999 ping on all servers

[JimladSeraph]

I'm having real trouble ever since I got my new broadband connection/router. I can log in just fine but when I get to the server browser, all the servers show up as 999 ping. Actually, they show with normal pings for a second, but they quickly go up to 999 by the time the server list has populated. If I try joining any of them, it just tells me it's connecting and then waits forever. I've tried forwarding UDP port 27272 but that doesn't seem to have changed anything.

I can play other games in multiplayer just fine, and I can also play if I connect to my phone's 3G hotspot connection. My router is a Netgear N150 (DGN1000). Can anyone help?

[Boko]

Disabling upnp has been suggested before I think, doesn't hurt to try. But you play thermo whale, why would you want lower ping?

[JimladSeraph]

It's not the high ping I'm worried about, it's not being able to connect to servers. Disabling upnp didn't work. :/

[Boko]

Topics that might help:

http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6934

http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2956

You might want to enable/check your router log to see if it's throwing up anything funny.
Also resetting your router to factory default or updating it's firmware might help.

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by Boko

Topics that might help:

http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6934

http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2956

You might want to enable/check your router log to see if it's throwing up anything funny.
Also resetting your router to factory default or updating it's firmware might help.

Firmware is up to date, reset settings, still the same problem. I then fiddled with the settings, disabling the firewall, setting up a DMZ, disabling/enabling UPNP, no difference. Nothing unusual in the router logs.

I also tried the solutions from those two threads but no joy there either.

[sunshineduck]

open 31373 and 31383 imo

[sunshineduck]

also if you need to manually open ports, most servers use different ports to connect and you'll need to open those as well.

[Boko]

If you're on wireless try hooking up a cable see if you have the same problems, this way we can narrow the problem down.

Also check if the pings are 999 on other laptops/desktops.

[JimladSeraph]

I tried opening all ports 1-65565 on both TCP and UDP and that didn't make a difference. I also tried connecting using my laptop and I get the same problem, the server list comes up but all pings are 999 and I can't connect to any of them. Both computers are/were connected by cable.

At this point I'm thinking of just going for a new router and installing Tomato on it. I wonder if I'm going to get anywhere with this crappy router.

[JimladSeraph]

blah, turns out even the new router made no difference. Looks like my Altitude career is at an end unless anyone has any ideas to make it work.

[lamster]

I think you said you already tried this, but if not it's worth a shot:

Open the config file in a text editor: C:\Program Files (x86)\Altitude\config\options.xml

Make the following changes on line 3:
upnpEnabled="false"
bindIp="AUTO"
maxServerInfoRequestsPerSecond="15"
debug="true"

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by lamster

I think you said you already tried this, but if not it's worth a shot:

Open the config file in a text editor: C:\Program Files (x86)\Altitude\config\options.xml

Make the following changes on line 3:
upnpEnabled="false"
bindIp="AUTO"
maxServerInfoRequestsPerSecond="15"
debug="true"

Unfortunately doesn't work. :/ The weird thing is that the servers all have sensible pings while it's populating, but once a server has shown for a couple of seconds, only then does it go to 999. Same for when I try to join a server; the ping shows up as normal for a second then goes to 999. Any ideas what would cause that?

[lamster]

Some kind of firewall would be my guess. You tried replacing your router -- so it's probably not in the translation/routing/firewall on the router -- but you may have some kind of software firewall running on your computer: all Anti-Virus, Windows Firewall, etc programs should be disabled.

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by lamster

Some kind of firewall would be my guess. You tried replacing your router -- so it's probably not in the translation/routing/firewall on the router -- but you may have some kind of software firewall running on your computer: all Anti-Virus, Windows Firewall, etc programs should be disabled.

I can already connect on my phone's wireless hotspot so I don't think that's the issue. I'd play using that if I could, but the pings are terrible and it depends a lot on the weather if I can get a signal at all.

[lamster]

What happens if you start Altitude -- don't click "Join Game" to load the server list but instead click "Friends" -- and then click a green button to join a server a friend is in without ever loading the server list?

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by lamster

What happens if you start Altitude -- don't click "Join Game" to load the server list but instead click "Friends" -- and then click a green button to join a server a friend is in without ever loading the server list?

It comes up with the "connecting to server" box with the little scrolling white bars underneath. Nothing happens after that, it just keeps scrolling forever.

[lamster]

Who is your internet service provider? Are you at a college campus? This almost -has- to be some sort of super-aggressive UDP filtering by your service provider. It's a bit surprising that your other multiplayer games work with that connection. Do you play other action games that use UDP (Counter-Strike, CoD, TF2, etc)? Perhaps your ISP has specific UDP ports open for games (e.g. 27015 for CS) and all others blocked to discourage bit torrent traffic. You could try changing your Altitude port to 27015. Otherwise you need to call your internet service provider and ask for an explanation.

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by lamster

Who is your internet service provider? Are you at a college campus? This almost -has- to be some sort of super-aggressive UDP filtering by your service provider. It's a bit surprising that your other multiplayer games work with that connection. Do you play other action games that use UDP (Counter-Strike, CoD, TF2, etc)? Perhaps your ISP has specific UDP ports open for games (e.g. 27015 for CS) and all others blocked to discourage bit torrent traffic. You could try changing your Altitude port to 27015. Otherwise you need to call your internet service provider and ask for an explanation.

I'm on Orange ADSL. I'm pretty sure they don't do much filtering, they're pretty open about their filtering policies. I can play TF2 and BF3 just fine. I tried changing the Altitude port to 27015 but that didn't seem to change anything. I take it there isn't anything strange that Altitude does in terms of networking?

[lamster]

No - as a general rule if other UDP games are working Altitude should work.

Here is a random fix to try, in the unlikely case that an old ethernet card is to blame:

Windows Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Network adapters -> right click your ethernet card and select Properties
[nForce 4 chipset] Under the "Advanced" tab, find "Checksum Offload" and change it to Disabled.
[other ethernet cards] Under the "Advanced" tab, find "Transmit Buffers" and change the value to 512.

[JimladSeraph]

Originally Posted by lamster

No - as a general rule if other UDP games are working Altitude should work.

Here is a random fix to try, in the unlikely case that an old ethernet card is to blame:

Windows Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Network adapters -> right click your ethernet card and select Properties
[nForce 4 chipset] Under the "Advanced" tab, find "Checksum Offload" and change it to Disabled.
[other ethernet cards] Under the "Advanced" tab, find "Transmit Buffers" and change the value to 512.

Well, my card had both options so I set both of them, but no joy there. I guess at this point all I can do is hope maybe it's still a router problem and continue fiddling with settings. I have some old, spare routers lying around in storage so I'll try and get them going over the weekend, otherwise I'll just have to give up.

[Karl]

Have you looked at your DSL modem settings to see if any of those are weird?

[Karl]

Or even better plug your computer directly into the modem if possible. That will eliminate the router as an issue.

[JimladSeraph]

Yays I got it working! I got a new modem and a new router and now I'm running my modem on bridge mode and everything's being handled by the router, and it all works. Thanks for your help, all.