HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Developer discussion regarding MapTool 1.4

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Full Bleed
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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by Full Bleed »

Phergus wrote:Not sure what's a good solution to make these solutions more easily discovered in the forum. It really comes down to using search with the right term(s). In this case, the modem model number would be the right term to search for but not always.

A knowledge base type setup would probably be better but it still comes back to searching.
True.

Hardware specific solutions could be added to an appendix in the networking FAQ, too... since that's heavily referred to on the forums (particularly when searching for connection problems.) Az maintains that, so I'll poll his interest.
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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by taustinoc »

It might be that the external port IP is a filter that only allows connections from that IP. (That's a common, and often necessary feature on port forwarding, even if it's mislabeled in this case.) 0.0.0.0 is a common way of indicating "anywhere."

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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by Azhrei »

Full Bleed wrote:Hardware specific solutions could be added to an appendix in the networking FAQ, too... since that's heavily referred to on the forums (particularly when searching for connection problems.) Az maintains that, so I'll poll his interest.
Ugh. I'd be happy to add that section, but it's not likely to get updated very often. Instead, I could add some description of the issues voiced in this thread (don't do port forwarding and UPNP at the same time - I don't think that's in there yet?!) and add to the step-by-step at the end that if it's still not resolved, there may be a router/hardware-specific issue and redirect them to a thread here. And that thread would be locked so that only admins and moderators would be able to add to it (to keep it clean!). It would require that someone like aliasmask or Phergus or FB be willing to add to the list of flaky/weird hardware.

I would recommend the first post in the thread link to other, specific posts in the same thread that deal with particular routers. So when someone visits the thread, they see a list of links for various router models (by manu? and model number?), but because they're all in the same thread, anyone doing a search will find it. (Hm, they might not find the first posting, though; I suppose each post could start with a reminder to check the first one to see the most recent list of hardware with known issues?)
taustinoc wrote:0.0.0.0 is a common way of indicating "anywhere."
Yeah, that's because it's defined as the INADDR_ANY constant in the IP standards. :wink: They're slightly misusing it if they're filtering inbound packets on it, but I suppose that was easy to implement...

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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by taustinoc »

Azhrei wrote:
taustinoc wrote:0.0.0.0 is a common way of indicating "anywhere."
Yeah, that's because it's defined as the INADDR_ANY constant in the IP standards. :wink: They're slightly misusing it if they're filtering inbound packets on it, but I suppose that was easy to implement...
Not only slightly misusing it, but apparently horribly mislabeling it as well. But some router manufacturers are . . . weak on their documentation. (And Time Warner loves them all. I have very fond memories of an Arris router - mostly, of not having to deal with it ever again.)

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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by Full Bleed »

Azhrei wrote:Ugh. I'd be happy to add that section, but it's not likely to get updated very often.
Well, hopefully it wouldn't need to be updated very often. These hardware corner cases don't come up very often.

I (and others) could just pop into the networking FAQ thread and post links to these solution/issues as they arise.. and then when you get a few to add to the FAQ officially you could go ahead and do so. I just know that anyone troubleshooting is bound to bump into a thread telling them to read the networking FAQ. And all the troubleshooting in the world is kind of useless if the solution is something like what this user ended up needing.

And while it's fair to point out that searching is solution, I think the process has to be taken into account. The OP didn't consider that there might be something up with his modem/router. He assumed he was just doing something wrong or missing something. More experienced users are always looking at hardware sideways when the more obvious things have been eliminated... so once we had the modem/router model it was easy to type "Model # port forwarding problem" in a search engine and get first page solutions.
I could add some description of the issues voiced in this thread (don't do port forwarding and UPNP at the same time - I don't think that's in there yet?!)
Sure. And tell them to look up "port forwarding issues" and their router/modem model, too. ;)
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Re: HELP: Unable to Host - v. 1.4.1.6

Post by Phergus »

Full Bleed wrote:And tell them to look up "port forwarding issues" and their router/modem model, too.
That's probably a good thing to have in the FAQ.

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