Why can't anyone connect to my game?

[KurtG85 10]

I have the demo of OA as well as the full game but lately I have been making maps on the demo to get people interested in the game because the ones it includes are so un-creative. For a few days I had people joining my servers regularly with no problem other than moderately frequent but not unbearable disconnects. However now when I try and host people are immediately kicked. I get the message "So-and-so connected" followed immediately by "so-and-so" disconnected". Why is this and is there something that can be done to fix it?

Not to brag but nearly every person who played in my rooms with my custom missions told me how I had the best missions and many people told me outright that they didn't realize how much fun the game could be till they played my missions and that they were now planning on buying the game. My intent is to boost the games community (and as would follow; its profitability) so while this annoys me in a personal sense it also is disappointing that I can't help others see how much fun the game can be when playing an interesting mission.

Edited August 27, 2010 by KurtG85

[KurtG85 10]

I have recently found that the message that people are receiving upon entering my game (who are then immediately kicked) is:"you have been banned".

When I make a password room the user sees "connection failed" after a long "connecting" pause.

[jblackrupert 14]

Had the same thing after a couple of days. No router, firewall problems...etc...

people joining then immediatly kicked and then several cases of servers I've never even been on saying I'm banned.

Likely a demo bug problem that won't be fixed.

Demo's should be patched and rereleased or the very least auto-patchable.

I'm pretty sure Bohemia has lost several hundred of sales to the buggy demo condition

and lag issues created from the lack of demo dedicated server support.

First impressions are everything.

[l mandrake 9]

It's not just the demo - about 50% of the players trying to join my Combined Ops remote server are still getting auto-kicked and banned. Every morning I have to delete ban.txt in the folders root dir.... no idea why this is. :(

I started a thread asking for help about it but got no replies, so I guess we're just the unlucky few....?

In my server's cfg file the only thing which may cause a ban is if the server detects a player connecting with tampered signature (onhackeddata) - so either all these guys are running cheats (probability nil) or the server is being fooled by something...

Edited August 30, 2010 by Mandrake5

[KurtG85 10]

Mandrake, you mentioned deleting names from a banned list? How do you do this?

Thanks for the replies.

Re-iterating what another poster mentioned, it needs to be understood by BIS that in the two days I had my mission running I sold at least 6 copies of the game! People were grabbing family members and friends and showing them how cool the game actually is (which is in no way conveyed through the very lame missions which come with the demo).

BIS should really take notice of what a poor business model they have in place when they choose to make the most vital aspect of the sale of their product: the preview of their product, so glitchy and just downright bad compared to the actual product. Not even a third party volunteer can sell your product because its so unpolished! Seriously, get to work guys!

This goes for the fans of this product too. Help motivate whoever the slacker is at Bohemia who is in charge of product sales who flunked their business class! More revenue means a dramatically better product in the future! Well... at least in this case it should. Thanks, love ya BIS!

[l mandrake 9]

in your Arma2 directory (or the server's if it's remote) you should see a file called ban.txt. Just delete this (or you can edit it to remove individual user id's). Remember to keep checking it though as it will fill up again!

[Zipper5 74]

Could it be the messed up missions_e.pbo in the 1.54 patch? People install it but don't know to get the missions_e.pbo file as well? I seem to recall the game really not liking it when there's something wrong with an official pbo...

Disregard. Realized it's the demo he's talking about.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Zipper5
*facepalm*

[tonygrunt 10]

Not familiar with servers but I think all demo users share the same ID, so if you ban one you ban everybody.

Also searching I found that there is an autoban option.

[KurtG85 10]

in your Arma2 directory (or the server's if it's remote) you should see a file called ban.txt. Just delete this (or you can edit it to remove individual user id's). Remember to keep checking it though as it will fill up again!

I have looked at a bunch of the files on my computer. Both for the full game as well as the demo and I do not see a file called 'ban.txt'. Can I get you to explain to me specifically where I can find it at? Thanks in advance.

---------- Post added at 11:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ----------

Not familiar with servers but I think all demo users share the same ID, so if you ban one you ban everybody.

Also searching I found that there is an autoban option.

Yea, there was ONE guy I banned and Im pretty sure this problem started right after doing that. Any idea how to remove this ban (please explain very specifically due to my computer/scripting 'illiteracy')? Thanks. :D

[jblackrupert 14]

"Not familiar with servers but I think all demo users share the same ID, so if you ban one you ban everybody"

That probably explains it then. I banned 1 guy for TKing and noboby could connect

after that.

[KurtG85 10]

That probably explains it then. I banned 1 guy for TKing and noboby could connect

after that.

If only this explained how to fix the problem! :eek::(

[jblackrupert 14]

If only this explained how to fix the problem! :eek::(

Theres very likely a banned list file that needs to be cleaned or deleted.

Search for the one listed above and make sure you have hidden files visible

it might not be in the install directory.

You can also try uninstalling then reinstalling the Demo, that might wipe the file if you can't find it.

I don't have the demo anymore so I can't look for it.