SERVER ISSUE?: High pings and synchronizing game for all players

Roy Verzijl

Roy Verzijl

Registered
Hello all,

Im running a Windows 2003 server with a rFactor1 dedicated server and a rFactor2 dedicated server. rFactor 1 runs verry well, but rFactor2 got some problems. If anybody joins the server he will get every 15 seconds the message "synchronizing game" and in the server console you will see a ping of 2000+ for just 1 second.

But if you type in the server lobby (with client computer) /ping it tells you that you have got a ping of 25! Really strange issue imo.

All ports are forwarded, and the firewall is off at the moment to test..

WAN Query Port="44297" // OPEN TCP&UDP
WAN Join Port="54297" // OPEN TCP&UDP
LAN Query Port="44297" // OPEN TCP&UDP
LAN Join Port="54297" // OPEN TCP&UDP

I have also tried some different up and download speeds and i did a router reset.
Server up / download speed is :
120Mb download p/s
10Mb upload p/s
provider UPC

The connection is not the problem imo, because rfactor 1 also works fine! Even with 30 people on the grid we got no lag at all!

Thanks for your time / help!
Regards,

Roy Verzijl
Administrator @ wcsleague.com

Edit: When i found the solution i will let you know! I will keep a eye on the forum :).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Server is up :
server name: wcsleague.com - FR3.5

Take a look at the problem when you dont know what i mean :)..
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When you say "all ports are open" do you mean the ones you have listed, or all of them?

Have you made any changes to the multiplayer.ini file?

Do the problems occur when there is only one person connected? Or several people?

How much bandwidth are you allowing the server, what's your max, do you have anything else running on the connection and have you made any changes to the per-person bandwidth settings? 120mbits download? I have like 6, and about one mbits upload.

What else is the server running? How is the CPU, memory and disk use looking?
 
Port 443 is required? Outgoing only, surely? That's HTTPS, who on earth would want that forwarded to a gaming server all the time?

The ones missing are the +50s that didn't get a mention in the ini. In fact, it's not a massively bad idea to just forward 34297-34497, TCP/UDP and have your ports set to WAN Query Port="34297" and WAN Join Port="34397" in multiplayer.ini

I had TCPview running while setting up the MP stuff and the router, so I could see what ports it was listening on, what ports the client was sending to, what worked and what failed.
 
Spadge:

"When you say "all ports are open" do you mean the ones you have listed, or all of them?"
I opened the ports what we need for RF2. I was planning to run 3 servers so i opened the ports:
WAN Query Port="44297-44299" // OPEN TCP&UDP
WAN Join Port="54297-54299" // OPEN TCP&UDP
LAN Query Port="44297-44299" // OPEN TCP&UDP
LAN Join Port="54297-54299" // OPEN TCP&UDP

"Have you made any changes to the multiplayer.ini file?"
First i changed all the ports, but when i noticed the problems i changed everything back to default (re-install). After the reinstall i have joined the server and i noticed that the reinstall didnt solve the problems. I also noticed that everything looks fine when I ping to the server, but if the server pings to me, it shows a ping like 3000

"Do the problems occur when there is only one person connected? Or several people?"
The problems occur when only one person is connected but also when 2 or 3 people are connected with the server.

"How much bandwidth are you allowing the server, what's your max, do you have anything else running on the connection and have you made any changes to the per-person bandwidth settings? 120mbits download? I have like 6, and about one mbits upload."
8000kbps down and 8000kbps up
I also changed both to 4000kbps, but it didnt make any difference.

"What else is the server running? How is the CPU, memory and disk use looking?"
I have tried to install the server on both disks (2 disks inside). CPU is fine and calm, and memory is not even for the half in use.


----------------------------------------------------

Trip:

443 is matchmaker port, and the server shows up on matchmaker so thats fine. I have tested it to open that port, but it didnt make any difference.

----------------------------------------------------

Spadge:

TCP View? How do you mean?


-----------------------------------------------------

I gues that this is the problem:

Connection: Clients to Server = Good
Connection: Server to Clients = Bad
 
I had the same issue serving in rf1 , i chased the problem for months on end . Finally tracked it down to my asus mobo altering clockspeeds on its own accord ,, Eg little app in taskbar switching from power save mode to high performance mode etc ect
Worth checking out??
 
Roy Verzijl said:
So this program may spot my problem?
Click to expand...

It will run and show you which ports are being listened on by rFactor on the server. If anything can't get through, that will show you what.

Run it on the client machine too and see if anything can't get through on that end.

Do you have any QoS running on the server or router? Or anything like Bittorrent running that will flood your outgoing connections/bandwidth, effectively DoSing your server from within?
 
Problem Solved

I have shutted down everything in my network (computers, router and modum). First i started the modum again. After the boot, i started the Router, and after the Router i have started the server and run the dedicated. Problems are solved and i have a ping like 25, and a good mate of me got ping 1 lol.

Many thanks everybody!!!!!!
I really appreciate that.

Add this to the FAQ !
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No point putting this in the FAQ unless you say what was running on the other machine that was hogging your upload.

Yeah, don't run bittorrent on the network you want to serve rfactor from. Even if you cut the bandwidth, the default 200+ connections will saturate what a domestic router can handle.

Glad it works OK for you now, Roy.
 
Roy Verzijl said:
Im running a Windows 2003 server with a rFactor1 dedicated server and a rFactor2 dedicated server. rFactor 1 runs verry well, but rFactor2 got some problems. If anybody joins the server he will get every 15 seconds the message "synchronizing game" and in the server console you will see a ping of 2000+ for just 1 second.

But if you type in the server lobby (with client computer) /ping it tells you that you have got a ping of 25!
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem but I just fixed it. I'm running the rF2 dedi server on a fresh install of XP SP3 (fully updated) on an old AMD Athlon X2 (so dual-core CPU) and kept getting new "Synchronizing" messages on my client rf2 (running on another computer in another room) as soon as the chat box would fade away. Which was weird because I could race on servers in New Zealand (from Canada) with that client without any problem. When connected to my server, the in-game pings on the client showed as 2-3ms while in the dedi server window it would show as high as 2500 and varying wildly. FPS on the server also varied constantly up to 750 or so.

What fixed it for me was installing the "AMD Dual-Core Optimizer" that I had forgotten to reinstall on the dedi server host (XP SP3). :mad:

An easy way to see if its a similar problem (without installing anything or doing anything permanent) is to set the affinity of the running "rFactor2 Dedicated.exe" process to a single core with the Task Manager (Google it if you're not familiar with the procedure). You can do that "live" while you have a client connected; the difference is almost instantaneous, the pings in the dedi server window immediately drop to much more decent levels and the server FPS shows a steady 400. I first tried this affinity test, which made me think about the forgotten Dual-Core Optimizer installation.

At least it fixed things for me, hopefully it will for you too!
 
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