rec.autos.simulators

by **Paul Jone** » Sun, 02 May 1999 04:00:00

I have an ADSL connection behind a proxy/firewall that gives me average
bandwidths of about 210 kbit/sec upload and 900 kbit/sec dload in peak
hours. I can host about 3 racers, including myself, fine but any more
and I start to get disconnections. I have not seen any warping at all,
just disconnections. I cannot understand this, as it is no better than
what an analog modem would deliver. I use Alison Hine's core.ini with an
additional line alternate_ip_addr_lookup = 1 which is required to get
around the NAT addressing used by the proxy. I am running Windows98 with
standard Winsocks. I have a 10mbit LAN card attached to an Alcatel ADSL
modem using the CAP encoding method. I have a PII 400MHz using 100MHz
frontside bus. Additionally I have a 100 mbit LAN card attached to a
private LAN and a USB modem connection that is seldom switched on but is
configured in my DUN settings. At any one time my machine has a minimum
of 3 IP addresses and sometimes 5, as well as other installed protocols
such as IPX etc. Could I be overloading GPL? I have dual 12Mb Creative
Voodoo2 cards in SLI mode with the graphics configured to give me 36fps
all the time with online play. I have played about with my
DefaultRcvWindow and MaxMTU settings, error correction etc etc but
nothing seems to make any difference. I haven't played with the MSS
settings because I am unsure of the exact registry name and path. The
max download is 2 mbit/sec and the 900 kbit/sec, that I see, is an
average - at times it dips down to almost nothing for a second or two.
The same is true of upload, maxing at 384 kbit/sec, but is less
pronounced. Does GPL chuck a client if it doesn't respond for a second
or two? Is this "raggedy edged" nature of my bandwidth profile the
problem? Will the 1.1 patch do anything to fix these problems? Packet
loss was a problem for my ISP but is no longer. Latencies are quite
reasonable, down as low as 0.111 in the GPL chat window, but are
obviously client dependent. Because of the NAT addressing I cannot be
pinged directly from outside this ADM ADSL LAN - could that have some
bearing?
Cheers,
Paul

by **Bart Westr** » Mon, 03 May 1999 04:00:00

That is correct. None of these influence GPL as GPL only sends small UDP
packets.

Yes. I have the same problem here with my cable connection. At least once
every 10 minutes I loose the block sync for 1-3 secs, if it is more than 2
secs disconnects occur. If it is just under 2 secs, you can see screen
flashes when the delayed packets come rushing in all at once.

I sure hope so. But the dips will always cause warping I'm afraid.

Bart Westra

by **Scott Vel** » Mon, 03 May 1999 04:00:00

I use ADSL (450Mhz OC'd C300A) and can host 15 drivers with no problems.
However, I am NOT behind a proxy/firewall...perhaps that is the problem.

Scott

says...

by **Walk Walke** » Tue, 04 May 1999 04:00:00

I think the main problem is racing through a NAT server. Excessive overhead,
especially for the clients. Each packet they send/receive has to be
translated at the NAT server. Try a clean W98 install on a separate drive
with only TCP/IP and GPL. You should see much better results.

--
-/- Walk Walker
Official HAL Backmarker

> >snip>
> >. I have played about with my
> > DefaultRcvWindow and MaxMTU settings, error correction etc etc but
> > nothing seems to make any difference. I haven't played with the MSS
> > settings because I am unsure of the exact registry name and path.

> That is correct. None of these influence GPL as GPL only sends small UDP
> packets.

> > The max download is 2 mbit/sec and the 900 kbit/sec, that I see, is an
> > average - at times it dips down to almost nothing for a second or two.
> > The same is true of upload, maxing at 384 kbit/sec, but is less
> > pronounced. Does GPL chuck a client if it doesn't respond for a second
> > or two? Is this "raggedy edged" nature of my bandwidth profile the
> > problem?

> Yes. I have the same problem here with my cable connection. At least once
> every 10 minutes I loose the block sync for 1-3 secs, if it is more than 2
> secs disconnects occur. If it is just under 2 secs, you can see screen
> flashes when the delayed packets come rushing in all at once.

> > Will the 1.1 patch do anything to fix these problems?

> I sure hope so. But the dips will always cause warping I'm afraid.

> >snip

> Bart Westra

by **Randy Cassid** » Tue, 04 May 1999 04:00:00

I don't think so. GPL is designed to operate on multihomed machines
with up to 6 IP addresses and 2 IPX addresses (if there are more, the
additional addresses are simply ignored, and shouldn't cause any
problems). GPL addresses each interface directly, so there shouldn't
be any routing headaches within your machine.

I believe these two settings only affect TCP, and GPL only uses UDP, so
they should have no affect on GPL. (Technically, we should refer to
"UDP/IP" in the game and manual, but we refer to "TCP/IP" since it's
more widely recoginzed as being associated with the Internet).

I assume you mean you're turning error correction and data compression
off.

Possibly. A GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
disconnect itself from a server) if it receives less than half the
packets it expects to receive over about a half minute. If the dips
are only a couple seconds long, this alone shouldn't cause
disconnections (though it will cause cars to wink out and/or warp).
However, a GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
disconnect itself from a server) if Winsock reports an error while
trying to read a packet (lost or garbled UDP packets should not
generate read errors). If these dips are causing Winsock to report
network errors, this will cause disconnections.

If the problem is that Winsock is reporting read errors, yes. By
default, GPL 1.1 will no longer disconnect if a network error is
detected.

I don't think that should cause any problems.

One thing you can try (though I don't think it will help) is to disable
GPL's status broadcast. By default, a GPL server will broadcast it
status through each network address on which you allow connections. If
you're allowing connections on 3 or more interfaces, maybe these
broadcasts are causing some headaches. (The broadcast messages are
what feed the "local games" table on GPL clients.) Add the following
to core.ini

[ Communications ]
bcast_send_disable = 1

Randy

by **Bart Westr** » Tue, 04 May 1999 04:00:00

<snip>
> > nothing seems to make any difference. I haven't played with the MSS
> > settings because I am unsure of the exact registry name and path. The
> > max download is 2 mbit/sec and the 900 kbit/sec, that I see, is an
> > average - at times it dips down to almost nothing for a second or
> two.
> > The same is true of upload, maxing at 384 kbit/sec, but is less
> > pronounced. Does GPL chuck a client if it doesn't respond for a
> second
> > or two? Is this "raggedy edged" nature of my bandwidth profile the
> > problem?

> Possibly. A GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
> disconnect itself from a server) if it receives less than half the
> packets it expects to receive over about a half minute. If the dips
> are only a couple seconds long, this alone shouldn't cause
> disconnections (though it will cause cars to wink out and/or warp).
> However, a GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
> disconnect itself from a server) if Winsock reports an error while
> trying to read a packet (lost or garbled UDP packets should not
> generate read errors). If these dips are causing Winsock to report
> network errors, this will cause disconnections.

I have noticed the same effect Paul mentions with my cable connection. If
the dip (due to lost block sync in my case) lasts for some 2.5 secs,
disconnects are the result. This cannot be due to the 30 secs/50% packet
loss you mention. Can it be that when the packets get through, they cause a
buffer overrun? With the send_every parameters at 3, some 30+ packets would
be coming in almost at once after the dip.

Bart Westra

by **Paul Jone** » Wed, 05 May 1999 04:00:00

Thanks Randy. Armed with this, I'm going to try and get some solutions from
my ISP,
Cheers,
Paul

> > I have an ADSL connection behind a proxy/firewall that gives me
> average
> > bandwidths of about 210 kbit/sec upload and 900 kbit/sec dload in
> peak
> > hours. I can host about 3 racers, including myself, fine but any more
> > and I start to get disconnections. I have not seen any warping at
> all,
> > just disconnections. I cannot understand this, as it is no better
> than
> > what an analog modem would deliver. I use Alison Hine's core.ini with
> an
> > additional line alternate_ip_addr_lookup = 1 which is required to get
> > around the NAT addressing used by the proxy. I am running Windows98
> with
> > standard Winsocks. I have a 10mbit LAN card attached to an Alcatel
> ADSL
> > modem using the CAP encoding method. I have a PII 400MHz using 100MHz
> > frontside bus. Additionally I have a 100 mbit LAN card attached to a
> > private LAN and a USB modem connection that is seldom switched on but
> is
> > configured in my DUN settings. At any one time my machine has a
> minimum
> > of 3 IP addresses and sometimes 5, as well as other installed
> protocols
> > such as IPX etc. Could I be overloading GPL?

> I don't think so. GPL is designed to operate on multihomed machines
> with up to 6 IP addresses and 2 IPX addresses (if there are more, the
> additional addresses are simply ignored, and shouldn't cause any
> problems). GPL addresses each interface directly, so there shouldn't
> be any routing headaches within your machine.

> > I have dual 12Mb Creative
> > Voodoo2 cards in SLI mode with the graphics configured to give me
> 36fps
> > all the time with online play. I have played about with my
> > DefaultRcvWindow and MaxMTU settings,

> I believe these two settings only affect TCP, and GPL only uses UDP, so
> they should have no affect on GPL. (Technically, we should refer to
> "UDP/IP" in the game and manual, but we refer to "TCP/IP" since it's
> more widely recoginzed as being associated with the Internet).

> > error correction etc etc but

> I assume you mean you're turning error correction and data compression
> off.

> > nothing seems to make any difference. I haven't played with the MSS
> > settings because I am unsure of the exact registry name and path. The
> > max download is 2 mbit/sec and the 900 kbit/sec, that I see, is an
> > average - at times it dips down to almost nothing for a second or
> two.
> > The same is true of upload, maxing at 384 kbit/sec, but is less
> > pronounced. Does GPL chuck a client if it doesn't respond for a
> second
> > or two? Is this "raggedy edged" nature of my bandwidth profile the
> > problem?

> Possibly. A GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
> disconnect itself from a server) if it receives less than half the
> packets it expects to receive over about a half minute. If the dips
> are only a couple seconds long, this alone shouldn't cause
> disconnections (though it will cause cars to wink out and/or warp).
> However, a GPL server will disconnect a client (or a client will
> disconnect itself from a server) if Winsock reports an error while
> trying to read a packet (lost or garbled UDP packets should not
> generate read errors). If these dips are causing Winsock to report
> network errors, this will cause disconnections.

> > Will the 1.1 patch do anything to fix these problems?

> If the problem is that Winsock is reporting read errors, yes. By
> default, GPL 1.1 will no longer disconnect if a network error is
> detected.

> > Packet
> > loss was a problem for my ISP but is no longer. Latencies are quite
> > reasonable, down as low as 0.111 in the GPL chat window, but are
> > obviously client dependent. Because of the NAT addressing I cannot be
> > pinged directly from outside this ADM ADSL LAN - could that have some
> > bearing?

> I don't think that should cause any problems.

> One thing you can try (though I don't think it will help) is to disable
> GPL's status broadcast. By default, a GPL server will broadcast it
> status through each network address on which you allow connections. If
> you're allowing connections on 3 or more interfaces, maybe these
> broadcasts are causing some headaches. (The broadcast messages are
> what feed the "local games" table on GPL clients.) Add the following
> to core.ini

> [ Communications ]
> bcast_send_disable = 1

> Randy

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