Troubleshooting a timeout: What happens if I enable both LiteNetLib and SteamNetworking?

[trevorjd]

Hi folks,

I run a dedicated server on hardware leased from a reliable supplier. I have OS level access and the machine is connected directly to the internet (no NAT).  We have been running 7D and other games with up to 30 concurrent players for a few years now. With 7D, we've had SteamNetworking disabled for all our playthoughs.

One of our players has reported trouble staying connected to our 7D servers for more than 10 mins. Both his client log and the server log simply show a LiteNetLib timeout with no further explanation. This has persisted for several months apparently, which means it pertains to more than one fresh install of 7D server. He has uninstalled and reinstalled the 7D client more than once. While he is using wifi locally, his speed tests are excellent, general household internet is OK and I believe he hasn't had any trouble staying connected to our other games e.g. Ark & Conan, nor has he had any trouble connecting to 7D servers run by other people. Just ours!

It's a curious one with no obvious place to point a finger.  He asked tonight about disabling LiteNetLib as it was proposed as a solution. However, I'm reluctant to switch to SteamNetworking exclusively for fear of increasing latency for everyone else. So...

Q1. Can a 7D client be directed to use a particular protocol? If so, how? If not, then I'm forced to choose one or the other on the server side

Q2. If I have both protocols active on the server, what will it default to? It's also undesirable for players to connect via SteamNetworking unless they need to.

Thanks!

 

[meganoth]

Hi folks,

I run a dedicated server on hardware leased from a reliable supplier. I have OS level access and the machine is connected directly to the internet (no NAT).  We have been running 7D and other games with up to 30 concurrent players for a few years now. With 7D, we've had SteamNetworking disabled for all our playthoughs.

One of our players has reported trouble staying connected to our 7D servers for more than 10 mins. Both his client log and the server log simply show a LiteNetLib timeout with no further explanation. This has persisted for several months apparently, which means it pertains to more than one fresh install of 7D server. He has uninstalled and reinstalled the 7D client more than once. While he is using wifi locally, his speed tests are excellent, general household internet is OK and I believe he hasn't had any trouble staying connected to our other games e.g. Ark & Conan, nor has he had any trouble connecting to 7D servers run by other people. Just ours!

He should definitely try out wired connection instead of wifi. Wifi is known to make trouble with THIS game and it seems it needs just 20 minutes of his time.

Also if he has the game from xbox store I heard of a bug though I'm not sure if it has been fixed. If he has a epic beside his steam account he might also link them, another source of problems I heard of.

It's a curious one with no obvious place to point a finger.  He asked tonight about disabling LiteNetLib as it was proposed as a solution. However, I'm reluctant to switch to SteamNetworking exclusively for fear of increasing latency for everyone else. So...

Q1. Can a 7D client be directed to use a particular protocol? If so, how? If not, then I'm forced to choose one or the other on the server side

Nothing simple that I know of. But maybe someone else does.

If you can somehow pinpoint the IP he is coming from the server you might block some or all of the udp ports (default 26900-26903) and maybe even tcp 26900 as well for initial contact.

 This way his game is hoodwinked into thinking the server is behind a firewall and tries steamnetworking which can work around such issues. It may need lots of network and firewall knowhow to pull this off. But anything that gets litenetlib to fail will suffice so simply just one of the udp ports being closed to him might already work.

Q2. If I have both protocols active on the server, what will it default to? It's also undesirable for players to connect via SteamNetworking unless they need to.

litenetlib is default.

Thanks!

 

[trevorjd]

Also if he has the game from xbox store I heard of a bug though I'm not sure if it has been fixed. If he has a epic beside his steam account he might also link them, another source of problems I heard of.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.  He has a residential broadband connection so pretty much guaranteed to have a dynamic IP address. Blacklisting his IP is a great idea though! hmmm, would cause troubles if he wanted to connect to other games though.

I'd read that having IPv6 on the server can cause issues so I've disabled that and asked him to do the same on his PC, just in case. Waiting to hear back on if he was able to test with a LAN cable.

SylenThunder suggested via Discord that it might be worth setting up OpenVPN for this one user to connect. I'll give that a go if needed.

He's playing on PC, pretty sure. Just to clarify, are you saying that if he owns the game on multiple platforms and his Steam acct is linked with his Epic acct, it may cause problems?

Thanks again!

 

[SylenThunder]

It's a curious one with no obvious place to point a finger.  He asked tonight about disabling LiteNetLib as it was proposed as a solution. However, I'm reluctant to switch to SteamNetworking exclusively for fear of increasing latency for everyone else. So...

I responded to you with this in Discord, but pasting it here for others that may happen across this thread...

If you use SteamNetworking, it basically uses Steam servers like a VPN. All traffic goes through Steam before it gets to your server, and makes the same path in the opposite direction. This increases latency incredibly.
SteamNetworking should only be used if you are unable to properly forward the ports, or for troubleshooting. In absolutely every other situation it should be disabled.

Disabling LiteNetLib will have a severe impact on network performance of the server.

 

[meganoth]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.  He has a residential broadband connection so pretty much guaranteed to have a dynamic IP address. Blacklisting his IP is a great idea though! hmmm, would cause troubles if he wanted to connect to other games though.

I'd read that having IPv6 on the server can cause issues so I've disabled that and asked him to do the same on his PC, just in case. Waiting to hear back on if he was able to test with a LAN cable.

SylenThunder suggested via Discord that it might be worth setting up OpenVPN for this one user to connect. I'll give that a go if needed.

He's playing on PC, pretty sure. Just to clarify, are you saying that if he owns the game on multiple platforms and his Steam acct is linked with his Epic acct, it may cause problems?

No, it was the other way round, not linking the accounts was the problem. And it probably wasn't because of owning the game on both platforms but having accounts on both. My theory is that the actual EOS id clashed with the EOS id generated from steam. I  also have seen only one case where this happened so it probably needs just the right circumstances to happen. Mainly I have heard about 10 minute games form xbox store games though and I thought this bug had been fixed on microsofts servers. 

So this is akin to praying to the moon god instead of the sun god because someone heard it helped

Thanks again!