Server trouble

[VillaDanKnight]

Can anyone help me so me and a friend live in two different locations and we have tried to join over steam but everytime it makes internet connection drop to a non existant speed and and he gets stuck in the loading screen but it never lets him join same when I try to join him and for some reason we can't get the dedicated server to work either so can I get some help please

[EGadd]

Neither the steam networking, nor our server launcher works for either of you?

Did you port forward before trying the server launcher?

[VillaDanKnight]

well the steam networking still does not work however I did get the server launcher to work I had the wrong port forwarded but the steam networking still doesnt work

[Mo¡stDreams]

Are you running 64bit?
or 32bit Beta

Reason I ask is network issues are a big problem with 64bit many others inc myself have had steam networking and even join over local ip not work after the 64bit version the 32bit works fine. I think the devs need to look into it further because everything was working before 64bit now my other pc just hangs while joining then reports that it timed out.

The same pc cannot join its own local server if I host one but that may be a problem with memory as that machine has only 4GB of system RAM, though oddly enough it plays Singel-Player without a problem just refuses to join the LAN server not matter if we try Steam Join or host via the dedicated server using my 16GB of RAM gaming pc which I usually host all the other dedicated servers on for LAN play with other titles, every other game we play works fine but Staxel and only since the 64bit build was available. I can join my own dedicated server via localhost or the direct LAN ip from the same 16GB machine but I cannot join the dedicated server hosted on the other 4GB RAM pc even with no client running on the other pc just the dedicated server I also time out trying to join over network on my 16GB RAM machine.

I also have issues joining over the internet on both PC's

I cannot stress enough how frustrating it has been, as my gf purchased Staxel just to play over LAN with me and then 64bit came and that no longer works but I read that it works if you use the 32bit Beta, which makes me suspect there is a memory leak or some kind of inf loop in the networking code in the 64bit client.

Obviously PortFwd is not applicable to us as we are both trying to join a server over the same network. My 16GB machine, we have no firewalls running as I disable that whole service and no Anti-Virus is blocking the connections. Like I said both our PC's would connect to eachother without a hitch before the 64bit version of Staxel was released, I am just reading reports that the 32bit version works for those of us who cannot join network games with the 64bit version.

Obviously we have given up on it for now, and we play other games over LAN instead while we wait for this to be fixed, as I don't really feel like installing the 32bit when the 64bit is better in every other way.

If a Dev is reading this and wants to add me on Steam I am happy to take the time to go through some diagnostics and provide screenshots of the task manager and other things related to such to help them see what is going on from a users perspective.

[VillaDanKnight]

well we did get the dedicated server to work with lots of lag however after the recent update that stopped working again and I also host lots of servers I even opt in with a modem that is made for heavy gaming and server use so I doubt it network wise and both our systems have over 20gb of ram so its not lack of ram meaning its got to be something with the game so if the 32bit version works then we will try that thank you for your help

[Mo¡stDreams]

No worries, let me know how that goes, I am not 100 percent on the 32bit I have just read around on these boards that the 32bit version seemed to have fixed the lag and issues with people who have issues with the 64bit version. Will have to use the beta build of the game which you can do by right clicking Staxel in your steam lib and choose "properties" then use the Beta tab and the 32bit testing branch. maybe the 64bit testing branch works but I have not tried either yet.

Been busy playing Starbound and updating my Minecraft modpacks to bother too much with Staxel right now considering I have tried a combination of things over three hours to get the client to join any Local server I have hosted in my network and it has failed, while the 32bit stable builds prior too the 64bit stable build we all use right now worked every time.

[VillaDanKnight]

well I did the 64 testing branch and it did work but then the update came out and it doesn't seem to work after I do some work on my buddies pc I will try the 32bit version and see what happens but thank you that saves me the time of trying to find the 32bit version

[Mo¡stDreams]

Originally posted by VillaDanKnight:

well I did the 64 testing branch and it did work but then the update came out and it doesn't seem to work after I do some work on my buddies pc I will try the 32bit version and see what happens but thank you that saves me the time of trying to find the 32bit version

No worries, glad to help, I am just as interested as you would be, I digress tho if the 32bit works flawless let me know because that means they have a serious problem with the 64bit stable builds which I don't actually know why it has not been fixed already.

[VillaDanKnight]

ok so we got it to work on the 32bit testing branch with a 5 second lag but thats do to my slow upload speed so what I did was I went to my windows firewall settings advanced settings then inbound rules then on the right new rule and then selected port did this for both tcp udp and ported it on the port I forwarded and then it took about ten minutes to load in but seemed to work I can make a video if you want just let me know but It did work with next to no lag

[VillaDanKnight]

here are the step by step methods that me and my friend used for playing on the server together
1. portforward a port through your modem like normal
2. open control panel
3 go to system and security
4 click windows defender firewall
5 on the left side open advanced settings
6 click inboud settings
7 on the right hand side click on new rule
8 select the port option and click next
9 choose either tcp or udp and then type in the port you have already portforwarded
10 click next then allow the connection then click next and click next again
11 name the rule and then click finish now do the same for either tcp or udp which ever you havent done yet
12 now go to staxel right click and open properties and then go to betas and opt in for 32bit testing
13 open the staxel dedicated server
14 put in the port you portfowarded then anything else you want like password or amount of players then hit test port
15 if it is a success then start server give the external server address to your friend and you use the local address just below now give it about ten minutes to load in
( you may need to open it to public just click the top box close out of the server cmd process and click start server again that might fix it ) I kinda rushed this it can be refind and like I said if need be I can make a video and link it to make it a little easier to follow but anyways hope it works for you and we figured out why he had a 5 second delay its one of two causes one being his processor is really old first gen intel i7 920 which is a slow quadcore but it could also be do to us having it open to the public so either way it wasn't much lag just a 5 second delay and it was consistant so there was no fluxuation and we did test it with him hosting and I didn't have a delay at all but he for some reason couldn't see anything but I didn't have a problem and he has three times the internet speed both stream and upload speed so its not internet so I am sure its his processor because his graphics is a gtx 960 4gb card and again he was hosting when he couldn't see anything so keep that in mind but for the most part it was a success on hosting and joining so the 64bit is just really unoptimised for the server aspect also I didn't see any difference between the 64bit and 32bit so there shouldn't be a problem

[VillaDanKnight]

I did not test this with the 64bit If i get my budy to play tomorrow I will test it but the 32bit when set up properly works fine so heres what I will say just load up the dedicated server using the 32bit version and see if it works or if it says something along the lines of remote machine activily rejected connection then the upper section is the way to go

[Mo¡stDreams]

Oh nice,

Originally posted by VillaDanKnight:

.........SNIP - Read all your responses!

Can relax on the video :), I was just curious if the 32bit beta fixed connection timeouts and crashing since the major issue appears to be global for a lot of players using the the stable build of 64bit (The default steam install).

I'm actually a certfied tech so no real need to make a video on diagnostics and firewalls, I actually don't even have Windows Defender or the Firewall services enabled on my system, I disabled the services both in the services manager and via group policys. As far as port forwarding goes I am not actually hosting my server public, I connected an ethernet cable directly to the other system which uses the TV as a display bypassing the ISR (Router/Modem) we all use Wifi here for day to day internet activity and light gaming, stability can be improved with a router upgrade/ internal PCi-E Wifi adaptor upgrade to an AC wifi adaptor.

But for now my shody 802.11N spec adaptor will have to do! Though as I said the actual machines in question are direct connected by cable and I have the ethernet adpator configured like so -

First Machine: 10.0.0.100 (Mask 255.255.255.0)
Second Machine: 10.0.0.101 (Mask ^ same)

Both Machines are running Process Lasso with and this is configred for the staxel process to be automatically designated as a high performance process along with a higher global memory priority. All my games are set up this way as we only use two machines for light LAN gaming, the second machine does not do internet gaming at all with. Like wise both machines make use of a utility program called Process Lasso to squeeze performance out of the machines and bypass a lot of window's process mangement to maintain a responsive system in general.

This is why I was so confused why Staxel just dropped dead after the 64bit stable update, it still confuses me, I expect the second machine to have possible RAM related issues but I am aware of thi as that machine only has around 2.2 - 2.6GB of free system memory at any one time and the gaming is limited to 4GB total system memory and the crappy Intel ob-board graphics chip LOL.

So I don't expect much from the second machine (which is a laptop) but it does the job for stuff like Sims 4. Starbound, Minecraft (if you don't overdo the modpacks) basically all the games we currently LAN work pretty well.

Yea I know that system is dated, The first machine is running an i7-3820 & DDR3 16GB RAM (yea a bit dated) but it's clocked at 4.67ghz and an R9 290 which is also OC at 985 on the core (the GPU is not water cooled so I don't volt mod it) Tempted to try one of the modded GPU bios to try and unlock 290x but its my only card so don't want to risk a brick. I would update my system (First Machine) but right now computer component prices are bit too high overall, I mean common the GPU costs almost as much as last years TitanX for the high end. CPU and Mobo are okay just I might as well do it properly and gather up a few grand say around 4000 before I bother upgrading my machine, I can just pick up a used AMD 490RX for under $500 for a decent little time passer if I really want the extra 20frames.

Anyway thanks for the info, maybe if a dev sees this they might consider making the 64bit fix for networking a higher priority patch.