Syntax
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I had originally posted this in site, but not sure if that was the right place.

For the last few days, I've been unable to connect to CaravelNet. I've tried several keys with no luck... When leaving the Settings screen, DROD just hangs for approx 30 seconds, then returns to the front-screen with the dreaded X.

Drod.err has nothing to note. Anything in the server logs by any chance?

[EDIT]

Drod 3.2.0.83 on Ubuntu 10.04

[EDIT]

Sniffing the traffic on port 80, I see it's trying to connect to:
* GET /gamenews.php?game=drod&version=3.2.0.83&language=eng&OS=Linux HTTP/1.1\r\n
Then:
POST /game30.php?action=getholdlist HTTP/1.1\r\n

There's then a long pause, and that url gets retried before the timeout occurs.

In each case, there's a cookie present with my key passed in.

Also, all comms is with 72.232.206.138, but I see one attempt to 173.194.0.224. Is that one of yours too, just noise?

[EDIT]

Ok ignore the latter ip... that's google for some reason

[EDIT]

Installed the latest version of DROD on a separate Windows 7 box. Same happens.

My IP is 93.97.46.74

[EDIT]

Resetting the router didn't fix it

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[Last edited by Syntax at 08-06-2010 09:07 PM]

Syntax
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New findings - Even though in-game chat and F6 say "(Not connected)" I can still send/receive messages in-game...

Syntax
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I see the bug has been updated to "Cannot reproduce". Is there any more info I can provide that would help?

Does anything appear in the logs relating to my ip? Does the handshaking look suspicious on the server side? It must be connection/protocol related as all my systems are affected...

Syntax
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Anyone interested at looking at this or should I just give up? Drod just isn't the same without optimisation targets to aim for...

The sniffing did show up HTTP continues which I thought might cause a problem a couple of years ago
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=22096&page=0#252654

Also, as my post above mentions, in-game chat works though it shows me as not connected and takes about 5 seconds to then show me who's in the room. F6 never works.

Is there any chance you could upgrade your http listener and see if that makes a difference? The fact it doesn't work on any machines on my network leads me to think it's a connection protocol bug. Others have also had issues with F6 which is probably a similar issue, though more intermittent
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=28867&page=0#282604

Worked hard to get where I'm at over the past 6 years and would hate to have to hang up my gloves.

Elfstone
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Syntax wrote:
Anyone interested at looking at this or should I just give up? Drod just isn't the same without optimisation targets to aim for...

I'm a little surprised that none of the very clever computer buffs on this site have been able to make any suggestions to help you with this. All I can offer is sympathy and I realise that that isn't what you want.

Syntax wrote:
Also, as my post above mentions, in-game chat works though it shows me as not connected and takes about 5 seconds to then show me who's in the room. F6 never works.

You appeared to be in Chat last night- I could see your name, but when I 'spoke' to you there was no response, so I wonder if you're not seeing all of the conversation in-game?

Syntax wrote:
Worked hard to get where I'm at over the past 6 years and would hate to have to hang up my gloves.

Oh no - that won't do at all; we can't have you leaving; that's definitely not allowed!

____________________________
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Briareos
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Elfstone wrote:

Syntax wrote:
Anyone interested at looking at this or should I just give up? Drod just isn't the same without optimisation targets to aim for...

I'm a little surprised that none of the very clever computer buffs on this site have been able to make any suggestions to help you with this.

Well, it's kinda hard to troubleshoot a connection between two computers if you're at neither end of said connection and also not somewhere in-between...

So the only ones that would realistically be able to help him would probably be mrimer or schik...

@Syntax: you could try installing TOR - not for the privacy, but for the different network infrastructure that your connection will get tunneled through...

np: Born Ruffians - Barnacle Goose (Red, Yellow & Blue)

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Syntax
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Briareos wrote:
@Syntax: you could try installing TOR - not for the privacy, but for the different network infrastructure that your connection will get tunneled through..

Thanks for the advice! I'll take a look... maybe tunnelling differently will auto-magically fix the problem

[EDIT]

Is showing hold completion %ages not also Caravel only? Because that works too...

---

[Last edited by Syntax at 08-22-2010 05:24 PM]

slimm tom
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Syntax wrote:
Is showing hold completion %ages not also Caravel only? Because that works too...

Nope, DROD calculates that from your data files.

Jatopian
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Is that why it takes so long? Surely it would be faster if the player data files had a little 103/192 or whatever in them.

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slimm tom
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Jatopian wrote:
Is that why it takes so long? Surely it would be faster if the player data files had a little 103/192 or whatever in them.

Yeah, that's why. DROD looks at your progress hold by hold, room by room, and calculates a percentage from that. This isn't stored anywhere, so DROD calculates it again each time.

Jatopian
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Well damn, that clears that up. Why on earth isn't that stored?

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

Schik
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Once upon a time that was calculated every time you hit that screen, *before* it would allow you to click on anything. At least now it's asynchronous.

Would be nice if that were kept track of while you were playing/importing.

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Syntax
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Can I send the Caravel keys that are generated to someone to check it's not that?

Jatopian seems to have had a similar issue:
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=29500

Schik
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If the key works *at all*, then it's not that the key is somehow laggier than other keys. I can't reproduce any general slowness with my CaravelNet connection (nor do I see others complaining about it regularly). I've been watching the server load, and it's generally in an acceptable range. I just don't know what to tell you.


____________________________
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Syntax
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Right but in that link, Tim posts the following after trying Jatopian's key:

"I've tried using your name and the key you sent me, and what happened is that it waited for a long time before it decides to become invalid.

The key I've just requested for myself worked. If I used a random key for myself it said it was invalid immediately."

I'm having the exact same issue. An invalid key returns straight away, but my keys take 30 secs before timing out. I realise this doesn't really make sense, but it seems it's happened before...

Can I send you my key so you can try and see if that's got anything to do with it? Just trying to eliminate any problems...

I'll also try and connect as VaC with a key of hers - eliminate network issues... My connection is fast though (24 meg) so can't be latency issues

[EDIT]

The fact in-game chat works just makes this even more mysterious - are the authentication methods different for chat and F6?

---

[Last edited by Syntax at 08-26-2010 07:06 PM]

Schik
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Syntax wrote:
Can I send you my key so you can try and see if that's got anything to do with it? Just trying to eliminate any problems...

I don't have DROD where I am right now, but sure, I can try to test it tonight. I can grab one of your keys later, you don't need to send it to me.

I'll also try and connect as VaC with a key of hers - eliminate network issues... My connection is fast though (24 meg) so can't be latency issues

throughput != latency. I'd be curious to see if VaC's login/key works for you.

The fact in-game chat works just makes this even more mysterious - are the authentication methods different for chat and F6?

Nope, they use the same key system as all CaravelNet requests.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Syntax
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File: Wireshark capture (0 bytes)
Downloaded 41 times.
License: Public Domain

Schik wrote:

Syntax wrote:
Can I send you my key so you can try and see if that's got anything to do with it? Just trying to eliminate any problems...

I don't have DROD where I am right now, but sure, I can try to test it tonight. I can grab one of your keys later, you don't need to send it to me.

I'll also try and connect as VaC with a key of hers - eliminate network issues... My connection is fast though (24 meg) so can't be latency issues

throughput != latency. I'd be curious to see if VaC's login/key works for you.

The fact in-game chat works just makes this even more mysterious - are the authentication methods different for chat and F6?

Nope, they use the same key system as all CaravelNet requests.

Cheers... I appreciate your help.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work with VaC's login+key either :/

Latency looks fine with ping. Here's the traceroute too:

syntax@syntax-pc:~$ traceroute 72.232.206.138
traceroute to 72.232.206.138 (72.232.206.138), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 dsldevice.config (192.168.1.254) 36.641 ms 35.634 ms 34.926 ms
2 * * *
3 * * *
4 10.1.2.158 (10.1.2.158) 28.309 ms 29.732 ms 29.839 ms
5 xe-9-1-0.edge3.London1.Level3.net (212.113.15.65) 31.650 ms 31.718 ms 31.795 ms
6 ae-34-52.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.97) 32.590 ms 22.088 ms 22.918 ms
7 ae-42-42.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.70) 96.322 ms ae-44-44.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.78) 95.420 ms ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.74) 97.291 ms
8 ae-71-71.csw2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.70) 110.295 ms ae-91-91.csw4.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.78) 96.395 ms ae-71-71.csw2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.70) 108.034 ms
9 ae-92-92.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.148.45) 95.433 ms 86.107 ms ae-62-62.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.148.33) 86.494 ms
10 ae-3-3.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.137.121) 127.144 ms 126.996 ms 126.222 ms
11 ae-1-60.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.145.8) 125.456 ms ae-2-70.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.145.72) 126.922 ms ae-3-80.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.145.136) 125.862 ms
12 DATABANK-HO.edge3.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.71.170.6) 128.488 ms 122.182 ms 122.190 ms
13 dbce10glt.layeredtech.com (66.18.0.142) 248.483 ms 212.132 ms 139.515 ms
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 138.206.232.72.static.reverse.ltdomains.com (72.232.206.138) 120.790 ms 120.314 ms 122.223 ms

--

I also wonder why the chat works, and not F6 (or the cross)...

[EDIT]

Today I got the "Attempting to connect to Caravel" and let it run for a few minutes. I've attached the capture in libcap format... though one of the pages for the forum timed out too at that time so I think it might be unrelated. Forum in general has been very slow though... maybe that's linked

---

[Last edited by Syntax at 08-27-2010 07:25 PM]

Syntax
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New info:

My login + key works from VaC's mums so it seems network related. When sniffing the traffic (and previously, when trying to debug the inconsistent F6 behaviour) the blocking state seems to be a HTTP 200 continue.

What lib are you using for http traffic? I might try and build a new version with a more recent version or at least check the changelog for any bugs...

Syntax
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Ok

I might be going round this the wrong way, but need some assistance in this matter. I obviously get authorised by Caravel (as the in-game chat works) so please check how (why?) the 30 second timeout occurs.

Schik
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Since your key works elsewhere, and another user's also doesn't work from your network, yes, I agree with you that there's something wrong with your network.

Beyond the obvious "well, a 30 second timeout occurs because you're not receiving a response within 30 seconds", I don't know what to tell you.

I can see that your requests do not take longer than anyone else's, so I don't believe that it's a problem on the server side of things.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
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I've installed the RPG and the connection to Caravel works - is there a difference in the logic between DROD and the RPG?

Syntax
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*bump*

Sorry but - my Caravel's running out and as much as I enjoy being able to connect to chat in-game without seeing who's there, I mostly rely on Caravel to upload my high-scores and download new holds. The former is key to "live"/fun optimisation battles and what makes the game great for me.

There's obviously a bug. RPG Cnet works fine, so I thought that might be helpful info - there must be something different there. And as you can see above, I'll do whatever I can to provide more info to help. Been 4 months since I could last upload scores and I'd be gutted if those were lost.

This will be my last bump about this issue.

[EDIT]

And I can't help thinking this is an aggravated version of the F6 issue with temporarily unshown high-scores/the "could not download the hold" issue when a hold is first downloaded but subsequently can/the sometimes empy room when you check who's present in-chat. The client doesn't seem stable for whatever reason.

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[Last edited by Syntax at 11-20-2010 04:42 AM]