New proxy problem...or is it?
 

Hi all, got a weird problem I'm hoping someone here can help me with (or at least explain ;) ). I normally use Telewest cable for my internet access, but this week I am away from home and using my old NTL Freedom dialup. Most pages etc are working fine but I do have 1 major problem...

I play an online RPG called Thang. Although I suspect it will be unplayable in any practical manner over 56k, I wished to log in and do some trading etc and keep in touch with friends. Unfortunately, when I try to look at the game's website (thang.ongameport.com) it fails. The game itself also fails, unable to contact the servers.

Originally I assumed the servers were down, but after talking to several online friends that also play, I discovered the servers are in fact fine. After much messing about, I discovered that ping and tracert get no response whatsoever, timing out even if the delay is set to a crazy 10 seconds.

I thought I was making progress when I specified a manual proxy (194.247.47.81) and gained website access, but obviously this only changes IE or Firefox's settings - the game itself still cannot reach the servers.

From my own ping/tracert attempts and by getting online friends to replicate them, I know that the dns server is correctly resolving the address to the IP 222.122.25.35 for the website. the game itself trys to access 222.122.25.35 on port 7777. I have tried with and without firewall and the game ran perfectly on my cable connection so I am 99.9% sure the problem is not on my machine (never rule out the truly weird when dealing with computers:p:).

So...can anyone help me figure out what is causing this problem and how to fix it? I freely admit I am addicted to this game and could use a fix, but right now I'm more interested in diagnosing the root cause of the problem (I hate an unsolved mystery!)

Any advice appreciated,

Digitus

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

:welcome: to the site :)
can you not specify proxies through the game itself?

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

Dial up proxies are not specified through internet options in a browser, but in the properties of the actual connection, iirc this affects everything that uses the connection, so should affect the game as well.

Any idea what port the game connects though? It may be that it is unaffected by the caching which is on ports 80 and 8080 only...

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

Can't specify proxies in the game because no options are available until you've logged on to a server...which i can't see :mad:

As for the proxies affecting everything, if that's the case how come I can access the website with IE if I set a proxy but can't get a ping or tracert and firefox doesnt use the proxy either? I'm not arguing btw, just trying to understand!

The game uses port 7777 as far as I can tell, no idea what protocol though. My understanding of proxies is pretty limited, would a web proxy still work for the quantity of packets involved in playing a MMORPG?

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

How far does a tracert to 222.122.25.35 get ?

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

It doesn't - nothing, nunk, nuh-uh, nada :(

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

So not a single hop ? - in that case your problem sounds local to your machine.

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

Well, as i said in my original post I rule nothing out when it comes to computers, but I find that unlikely considering this machine has played the game fine on another connection and the website will only work with an external proxy. I'm always open to suggestions though ;)

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

The problem defenitly isnt proxes since NTL only proxy website ports, and 7777 isnt one of them. If your traceroute is getting nowhere at all then I would check for a firewall of some sort.

I can traceroute fine here from NTL broadband.

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

What OS are you using ?

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

I'm using XP Pro.

Again, if the problem was local to my machine it almost certainly wouldn't have worked at home. Also, tracert's to other sites complete successfully. BUT...interesting development when I was checking the tracert - the first hop on any tracert always times out. After the first it works fine (example below to good old bbc.co.uk). Tried half a dozen different traces and all the sam - 1st fails but afterwards works normally. I'm sure this is highly significnt but I have nfi what it means lol :D

------------------TRACERT---------------------

C:\Documents and Settings\George>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.228.154]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 215 ms 151 ms 149 ms gb-bir-c-r2-ge60.inet.ntl.com [80.1.208.194]
3 159 ms 149 ms 160 ms gb-lth-c-r1-pos150.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.109]
4 157 ms 149 ms 155 ms gb-lth-c-r2-pos00.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.222]
5 158 ms 149 ms 160 ms gb-ldk-c-r1-pos150.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.121]
6 158 ms 149 ms 155 ms pop-ic-1-ge-030-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.253]

7 166 ms 149 ms 155 ms pop-bb-a-ge-700-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.242]

8 166 ms 166 ms 154 ms tele-ic-2-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.86]

9 162 ms 166 ms 155 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.217]
10 171 ms 155 ms 155 ms 212.58.238.129
11 166 ms 155 ms 155 ms 212.58.238.33
12 166 ms 155 ms 155 ms pos6-0.rt1.mh.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.254]
13 161 ms 155 ms 158 ms bogons.mh.bbc.co.uk [212.58.228.154]

Trace complete.

------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________

OK, given this a bit more thought and messed around a little more, now havint the following thoughts I could do with comments on:

1 - Based on the facts that this site and game seem to be the only problem ones, plus it all works fine on my home connection...I think I can eliminate my own machine as the problem?

2 - The fact that tracert doesnt manage even a single hop suggests it is also unlikely that the destination site is at fault (eg if my IP range was blocked) - wouldn't tracert still work until it got to the faulty/blocking point?

3 - Gathering all this together, my personal suspicion at present is that the problem is caused by some sort of routing problem. The DNS is returning the correct IP for the site but it appears the routing to that IP is..well...broken :shocked:. I've exhausted my limited knowledge of how all this works however - I don't know where this routing information comes from or how (or even if) I can force my computer to go elsewhere to find the correct info...

HELP :D

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

Hmm all gone quiet...is everyone else as baffled as I am by this 1?

Anyone on NTL Freedom dialup here?
 

Hi, trying to nail down a weird problem I'm having with a website and game. I'm using NTL Freedom dialup (More details in my main thread on http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...d.php?t=28537). Wondering if someone else on the same connection could try this website etc, see if it's specific to me or the Freedom configuration etc.

Any assitance welcomed ;)

Digi

Re: Anyone on NTL Freedom dialup here?
 

if i may offer a word of advice , double posting about the same problem is not really on , you would be better off *bumping* your original thread after a day or so to 'advertise' it again , as for your problem , sorry , i dont have an answer :angel:

Re: Anyone on NTL Freedom dialup here?
 

I have merged them, and put it in the dial up forum - it's certainly not a proxy problem.
__________________

Can you do a tracert to 212.58.228.154 and another to 222.122.25.35 - use the ip addresses, not the website names.

Re: Anyone on NTL Freedom dialup here?
 

The original post was made under the proxies section, as at that time I suspected proxies may be either party or wholly responsible. Having made a certain amount of progress with the help of people in that area, I started a seperate thread under the dialup section to try and find someone on the same connection and solicit their aid in trying to duplicate my problem.

I am fully familiar with forums and their usage and if you look closer at the thread you will see I had already bumped it shortly before I started the 2nd. The 2nd was not intended as a "double post" about the same problem, it's aim was to try and obtain additional information about a specific sub-area of my problem - the ntl dialup account - without moving the entire thread away from those with the best knowledge and experience to help. Although I now agree that it is almost certainly not a proxy issue, I do not feel it is uniquely related to dialup access either and thus not best suited to the dialup area. The proxies area was (at the time of my original post) the best area to begin with the information I had at the time. As there is no "Weird routing problems" area I can't help but feel that combining the threads here under dialup can only reduce the chances of my gaining assistance, since most of the people with relevant knowledge (particularly those that were already helping) will now have no idea where this thread has gone.
__________________

As I noted yesterday, DNS appears to be resolving IP's fine, its after the correct IP is returned that problems start. Like the 6 I ran yesterday, the BBC trace works fine after failing the first hop - I'm sure this is highly significant but I have no idea what of :D. Tracert to the problem IP never gets off the ground - every hop times out, even when set to 10000ms. The way I see it, a normal packet is given a set of directions to get to the destination -

"Go to this ip, then they will tell you where to go next, repeat until you get there."

In my case however, the first direction is a dead end - the packets just pile up and die lol :shocked:

--------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Documents and Settings\George>tracert 212.58.228.154

Tracing route to bogons.mh.bbc.co.uk [212.58.228.154]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 194 ms 149 ms 149 ms gb-bir-c-r2-ge60.inet.ntl.com [80.1.208.194]
3 157 ms 155 ms 149 ms gb-lth-c-r1-pos150.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.109]
4 158 ms 149 ms 155 ms gb-lth-c-r2-pos00.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.222]
5 163 ms 154 ms 149 ms gb-ldk-c-r1-pos150.inet.ntl.com [80.1.209.121]
6 166 ms 155 ms 149 ms pop-ic-1-ge-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.249]

7 166 ms 149 ms 149 ms pop-bb-a-ge-701-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.246]

8 184 ms 155 ms 167 ms tele-ic-2-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.86]

9 161 ms 155 ms 155 ms ntl-ge2-8.prt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.217]
10 161 ms 157 ms 155 ms 212.58.238.129
11 158 ms 154 ms 161 ms 212.58.238.34
12 172 ms 148 ms 155 ms pos6-0.rt0.mh.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.30]
13 172 ms 161 ms 155 ms bogons.mh.bbc.co.uk [212.58.228.154]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\George>tracert 222.122.25.35

Tracing route to 222.122.25.35 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

----------------------------------------------------
__________________

Hmmm...when reviewing my last post I noticed something interesting - the tracert for 212.58.228.154 does a reverse DNS lookup and gives the correct domain name. The tracert for 222.122.25.35 doesnt do that, just has the IP. Again I'm sure this is significant but I'm fresh out of relevant knowledge of how these packets are routed :-(

Re: NTL Freedom problem
 

Bizarre - it does appear to have no route almost from the kick off - can you route to any 222.x.x.x addresses. The rDNS is not really significant, lots of ip addresses do not have a reverse lookup record.

Re: NTL Freedom problem
 

Ok, found about half a dozen 222.x addresses that produced a reverse dns name so should be tracert-able (oooh new word :-) ) - all failed totally, same as the other.

Re: New proxy problem...or is it?
 

While dialup proxies are connection specific, they are set still up through Internet Options rather than through DUN, and like cable proxies won't affects ports other than those specified (e.g. port 80, 81 etc).


My advice would be to email a description of the problem along with the tracert results and the IP address assigned to you at the time you ran them to support@ntlfreedom.com so that the issue can be raised with the faults department.

For reference, here's a partial successful tracert

9 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms tele-ic-1-so-110-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.78]
10 161 ms 170 ms 170 ms kt-london.router.fe1 [195.66.224.147]
11 290 ms * 291 ms 211.48.63.229
12 290 ms 291 ms 300 ms apnc10 [211.216.216.97]
13 290 ms 291 ms 300 ms 220.73.167.182
14 291 ms 300 ms 291 ms 218.145.44.54
15 290 ms 291 ms 300 ms 211.106.158.186
16 291 ms 290 ms 301 ms 211.216.53.117
17 310 ms 561 ms 291 ms 222.122.25.33
18 290 ms 301 ms 290 ms 222.122.25.35

Re: NTL Freedom problem
 

Thanks, I already mailed support last week - no response (shock horror gasp). I'm off home today and back to lovely broadband so I guess this 1 will just have to remain unsolved!

Digitus