Troubleshooting: Connection Issues *hotfix*

[Juzaz]

MOBILE BROADBAND CONNECTIONS (3G, 4G etc.) NOT SUPPORTED UNTIL STEAMWORKS INTEGRATION.

SHORT VERSION:
- Most of connection issues should be now fixed.
- Game now uses port 6881 in default.
- If you have problems connecting, enable UPnP port forwarding from your router and game options, or forward them manually (check guides online)
- If you still have problems connecting, find out your NAT type and check the short explanation about NAT types.


LONG VERSION:
Version 0.0.3922 hotfix should fix most of the connection issues when connecting to online game. Most of the connection issues were caused by restricted router network address translation (NAT) methodology.
There is now an option in the game options to use automatic UPnP port forwarding from your router if it supports it. UPnP is usually enabled by default from the router, but you may have to enable it manually if you want to use it.
Also the default port the game uses is now port 6881 (udp) and this port is now changeble from the game options if needed. Some routers will still randomize the external connection port, so if your router doesn't support UPnP and you have to do manual port forwarding, then connect to the online lobby to see the games current external port and forward that to your internal port.

You can find help to port forwarding and enabling UPnP by searching your routers manual or searching online with keyword like:
"your_router_model" port forwarding / upnp.


More about network address translation (NAT):

There is 3 types of NAT that routers/ISP use:
Type 1: Open NAT, can connect to any of the NAT types.
Type 2: Moderate NAT, can connect to open and moderate NAT types.
Type 3: Strict NAT, can only join open NAT types.

Your current server configuration makes strict NAT types problematic, as they can only successfully connect to other players that have open NAT type. So if there is 3 players with the all the NAT types starting an online game, they can't start the game because moderate and strict can't connect to each other. So players with strict NAT types will still have problems finding a startable game. However, we are doing Steamwork integration in the future (no ETA yet), which should enable people connect to any game, as steamwork will use the steam server as a backup to relay player communication. So when the steamwork integration is done and you can get connection to steam servers, you should be set.


There has been changes in the following:

Online Mainlobby:
- Network status: Shows the connection state to the lobby server (Connecting, Online)
- Internal port: Shows the current used internal port (Uses the default port 6881, unless changed manually)
- External port: Shows the current used external port (should use the default port 6881, but may vary depending on the router)
- UPnP status: Shows the status of the UPnP system (Disabled, Not supported/enabled, Succesfull portforward, Exception)
- Password: You can now add password lock your game session, by entering a password to the password field before hosting a game
- If UPnP is enabled from your router and in game options, the internal and external ports will be forwarded automaticly using UPnP when connecting to lobby server.

Online Sessionlobby:
- Session messages cleaned, should be more descriptive
- Now shows who have joined and left the session
- Now shows who you have made a successfull connection
- Now resets the lobby server connection when returning to Online Mainlobby

Options:
- Added options to enable/disable UPnP port forwarding
- Added option to change the default port the game uses (don't change, unless you know what you are doing)

[BigbyWolf]

I'm trying to enable port forwarding on my router. I have to do it manually and it asks for the port range. What is the port range for Interplanetary?

[Juzaz]

Unless you have changed it from the ingame options, the game currently uses UDP port 6881.

[Alex Steiner]

All my game displays for any combination of UPnP and portforwarding (both ingame and in router's settings) is Detecting/Connecting/Waiting http://i.imgur.com/2GdFlCW.png

I'm on Windows 7 with a generic ADSL connection and no fancy configurations on anything.

[Jeo]

Originally posted by Alex Steiner:

All my game displays for any combination of UPnP and portforwarding (both ingame and in router's settings) is Detecting/Connecting/Waiting http://i.imgur.com/2GdFlCW.png

I'm on Windows 7 with a generic ADSL connection and no fancy configurations on anything.

Have you been trying for a long time? Some people get this problem, but it seems to be a bit random and disappear with time.

[Alex Steiner]

Originally posted by Jeo:

Originally posted by Alex Steiner:

All my game displays for any combination of UPnP and portforwarding (both ingame and in router's settings) is Detecting/Connecting/Waiting http://i.imgur.com/2GdFlCW.png

I'm on Windows 7 with a generic ADSL connection and no fancy configurations on anything.

Have you been trying for a long time? Some people get this problem, but it seems to be a bit random and disappear with time.

No, I only just bought the 4-pack with a friend. I'll try again later and report back.

[Jeo]

Originally posted by Alex Steiner:

Originally posted by Jeo:

Have you been trying for a long time? Some people get this problem, but it seems to be a bit random and disappear with time.

No, I only just bought the 4-pack with a friend. I'll try again later and report back.

Thanks a lot! Hope it'll work out for you.

[TTV_theogd4d]

I have tried everything you guys have said and nothing works my internet provider is xfinity and i use to be able to play but now i cant get past the online multiplayer menu. i get stuck with UPnP fetching and online connecting and it was stuck like that for 3 hours. i dont know what im supposed to do so please help me with this.

[TTV_theogd4d]

Originally posted by Alex Steiner:

All my game displays for any combination of UPnP and portforwarding (both ingame and in router's settings) is Detecting/Connecting/Waiting http://i.imgur.com/2GdFlCW.png

I'm on Windows 7 with a generic ADSL connection and no fancy configurations on anything.

i have the same exact problem and its been that way for me for hours

[Alex Steiner]

Originally posted by Jeo:

Originally posted by Alex Steiner:

No, I only just bought the 4-pack with a friend. I'll try again later and report back.

Thanks a lot! Hope it'll work out for you.

Since then I've tried a few times, and no change. The game works fine via Hamachi, but that's clearly not ideal.

[ZENTRIERER]

Not sure if this is actually helpful but could be interesting:

Here in Germany theres companies like Unity Media who basically sell broadband internet connections via the television line. A friend of me wanted to host a server for a game locally on his home pc and of course tried to forward the ports, this did not work. After fiddling around for like an hour, I managed to find a thread in a forum which basically says that all customers from Unity Media for example from 1.1.2013 on do kinda share multiple IPv4 adresses. The data is then tunneled to the customers via IPv6 and theres plenty customers raging about their IPv4 portforwardings not working. For example, if my friend had a look at the external IP of his router via whatismyip.com, it wasn't actually his but the IP which he shared with other customers of Unity Media. That means that forwarding any ports and then trying to connect to his PC via IPv4 is futile. The packets will reach the datacenter and won't know where to go then.

Sorry for my English and sorry for describing this like an amateur, I just dont know better :-D

Maybe theres other companies around the world who do the same? Does the game automatically go for IPv6 in such cases or doesn't it matter at all? Im quite curious.

Regards

[Arty]

I've been connected over Unity Media too with no problems ? I could open and join sessions up to 8 ppls...

[Comique Sans]

This is really odd. I can turn on UnPn on my router, forward the ports, itl ALWAYS insist Portforwarding/UnPN is not supported by my router. Whenever I turn that off (or on for that matter) it just connects to a few people and hten goes blank, sometimes complaining about the lobby server.

I never had issues with other games, i've done portforwarding before, even Civ (which is probably the game with the worst networking ever made, not even kidding, love the game but jeesh) works for me... I turned off Windows Firewall now, started it as an admin... Using WiFi, got Windows 8.1. Any ideas?

[Arty]

Hi all,
as I'm not that expert in network, i've read a bit here and there and found some maybe intressting settings or infos for users with connection problems.

The MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) determines how large the TCP / IP data packets max. should have be. The problem is a too large value. Then the data packet must be divided into two parts before it could be sended.

Such fragmented packets will not be tolerated - from a router or a firewalls - therefore not passed through. This can then lead to a stopped download or a broken connection.

So there are a maximum value for the MTU size where fragmentation does not occur. Is the MTU on your PC higher than the proposed value, there are problems.

Usefull tool MTU Path Tool [www.iea-software.com]

With the Command "netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces" in the command Window you can see what MTU Value you have. Use the tool (discription on their page) to see what it recommend and maybe change the value in Windows. There are enough Windows-Tools (google) where you can set new values

OR

the command "netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface 25* mtu=1476** store=persistent"
* this is the value for your Inet Adapter (e.g. LAN1, LAN2, LAN3 what ever your inet adapter is called in the commandline)
**here you write the MTU value which is proposed by MTU-Path

Hope that i could help and my english was understandable :-)

btw, i've found the file "gamesettings.cfg" where the value "network_apsize 1400" is shown, could it have something to do with that ? Just ideas..... :-)

[granderojo]

I have forwarded my ports on my Linksy E1200 to the best of my ability and it does not work. I've disabled every firewall imaginable. DMZ is enabled: Nothing. I don't know what to do further.

This is a real shame. I won't be asking for my money back from steam because it seems like you made a cool game. Maybe someone can help me here or you'll fix the problem later with a patch on your end.

I've never had this issue in a game before and I don't think my router is known for having this sort of issue.

[Jeo]

Sorry for the inconvenience. We're aware that the game has some pretty substantial networking problems and sometimes there's not much that players can do about it.

But, the good news is that we're working on it! We're doing a networking overhaul that should make all these annoying problems disappear. I can't put out a date for the patch yet, but progress is good.

Thanks for your patience!