Stuck on loading map data when joining

[ModdedTibby]

Our server has recently starting seeing a large amount of issues when players are trying to join.  Sometimes they get stuck on download the map data to the client forcing them to close out of the game and relaunch it to try to join the server again only to run into the same issue.  Maybe after a few tries they finally get in but i was hoping for some insight.

 

The world is 4 months old without a wipe.

We run Hydrocraft.

 

Furthermore the other night I needed to reboot the server.  Upon doing so in the console i used the save and quit commands.  The server shut down and upon rebooting it, half a base was wiped out and regenerated back to default as if it were corrupted.

[ModdedTibby]

Still having major issues with requesting map data, server hasn't been under attack, we also did a wipe today to see if that would help with the instability of the server loading and crashing.  

 

Fresh World for b33 and people are still not able to load it up at time.  This is leading me to believe it has nothing to do with attacks but just a general issue in the Dedicated Server Tool.  Fresh server with no attacks today failing to load map data.

[MindGate]

I'm having extreme issues connecting to servers, i keep getting the 'stuck on loading map data' stuff, if this could get looked into, would be awesome.

[EnigmaGrey]

We have looked into it. As said above, it seems to happen under DDoS. Server-side, admins see a BindException, indicating the port has been blocked before a connection could be established to the client. If you're sure a DDoS isn't happening, a restart of the server itself can sometimes clear this up.

 

For example, you may have the "I'll wait forever" error when connecting to Redboid right now, because it's currently getting hit.

 

Someone out there really likes hitting PZ servers. Hopefully after General Arcade's stuff is in, this'll be less of an issue, as the game will no longer require a TCP connection.

[ModdedTibby]

We have looked into it. As said above, it seems to happen under DDoS. Server-side, admins see a BindException, indicating the port has been blocked before a connection could be established to the client. If you're sure a DDoS isn't happening, a restart of the server itself can sometimes clear this up.

 

For example, you may have the "I'll wait forever" error when connecting to Redboid right now, because it's currently getting hit.

 

Someone out there really likes hitting PZ servers. Hopefully after General Arcade's stuff is in, this'll be less of an issue, as the game will no longer require a TCP connection.

but the issue is with restarting the server is this happens at random times to random people.  I could restart the server when i am having the issue then 15 minutes later im getting a complaint from a player getting the same error.  That isn't efficient nor stable for anyone to play on.

 

Which is odd since its only started happening within the past 2 or 3 patches from the main build.

[EnigmaGrey]

My guess is they've finally realised they can just target the specific range of ports used by servers, rather than hit every port randomly.

[ModdedTibby]

My guess is they've finally realised they can just target the specific range of ports used by servers, rather than hit every port randomly.

According to OVH we have not had an attack today on any of our 3 ips.  So unless they are missing something as a major data-center that is ruled out for being the issue.

[EnigmaGrey]

Get something like Wireshark and monitor your traffic. If there is a DDoS, and their DDoS protection isn't being triggered, then you should probably sumbit a support ticket. Follow their FAQ here: http://docs.ovh.ca/en/faqs-network.html?highlight=ddos#ddos-attack

The only other thing it could potentially be is something on your end blocking those ports (e.g. server instances all using the same port numbers, or other services working in that range).

[ModdedTibby]

Get something like Wireshark and monitor your traffic. If there is a DDoS, and their DDoS protection isn't being triggered, then you should probably sumbit a support ticket. Follow their FAQ here: http://docs.ovh.ca/en/faqs-network.html?highlight=ddos#ddos-attack

The only other thing it could potentially be is something on your end blocking those ports (e.g. server instances all using the same port numbers, or other services working in that range).

I have that already installed as well.  Thats how i capture and send packets to OVH for when these bastards manage to take us down for a moment.

 

i think im just going to give up on this post as my words are not being understood. 

 

This is all very random.  I can have the issue, get into the server 5 minutes later and then Joe has the same issue and cant join for 10 minutes. I could restart the server and have people telling me not able to load map data within minutes of reboots. I say that because its already happened.  We have been trying to figure out this issue for a bit over a week now.

 

There are no attacks TODAY, fresh server instance, i know my ports are opened on windows firewall of the server.  I run no other steam server other than PZ that requires the steam port to be used.  Apache uses ports no where near this range, SQL as well.  Starbound uses ports 21025 no where near the range of PZ and pokemon3d server uses ports starting at 15124 Thats all i have running currently.  So i know ports aren't interfering there.  I have started nothing new on the server in the time frame of our issue. 

[EnigmaGrey]

What do you want to be heard, exacty? All the traffic you're receiving via wireshark is accounted for, thus no DDoS is possible?

 

I've had this issue for months. It'd be lovely if I only had it for a week or could blame it on the last 3 updates, but it's been apart of my life since I started getting hit back in May or June. It's just gotten worse, seemingly more targeted, since the end of August.

[ModdedTibby]

What do you want to be heard, exacty? All the traffic you're receiving via wireshark is accounted for, thus no DDoS is possible?

 

I've had this issue for months. It'd be lovely if I only had it for a week or could blame it on the last 3 updates, but it's been apart of my life since I started getting hit back in May or June. It's just gotten worse, seemingly more targeted, since the end of August.

Our server has been getting hit just as long and only now are experiencing these issues.  I have ddos attacks that go back to March of 2015 till This Week. This trick of attacking the most popular servers isn't something new.  http://prntscr.com/9wox2d

http://prntscr.com/9woxhr

 

I think this blaming the whole DDOS thing is just a convenient reason, when we have had these attacks before for a long time and have never had these types of issues until recently.

[EnigmaGrey]

I think this blaming the whole DDOS thing is just a convenient reason, when we have had these attacks before for a long time and have never had these types of issues until recently.

...

Thanks. We'll take it under advisement.

[ModdedTibby]

http://prntscr.com/9ufj9c

 

error in sere console when person was joining and got stuck at requesting map data.

[EnigmaGrey]

Yes, that's the error we receive both during and after a DDoS. If the DDoS is over, restarting the server resolves it.

The tl;dr of the error is just "This port isn't accessible when it should be!"

[EnigmaGrey]

On Redboid, we only get this when under DDoS attack. Sometimes this persists after the DDoS is compelted, requiring us to manually /save, /quit, and restart the server.

Sometimes a large (and I mean large) number of objects placed in a chunk can cause it to be invalided. Items such as mines are particularly dangerous. Incorrect images or certain items from mods might also impact it, but there's no real way to know without taking a look at the resulting blam in \Saves\Multiplayer\servertest\blam\. For example, a few weeks ago Hydrocraft's change in staples textures caused an incorrect format exception, hiding (but not invalidating) a player's base.

[ModdedTibby]

See i assumed it was from the same thing (ddos attacks) but it even happens during times where we aren't under attack and OVH isn't vacuuming up the traffic.  It is even happening within just an hour after restart of the server. 

 

Could this be partial to the map being so old and large at this point?

[EnigmaGrey]

It -shouldn't- have any affect, but there's no way to rule it out. Spiffospace Hardcore's map was kept up for about 6 months without any issues arising, but I didn't carry it over for build 33.

Originally, I had thought it was an issue with Redboid's server config that was the issue. I mved to a week-long rental and installed a different OS, just to see. The problem persisted, but only under DDoS.

The only other thing I could suggest is checking your firewall/antivirus to make sure these ports aren't actually blocked; or that perhaps OVH isn't detecting smaller attacks. These seem unlikely.

 

There have been some recent reports on Steam of various antiviruses interfering with network traffing for PZ (client to server). If only speciifc people have this issue, maybe this could explain it?

[ModdedTibby]

Well we have a planned soft wipe tonight anyways.  Maybe that might clear some things up hopefully.

 

As far as the anti virus issue goes I can pretty much shut that down I don't have any on my PC and i was having the issue as described myself.