Help requested: Connection issues

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Full Bleed
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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Full Bleed »

Telurian wrote:
Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:45 am
The previous time this happened resolved when I created a clean user profile and installed a fresh copy of Maptool there, which magically fixed the original copy of Maptool in my usual main user profile. I have not attempted this again yet. If it was my ISP service it fixed itself very coincidentally when I did this last time, and all my other usual connections and activities are responding normally.
It would be quite a coincidence if you confirmed failure in Profile 1 immediately before creating the new profile and confirming success in Profile 2. And *then* immediately tested Profile 1 and found that it was now working correctly about 5 minutes after it was failing. But I suspect the timeline is not that compressed.

1) The reason I have doubts is because the second profile settings *should* have no tangible effect on the settings of the first if it's a setting issue.
2) If Profile 2 is no longer working because of some inherent MT issue, then something has changed and you need to look at what that might be. Check for newly added/removed software and any newly updated software. This kind of change in functionality of a client isn't a known issue. So you'll have to try and figure out what's unique about your system that's causing it.
3) Lastly, you can try to create another new profile. If you do, please confirm failure on existing profiles first. Then immediately test them after you see if a properly functioning profile is, indeed, fixing them all.
4) While the connection is failing, run a pingtest on your friend's IP. If it comes back with issues run a smokeping on your IP for 24 hours and see what it says.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

Telurian
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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Telurian »

As requested I ran a pingtest, and it rated my connection Grade A+ the entire time to its own set of test servers all over the globe, 3-4 times in a row before it automatically quit testing. I did not see a way to input my friend's IP address to test that but it definitely proves my connection is not having substantial difficulties. My friend's IP address may not even be set to allow pinging, because I tried doing that manually in a Command Prompt window last Thursday and it was unable to connect.

My theory as to why it worked last time was that it was some registry entry that is global to maptool and only maptool that was corrupted somehow, and fixed on the clean install, but my latest results are different. I did indeed have about 5 minutes between the attempts last time, failure in profile 1, creation of profile 2, installing maptool in profile 2, and successfully connecting, then reverting to profile 1 soon after attempting a Discord install, definitely less than half an hour later, and profile 1's maptool was working correctly and able to discover External IP in Connection Info, and even polled the Maptool server list correctly. Given the timing of the fix, I assumed it had something to do with the new installation on the brand new profile 2.

Today I did what you suggested, deleting profile 2 completely, confirming Maptool was still failing in profile 1, then immediately creating a brand new profile 3, installing a clean newly downloaded copy of maptool, but this time it did not work to fix things, neither in profile 3 or in profile 1. The entire process took maybe 5 minutes. The only thing I did substantially different is not attempting to install Discord on the new profile 3 before returning to profile 1 to check. In addition, I don't THINK I logged out of profile 1 the first time while working to install profile 2 and its maptool, and I think I used Switch User to go back and forth. This time I logged out of profile 1 completely in the effort to minimize any possible interference or 'crosstalk'. I have not attempted a smokeping because everything besides maptool is working perfectly, grade A+, etc.

Telurian

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Full Bleed
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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Full Bleed »

Telurian wrote:
Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:58 pm
As requested I ran a pingtest, and it rated my connection Grade A+ the entire time to its own set of test servers all over the globe, 3-4 times in a row before it automatically quit testing. I did not see a way to input my friend's IP address to test that but it definitely proves my connection is not having substantial difficulties. My friend's IP address may not even be set to allow pinging, because I tried doing that manually in a Command Prompt window last Thursday and it was unable to connect.
The point of pinging your friend's IP from your own is to see if there is a problem between the two of you. Being unable to ping them is a red flag. It's the simplest "can our IP's communicate" tool you can use. If you can't ping them successfully then I doubt MT would be able to connect to them. Point is, the problem isn't MT if that's the case.
My theory as to why it worked last time was that it was some registry entry that is global to maptool and only maptool that was corrupted somehow, and fixed on the clean install, but my latest results are different.
The separate profiles use separate registries (which is why it resolves certain registry related problems). I don't believe that there is any "global registry settings" in MT, but a dev would have to comment on that.

With your last problem you mentioned that you could not even see your own connection info nor any servers on the RPTools.net server list? Is this the case this time around?
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

Telurian
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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Telurian »

Yes, the same issues and symptoms exactly. No servers listed in Maptool's list, unable to refresh that list (it times out eventually), and when I attempt Connection Info, it lists the Internal IP but the External IP lists "Discovering..." for some time and then times out without result.

Some ISPs are blocking ping attempts now, which is why I am not certain the ping results to my friend's ISP are probative. I have another friend who hosts sometimes and was able to ping his IP address (in a command prompt), but still cannot ping my current host's IP address, the request times out. I cannot connect to my other friend's server in MT either, and it does not show up in the server list (which is blank). I suppose it could be an issue with his ISP blocking, but then why can't I see the server list in Maptool at all, with or without his server showing up?

Telurian

Telurian
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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Telurian »

Today I did a more careful shut down of all wired in devices including my daughter's computer and the router, and then brought them all up in the appropriate order, giving each device time to get its crap together and settle down, and that seems to have worked. My MT now displays Connection Info correctly, and the server list does populate. My assumption is that some DLL or router routine was triggered into a corrupted state or condition, and it has now been corrected. Good luck to others with similar problems :(

Telurian

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Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by llatpog »

I just updated my wifi provider. It shows my UPnP is connected when I look at the router.

I cant get RPtools to create a server with the checkbox checked without an error. Unchecked I can create it, however no one can connect.

I have uploaded and am using 1.8.3. I want to say 1.8.3 worked when I first downloaded it, but now its not since I updated my provider(Spectrum)

I have looked at the forum and I have looked at Discord and all I get is a blank screen and no server to look at(new to discord and no idea how to use it). I just cant find what I am looking for.

Help please?

Telurian
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Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:28 pm

Re: Help requested: Connection issues

Post by Telurian »

My connection issues reappeared again last night, trying to connect to my usual Thursday night session I could not load the server list, could not even get Connection Info to discover my external IP (eventual timeouts). These are the same exact symptoms as before. I rebooted, restarted router, even did a complete shut down of all wired in devices and restart, which fixed it last time (or appeared to), but this time it did not fix anything, same symptoms, no change at all.

The only things I can think of are my router or my ISP not handling MT connections correctly. Any new wisdom on this subject?

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