other programs open that might affect bandwidth.
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Fresh installations of the game, configured as follows:
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With and without decompiled game files.
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With and without saved accounts and configs (no Freelancer folder in the “My Games” folder).
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Installed to an entirely different computer, which also runs Windows 7.
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Confirmed that IPv6 is disabled.
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Forwarded all necessary ports, and some extras, all UDP: 2300-2400, 9928, 6073. No connections forwarded for TCP.
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Deleted all empty accounts (those without any characters), in case there were too many, which could somehow affect the server’s ability to function.
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Disabled the router firewall for IPv4 and even IPv6.
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Enabled DMZ in my router for the host machine.
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Attempted to host the server from one town over, on a completely different internet connection with a different service provider. The exact same symptoms persisted.
Additional info and closing:
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Try to find mtu
ping flserver.de -f -l 1472
stepping down by```
10Then set good mtu into TcpOptimizer or``` netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "<iface name="">" mtu= <here>store=persistent</here></iface>
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Hi HeIIoween, many thanks for your reply.
Stepping down by 10 from 1472, I found that 1322 returned successful replies. However, the same reconnection problem persisted.
I understand that packets have 28 bytes added as overhead, so I decreased the MTU to 1294 instead, but sadly the problem is still there, despite the successful pings with this MTU to flserver.de.
Is there something else I could try?
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I don’t know that much about it so these are probably basic suggestions:
1.) Check the following entry is in freelancer.ini
hostname = gun.fllistserver.com ;GUN server provided by www.fllistserver.com
port = 23002.) Add the IP address via http://flserver.de/add_server.php
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Blinky wrote:
Hi HeIIoween, many thanks for your reply.Stepping down by 10 from 1472, I found that 1322 returned successful replies. However, the same reconnection problem persisted.
I understand that packets have 28 bytes added as overhead, so I decreased the MTU to 1294 instead, but sadly the problem is still there, despite the successful pings with this MTU to flserver.de.
Is there something else I could try?
Forgot to say - need to reboot server after mtu setting step
Sure.
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Add your server here: https://www.gs4u.net/en/addserver.html
It should be green -
Force to avoid dns problems:
[ListServer] ;;;hostname = localhost ;Your local machine ;;;hostname = FLListServer2.dns.corp.microsoft.com ;GUN server in Austin ;;;hostname = 131.107.135.190 ;GUN server in Redmond hostname = 195.201.39.247 ;GUN server in Redmond (DNS entry)
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Take a look tcpoptimizer gaming manual
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Choose optimal drivers for your ethernet adapter from the site of the adapter vendor
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I’m pleased to confirm that the server is back online. Thank you sincerely for your help.
I used the TCP Optimizer program to determine the exact MTU that’s appropriate for my connection, and set it accordingly. The server was indeed restarted each time I set a new value.
At first, there was no change, even when trying other MTU’s, but the errors no longer occurred the day after.
While I’m not 100% sure what finally fixed the issue, the new MTU value is mostly likely to credit. I wouldn’t have thought to check this on my own.
The server’s presence now reflects on flserver.de once more.
Thanks again!
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