251 réponses à ce sujet

[Lazarus Magni]

Look, there are 300+ other servers out there. I think our server has done it’s part in being a guinea pig, and I have done my part in reporting a number of issues.

Skywing seems convinced that his server did not cause the problem, but I am less so. Only one variable has changed (removing the host.ect file edit), and the problem has stopped (the problem I am referring to is the mass booting of players, I have no clue about the 100% CPU useage issue, and absolutely that could have been caused by any number of things.).

If we can replicate the problem (mass booting of all players), while not using this edit, than I was wrong, Skywing’s server is not responsible, and I will certainly report that if that turns out to be the case. I don’t know what else I can do other than that.

I certainly am not wanting to burn bridges with some of the most gifted and prominent members of this community, or having our server be excluded from listing in one of the alternatives to gamespy out there. I am not an IT person, I am just reporting what we have experienced.

[SkywingvL]

I'm not aware of any other server reporting the issue, which again leads me to suspect it is a problem local to your environment.

Please get a crash dump when the issue occurs. Otherwise, we are shooting blind as to the cause. You need to understand that without the ability to accurately replicate *what was going on in the game at the time of the issue*, there's no guarantee that the trigger condition has even reproduced again. This is why a crash dump of the server in the stuck state is necessary to understand the problem, since we can see what the server process is actually doing.

[painofdungeoneternal]

Lazarus Magni wrote...
Look, there are 300+ other servers out there. I think our server has done it’s part in being a guinea pig, and I have done my part in reporting a number of issues.

Well, I think we all can ask that...

if not me, who? If not now, when?

The problem is when the entire community is expecting someone else to do things, nothing gets done. I see a lot of talking, very little action, nor even understanding of what work is actually being done by those doing said work.

If I care enough about an issue, the answer has to be me or no one at all.

No one else can deal with the issue besides you at this point, i cannot, skywing cannot. Unless another PW reports this issue ( and i remember seeing PWs stating that putting in the hosts edit, that they were suddenly tracked ) Either we have other PW's reporting the issue, or we have them reporting it's bogus. I imagine I will have to PM different PW's to figure that out, which probably is another evening which I don't spend developing my own solutions. ( ie if not you, it means me )

Your describing yourself as a guinea pig, or as a beta tester -- come on, you are not a victim here, without the weeks of work being done on your behalf there would be no solution to the gamespy issue, and without a real solution, you are going to face a slow decline as fewer and fewer players exist to begin with. The faster we can get this resolved, with or without your help, the faster we can get NWN1 moving again. Getting actual data to the developer is just good form. I have very little sympathy for the idea of you having no time to support this project, especially knowing how long it takes to set up a working system, to debug and launch it, and pay for it, and then have someone post it does not work, yet is unwilling to work with the developer when he asks for this or that to help figure out where the root cause is.

Getting what skywing is asking for, requires recreating the issue, but that should be something you can plan with your players, you also already know how to do, most players in my experience are very supportive, and should only take an hour or two if this is the actual cause. If you get his review of your crash, you will get valuable information pinpointing exactly what is going on. Ask your players if they are willing to contribute an evening of testing to fix gamespy, and if it's an unrelated issue, probably fix that unrelated issue. ( you would have to discuss with skywing exactly how to do what he is asking, for find a member of your PW willing to help with this )

Note that with or without the hosts edit, the skywing tracker will keep sending messages as long as it knows you have an active PW. ( at least based on my limited understanding, i'm not running a server now so cannot review this in any way ) The hosts edit just makes your server send the tracker messages, I find it hard to beleive that this is the cause, since it's probably happening even after you remove the hosts edit unless your ip changed, and if it is, it means there is a fundamental issue in that we can easily send a message to shut down any PW at our whim which I think is itself an issue. Your conclusion just does not add up, and there are other likely explanations.

Perhaps the hosts file is being messed up with your edits, the 127.0.0.1 loopback address is being messed up, or perhaps you still are using the bioware server to authenticate player cd keys, perhaps you are ****** up the file with word and not using a plain ascii editor, or perhaps it's an issue with your firewall or the nwnx network plugin. Even this seems far fetched, perhaps we can get some input from the other 300+ PW's who can describe whether or not they are able to get this to work.

Until someone steps up to the plate the developer types cannot do anything one way or another. Sorry, but development requires the support of the community, it requires people willing to debug and beta test, to be guinea pigs. It requires for people to say "me" and "now", and this is true not just in games but in real life too.

[Lazarus Magni]

As I told Skywing in PMs, the 100% CPU useage lock up is not the issue of primary concern. This only happened once (an isolated occurance), and absolutely could have been due to any number of issues unrelated to the tracking server.

The issue at heart was having players getting mass autobooted (the server doesn't crash, nor the nwserver instance, everybody on the server just gets auto booted all exactly at the same time). This was happening seemly at random (in terms of timing and frequency), so I can not replicate this at will, or predict when it is going to happen, in order to gather any data (like from a dump).

As I mentioned above, we no longer have the host file edit, so if the symptom re-occurs, then we will know it is not related to this. And I would post that as soon as I find that out. But so far that has not happened. Ever since I removed the host file edit, we have not had a single instance of mass bootings since.

You act like I am being selfish or something Pain, but I have been providing feedback on this stuff since day one. How many other server aDMins are?

I don't know what to do? Leave the host.ect edit in place, and just keep having this happen to the detriment of the players on our world? I have no way to capture the event, and gather any meaningful data from it. So I, and our host decided, remove the edit, and if the problem happens again we know it's not related to the edit. But again that hasn't happened yet.

Modifié par Lazarus Magni, 01 avril 2013 - 10:56 .

[painofdungeoneternal]

I am asking you to stop complaining about being a beta tester, and PM or agree to work with skywing on how to sort out this issue. I am also asking you to stop blaming the tracker, when all you have is a hunch, that the messages skywing says happen every 15 seconds happen to happen when these issues occur ( which means every issue correlates with such a message ), and allow him to defend his work, and take an in depth look at your server. Basically do what skywing asked you to do.

It actually sounds like you have more than one issue going on. From how you are describing what is happening, it sounds like using the tracker crashes the PW and boots all the players, tone it down and stop blaming things until you give skywing a fair chance to get more information about what is going on, or after it's verified by more than one PW admin that this is also happening to them. I would think if it was the tracker, it would not be so sporadic.

Ask him how to capture a dump. Next time you have an issue, do that procedure and give him a copy -- this is important regardless of this current issue. After a period of no issues, try it again with the hosts edit, letting players know when you are trying this, and verify the hosts file is formatted correctly. Send him a copy of any logs or config files for him to review, and if he provides a remote debugger or asks for other software to be run, let him do so. I have no idea what he wants to do, just asking for you to cooperate and let him investigate. ( remote debugger lets him watch the running server process and if it does the issue when he is attached, he can actually watch it do the booting and trace back why it happened ) He might also want you to use wire shark.

If you don't trust skywing, try to get another who has symbols and a debugger who can do the same work ( Zebranky, Virusman, etc but even they would refer harder questions to skywing )

I would also like to know what NWNx plugins you are using, the config files, and the logs you are describing, system config, etc, but I probably would not be able to trace out the issue as well as a person who has run a NWN1 PW ( i mainly ran one for NWN2 )  I would be looking at things which could boot all the players ( scripts, ini options, etc. ) or perhaps something is going on with your fire wall.

Modifié par painofdungeoneternal, 01 avril 2013 - 11:52 .

[Lazarus Magni]

Pain,
You seem to think I am some self centered, whiny, complaining punk. Look, the fact of the matter is, I feel responsible for maintaining the stickey’s (or at least my portion of them) I created outlining, and consolidating information about alternatives to gamespy.
http://social.biowar.../index/15517034
http://social.biowar.../index/15517037
http://www.gog.com/f...master_server_l 
https://www.facebook...!/groups/nwncp/

I can not in good faith, endorse something that seems to be suspect. This does not bar anyone else from posting on those stickeys endorsing such methods. And if/when the methods (NWNCX and the host file edit) prove to be not causing serious issues for servers/players I will happily endorse them again too.

Skywing asked me to create dump file of the nwserver app when it locks up, but as I have been repeatedly trying to explain, that is not the issue which concerns me and our host, since it only happened one time, and it well could have been related to something completely independent to the tracking server.

What concerns me is the repeated mass autobooting which seems to be caused by the host file modification. (By seems, I mean since undoing the modification it has not occurred again, and I am waiting for evidence to the contrary, which has not been forthcoming as of yet.) There is no way to create a dump file of this event given it’s nature (I can’t force it to happen, nor predict when it is going to occur, not to mention it takes less than a second to occur.)
Laz

Modifié par Lazarus Magni, 02 avril 2013 - 01:42 .

[painofdungeoneternal]

Well I am just reacting to your reactions, which seem to be upset at being a beta tester or guinea pig. I am just trying to get you to cooperate in figuring out the real issue, and have been waiting for you to agree to do so - not even sure if you just did or not but will assume at this point you are. By doing the stickies, you are in a position of making many folks completely avoid a working system, unless it works for you, which necessitates making said system work to your satisfaction. That should benefit everybody, even if the issues are unrelated, you probably are going to solve some real issues.

There are ways to figure out the issues you are seeing, I've seen people do them for other PW's to trace down intermittent problems. If you were to run it for an hour, and during that time not have any issues, I'd assume you'd get in that time all the possible messages back and forth which could be creating the problem, and in that time someone could verify it's working correctly, and the config files and hosts file are set up right.

The issue is if it's intermittent, then it might be some other cause which does not regularly ping your server. ( really wish we had an xp_bugfix for NWN1 which deals with a lot of those issues ) Remember that the tracker is actually pinging your server now since it's listed, the only difference is your server is unable to send it any messages. ( and that is the hard part to understand, how does your server sending a message result in a mass player boot )

Got 2 out of three PW admins reporting they have had no issues with the hosts file edit via PM, and nothing negative ( still waiting on one response ), hopefully more can provide comments here.

The one on the info page I linked to is actually in use and verified working well. I think you can with good conscience state the hosts edit is in use by other PW's successfully, but that you have had issues of undetermined cause when you used it. By not including it, you are limiting the options which could very well work for many people who might have equivalent issues using the other methods.

[Lazarus Magni]

Well as promised, here is an update.

Even with the host file edit removed, we are still having mass auto booting events, and with each one the logs show at the exact same time these occur a communication between our server and SkywingL's (199.193.152.27 ).

P.S. Pain, our host and I are fully on board with finding out why this is happening, and getting it fixed. I would not be posting these reports if we weren't.

Modifié par Lazarus Magni, 02 avril 2013 - 06:11 .

[painofdungeoneternal]

Ok that is all i wanted to here...

Since he sends a message every 15 seconds, and assuming you are not having a mass autoboot every 15 seconds, I think it's safe to say it's another issue since it's almost guaranteed to have an issue when you change it. ( And i think you were getting those every 15 seconds before you first had this issue with the hosts edit, but you'd have to get a new ip to rule it out completely )

If you can email me more info ( i think you have my email ), like logs you are talking about, your general system config (linux, windows, OS version, etc ) ini config files for nwn1 ( remember to zap your dm password before you send it ), as well as what nwnx ini and plugins you are using.

Not saying i can figure it out as there are smarter people than I in the community, but I might get lucky and notice something being overlooked. ( If skywing prefers something else, i'd defer to his judgement )

[Lazarus Magni]

Thanks for the offer Pain, but I don't think that will be necessary.

I have another update here. Our host contacted his hosting service's tech support, and they informed him that since last weekend they have been experiencing DDOS attacks.They are taking steps to stop this from happening.

It actually makes some sense now why it is that for every single one of these events, the only constant was a closing of the connection between our server and SkywingL's. If our server or his are in constant communication, than that would explain why for each of these events, his server show's up in the logs

I apologize SkywingL, if we incorrectly infered from this causality of the autoboots, simply because your server was the only constant, but I hope you could see why we might think that.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Just working on a replacement for the GameSpy logo in the internet games server list panel.



Nothing too fancy, but I figured it'd give credit where GameSpy doesn't deserve it anymore.

You can download it here if you want it, pick the version you want (standard gui or transparent gui), and drop it into your override folder.

If the direct link doesn't work right, try right-clicking on the link and picking "Save Link As..." (or whatever the text is for your browser).

Edit: Fixed graphic, updated font to make it easier to read, and fixed SkywingvL's username in the image.

Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 04 avril 2013 - 08:47 .

[egbert]

Today I tested SkywingL's "GameSpy-Replacement-IPs" in my /etc/hosts.

They seem to run well, but you can no longer play any NWN Premium Module...

[virusman]

NWNCX 0.2.8
http://data.virusman...nwncx-0.2.8.rar

Fixed Gamespy chat feature, updated documentation

[virusman]

Server plugins for automatic listing are now available.

Windows binary:
http://data.virusman...t-pre-win32.rar
Linux source:
https://github.com/v...tree/serverlist
Linux binary:
http://data.virusman...t-pre-linux.rar

Please note that this is a pre-release that has not been tested thoroughly. That said, your participation and feedback will help me make an official release sooner.

Modifié par virusman, 12 avril 2013 - 05:02 .

[The Amethyst Dragon]

I'll be testing this out as soon as I get a chance. Thanks!

[The Amethyst Dragon]

virusman:

Looks like the plugin is running for me.  Haven't changed my hosts file back to how it used to be yet, but here's that first chunk of the nwnx_serverlist.txt log, which looks like is being updated every five minutes.

The "

* sendtoMstHook: Master server hostname resolved." looks like it's repeated after every 7th call to 199.193.152.27.

NWNX Serverlist Plugin (c) 2013 by virusman
Hooking: 6332b0
Hooked: 6c04d70
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook: Master server hostname resolved.
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121
* sendtoMstHook
* sendtoMstHook: call to 199.193.152.27, 5121

Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 13 avril 2013 - 09:29 .

[BelowTheBelt]

Hey, so what's new on this front? Is everything live and stable with the various options?

Thanks!

[virusman]

Yes. NWNX Serverlist can be considered stable.

[Lazarus Magni]

And does not seem to be causing server instability these days, despite my eariler concerns.

I must re-iterate my appreciation for all of the community's work in replacing built in functionality that is no more. Despite the fact that I may come off as an unappreciative jerk, what the community did (on so many levels, and in so many ways) to compensate for the loss of essential services (master server, and game spy, amoungst others) is a testimate to how much people care about this "community" project that is NWN 1. It's not common to see dozens of different programers working for free to ensure the longevity of a relic (an oldie but a goodie), not to mention the hundereds of single player and multiplayer developers, and thousands of players.

Cheers to you all.

Lazarus Magni

[Surek]

I apologize if this is the wrong place to put this; I was not sure where to put it.
I have been trying to get my server listed using SkywingvL & Virusman’s app I have even edited the host files and I still can’t get my server listed. Does anyone have any ideas on what else I could try?

[egbert]

AFAIK "announcement" happens only with the server extensions and the stand-alone servers (NWN and NWN2) - and as far as this thread goes everyone (with the exception of me) seems happy so... 8-(

If you use the client extensions you'll miss the "waiting for timeout" at least. You can also see and select the listed servers (near only PWs).

You can register your server manually on "NWNList Scry" (NWN and NWN2) after starting your game.
If you have a dynamic IP (as most) you have to register after every change, too.

[painofdungeoneternal]

egbert wrote...
You can register your server manually on "NWNList Scry" (NWN and NWN2) after starting your game.
If you have a dynamic IP (as most) you have to register after every change, too.

Last i tested that did not work. Bug was reported, but then the action listings was also reported and it's also not fixed.

hosts file edit, or the nwnx plugin are the only released methods of updating the server, short of programmatically doing it via the Soap API.

( i sent a beta version of neverlauncher which can update the listing as well )

[Lazarus Magni]

What I think both egbert, and pain are getting at is try joining your server using the nwnxc client plugin:

virusman wrote...

NWNCX 0.2.8
http://data.virusman...nwncx-0.2.8.rar

Fixed Gamespy chat feature, updated documentation

Or use the server side nwnx plugins (dlls):

virusman wrote...

Server plugins for automatic listing are now available.

Windows binary:
http://data.virusman...t-pre-win32.rar
Linux source:
https://github.com/v...tree/serverlist
Linux binary:
http://data.virusman...t-pre-linux.rar

Please note that this is a pre-release that has not been tested thoroughly. That said, your participation and feedback will help me make an official release sooner.

P.S. I didn't see these updates til just now. I was using nwnxc 2.7, and didn't notice the dll (I have been a bit busy working 50-70 hour weeks). Does anyone have any additional feedback on these most recent releases? I should prolly update the stickies.

Modifié par Lazarus Magni, 02 juin 2013 - 05:41 .

[egbert]

I tried them all (NWN and NWN2, NWNCX 0.28 (also with the pre-serverlist.dll) and NWN2 Client Extension 1.0.0.24):

-> At now there is no game registration for the build-in-servers. <-

Both programmers plan to add it. (THX)

I would like that very much, but I don't know if it makes sense:
Bioware and Gamespy stopped this service(s) because of money...
Now Skywing runs the servers (THX again), means he pays the bill...
... honestly: How long would you do???

[painofdungeoneternal]

Note that gamespy was going to charge a lot of money to keep it running, skywing in comparison is just paying hosting fees which is considerably less.

Skywing has been paying the bill for a long time ( for personal usage I am sure ) but unlike Bioware, he still cares about this game. I would think his is going to be around as long or longer than any other established site. I am not concerned about his site going down.

It might be good to get donations ( paypal or the like ), or just email skywing thanks to make sure he knows his supporting the game matters.

If there is an issue and he plans to quit, his software is open, it would just mean we'd need to change ip's and update versions in the various solutions, and host it somewhere else.