New Private Server Offline

[Chungster]

My buddy and I have been troubled by this issue for the last 2 months. We can't seem to connect to one another's private server, but we can see all other servers in DCS multiplayer.

We are now both on the latest patch 2.9.8.1107 and just tried to connect to each other but to no avail.

Port forwarding settings seem to be correct and the port is open per canyouseeme.org. The server is also visible in the DCS server online list, and I have an inbound rule for 10308 on TCP and UDP on windows firewall.

We did try turning off the windows firewall, but that didn't help.

Our ISP claims they are not running on CGNat, and we have no issues connecting to each other on different games. If I create a dedicated server through DCS Server Hosting (ready-room.net), we can both join the server with no issues.

If anyone has encountered this before, would appreciate your advice on what else to check. Thanks!

 

Edited October 2, 2024 by Chungster

[Maverick87Shaka]

If you try "connect by IP" instead of search in the list, what is the error message shown on the client that try to connect?

EDIT:
on the machine that is running as a server (looks like the one that has generated the My DCS log file) try to disable ipv6 protocol for the Ethernet interface (just for a test)

 

Edited October 1, 2024 by Maverick87Shaka

[Chungster]

My buddy gets a "server offline" message when he tries to connect by IP. And yeah the server doesn't show up on the in game server list either.

Will give disabling ipv6 a try later and upload the log file again.

[Chungster]

18 hours ago, Maverick87Shaka said:

If you try "connect by IP" instead of search in the list, what is the error message shown on the client that try to connect?

EDIT:
on the machine that is running as a server (looks like the one that has generated the My DCS log file) try to disable ipv6 protocol for the Ethernet interface (just for a test)

 

 

Update: Tried disabling ipv6, buddy still sees the server as offline even when trying to connect directly.

Anything else I can try?

Server dcs log 2.log buddys dcs_2.log.txt

[Maverick87Shaka]

6 hours ago, Chungster said:

Update: Tried disabling ipv6, buddy still sees the server as offline even when trying to connect directly.

Anything else I can try?

Server dcs log 2.log 153.29 kB · 2 downloads buddys dcs_2.log.txt 108.75 kB · 2 downloads

Really strange, did you have other friends that can try to join your server. I really don't see why it's not working.
Basically you have performed all the basics check and action, verify you're not behind CGNAT, open port on server machine, and forward that port on the router to the server machine.

Last thing that you can do, is change the server port from the DCS server config, and according to the new one, edit windows firewall rules and port forwarding.

Try something else, like 16308, or a port that you've used before to host other games and it works with your buddy.

[Chungster]

On 10/3/2024 at 3:52 AM, Maverick87Shaka said:

Really strange, did you have other friends that can try to join your server. I really don't see why it's not working.
Basically you have performed all the basics check and action, verify you're not behind CGNAT, open port on server machine, and forward that port on the router to the server machine.

Last thing that you can do, is change the server port from the DCS server config, and according to the new one, edit windows firewall rules and port forwarding.

Try something else, like 16308, or a port that you've used before to host other games and it works with your buddy.

Tried the new port 16308, didn't work. We don't play any other games that requires us to open ports in the firewall, so we can't really try that.

We just tested using Hamachi, I got my buddy to connect to the server, but he gets kicked out before the terrain loads.

He has tried loading into other servers with no issues though, and we've turned off the firewall for Hamachi, so now we're not sure what else is blocking.

Checked his log file, seems like he's getting a server timed out error.

2024-10-04 18:24:29.853 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): disconnected from server
2024-10-04 18:24:29.853 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): Session was closed with ERR_TIMEOUT: Server ping timeout
2024-10-04 18:24:29.854 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): client has stopped

[Maverick87Shaka]

did you have an antivirus installed on the server? (other than windows defender itself I mean)

[Chungster]

3 hours ago, Maverick87Shaka said:

did you have an antivirus installed on the server? (other than windows defender itself I mean)

No I don't. I even have DCS excluded from windows defender.

[Maverick87Shaka]

The only things that you can try at this point is using packet sender. (portable version available and suggested )
Put in listening on the server, and from butty pc try to send some message, and see if you are able to receive it.

[Kanelbolle]

Hi, try and disable IPv6 on the server and on the router if it is active.

 

Other then that, check that you don't have a ping limit on the server. You can check this by connecting to the server web Gui.

 

Don't know what router you have, but does it have any AI firewall. I know Asus has those, might want to try disabling the AI feature if so.

 

And obviously, update the router firmware.

Edited October 6, 2024 by Kanelbolle

[Chungster]

On 10/6/2024 at 4:54 AM, Maverick87Shaka said:

The only things that you can try at this point is using packet sender. (portable version available and suggested )
Put in listening on the server, and from butty pc try to send some message, and see if you are able to receive it.

Alright, I'll try that when my buddy is online. We found a way to connect to each other by the way, through Radmin VPN. So now we're just troubleshooting to find the root cause.

 

On 10/6/2024 at 7:08 PM, Kanelbolle said:

Hi, try and disable IPv6 on the server and on the router if it is active.

 

Other then that, check that you don't have a ping limit on the server. You can check this by connecting to the server web Gui.

 

Don't know what router you have, but does it have any AI firewall. I know Asus has those, might want to try disabling the AI feature if so.

 

And obviously, update the router firmware.

 

Yup tried all that. No ping limit and router firmware is the latest. Checked and my router's firewall has no AI settings, using a TP-Link Deco BE65 mesh. Not to mention that 2 months ago when this issue surfaced, everything was working fine, and we didn't make any changes.

Edited October 7, 2024 by Chungster

[Maverick87Shaka]

16 minutes ago, Chungster said:

Alright, I'll try that when my buddy is online. We found a way to connect to each other by the way, through Radmin VPN. So now we're just troubleshooting to find the root cause.

CGNAT performed by your ISP is the most likely cause in this case, please use packet sender to validate the port setup

[Chungster]

Just updated to DCS 2.9.9.2280 and miraculously all my buddies are able to connect without using a VPN. Seems like whatever the patch changed has fixed the issue.