Connection Issues

[SixMarbles 0]

I'm unable to connect to any server or successfully host a server.

As a client, every connection attempt is met with "Connecting Failed".

When hosting a server, a few seconds into the round, I get a dialog that states "No challenge value was received from the master server".

I have forwarded the appropriate ports, disabled my router's firewall, and even gone so far as to enable DMZ for my PC's local IP. I have called my ISP and have found that the following incoming ports are blocked:

TCP 80

TCP 448

TCP 135-138

None of the above are required for online play.

I am able to successfully host and join other games and voice chat servers (Ventrilo and TeamSpeak).

Version: US v1.06

OS: WinXP Pro

Router: Linksys WRT54G

I am aware that certain games seem to have issues with Linksys routers - Battlestations: Midway would crash to desktop for anyone attempting to host from behind a Linksys router, and this issue was fixed with the release of a patch. The router may be the problem! Additionally, I did a google search for "No challenge value was received from the master server" and found that other games produce this message when GameSpy horks up. Thus, I feel that GameSpy may be to blame.

I have tried both solutions listed on Bohemia's wiki:

Start -> Run -> "netsh winsock reset"

uninstalling the various listed network drivers

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Marines 0]

Yeah, it's a hardware issue on your end. I'll shoot Baddo a PM and see if he can take a look at it. He's pretty well versed in these types of problems.

[SixMarbles 0]

Much appreciated. It's killing me. I'm a huge OFP fan since '01 and I am missing my fix. *twitch twitch*

[Marines 0]

Much appreciated.  It's killing me.  I'm a huge OFP fan since '01 and I am missing my fix. *twitch twitch*

I shot him a PM but I haven't heard back. Does anyone else have experience in trouble shooting routers?

[SlurrpyChillyFries 0]

which ports are you forwarding?

what i have seen on my end is that ppl could connect but they would stall at the "wait for server" screen. in my firewall logs i noted packets being dropped from some ip address (cant remember) but coming from a port 27901, i also saw in my logs that my server was sending udp data to this port, so, once i forwarded source port 27901 to my arma server, all of my connection problems went away.

at the time i couldnt find documentation from bi stating this port needed to pass through, but in my testing it has to.

try sending source port 27901 to your arma server.

sorry...i read this incorrectly. i thought you had a server, well, all i can say is monitor your dropped packet logs to see if you are discarding packets. have no idea how to do it in a linksys product, i use iptables at home for my firewall so i cant help you there.

[SixMarbles 0]

In answer to your question SlurrpyChillyFries, I've gone as far as setting up a DMZ, which effectively forwards all incoming traffic on all ports to my local IP. My friends are able to connect to my voice chat server and game servers (other games), but I get no response from the master server in ArmA. To me, this either means that my server isn't sending a heartbeat to the master server (or that my router is blocking it), or that return traffic is blocked by my router. I hate software firewalls and have none installed (Windows Firewall is disabled as well).

I may get a packet analyzer like Ethereal or something and sort through all the incoming/outgoing packets to see which direction is having problems. Not sure if that will help, but we'll see.

PS - I'd assume that a heartbeat and server listing will be sent via TCP as opposed to UDP, just to narrow down my search. If I'm wrong, please let me know. If you happen to know which port as well, I'd be grateful. Cheers!

[SixMarbles 0]

The problem seems to have fixed itself...I haven't made any changes to my network or hardware, but I can now successfully host and join servers with no problem. My spider-sense seems to have been correct; it may well have been a temporary hose-up in GameSpy.

Oh yes, and as it turns out, ArmA server browsing through GameSpy is entirely UDP-based. Kind of a shocker, but smaller packets I guess, and no error checking; seems to be highly peer-to peer as all server listings are shunted through a direct UDP connection from the host to browsing clients. Bad for hosts cause of all the constant queries, good for GameSpy.

Thanks for your help, I'm glad this one solved itself

[k.ong 0]

i have the same problem. unfortunately, it hasnt fixed itself. can any1 else help please? btw, im on vista and my problem is the same except its on the demo. MP is the decision maker on wether im buying armed assault. thanks.

[SixMarbles 0]

Are you behind a router? If so, would it happen to be a Linksys?

What NIC are you using?

The first things I'd try are the solutions listed on Bohemia's wiki:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki....servers

EDIT: Not sure if this stuff works on Vista or not. If not, sorry, I'm a n00b with Vista. I refuse to buy it for at least a year or so.

Be sure to restart after trying the first solution, and make sure to back up your registry before attempting the second solution.

I hope you get this fixed, as multiplayer is also the reason I've bought the game.

[SlurrpyChillyFries 0]

well, i know you think that switching to a dmz will make all things better but there are facets of packet routing that can still confuse the router. for example, if you have 2 clients going to the same ip address coming from the same client/server side port, without proper packet inspection code (ftp handling), it will not work, the router will not be able to determine the destination behind the nat for the packet, and will most likely get it wrong. im not saying that is what is happening here, it isnt, but dont be lulled into the false sense of security by turning your box into a dmz, there are still things that can happen.

and yes, the gamespy reports are udp.

as stated, i had too many problem hosting a server on 2302 and connecting to remote server on 2302 while using "RELATED" state matching in my firewall.

[SixMarbles 0]

Just a note: I took a look at some of the incoming traffic when I was browsing server list...some servers gave me a 'heartbeat' on 2304, some on 2312 etc. There seemed to be no pattern for which port was used, be it by version, localization etc so I assume it is configurable by the host. I don't know which config file dictates the port used to broadcast your server but it'd be helpful to know so that I can use a more consistent setup (be advised: I'm not talking about the game session port, just the server listing). I'm a little leary about DMZ because of the obvious security risks and I'd like to set up a permanent port triggering or port forwarding profile.