16 replies to this topic

[D V Devnull]

Hello to everyone out there...

I'm finally having to start the post that I never thought would have to be a thing because I've had MWO installed for more than 6.5 years without running into any gameplay-killing problems. But ever since the June 2022 "Error 13" situation was resolved, and then the Monthly Patch that introduced the Crusader and Vitric Station into our beloved MWO Game landed, it happens that I've now been encountering a major problem off and on in increasing instances for about 9 days so far. It has been getting particularly worse in the last few days too, but has now forced my hand after being in hope that the problem would self-resolve with no luck to that extent. The problem is as thus...

• I can login to MWO with a rare failure rate, but failure can then come with a chance to crash MWO out of RAM entirely.
  
• If it happens that MWO does not crash, but fails to login completely, then I end up with the dreaded "Server Connection was lost" error.
  
• If my login is successful, then my ability to stay logged in does not last, and after a variable amount of time and without regard to what I'm doing in MWO at the time, it will then falter back to the dreaded "Server Connection was lost" error.
  
• When these unwanted egregious disconnects happen, my ping times also skyrocket to the area of 1.5 to 2 times normal... All access to any Official MWO stuff basically dies for a couple minutes or more if I'm rendered unable to login again and start reconnecting near instantly.
  
• Even though the Official MWO linkages end up having problems, literally nothing else is affected at the same time. (Which tends to hopefully point at something far away from me, right?)

...and that 3rd & 4th part really frustrates me the worst because I can be in a Match and still very much alive, but then get ripped from my Mech to the point of being kicked into a logged out state. Unfortunately, this means I will not be able to reconnect in time as to continue fighting, and always find my Mech having been killed by the Enemy upon a successful Rejoin to the battle, thereby denying me of the gameplay experience which we're all supposed to be able to have. How does one even enjoy MWO at all if they can't play without being randomly dumped out?

Somebody is likely going to ask what the computer I use is composed of. Please don't laugh, as I sadly can never afford upgrades, let alone a whole new computer. I've got...

• AMD FX-4300 CPU (yes, I know it's old, but it's what I've got)
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 (1920x1080 borderless window with rather low settings)
  
• 16 GB RAM (can't recall who made it right now, but have had no problems in years)
  
• Windows 7, in a 64-Bit version (can't MWO without it, or at least that was the case)
  
• wired connection (nobody should normally have to use Wi-Fi if they can avoid it)
  
• system is well-protected and not infected (so at least I'm fine in that regard)

...as what I have to work with. I know it ain't much, but it's what I have, and sadly without the ability to change anything. (Blame the bloody world economy, since I'm trapped at the bottom.)

I've already tried all of the following...

• verify MWO Install with Repair Tool only to find no errors
  
• reboot computer & router at the same time
  
• DNS Stack got an automatic flushing from the above step
  
• used the traceroute options that I have access to for checking ping and path when this problem runs me over (that's how I discovered the jump in ping times)
  
• received help from the internet line's account holder to verify I'm not being knowingly throttled

...and I simply have no ability to do much else as rebuilding stuff is beyond my limit due to Win7 being long since EoL'd by Micro$oft being evil, and also that this computer can not be rendered unavailable to other users for any real length of time. I'm guessing with the situation which I face that either MWO's code is somehow messed up in an adverse manner that only affects a small part (which I'm one of this time, sadly) of the player base, or someone out there is actively screwing with other people's TCP & UDP links for MWO stuff. Either way, this is looking like permanent "Game Over" for me if something can not change soon, and I've never had an issue on this level before MWO's Monthly Patch on June 21st, 2022 descended upon us all. I guess that it's time for me to go login for the last time, and save my earned stuff from Events to my in-game holdings before things get any worse?

~D. V. "stares at an abyss where MWO may finally be no longer part of their existence" Devnull



(p.s.: Sorry in advance if I've forgotten anything critical here... It took me at least two hours to type this post!)

[D V Devnull]

Quick Update — Just had a brief "Error 64" while trying to login... Waiting a moment after that while my link to MWO misbehaved and came back to normal, followed by then trying again after allowed me to login... At least my mind is feeling a little easier now that I've redeemed the "Error 13 Event" stuff and stored it away in my account... Can only hope that whatever is tearing me down gets fixed before it becomes critical to do the redeem on June 2022's MDD-A Event and the items within... Really don't like the thought that I'm being forced to let my earned Active Premium Time (from before this issue happening) simply end up burning away...

~D. V. "Oh great, now an 'Error 64' to my face... This should not be getting worse!!!" Devnull



[Edit by the posting author on 2022-06-31 @ 12:10 AM UTC for a text formatting error...]

Edited by D V Devnull, 30 June 2022 - 04:10 PM.

[Tarl Cabot]

D V Devnull,

ISP? general location? North Carolina, USA or Egypt, South Africa, Sydney, Australia ? ISP and general location allows ability to google to see if others in the same location and/or with same ISP are having similar issues with other connections/sites.

• Restart computer (just to make sure any updates are finalized) (ya said ya did this...k)
  
• Unplug routers/modem for 30 secs then plug back in (the min 30 secs is to allow memory to be cleared of any potential corrupted files loaded into their memory) You mentioned computer and router but not modem/gateway
  
• If you have a separate router and modem, bypass the router and connect directly to the modem (troubleshooting step)
  
• If your modem is actually a gateway, ie combo router/modem and rented from your ISP, ISP could have pushed out update to it, which may have reset some previous changed settings.
  
• Modem brand/model.. router brand/model
  
• Change DNS from default ISP to Google Public DNS IP address, or OpenDNS or Cloudflare. You can do this via router, which would change it for all systems using router to connect to internet, or just change it on your computer.
  
• Do a DNS Flush.
  
• Use a VPN, if you have one that comes with one of your programs, ie Norton Security. There are a few free VPN to try, primarily to use as a trouble shooting attempt. Use of a VPN can route the path your system takes to PGI authorization server in NA, as well as to the 3 different regional game servers. Your client is always connected to the authorization server (think Mechlab/store/patching, etc), then the individual regional game servers when you drop into combat.
  
• Or a few of the free VPN if you do not own one, again more for troubleshooting purposes to see if it resolves your issue.
  
• https://www.itopvpn.com/ or view others -
  
• https://www.vpnmento...ns-for-windows/
  
• https://www.tomsguid...s/best-free-vpn

Of course there is emailing tech support with the requested information. For those running into issues there could be something that links you all together. I have seen a few times where players having issues were in a specific region, and their pathway were travelling through a major backbone that was having issues.

• Some have free trials, but again, not asking you to use it all the time but can be used as a trouble shooting tool since it has the potential to reroute your pathway around a problematic router system.

[D V Devnull]

Tarl Cabot, on 30 June 2022 - 06:59 PM, said:

D V Devnull,

ISP? general location? North Carolina, USA or Egypt, South Africa, Sydney, Australia ? ISP and general location allows ability to google to see if others in the same location and/or with same ISP are having similar issues with other connections/sites.

• Restart computer (just to make sure any updates are finalized) (ya said ya did this...k)
  
• Unplug routers/modem for 30 secs then plug back in (the min 30 secs is to allow memory to be cleared of any potential corrupted files loaded into their memory) You mentioned computer and router but not modem/gateway
  
• If you have a separate router and modem, bypass the router and connect directly to the modem (troubleshooting step)
  
• If your modem is actually a gateway, ie combo router/modem and rented from your ISP, ISP could have pushed out update to it, which may have reset some previous changed settings.
  
• Modem brand/model.. router brand/model
  
• Change DNS from default ISP to Google Public DNS IP address, or OpenDNS or Cloudflare. You can do this via router, which would change it for all systems using router to connect to internet, or just change it on your computer.
  
• Do a DNS Flush.
  
• Use a VPN, if you have one that comes with one of your programs, ie Norton Security. There are a few free VPN to try, primarily to use as a trouble shooting attempt. Use of a VPN can route the path your system takes to PGI authorization server in NA, as well as to the 3 different regional game servers. Your client is always connected to the authorization server (think Mechlab/store/patching, etc), then the individual regional game servers when you drop into combat.
  
• Or a few of the free VPN if you do not own one, again more for troubleshooting purposes to see if it resolves your issue.
  
• https://www.itopvpn.com/ or view others -
  
• https://www.vpnmento...ns-for-windows/
  
• https://www.tomsguid...s/best-free-vpn

Of course there is emailing tech support with the requested information. For those running into issues there could be something that links you all together. I have seen a few times where players having issues were in a specific region, and their pathway were travelling through a major backbone that was having issues.

• Some have free trials, but again, not asking you to use it all the time but can be used as a trouble shooting tool since it has the potential to reroute your pathway around a problematic router system.

Hi there, 'Tarl Cabot', and Thank You for coming to try helping... It's extremely appreciated.

Unfortunately, a worst-case scenario has hit me. To fill in on a few things (even if some are re-iterated) since my last post...

• The router is indeed a modem and gateway as well... As you probably know, most ISPs push a merged internet connection solution.
  
• That gateway has indeed been cold-boot restarted, as mentioned before.
  
• The Computer & Gateway both had their DNS flushed in the process of rebooting, as both were cold boots.
  
• Fast restarts were NOT used in either case, ensuring clean booting on both.
  
• MWO's Repair Tool has already been used to check things... No Errors Found... same as it has been with every past Monthly Game Patch that gets put in.
  
• Gateway's settings checked for anything being knocked the wrong way... Nothing was messed with, as I and the internet line's account holder tend not to mess with things in too exotic of a manner, and also tend to keep things reasonably secured too as to avoid problems happening.
  
• Alternate DNS is already being used from multiple services in order to avoid exactly these kinds of issues.
  
• Lowering the firewall setting on the Gateway from the normal of "Medium" down to "Low" temporarily did not have much of a noticeable effect, but I was not allowed to keep it this way for very long because it did not solve the issue... Security is still a requirement around here.
  
• Even with all the above, issues continue to persist.
  
• Then the internet line's account holder pulled out a different second Gateway that we were authorized previously for switching to by the ISP's technicians, but had not began using yet. Using it has given no improvement in regard to MWO at all... (But it strangely helped with enhancing Wi-Fi speeds if one is not too physically far from the Gateway unit at the time. Who knows if that will be a plus in the future, because the coverage distance has shrunk...)

...and this is where I answer the question about ISP & Location even though I have the feeling the internet line's account holder will probably metaphorically "kill me" over it. (Pray they don't ban me off the computer at this end, or actually murder me!!!) Part of myself is already (even though I told it to quiet down) rather angrily uncomfortable with me, but here you go...

• ISP being used is "Frontier Communications" (Previously "Verizon Internet Services" before we got handed off.)
  
• Location is "Southern California" (I had never given this out for years because of privacy reasons...)
  
• Link speed is 75 Down & 75 Up where I am... (It gets anything it's used for done.)

...to which now I'm at what may possibly be the most interesting part...

• Logging into the MWO Website & Forums and sticking to them only produces no ill effects. Things behave as they used to prior to the June 21, 2022 Monthly Patch landing on us.
  
• It's only when I launch into the MWO Game Client that any serious issues occur subsequently, and blow out ALL connections to MWO without regard of whether it's Game or Website or Forums being interacted with.
  
• Regardless of what MWO's situation is, nothing else gets affected by it. It seems extremely isolated, but with others' reports in the Forums present such as the one I posted on and linked to my thread from, it may ultimately not be an issue that I can personally fix.

...and putting me at one last note... Due to the installed security solution on this Win7 SP1 x64 system (which I'm not allowed to discuss), and the need to not monkey with those things in unusual manners, it happens that I'm not allowed to use a VPN or even install one here. We'll have to skip that section because of the enforced security policy here, so please accept my sincerest apologies for not being able to try VPN use at all. I think this system may be too old to handle the weight of both that and MWO at the same time anyway, and as mentioned before I can not afford a new one or further upgrades for this one. As it is, I'm now wondering if the next Monthly Game Patch is going to finish knocking me off MWO forever. I may have to simply go redeem the June 2022 MDD-A Event if the MWO Game Client will hold a login for long enough now to do so, and then simply call it quits after about 6.6 years here. I probably can not even come play in the July 4th Weekend Event happening later today from the perspective of my Time Zone's location without having bad things happen. It's kind of sad that a technical issue may bring about my end here, but I guess some things simply can not be helped. People get left behind in the tech world – and kicked out too – if they are unable to keep pouring in money continuously.


As a last thought... If this is something that PGI can somehow HotFix and repair due to a hidden error at their end, then I hope they will. The last that I had known, the current state of MWO is at a point where suddenly losing another chunk of players over something like a technical blockade could possibly finish killing it. I don't think we want the BattleTech Universe thrown back into the dark ages again, right?

~D. V. "unwillingly stuck in a corner by whatever in MWO's environment keeps them from happily enjoying" Devnull



(p.s.: I'm not exactly super-crazy about bulleted lists, but it's a good thing we have them when communications could easily create clunky-looking extreme scrolling or walls of text that nobody wants to get lost in! Anyway, I've got to scoot for now, so I hope you have a good day!)



[Edit by the Post's Author on 2022-07-01 @ 10:50 PM UTC because they needed to correct their syntax instead of continuing to use "Router" and "Gateway" in an interchangeable manner.]

Edited by D V Devnull, 01 July 2022 - 02:49 PM.

[MrVaad]

Hi,

Can you run winMTR to check your connection with MWO game servers ?
It's a portable tool so you don't have to install anything.

I posted some instructions here a few years ago :
https://mwomercs.com...e-game-servers/

I don't think the servers adresses have changed (if they changed, you'll have to get the server's IPs from MWO's logs).

Edited by MrVaad, 01 July 2022 - 04:05 PM.

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 01 July 2022 - 04:02 PM, said:

Hi,

Can you run winMTR to check your connection with MWO game servers ?
It's a portable tool so you don't have to install anything.

I posted some instructions here a few years ago :
https://mwomercs.com...e-game-servers/

I don't think the servers adresses have changed (if they changed, you'll have to get the server's IPs from MWO's logs)

Thanks to a combination of my MWO Logs and a part of the security solution used here, it happens that I've discovered the current set of MWO servers which are within my reach. Unless there is different IP exposure by location which I'm unaware of, then the list in your other post may indeed be out-of-date now. I'll list them off here, and then hope (also pray?) that someone at PGI doesn't have a problem with it...

192.99.109.129 — Website (plus more ???)
192.99.109.143 — Website (plus more ???)
23.205.197.74 —– possibly Authorization ???
172.232.11.144 — possibly VoIP ???
184.28.98.76 —— possibly VoIP ???
45.121.208.130 — known Oceanic Game Server
51.89.43.18 ——– known E.U. Game Server
51.89.43.20 ——– known E.U. Game Server
51.222.109.38 —– N.A. Game Server (this address surprised me)
51.222.109.39 —– N.A. Game Server (this address surprised me)
51.222.109.40 —– N.A. Game Server (this address surprised me)

...and wish I knew what all was covered on each of the non-Game ones because I'm unable to be 100% sure of what purpose each of those has. Also of note, I was able to get my hands (and allowance too) on WinMTR v0.92 to use. I'll post again in a short bit with info from that.

~D. V. "was able to get WinMTR v0.92 here, and is now trying to get more info" Devnull

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 01 July 2022 - 04:02 PM, said:

<<< snip >>>

Can you run winMTR to check your connection with MWO game servers ?

<<< snip >>>

Hi again... I just discovered that the ISP which I'm on, "Frontier Communications", started having hardware problems back around the time of my previous post to you. It's trashed my WinMTR attempts at this time, and I won't be able to run them before "2022-07-02 @ 01:00 AM UTC" unfortunately. Of note, they're likely unrelated to the issue we're trying to track down here, as the issue with MWO has been going on for much longer. I'll post again when I can deliver the WinMTR readouts without issues from other things happening. See you then!

~D. V. "trying to help find the culprit, but getting derailed by their ISP's sudden hardware issue" Devnull

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 01 July 2022 - 04:02 PM, said:

<<< snip >>>

Can you run winMTR to check your connection with MWO game servers?

<<< snip >>>

Hi again, MrVaad...

I finally got lucky enough to have a random moment in the midst of things happening where a WinMTR run could successfully pick up the possible culprit! (Thankfully, the Match which I was going into was still starting, so I ended up with no penalty.) I had to massage the output a little to make it display right for discussion, but here you go!

|                             Host              - Hop# |   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
|                                     dslrouter -    1 |    0 |   30 |   30 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                         No response from host -    2 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|te-3-11-0-29---0.lcr01.snmn.ca.frontiernet.net -    3 |    0 |   30 |   30 |    6 |   11 |   15 |   10 |
|         ae8---0.scr01.lsan.ca.frontiernet.net -    4 |    0 |   30 |   30 |    5 |    6 |    8 |    7 |
|         ae0---0.cbr05.lsan.ca.frontiernet.net -    5 |    0 |   30 |   30 |    7 |   10 |   30 |    7 |
|                         No response from host -    6 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                         No response from host -    7 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                          sjo-sv5-bb1-a9.ca.us -    8 |   22 |   23 |   18 |    0 |   17 |   21 |   18 |
|                                chi-1-a9.il.us -    9 |   22 |   23 |   18 |    0 |   64 |   67 |   65 |
|                        be103.bhs-g1-nc5.qc.ca -   10 |   22 |   23 |   18 |    0 |   83 |   86 |   83 |
|                         No response from host -   11 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                         No response from host -   12 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                         No response from host -   13 |  100 |   12 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|                                192.99.109.129 -   14 |   17 |   24 |   20 |    0 |   83 |   92 |   84 |

From what it looks like, someone at 'Hop#'s 8 through 10 appears to be screwing with MWO's connections over UDP and/or TCP when they should not be. This happened even though I was initiating the link for a Match over on MWO's Oceanic Server at the time it occurred, which means that the Game Client still requires certain background heartbeat links while gameplay is in progress. Any time this drops out, it doesn't matter where I am because I get kicked out along with this failure. I hope that somebody at PGI will see this soon, go after the culprits with an iron (or stronger) pitchfork, and make them stop screwing up MWO players on the internet.

~D. V. "finally caught the most critical WinMTR when the hiccup with MWO gameplay happened" Devnull



[Multiple edits by the post's author because the formatting for the Code block totally fudged up...]

Edited by D V Devnull, 09 July 2022 - 05:35 AM.

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 01 July 2022 - 04:02 PM, said:

<<< snip >>>

I don't think the servers adresses have changed (if they changed, you'll have to get the server's IPs from MWO's logs).

<<< snip >>>

Also of note, I picked up on 3 more IP Address number sets to go with what's in my earlier posting...

184.28.98.102
23.7.137.11
23.7.137.143

...which brings the total number of those to 14 now, if my mind hasn't gone to slosh with all this madness happening. I hope all this info helps with fixing things!

EDIT :: And before I forget... Sorry for not getting back to you sooner! I almost thought this was clearing itself up after whatever Matt & Daeron got done back during the 4th-of-July Event Weekend going on, but then it showed up again in full force.

~D. V. "sniffing out another bunch of IP Addresses which MWO uses" Devnull



(p.s.: Yes, I put this in a separate posting because the number of times I had to edit the other posting with the Code block in it was mind-boggling. I wish that I knew why the Forums have to keep converting spaces into Tabs where it should not, because that gave me a major headache until I figured out that turning off the Rich Text Editor was the only way to get it working right.)

Edited by D V Devnull, 09 July 2022 - 05:48 AM.

[MrVaad]

D V Devnull, on 09 July 2022 - 05:45 AM, said:

...which brings the total number of those to 14 now, if my mind hasn't gone to slosh with all this madness happening. I hope all this info helps with fixing things!

You've seen 14 differents IPs in the logs ? (with line "Connecting to game server: gameId=")

You need to wait a little more before stopping WINMTR, 24 packets is not much (wait at least 100 packets).

Edited by MrVaad, 09 July 2022 - 06:01 AM.

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 09 July 2022 - 05:52 AM, said:

You've seen 14 differents IPs in the logs ? (with line "Connecting to game server: gameId=")

Yipes! Sorry for the confusion.

When it comes to connecting with MWO's Game Servers for playing a Match through, there's about 6 unique IP Addresses for that. I highlighted them before in the longer 11-sized list of IP Addresses up above.

The computer which I use thankfully also has the ability from its' security solution to see other connections that are made, and I was able to see 8 more IP Addresses so far in total that way, including things like the VoIP Servers which everyone is able to send their voice through during any Match being played, and the mandatory connection back to PGI's Primary IP Addresses that knocks anyone out if it fails. It's been kind of some luck that I could catch all of those, but at least it gives some insight into MWO's pool of servers that the players have to connect to and interact with.

Unfortunately, I can't pull up WinMTR fast enough in most cases to catch more data before things subside and I end up with a result of an entirely normal connection routing. It makes me think somebody's QoS Config is set up to be rather not nice towards gamers.

~D. V. "It's just 6 IPs for the Game Servers... The other 8 IPs are some different MWO functions!" Devnull

[MrVaad]

D V Devnull, on 09 July 2022 - 06:10 AM, said:

It makes me think somebody's QoS Config is set up to be rather not nice towards gamers.

~D. V. "It's just 6 IPs for the Game Servers... The other 8 IPs are some different MWO functions!" Devnull

I don't think it's related to QoS, MWO's bandwith requirements are very very low.

Have you tried changing your dns servers for a few hours ? (using google or cloudflare for example)
Lately i had some trouble connecting to mwo, seems PGI was changing some adresses, and my ISP's DNS were not using the new IPs (meaning my ISP's DNS were not up to date with the last changes).

Changing to Cloudflare's DNS in my case instantly fix my logins problems.

Edited by MrVaad, 09 July 2022 - 06:25 AM.

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 09 July 2022 - 05:52 AM, said:

<<< snip >>>

You need to wait a little more before stopping WINMTR, 24 packets is not much (wait at least 100 packets).

If you look more carefully at the log, I actually let it run for 30 packets. I should note however that they were spaced at 2 second intervals because I was trying to avoid triggering the kind of defense mechanism that locks down upon UDP and/or ICMP flooding for an extended period. At the time, I was in need of getting back to my Match quickly before I either got killed or landed up with a MatchMaker Penalty for sitting out too long. Attempting to re-establish the connection for that Match while continuing to run WinMTR was also not an option for that same reason. After all, who wants to die on the battlefield because they got unhooked while smack in front of an Enemy Assault at the time?

Strangely here, just idling at the MechLab while chatting on the Forums is also resulting in repeated drops from the Game Client even though things should be stable. I can't even get back to what I was doing because of this...

MrVaad, on 09 July 2022 - 06:23 AM, said:

I don't think it's related to QoS, MWO's bandwith requirements are very very low.

Have you tried changing your dns servers for a few hours ? (using google or cloudflare for example)
Lately i had some trouble connecting to mwo, seems PGI was changing some adresses, and my ISP's DNS were not using the new IPs (meaning my ISP's DNS were not up to date with the last changes).

Already using Quad-1's DNS Pair from CloudFlare here (1.1.1.1 & 1.0.0.1) due to past issues with Google, OpenDNS, and others. I don't think the DNS Servers themselves are at fault.


~D. V. "had too much to consider at one time, making them have to stop WinMTR... already uses alternate DNS" Devnull

[MrVaad]

- Are you using windowed fullscreen mode ?
- I would close the browser when playing, because you only have 2GB video memory (or disable hardware acceleration in the browser).
- perhaps the game is simply too cpu/gpu hungry for your system now ? You would need to use a "cfg file" to optimize a few things.

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 09 July 2022 - 07:17 AM, said:

- Are you using windowed fullscreen mode ?
- I would close the browser when playing, because you only have 2GB video memory (or disable hardware acceleration in the browser).
- perhaps the game is simply too cpu/gpu hungry for your system now ? You would need to use a "cfg file" to optimize a few things.

I see where you're going with that thought, but I've tried even going so far as to clear my shader cache and finding it merely nixed the game.cfg instead of doing what the Repair Tool's checkbox claimed. (Also of note, modifying things massively with a 'cfg file' is unfortunately not a valid option as there are others who fire up MWO on this system, and they expect things beyond the In-Game Options to be in the designed unmodified vanilla state. I need to not scare them into thinking something is broken, or that they're somehow violating the MWO ToS in some way, as that could backlash on me and result in my being banned off the system.) My browser has never presented a problem as I keep it on a non-animating page while in battle, and never had an issue with YouTube being active simultaneously in the past at lower resolutions (Like 1440x900 on a previous GPU card, and I was able to jump to 1600x900 or so after coming to the current GPU card) while in "True FullScreen" until some changes from Google managed to kill that option. Right now, I'm 1920x1080 in "full window" (aka "windowed fullscreen" or "borderless windowed") mode, and lowered graphics settings compared to what I normally used even in the "True FullScreen" state, and I was doing fine prior to this up until the "Error 13 HotFix" and "v1.4.261.0 – June 21st, 2022" Patches both landed. This makes me think either...

• someone at PGI really blew it and messed up something that Windows 7 (and/or AMD "Piledriver/Vishera" FX-series) users needed, possibly with stealth intent to push us out instead of making a proper announcement as they should
  
• somebody at PGI simply blew something by accident with coding regarding recent Patch releases, and that hanging onto an extended connection to MWO in some cases is not feasible now due to something being missing on the server side that would normally help keep things alive
  
• some crazy IT Security Jock working for PGI decided to be more nasty about login allowances, and some people are therefore being wrongfully kicked off at random to varying degrees
  
• some switch/router in the " *1-a9.*.us " system pool is failing and nobody is aware of it, in which case somebody needs to get in touch with them fast before a major internet outage occurs
  
• somebody out there on the internet is trying to kill UDP communications and/or long-term connections to the MWO site, instead feeling that favoring video connections while dunking gamers who play ancient-styled things (in other words, the whole QoS thing) is some kind of great idea, but really is a rather terrible idea when properly examined overall
  
• possibly that Southern California is in someone's crosshairs without regard to ISP given some other postings I've seen in the Forums here (link so you can see their thread too)

...and I'm sure there are even more possibilities which I have not thought of, even though I tend to tilt towards worst-case scenarios in analyzing bad situations. I can try leaving my browser closed entirely, but I have this dreadful feeling that's going to cause faster failures as there will be no secondary connections to MWO's site in an attempt to keep things open with the intent to fight against failure. Time to go give not running the browser a shot, I guess, since that's about the one thing left which I can try before being 100% dependent on PGI for a fix. I have the bad feeling I'm going to simply end up being inured to this situation eventually.

~D. V. "answering 'MrVaad's last 2022-07-09 questions & thoughts about my connection issues" Devnull

[MrVaad]

Your browser can use a few 100s MBs of video ram when hardware acceleration is enabled.
As your graphic card has 2GB, it can help. Although, it's clearly not your main problem.

When speaking about cfg, i was thinking about a user.cfg file. It's an optional file (allowed by PGI) where you can adjust some cryengine settings.
I suppose you can't tinker much with your windows installation, so trying to tweak MWO is probably your only solution ?

[D V Devnull]

MrVaad, on 10 July 2022 - 07:57 AM, said:

Your browser can use a few 100s MBs of video ram when hardware acceleration is enabled.
As your graphic card has 2GB, it can help. Although, it's clearly not your main problem.

When speaking about cfg, i was thinking about a user.cfg file. It's an optional file (allowed by PGI) where you can adjust some cryengine settings.
I suppose you can't tinker much with your windows installation, so trying to tweak MWO is probably your only solution ?

I just discovered it possibly may not help with my situation, except maybe during actual battles. To give you a rough idea in terms of FPS during normal usage, with a little bit higher detail settings at 1920x1080 Borderless Full Window (and browser running at the same time) than I'm using right now...

• MechLab –––––––– 59 to 62 FPS
  (always seems to want to range higher, but doesn't due to locked FPS cap from PGI themselves)
  
• Testing Grounds –– Anywhere from 80 to 180 FPS
  (depending on scenery being rendered, current Zoom Factor state, and number of Mechs still alive in the area ... sometimes the noise this PC's fans generate at those high framerates makes me worry a little bit, but always settles down at lower FPS amounts from returning to the MechLab area)
  
• When in a Match –– Normally around 40 FPS
  (obviously ranges depending on scenery, current Zoom Factor state, number of human-controlled Mechs alive, and anything else happening on the field)

...and that's not all. During my most recent launches of MWO without having the browser loaded and using lowered graphics settings, it happens that I encountered the following...

• One of the battles which I was in on an earlier session had a temporary glitch where my name got stuck for VoIP indication at the bottom as though my microphone was open. It did that even when the key for speaking was not being pressed. I had to find a safe spot and then re-connect to the battle for the issue to go away. (This issue has never happened while the browser was loaded in the background.)
  
• Later on near the end of that same session, the MWO Game Client lost the connection while idle at the MechLab and crashed. (It almost felt like someone was out to punish people who had to idle at the MechLab for a little while even if they had no control over their IRL situation at the time... Or even perhaps that someone in PGI's IT Security does not like that people are getting to login once and then be able to keep playing on the servers for a really long period... But that can only really be true if there is not someone on the outside messing up connections to PGI in the first place!)
  
• During my most recent session, it happens that I totally never got to reach the battlefield at all. I had picked out a Mech from my own Garage which was looking like something to play. I then dealt with the Skill Nodes because it was not used since before the changes to the Skill Trees and how they operate now. Upon entering the Testing Grounds and doing my usual run to make sure I was used to the Mech's updated state, the connection died around 85% of the way through my run and dumped me out to the Login screen with that dreaded "Server connection was lost" Error once again. (This issue seems to happen without regard to if I have the browser loaded or not since the "Error 13 HotFix" and the "June 21, 2022 v1.4.261.0 Patch" both happening. As of when I am typing this, my thoughts are split between trying to sign back in because I had wanted to do something, versus giving up for tonight out of disgust over how MWO's code is possibly messed up and other spots on the internet seemingly recklessly killing MWO's connections.)

...which reminds me. I've noticed that MWO's current active RAM usage seems to be lower, but that may just be due entirely to the lowered graphics settings versus my normal, although that active RAM usage by MWO itself should seemingly not have cut in half as there was not that much change in the graphics settings. Any which way that I can tell so far, the connection from here to MWO's Servers falling out does not seem to correlate with lacking enough FPS to sustain the game, since it died in the Testing Grounds where I have the absolute maximum to work with at any given time.


Not to jab, but I'm getting the feeling this problem is probably not repairable by any single player since I'm not the only person encountering these issues, and that only PGI's MWO Team themselves can fix it. I will merely have to live with this ugly situation for now.

Thanks for trying to help 'MrVaad', and a thanks to 'Tarl Cabot' too for their initial attempt, even though the communications here failed to reach a positive outcome in the end.


~D. V. "mind overloaded from this mess with Server Connection Loss hitting them, even when it should not" Devnull



(p.s.: Apologies for the massive parentheses usage... Things have a way of bubbling in my mind when I get overloaded with stuff like this... It's like my mind is going through a stack of conspiracy theories!)