Server-hosted games - machine going to sleep?

ceremony · #1 January 17th, 2004, 07:58 PM

I've been running an Online (server) game for a few months now, and have noticed that occasionally players report that they are unable to connect, despite having the correct IP/port info.

I thought this was a firewall problem, but lately I have noticed that in another game I'm playing in, I get the same problem. However, when I telephone the person hosting it and ask him to check the server, I'm always able to connect shortly thereafter, despite the fact that he says he didn't do anything except move the mouse to check if the computer had frozen. So perhaps it is that the computer is going to sleep? Shouldn't a port request to the game wake it up?

Is there a way to turn off the "sleep" function in the system when using Windows?

Also, a note for people planning to host server games: if you minimize the server game to the taskbar, the game will take forever to process information. It took players up to five minutes just to end their turns. Dom2 doesn't like being minimized!

#2 January 17th, 2004, 08:15 PM

You can adjust your settings in "Power Options" There is a way to turn off standby.

Other than that you have to go looking around on your computers settings to make sure it doesn't do things like turn off power to your Network, or come awake on network activity and things like that.

ceremony · #3 January 17th, 2004, 08:55 PM

Thanks - I checked under Power Options and while it was never going to Standby, the hard drives were shutting down after 1 hour. I'll see if that helps, or if I need to investigate further.

Zapmeister · #4 January 18th, 2004, 09:51 AM

I've noticed this as well (it's just happened again in a game I'm playing, but I'm not the host).

The thing is, the loss of connectivity always seems to happen just after the turn has hosted, which doesn't grok with the theory that it's caused by Windows or the hardware going to sleep after some period of idle time.

Zapmeister · #5 January 18th, 2004, 10:16 AM

Here's a wild theory totally out of left field.

In the cases where connectivity has been lost, I'm pretty sure I've been keen to get my turn, and tried connecting a couple of minutes after the due host time, only to get the "Waiting for game info" message. I've had to CTL-ALT-DELETE out since the window doesn't respond to anything else in that state.

"Damn", methinks, "it's still hosting". Then, after a few more minutes, I can't connect at all.

Could it be that attempts to connect while the server is hosting is what's causing the problem?

#6 January 18th, 2004, 11:04 AM

It can. Depending on the speed of the turns. Really big games late in the game and slow speed of the server it could cause large lag time to provide.

Zapmeister · #7 January 18th, 2004, 11:57 AM

What I meant was, could an attempt to connect during the hosting cause the server to lock up and not allow connections until there's some further intervention from a person?

#8 January 18th, 2004, 12:04 PM

Hrm. Well there is a 'cool down' time at the end of a hosting. If you try to view your turn before it does that there is a chance it would lock up. This is especially true if you are on the server computer. It can also depend on your connection. I've had people who have dialup, get bad packet errors for no apparent reason.

So basically I'm saying "I've never had it happen like that" because most of the time I'm the server

ceremony · #9 January 18th, 2004, 06:19 PM

Just some more data to add to this: it doesn't seem to have to do with the computer going to sleep, although it was a nice theory while it Lasted -- I had intermittent connection problems with a game, telephoned the host, and he was unable to fix my problem even after "waking up" the computer. The following day (today) I connected no problem. The game had not hosted between then and now so it could not have been a hosting-lag issue. I'm inclined to put it down to router flakiness, especially since a similar problem with the game I'm hosting was solved by resetting the router.

If anyone has any success in pinning down these connection problems, let me know. I have multiple idle computers that could be used to host games for people, but before I open up the invitations, the hosting process would have to become considerably less buggy -- I can easily leave machines humming along in my basement hosting Dom2, but having to reset routers, troubleshoot connections, etc. would slow the games way down since I'm not home most of the day and evening and could only deal with things like this every few days.

#10 January 18th, 2004, 06:25 PM

Yes unfortunately I have found that to be the case. You have to either daily or every few (2-3) days reset the router or the server computer due to some connectivity problems. I thought this was an issue with WinXP for me. I did however notice that Dom2 is fairly sensitive to bad packets and things of that nature. Maybe someone who knows more about such things than me could offer some help or advise.