I am also having this problem. However, I have investigated using network analyzers, etc., and my conclusions that people are thinking the AV unloads, disables, etc. work because they change the thread timing in the program.

I have an AMD 64 Dual Core and think the problem is related to that. My solution was to set the Processor Affinity to a single processor. How I arrived at that is below.

What physically happens, at least to me, is that when I connect to GPGNet, there is a lot of UDP traffic coming from the host on port 30351 to my computer at port 9103. My computer responds from port 9103 to the host at port 30351. All of this is UDP traffic.

When on the front page of GPGNet, there is a heartbeat or handshake every 10 seconds. One message down from the host, one back from my machine. When I enter chat, this exchange happens for every message. (It actually happens twice.)

What I see is that everything is happy, happy, happy, and then my computer simply stops responding. I continue to receive messages from 30351 to 9103, but never send anything back. 60 seconds after this starts, the GPGNet client resets the TCP/IP connection to the host. Shortly thereafter, you get the LOST CONNECTION message.

Interestingly enough, the client NEVER RETRIES TO RECONNECT. I have to exit the program an reenter.

This occurred after I had disabled my Windows Firewall and deinstalled NOD32. I don't mean disable. I completely deinstalled it. The symptoms were exactly the same.

I noticed that when my computer was busier (for instance running GuildWars in the background), the problem happened more often.

My belief is that there is a race condition within the threads handling the communication and that some mutex device is getting locked so the sending thread is unable to send. If so, the problem would get worse as the window of the race condition gets larger. Anything which slowed down the system would enlarge the window, such as high CPU utilization or an AV software scanning a file or HTTP data.

Once I came to this conclusion (which may be very, very wrong), I changed my processor affinity for GPGNet to 1 processor. Problem went away. It stayed on all night. This is only a partial test, as GPGNet kicks you from a chat channel if you're idle 15 minutes. However, I never knew it would do that until I actually managed to make it for 15 minutes, which required this change.

I hope I'm right and that someone from GPG reads this. And, if I'm wrong, flames are always welcome.

Jeremy

Unfortunately adding the GPG*.exe to the exclusion list of NOD32 didn't solve my "lost connection to GPGnet issue". Just had a ranked game today and when I got back... my client already was disconnected (and the won ranked game didn't count, of course...). I hope this doesn't happen to me anymore, when I completely uninstall it

how do you change your processor affinity? Because I still get the problem, although I pass all connection tests from NATTrace.

Nevermind I figured it out, I'll edit again if it works.

Hm, that sounds really plausible I hope they will fix this because playing ranked games would be pointless, if your GPGnet connection drops everytime you play a game
And why doesn't it try to reconnect

changing my cpu affinity did nothing for me, and either way it is annoying as you have to do it everytime you launch the program.

well I am going to try uninstalling and reinstalling. I had the trial and I uninstalled that but who knows maybe there was leftover crap or w/e. But this time I'm going to be immaculate about it, and if it still doesn't work then theres nothing I can really do further. I'll post my results.

It's been read, Jeremy. And an engineer is looking into it as I write this. Thanks for the report!

Well I was going to just uninstall the GPGnet thing after I saw it was separate, but I can't so I just want to suggest you guys should make a download for it so if someone deletes just that they can get it again without completely uninstalling the game.

Frogan,

On the arrogant assumption that an engineer is looking into it because I might have hit on something (rather than he's been looking into it for days anyway), I have a Wireshark file of the network trace.

If it would be of help, just let me know where to send it.

Jeremy

So I was advised to uninstall my antivirus protection, and disable my firewall. This to me sounded like an unnacceptable solution to a problem that shouldnt even exist, and for community managers of GPG themselves to blame the problem on an antivirus program rather than the coding of GPGNet itself, frankly, is rather stupid.

So I uninstalled Avast!. I disabled my firewall. I disabled all unnessassary processes from running on startup, and restarted my PC. GPGNet connected with no problems. I managed to promote members of my clan to Commanders, incase my GPGNet was still screwed up that I wouldnt be able to run the clan. I accepted some friends requests, and lo and behold,



The same old error that I used to get with Avast! installed, with my firewall on, and with loads of junk-processes running in the background. As I stated in my previous thread, I've tried anything and everything that people have suggested to fix this problem, to no avail.

If anyting, all that removing my antivirus and disabling my firewall did, (besides making my computer virii heaven) was it made GPGNet run a bit smoother, a bit faster, and it ran for a little longer than before. The join game buttons appeared before I joined chat, I could actually see who was in the chat room, and I managed to promote my clan members.

So, I've tried everything, and I'm still getting the same problem. I'm convinced it's a problem with GPGNet, unlike other(communty manager)s keep their stance that "its a problem with your computer/antivirus/firewall/headset/soundcard/pet donkey" and I just want an official word (if not an apology, or even an admittance, that the problem is not with the distance between my computer and my monitor, or the radius of of my pet iguana's balls, but the problem is with GPGNet itself.

Well.. at least you know, now, and can yell at anyone who claims otherwise.

Don't worry... I think they realize there is a problem, and they are working on it. However, I suspect that it only affects a small percentage of us, and they have lots of issues.

A friend of mine who was in the Alpha test and speaks to the developers says that they are actively working on it. They are probably have issues duplicating the problem, and that makes it exceedingly hard.

By the way, what are your system specs?

Jeremy

All my specs and info is at the bottom of my xfire profile.

http://www.xfire.com/profile/psyfallout

Or, if you're too lazy;

Manufacturer: MedionPC / ALDI
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz (HT Dual Core - Physical Core 2.4GHz)
Memory: 2x 256 MB Samsung and 1x 512 MB Corsair (1024 MB)
Hard Drive: 232.35 GB on 3 Partitions - 125 GB / 97.6 GB / 9.75 GB
Video Card: NVidia GeForce 6610 XL 128 MB
Monitor: Hyundai ImageQuest Q995 1280 x 1024px
Sound Card: Sennheiser PC155 USB / C-Media High Definition Audio 5.1
Speakers/Headphones: Sennheiser PC155 USB / Tevion Digital Satellite 5.1 Speaker System
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse Black (Silver keys)
Mouse: Logitech G5 - 2000 DPI
Mouse Surface: Steelpad QcK+
Operating System: Windows XP Home 5.1 Build 2600

Hyperthreaded, eh? When you choose your affinity, does it show two or four processors? If only two, you're still hyperthreading on the on CPU. Perhaps you can stop that as well.

I don't think that the process affinity is a fix itself. For me, I think it just changes the thread timings sufficiently to make it work.

Jeremy

Yeah, I've had some problems with my processor before. Mainly; the Source engine, Counter-Strike: Source in particular - I get really poor FPS on that game. I think that's because the source engine doesnt fully take advantage of dual-core or HT processors, infact, most games dont, and sure enough most programs dont either.

Alas, I have no idea how to stop the Hyperthreading, and that Affinity stuff doesnt work. (there are 2 processors on the Affinity list btw - CPU 00 and CPU 01.)

I have heard that some BIOSes allow you to disable HT.

Mine doesn't, I don't think. But, if you've got nothing better to do, try it out, with process affinity to both and to a single processor.

Jeremy

On the contrary. The source engine has a rather good implementation for multi threading (the newest version that is, I think they patched it in).

And yet I still get s**t fps on CSS.

Oh, and slight problem with disabling HT - I'd be running a 2.4GHz single core, and thats a Pentium 2.4GHz. Bleh.

I uninstalled everything and deleted the folders, emptied recycle bin, rebooted, ran a registry cleaner and removed all old entries for SupCom or GPGnet, restarted again. Then after everything was gone and I rebooted, I unplugged my internet connection and shut all my virus/firewall stuff off. I then installed SupCom and GPGnet. Then I rebooted and ran it, and I still have the same problems.

Long story short, I reinstalled so no problems would occur, and I still get the lost connection error. So now the only thing to do is wait for a patch I guess.

Oh, and I also measured in my iguana at a 2 millimeter radius, so that shouldn't be the problem either...

Hahahahah.

This whole thing is just a joke. GPGNet is a joke, its pathetic. We have people on the forums complaining that the "game doesnt have multiplayer" and they want their money back.

Sure, Chris Taylor aimed SC at hardcore gamers, but this takes the biscuit. Not everyone is prepared to open ports and uninstall their antivirus protection to play a game, let alone do most 'hardcore gamers' know how to open ports in the first place.

This game was shipped broken. Yet again another game falls into the clutches of the "day-one patch".


EDIT: Mine measures in at 6mm

Whoa, you might have a problem there!

Falolout,

I realize that dropping to a single processor w/o hyperthreading will offer poor performance in SupComm, but as you can't play anyhow, give it a shot. GPGNet should work fine with a single 2.4G Pentium.

I'd like to know if you can stay connected.

But do what you need to.

Good luck.

Jeremy

I'll have a look tommorow, its a bit late to be messing around with my BIOS. I'll update you guys tommorow if I can turn HT off and if it fixes anything.

Bump, and goodnight. I'll try that BIOS stuff in the morning.

Rumpy bumpy ;>

Falolout test
Falolout can anyone see what im typing?
Falolout or have i been disconnected again?
System *** YOU HAVE LOST YOUR GPGNET CONNECTION ***
System You are no longer in a chat room.
System *** YOU HAVE LOST YOUR GPGNET CONNECTION ***
System You are no longer in a chat room.
System *** YOU HAVE LOST YOUR GPGNET CONNECTION ***
System You are no longer in a chat room.

(Removing my antivirus protection and disabling my firewall still does nothing.)