Observer going [nr] after several minutes

[range-target]

When in observer mode, after several minutes, all other players on the server show as being [nr] even though in real-time, play is continuing as normal. Is this a problem with my client? Are there any settings which might control this?

[JeffM]

We have seen this happen with some home internet routers. They do not seem to like the fact that you are not sending out much data, but receiving a lot of it. Some people have fixed this with firmware updates, but that is a rather involved task outside the level of support the project can give.

[range-target]

JeffM,
Thanks for the tip. And, I suspect you are correct that it is something related to my internet router. When I start up a bzflag server on my local network and connect directly to it on my LAN instead of connecting to it via the bzflag server list by way of my router, my observer session doesn't go [nr].
Now, where is that router user manual -- I thought I stuck it down in the bottom of this cabinet a year or so ago....???

[ts]

From my understanding a stateful packet inspection (SPI) is very like to let the router drop the incoming packets. There is not much you can do because most routers don't have many settings to tune that behaviour.

Turning off SPI would solve it, I bet but that is nothing I'd recommend (SPI is an important security feature). What might work could be letting the router forward the packets of the BZFlag server's port to your computer but then keep in mind the ports are often different and then it is unclear if it would circumvent the SPI.

The best way would be specifying a custom SPI timeout (the time the port is kept open after an outgoing packet from your computer) for the port range of the used BZFlag servers.