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Can't find list server

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:40 pm
by armadillo
Hello, we'd appreciate some advice here.

We've just moved house. Until then Bzflag was running fine. Now, although our broadband connection is up and running, whenever we try find a server nothing happens. The game simply prints 'Can't talk with list server' (I've now changed this to what it actually says instead of what I thought it said!). It works okay on localhost.

Any suggestions or, better still, solutions?

BTW, we have reinstalled it, but there is no change.

Regards, armadillo.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:59 pm
by joevano
Thy the global not identifying section of this page: http://my.bzflag.org/w/Common_Support_Issues

That is the most likely problem

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:46 pm
by armadillo
Thanks for the suggestion, but no joy.

I've tried changing the relevant config line to read: 'set list http://my.bzflag.org:81/db' but it makes no difference and bzflag then simply resets the line to its former state.

Cheers.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:53 pm
by macsforme
Can you bring up this url in a browser?

http://my.bzflag.org/db?action=LIST

Progress?

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:14 pm
by armadillo
Yes, no problem constitution. I can bring up that link.

I've had a chance to run bz with debugging switched on. Here is the relevant part:

* About to connect() to my.bzflag.org port 3182 (#0)
* Trying 192.168.1.71... * Connection refused
* couldn't connect to host
* Expire cleared
* Closing connection #0
File transfer terminated with error from libcurl 7 : couldn't connect to host
Unmapped Locale String: Can't talk with list server

To my untrained eye it looks as though bz tries to connect locally; 71 is the machine I'm using. Shouldn't it be using the gateway: 254?

Thanks.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:30 pm
by F687/s
Here's some quick questions for you:

1: How far did you move? Did you just move a few miles away, or to the other side of the country?
2: During the process, did you have to change ISPs?
3: Did you keep your old router settings, or did you have to change them?
4: What is your DNS server (if you know)?

Maybe that will help shed some light on the problem.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:23 am
by blast
If you are able to connect in the browser, that's a good sign. I would be more inclined to assume that a firewall is the cause of this problem, since the BZFlag client itself does an HTTP request identical to what you did via the browser. Try disabling any and all firewalls on your machine temporarily and see if that allows BZFlag to connect.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:17 pm
by armadillo
Thanks, folks, for having a go at this. My boys are heartbroken at the moment. BZ is one of their favourites (and mine).

> 1: How far did you move? Did you just move a few miles away, or to the other side of the country?
> 2: During the process, did you have to change ISPs?
The simple answer to both these is that we have changed our ISP, so some of the basic router settings have also changed. Since then I have also upgraded the distro we use, so a new version of bz has been installed. I have tried setting aside the original config file and letting the new version of bz create a new one, but that has not worked either.

>3: Did you keep your old router settings, or did you have to change them?
The firewall settings on the router have not been altered. As mentioned above our new ISP uses a different setup, but these are just the basic DSL settings---so far all my other internet enabled apps are working okay.

>4: What is your DNS server (if you know)?
The router acts as the local DNS (at 192.168.1.254), but I don't off hand know the IP address for the ISP's DNS. [later] A bit of digging reveals: 212.50.160.100 as primary), and 213.249.130.100 as secondary DNS with our ISP.

Re the firewall: it's a good suggestion. So far I haven't found a way to turn off the router's firewall!

Cheers.

PS -- it seems the only way to 'turn off' the router's firewall is to create a DMZ. To be honest I don't see much point in trying this as the firewall has never been an issue in the past.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:23 pm
by joevano
Have you tried http://portforward.com/ for help with your firewall settings? That is a pretty useful site.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:37 pm
by armadillo
Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think it's a firewall issue.

BZ has been running on this machine for two or three years; with this router and network setup for a year, and the only thing that had changed when this problem started was our location and ISP. Also, I would expect the fresh install of the OS (though the 'Home' directory remained), would have enabled the fresh install of BZ to cater for the current setup. :?

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:13 pm
by Joe Mama
This happened to me several days ago. If you use a modem then try turning of the modem and turning it back on. Tha's what I did and it worked fine after that. If you have wireless then I can't help you.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:27 pm
by armadillo
This is ethernet over powerline, and the router gets switched off at least once a day. Thanks for the thought though. :D

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:40 pm
by wanda
> * About to connect() to my.bzflag.org port 3182 (#0)
> * Trying 192.168.1.71... * Connection refused


> host my.bzflag.org
my.bzflag.org has address 66.111.56.50

Seems to be a DNS problem. Your resolving doesnt work, I think.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:41 pm
by armadillo
Perhaps you are right, except that everything else to do with working online is working fine! If you are able to make a more detailed suggestion about what to do that would be good.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:44 pm
by blast
Do you have multiple computers? If so, is it only happening on one system?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:32 pm
by armadillo
Unfortunately the laptop doesn't have a 3D graphics card :(

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 4:08 pm
by blast
armadillo wrote:Unfortunately the laptop doesn't have a 3D graphics card :(
Still, even if it doesn't, you should be able to launch the game and see if it can communicate with the list server.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 4:23 pm
by armadillo
Mmm, worth trying, but in the past the laptop scenario is: bz attempts to start then almost immediately crashes in a blaze of screen pyrotechnics leaving me staring at my desktop again! Hence BZ isn't currently installed on the laptop, but I'll have a go later.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:14 pm
by blast
Hmm, okay. Worst case you could edit the configuration file on that laptop to run at 640x480x8bit. The 8-bit graphics should kick it down to software rendering if the hardware OpenGL is crap. I had to do that with my older Savage IX chipset.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:07 pm
by F687/s
If your ISP cares about your internet connection (anti-spam, firewall, anti-virus), it may block Bad Things from reaching you. Here's what I would suggest:

Try entering Join Game and use the following settings:

Server: pythonian.com
Port: 5154

(I don't care what you say, I know it's going to be there for a long time). If you cannot connect to the actual game server, we have a problem. If you can, we have a rarer problem.

Can you please tell me what ISP you're using, and what ISP you switched from?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:50 pm
by blast
F687/s wrote:Can you please tell me what ISP you're using, and what ISP you switched from?
At this point, we've already ruled out a problem with the ISP. They can connect to the list server just fine from a web browser. To the ISP, the request that BZFlag makes will look the same, except for maybe some different HTTP headers.

armadillo, not sure if you're tried this, but deleting the configuration file from the one system might help out as well.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:33 pm
by armadillo
SUCCESS!!!

Pythonian.com works beautifully. So why are we having problems with the list server?

We're in the UK. We were connecting through Tiscali. Now it's Karoo---a local monopoly in the area, i.e. there is no alternative!

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:01 pm
by armadillo
I've spoken to Karoo's tech support. The person I spoke to wasn't one hundred percent sure, but as far as he knew they don't muck around trying to block certain transfers, etc.

So, I still feel none the wiser. We can log on to specified game servers, but we can't bring up the list server.

I don't want this to drag on but as F687/s said '...If you cannot connect to the actual game server, we have a problem. If you can, we have a rarer problem.' It seems to be the rarer problem.

Cheers and thanks.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:01 pm
by macsforme
armadillo wrote:I don't want this to drag on but as F687/s said '...If you cannot connect to the actual game server, we have a problem. If you can, we have a rarer problem.' It seems to be the rarer problem.
Actually I think they're entirely different. Different servers, different ports, different connection methods. That's kind of like saying "If you can't get on the internet at all, we have a problem. If you can, we have a rarer problem."

Join us on IRC, ask us your question, wait patiently, and someone should hopefully be able to find you a solution.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:58 pm
by F687/s
Constitution wrote:Actually I think they're entirely different. Different servers, different ports, different connection methods. That's kind of like saying "If you can't get on the internet at all, we have a problem. If you can, we have a rarer problem."
Not true at all. Obviously, a problem connecting to a game server would show a problem with BZFlag itself (maybe). Furthermore, we would expect an unknown game protocol on unregistered ports to be blocked, but an HTTP request? Also, the request can be easily served via a web browser, but when the client tries to access that same address, it is denied. I am not experienced at all with ISPs in other continents, but if they say that they do not provide HTTP filtering, then I would believe them. By "distro" I assume you're using Linux (until Microsoft releases Windows 95 as open source), so who knows how your machine's configured. So now it is a matter of deduction to isolate what area of the connection is going wrong through logical deduction, and then fixing it.