Last call for help
iKoyy
Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166896Members
Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166896Members
<div class="IPBDescription">RED PLUG OF DOOM only</div>Hi guys, this topic is only about the red plug of doom issue. Subject was burried into other problems in some other topics, yet not resolved.
Here are the symptoms :
Launch game : OK
Server list gets populated on refresh : OK
Connect to any server and get through ALL loading steps : OK
Once in game, wait a few seconds in the ready room or join any camp and you get the red plug connection issue notification on the left side of the scree, then timeout. Here is a screenshot taken a few seconds after joining a game, I was in ready room with another guy and everything froze up, red plug appeared. (The game console, does not show anything particular). <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=107520507" target="_blank">http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/file...s/?id=107520507</a>
This happens every single game I join.
This is issue this topic will be focused on, if you cannot help or your issue is even slightly different, please use the search tool or create another topic.
So far I've read multiple posts about things to try and I'll summarize below why I have attempted and what failed because nothing helped me so far.
1) Identify where is the issue on your local network.
First I tried to identify if the issue is limited to my PC or affecting every computer in my house. As the problem is also occuring on every PC on my network and none of them are running the same antivirus I assumed the probability that the issue was caused by my router were high.
2) WTF is wrong with this router ?
Games and every network applications are using ports on your network adapters to communicate. There are 65535 ports on an adapter, some are reserved to some applications or communication protocols and each one of them is a potential security leak on a network. It is for this very reason that all ports are usually locked except for the vital ones like port 80 (HTTP protocol allowing you to browse Internet page for example) and some others.
Sometimes, games are using differents ports and some of them can be blocked by default on your router, so far I have read the Natural Selection 2 is using the following ports :
TCP 27000-27100
UDP 27000-27100 ; 1200
I have unlocked these ports on my router, restarted that one, but it did not resolve my red plug of doom troubles.
I checked the steps described in this great thread <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111496" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=111496</a> and I can confirm you that NS2.exe is in the list of my firewall exceptions.
I tried and installed a packet sniffer to find out wth is going on my router but my network knowledge is not good enough to analyze the datas it collected and find anything useful in them.
I've also seen that video about Thompson BT routers....I think my router is a Thompson one but may not be the same model as the ones told in this video, I'm living in France and my ISP is Bouygues Telecom, this router is a bbox and completely locks down any telnet connection attempt to it. So I could not really try to perform the same actions described in the video, the ISP support is utterly bad and will not help or provide any clear answer on the matter of telnet access to the router. Either I have to struggle finding someone understanding what telnet, ports and router words are meaning or I have some guy trying to tell me that using telnet to communicate with my router is bad and could break it (true story).
Now I tried all the stuff I can do using my own knowledge so I will rely on the community and support help because I'm starting to feel a bit deperate as I've spent more time this week trying to find a way to play the game instead of playing anything else.
Thanks for reading.
Here are the symptoms :
Launch game : OK
Server list gets populated on refresh : OK
Connect to any server and get through ALL loading steps : OK
Once in game, wait a few seconds in the ready room or join any camp and you get the red plug connection issue notification on the left side of the scree, then timeout. Here is a screenshot taken a few seconds after joining a game, I was in ready room with another guy and everything froze up, red plug appeared. (The game console, does not show anything particular). <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=107520507" target="_blank">http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/file...s/?id=107520507</a>
This happens every single game I join.
This is issue this topic will be focused on, if you cannot help or your issue is even slightly different, please use the search tool or create another topic.
So far I've read multiple posts about things to try and I'll summarize below why I have attempted and what failed because nothing helped me so far.
1) Identify where is the issue on your local network.
First I tried to identify if the issue is limited to my PC or affecting every computer in my house. As the problem is also occuring on every PC on my network and none of them are running the same antivirus I assumed the probability that the issue was caused by my router were high.
2) WTF is wrong with this router ?
Games and every network applications are using ports on your network adapters to communicate. There are 65535 ports on an adapter, some are reserved to some applications or communication protocols and each one of them is a potential security leak on a network. It is for this very reason that all ports are usually locked except for the vital ones like port 80 (HTTP protocol allowing you to browse Internet page for example) and some others.
Sometimes, games are using differents ports and some of them can be blocked by default on your router, so far I have read the Natural Selection 2 is using the following ports :
TCP 27000-27100
UDP 27000-27100 ; 1200
I have unlocked these ports on my router, restarted that one, but it did not resolve my red plug of doom troubles.
I checked the steps described in this great thread <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111496" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=111496</a> and I can confirm you that NS2.exe is in the list of my firewall exceptions.
I tried and installed a packet sniffer to find out wth is going on my router but my network knowledge is not good enough to analyze the datas it collected and find anything useful in them.
I've also seen that video about Thompson BT routers....I think my router is a Thompson one but may not be the same model as the ones told in this video, I'm living in France and my ISP is Bouygues Telecom, this router is a bbox and completely locks down any telnet connection attempt to it. So I could not really try to perform the same actions described in the video, the ISP support is utterly bad and will not help or provide any clear answer on the matter of telnet access to the router. Either I have to struggle finding someone understanding what telnet, ports and router words are meaning or I have some guy trying to tell me that using telnet to communicate with my router is bad and could break it (true story).
Now I tried all the stuff I can do using my own knowledge so I will rely on the community and support help because I'm starting to feel a bit deperate as I've spent more time this week trying to find a way to play the game instead of playing anything else.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
Hang in there, i'm positive there's a solution.
229 includes some assistance with the red plug of doom issue.. but i can't promise you're having the same issue or how many people's problems will be solved by it..
So i'd say lets continue to investigate.
Here's some resources i found on a quick google search, your router seems to have this problem frequently:
<a href="http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=67759" target="_blank">http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=67759</a>
and probably more importantly a prior report here on the forums with useful links such as web based browsers and another fix found by another user, at the bottom :
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/forums/index.php?showtopic=121489" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/forums/ind...howtopic=121489</a>
Change the speed at which server populates
<a href="https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4487-YUOC-6922" target="_blank">https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=4487-YUOC-6922</a>
Launch Steam with TCP protocol instead of UDP
<a href="https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5623-QOSV-5250" target="_blank">https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=5623-QOSV-5250</a>
(the last one fixed my problem: UDP flooding would reset my router, and Steam uses UDP to poll servers)