GPL online HELP please... Randy Cassidy?

Hello fellow RAS and GPLers... 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

that says something like "Latency exceed... blah blah." (it disappears too fast)< 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

Actually, Jack, it's ANYONE :-( that I try to connect to... and I am sure all are not running it.... there may have been one (Alison) but that's all. --Dave

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>>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)< >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

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

So, any other suggestions Randy?? -Dave

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>> >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)< >> Dave, might you have been trying to connect to someone that was >running a >> GPL 1.1 beta host? >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

Thanks for the attention Randy... it was the former as far as messages... I was wrong in using "Latency." 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

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>> 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." >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. >> 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. >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. >> But clearly, GPL does not see my modem. >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? >> ...and I have NOT changed anything recently that would account for >> it.... other than the occasional Windoze hangup >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