Page 1 of 2

Stopped working

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 3:21 pm
by crundy
Aaargh! I scheduled a game for tonight and logged in with no problems (internally), but no-one else can connect. The client loads, but it just sits at "Connecting to port 8088". I checked my router settings and it all seems fine. Both 8087 and 8088 are forwarding correctly and if I telnet to port 8088 from a remote machine then it connects (but doesn't do anything, obviously).

Any ideas? I haven't changed anything as far as I know.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:21 am
by Kent Briggs
crundy wrote:Aaargh! I scheduled a game for tonight and logged in with no problems (internally), but no-one else can connect. The client loads, but it just sits at "Connecting to port 8088". I checked my router settings and it all seems fine. Both 8087 and 8088 are forwarding correctly and if I telnet to port 8088 from a remote machine then it connects (but doesn't do anything, obviously).

Any ideas? I haven't changed anything as far as I know.
Had it been working before? Check your firewall settings. Email me your URL and I'll see if I can connect on Monday.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:26 pm
by crundy
Sorry, that time It went back on, then off again, then eventually back on and I didn't get a reply email from the forum and so forgot to come back. Just had the same problem again though.

It was working this afternoon as I tried at work to make sure it was OK. Sure enough, when I tested it just before our scheduled game it was down again. I rebooted the server and the router, and it worked for about 3 minutes and then stopped again. Tried rebooting the router again and it still didn't work.

Weirdly, while it isn't working (well, the webserver is working but the data connection isn't), I can telnet to port 8088 from an external machine, but obviously can't send any commands (I presume it's requiring binary commands?) so I think the connection is going through OK but there is a problem with the server sending and receiving commands.

Is there any chance you could test it for me? I'll PM you the server details.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:33 pm
by crundy
Oh, no PM on this forum.
I'll email you.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:44 pm
by crundy
lol, I send an email out cancelling the game and apologising, and then without doing anything I go and test again, and it starts working.

I can always connect from inside the network, it seems it's only externally that doesn't work, and only in the small windows when I'm trying to organise a game. The client can't connect, but I can get through using telnet.

I'm totally stumped. I do have a spare router, so I could try firing that up instead and see if it fixes the problem.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:50 pm
by crundy
And back down again.
Again without me doing anything. Nothing in the server logs or the router logs. Windows Firewall still off.
I tried deleting the temporary internet files, still nothing. Honestly, what on earth is going on?

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:56 pm
by Kent Briggs
Saw your email and replied there.

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:17 pm
by crundy
Absolutely unbelievable.

Assuming it was either my router or the port causing the problem, I changed to use a spare router and hey presto! It was working fine all through Wednesday. I therefore scheduled a game for Thursday (tonight) at 8pm and have been connecting to the server every hour all day to make sure it was working. No problems.

At 7:50pm I tried again only to find out it has stopped working again. Web connection working fine, but the data connection just hangs. Tried changing the port to 8089 and made sure the router is forwarding it to the host machine. Still no joy. Rebooted the poker software, the server, and the router. Nothing. Still working fine internally.

I am completely stumped, exceptionally embarrassed, and infinitely annoyed. Can anyone think of any reason whatsoever why the server would be working fine constantly, only to stop working just before a tournament is about to start?

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:16 pm
by Kent Briggs
crundy wrote: Assuming it was either my router or the port causing the problem, I changed to use a spare router and hey presto! It was working fine all through Wednesday. I therefore scheduled a game for Thursday (tonight) at 8pm and have been connecting to the server every hour all day to make sure it was working. No problems.
Were you connecting from inside your own network or from outside, across the internet?
At 7:50pm I tried again only to find out it has stopped working again. Web connection working fine, but the data connection just hangs. Tried changing the port to 8089 and made sure the router is forwarding it to the host machine. Still no joy. Rebooted the poker software, the server, and the router. Nothing. Still working fine internally.
What about swapping the file port with the packet port like I suggested in email? Since the web connection on 8087 always seems to work, I wonder if putting the packet port on 8087 would change anything.
Can anyone think of any reason whatsoever why the server would be working fine constantly, only to stop working just before a tournament is about to start?
Is anyone logged in at the time? What happens if you set up a ring table and let someone come in and play that? Also, are you running the latest version (2.30)?

Re: Stopped working

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 5:18 pm
by crundy
Kent Briggs wrote: Were you connecting from inside your own network or from outside, across the internet?
When testing I was connecting from an external machine (using RDP). As mentioned it always works from inside
Kent Briggs wrote: What about swapping the file port with the packet port like I suggested in email? Since the web connection on 8087 always seems to work, I wonder if putting the packet port on 8087 would change anything.
I'll have to try that, but it's hard to recreate the problem without organising a match!! I'll make the changes and ask two people to try at the same time to check.
Kent Briggs wrote: Is anyone logged in at the time? What happens if you set up a ring table and let someone come in and play that? Also, are you running the latest version (2.30)?
No-one logged in at the time. After about 30 mins (at about 8:30) one of my friends managed to get in, but I tried RDP again and still couldn't get in.
I'm running 2.25 so I'll upgrade, change the ports around, and try again.

I've also contacted my ISP to ask why it only goes wrong externally at particular times. I suspect my upload contention gets clogged at about 8pm.

Thanks.

P.S. Your support response time is second to none. Thank you very much for replying so quickly.