Trying to join MP games turns my ISP OFF

[DeltaNovember 10]

Okay, got the game friday.

Every time I try to join a multiplayer server, it says connection failed after a bit, and then my internet doesn't work.

It's done this all weekend, without fail, every time. I can play any other online game with no issues, but this game literally shuts my internet down.

Anyone out there to give me a clue on this?

[no use for a name 0]

sounds like a firewall issue; make sure you give arma2 full access

[DeltaNovember 10]

ARMA 2 has full access through firewall: even tried it with firewall completely off.

[R.Reagan 10]

I had a weird experience as well with Arma 2 in that when I’d play the co-op campaign at some point during game play my link from my router to cable modem would go dead during the mission. I tried resetting both the router and modem but nothing worked and I could go directly from my computer to the router and be fine; however, after about 5 minutes or so it would reestablish the link between the router and modem. I had this happen 3 different times on 3 different days and usually within the first 20 minutes of co-op play but after the 5 minutes of lost connection passed it wouldn’t happen until the next day.

On the third day it happened (where I lost connection between the cable modem and router) I couldn’t get the link to reestablish itself. I reset both the router and modem several times leaving both off for 5 minutes in an attempt to completely reset the cable modem (with my ISP after 5 minutes of the modem being off it’ll reregister the device). Still I could not get the link between my router and cable modem so out of curiosity, and some suspicion, I changed out my cable from the modem to the router and haven’t had a problem since.

Interestingly enough this is the first game I’ve ever come across where this situation happened where all of a sudden I’ve lost my link between the cable modem and router and it not be related to a hardware issue. I’d like to say that it was related to me recently moving to a new house and that the network equipment took some damage due to excessive dust and paint mist; however, every other game and application since I’ve moved in (May of this year) has worked fine without any issue.

This might help and it might not as it does sound somewhat related and if not let us know.

[Lanthan 10]

It is for sure not a firewall issue!! Here it starts with a scratchy sound and then after a while the game is unplaying anymore and then loosing connection. This is the only game that makes that happen.

Now I found out that I can play for hours if I´m restarteing and not doing anything before playing the game like opening a browser.

So I start PC, start Teamspeak, start the game and it works for days. If I´m surfing in the net before starting the game or doing any other stuff I will loose my connection. No clue what it is but I restart PC everytime before I´m going to play now and it helps.

[DeltaNovember 10]

Plugging my modem directly into my computer, bypassing router, worked.

Why in the hell that is, I have no clue.

[Hans Ludwig 0]

I used to have a router and chuncked it because it's not a good device to have if you are a gamer. I say just do it the old school way from coax/hdmi cable from wall to modem to PC. I can't tell you how many times people blame the game because it "lags" because they have no idea that when another person jumps on another computer you end up sharing that connection speed: speed/2. I know a lot of you know this but you would be surprised to find out how uneducated players are on the Steam forums. =[

Edited June 30, 2009 by Hans Ludwig

[Elric de Melnibone 10]

Well I'm having the exact same problem, and I wouldn't like to plug in my computer directly to the modem. Any other way?

[rekrul 7]

The reason why this is happening (I think) is because when you're going in to MP and get the server listings, your PC contacts all the servers on the list (even the ones you filter out) making a ton of connections through your router/modem.

Now router/modems usually can't handle thousands of connections from one host (your PC) so one of two things happen:

1) The router overflows, i.e. crashes

2) The router reach its connection limit (aka sessions per host) and drops all new connections

1) means usually that your router/modem reboots (or sometimes just freezes)

2) means that it has to let some connections timeout/end before new connections are made.

I haven't sniffed the traffic yet, but even if it is UDP (which is stateless) it will still be in the router/modems NAT-table and will probably be there for 300 seconds (5 mins).

This problem is particularly visible when dealing torrent clients which operates in the same fashion, but A2 MP seems to have the same effect when looking at the server list. CounterStrike had the same problem back in the days because there was a ton of servers and the router/modems were less robust than today's. A2 seems to have some changes as I can't recall seeing people with this problem on A1 which might mean that A2 establishes several TCP connections per server, but again - I haven't sniffed the traffic yet.

The solution to this problem isn't that easy, but the first thing you should do is to upgrade the firmware on your router/modem (you might have to contact your ISP for this), secondly you can try to kill any torrent clients you have running on your LAN, thirdly you could try to increase the "sessions per host" value on your router/modem and finally, you could try to set your modem in bridge mode and get a newer router that can handle more connections but this is ISP dependent so contact your ISP before you go out and buy anything.

Please note that if you have an e.g. DSL or cable router and another router behind it, it's hard to tell which unit is the weak link (the unit that doesn't handle all the connections) so connect your PC directly to the DSL/Cable unit you got from your ISP to locate the culprit.

[TechnoTerrorist303 10]

.

Now I found out that I can play for hours if I´m restarteing and not doing anything before playing the game like opening a browser...

...If I´m surfing in the net before starting the game or doing any other stuff I will loose my connection. No clue what it is but I restart PC everytime before I´m going to play now and it helps.

umm have you run a spyware sweep lately? Have you been downloading pR0n too much?

This sounds to me like you have some malicious code running that triggers when you open a browser. Get rid of it asap before someone steals your life.

[Elric de Melnibone 10]

Well, thanks for the reply.

I only have the router my ISP sent me between the connection itself and my computer.

Are you really sure this is the issue though?

When I was on XP, a few weeks ago, everything was fine. ArmA 2 worked, I could play it online, everything was fine.

Then I switched over to Windows 7, installed 1.03, and it stopped working.

My connection does shut down for a minute after I get the 'connection failed' error, but it worked fine under XP.

Also, ArmA 2 is the only program with this issue.

But since it worked fine when I was running XP, I doubt it's the router, really.

I'm not running any torrents, by the way.

thirdly you could try to increase the "sessions per host" value on your router/modem

As I said, I doubt it's the cause, but if you tell me in what category of my router menu this should be, I can give it a try.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Elric de Melnibone

[rekrul 7]

It's usually under command line. I can help you with ZyXEL units, but you have to google if it's something else.

If you have several PCs, you could check if the other PC has no internet-connection when this is happening. You can also try to ping your router to see if it times out or increases in latency. If it is the latter it is a sign of the router being stressed (high CPU). If it's the former, check to see if the router is rebooting.

[Elric de Melnibone 10]

Alright. I don't have multiple computers in my house.

I have a ZyXEL router, so I'd appreciate if you could show me where that function is.

Also: How can I ping my router, or check if it's rebooting?

I'd love to try that, but I just don't know how. :o

[rekrul 7]

Ok, you need to telnet into the router. If you have vista or win7, telnet isn't installed as default so DL putty instead (google it). Telnet to the router. Default it's 192.168.1.1 admin/1234 but the ISP might have changed it.

Once in, if there's a meny there typer 24 - enter - 8 - enter. If you only have commandline when logging in, you're already there. Type:

ip nat session (enter)

NAT session number per host: 1024

Your count may vary. Try doubling it by entering a number after session, e.g. ip nat session 2048 (enter).

To ping, click the start button in Windows, for XP -> Run, for Vista/Win7 -> search, enter cmd and enter. You'll get a black window where you type e.g. "ping arma2.com -t". Then open another cmd and type "ping <routers IP> -t". The ping will run forever until you hit ctrl+c or close the window.

Finally, the easiest way to check if router has rebooted is to log in to the router through e.g. IE or Firefox and check the uptime on the main screen.

[Elric de Melnibone 10]

I did as you said and doubled my nat session limit.

It worked!

I can finally connect to servers again. All servers that don't use a password and run on patch 1.03, in fact.

Thank you very much for your help.

I really appreciate it. :)

[rekrul 7]

No problem, glad it worked. :)

One more thing. I'm not sure if it survives a reboot (of the router). If it doesn't let me know, and I'll tell you how to make it permanent.