rec.autos.simulators

Just began encountering a wierd problem that will NOT let me race GPL online
anymore. Everything was fine up until yesterday (I ran Mike Carver's MNGPL
without a hitch).

What happens is this: I connect to a race via SpyBoy. No real problems
there. GPL launches, and I go to the Multiplayer menu screen. I join just
fine.

But when the track screen pops up, I do not get any time remaining on the
practice clock and if I go to the event menu, I get no green button to get
on the track.... sometimes the menu bars go black. Or if I do actually get
to the track, I am on track for only a brief period and then get discoed.
And just prior to the disco, I see a red message on top for a split-second
that says something like "Latency exceed... blah blah." (it disappears too
fast)

Then I get kicked back to the multiplayer menu, and when I try to re-join, I
get a time-out error because GPL can't open the modem. So I cannot rejoin.

I then quit GPL, expecting to find that I lost my ISP connection... but it's
still connected and still working fine (in SpyBoy, or in any internet
browser). So my IP configuration is ok, and I have functionality with the
modem. (otherwise I couldn't send this message)

But clearly, GPL does not see my modem. Like I said, this has happened very
suddenly, and I have NOT changed anything recently that would account for
it.... other than the occasional Windoze hangup, but everything else seems
unaffected. I've tried it WITH and WITHOUT a CORE.INI file and this does not
have any effect.

Any ideas how GPL connects to the modem? Any idea how to fix this?

Any suggestions are welcome.

--Dave

Dave, might you have been trying to connect to someone that was running a
GPL 1.1 beta host? The error message you caught a glimpse of sounds
consistent with the fact that 1.1 allows the host to specify a maximum
acceptable latency.

Jack Rambo

www.RaceLive.com/GPaL

That can't be the problem.  (a) The network handshaking in GPL 1.1 is
sufficiently different that a GPL 1.0 client probably wouldn't get past
the "Opening network device" stage of connecting, and (b) even if it
did, it would issue the error message "Server is incompatible." just
after "Connection established. Synchronizing.", and then disconnect (it
would never even leave the multiplayer connect screen).

Randy

--Dave

I assume you're trying to run a race via the Internet, and not a direct
modem-to-modem race.  You sure it's not something more like "Receive
throughput fell to unacceptable level." (or "Send throughput...")?  or
maybe "###:Error detected on network device."?  The only error message
we have have that includes the word latency is "Your communications
latency is too high for this race.", and we don't use that message in
GPL 1.0.

What are the lights on your modem doing during this?  Watch the send
and receive lights to see what's going on.  I'd guess that your send
light flashes madly, but the receive light is either out, or blinking
very sporadically.

rejoin.

Is your computer also on a LAN?  If so, be sure that when the game
dumps you back to the multiplayer screen that the "Connect via" box has
your dialup connection selected, and not your LAN connection.

Technically, GPL doesn't talk to your modem at all when connecting to a
network race.  It talks to "the network", which just so happens to be
squishing its data through the modem.  Do you mean that your dialup
network connection does not appear in the "Connect via" dropdown list?

Well, those are pretty much unavoidable, aren't they? :-)
I don't know what might be causing these sudden problems.  Maybe
something has changed at your ISP?

Randy

-Dave

Anyway, I fixed it!! :-)

How you ask? Well, I just want to teach you all something about PC
troubleshooting, because my solution was really rather brilliant.

I did NOTHING! :-)

I believe I got a different IP address upon bootup, so that may have been
the conflict... possibly a duplicate... rare, but it does happen. At any
rate, it was working fine. Thanks again for your help.

--Dave