Issues with Left 4 Dead 2 Server

[Decicus]

So I decided to pickup a new VPS to setup a Left 4 Dead 2 server, but I'm running into some issues.
The main issue, is the fact that it doesn't seem to respond or allow anyone to connect even though I have allowed the srcds.exe in my firewall.

The server boots up with no issues and seems to listen on the correct IP and ports. The server console doesn't seem to report any issues either, and seems to load the map and config fine (the config doesn't have that many convars either, except for hostname, sv_password and the basics).

To make sure it wasn't a blocked port or anything like that, I decided to setup a basic Garry's Mod server as well and that worked perfectly fine with no connection issues.

Has anyone had any issues hosting Left 4 Dead 2 servers specifically? If so, have you been able to fix it somehow?

[kraze]

What happens when you try to connect to the server? What errors do you see?

[Decicus]

That's the weird thing. I'm not able to connect to the server at all.
The server is allowed in the firewall, but I'm not able to query or connect to it.

[kraze]

Have you tried temporarily disabling the firewall all together?

[Decicus]

I did just now, with no difference.

[barhund]

in your server.cfg

you should check these CVARS

sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0
//sv_search_key ""
sv_steamgroup_exclusive 0

Also have you tried connecting to your server through the console specifically to the ip address/port and what is the result?

[Decicus]

Thanks. I'll try to check these convars when I can.

As for direct connection via console, it seems to retry until it fails and stops retrying.

[Decicus]

sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0
//sv_search_key ""
sv_steamgroup_exclusive 0

Just checked these convars and I didn't get any different result from that, sadly.

EDIT: I just tested something by removing sv_password in my config, and that seems to make it work for some odd reason. Although, I'd like to keep it private. I tried setting it in the startup parameters, but that seems to give me the same result without being able to join/query. Any idea about this particular issue?

[soja]

This is a stretch, but have you checked the IP bans for the server? You can do this by running the listip command in the server console.

If your IP comes up in the list, it can be removed with the removeip theipaddress

[Decicus]

This is a stretch, but have you checked the IP bans for the server? You can do this by running the listip command in the server console.

If your IP comes up in the list, it can be removed with the removeip theipaddress

I kind of figured out the issue (see the edit part of my last reply), but it's not ideal for me. Essentially sv_password doesn't seem to work at all (and others are having the same problem) with Left 4 Dead 2 in most (if not all) cases and therefore I can't password protect my server.

I've been thinking about using SourceMod and a whitelist plugin, but that's not ideal either because I would have to manually add each player (and considering how I will use it, I would prefer just to have a password). I haven't tested if this is an issue with Linux though, so I might just move to that instead if it won't work on Windows.

[soja]

Just tested on both platforms, and I see the same behavior on Linux and Windows, sv_password doesn't allow it to be queried, and the password does nothing to block people from joining.

You can still connect to the server using this command:
connect 123.456.78.9; password mypassword

[barhund]

You could make an invite only steamgroup and use the steamgroup settings to basically make it private.

[Decicus]

Just tested on both platforms, and I see the same behavior on Linux and Windows, sv_password doesn't allow it to be queried, and the password does nothing to block people from joining.

You can still connect to the server using this command:
connect 123.456.78.9; password mypassword

If you're saying the password does nothing to block people from joining, what's the point of using the password command together with connect? Then I might as well remove sv_password as well, and let it be queried.

You could make an invite only steamgroup and use the steamgroup settings to basically make it private.

Thanks for the tip.
If all else goes wrong, I'll probably use this.

Thanks for all the help and tips guys!

[soja]

Just tested on both platforms, and I see the same behavior on Linux and Windows, sv_password doesn't allow it to be queried, and the password does nothing to block people from joining.

You can still connect to the server using this command:
connect 123.456.78.9; password mypassword

If you're saying the password does nothing to block people from joining, what's the point of using the password command together with connect? Then I might as well remove sv_password as well, and let it be queried.

Thanks for all the help and tips guys!

I don't know, I suspect it was broken at some point, and valve never bothered to fix it. I had a group of 4 people get quickmatched into my passworded server while I was testing on it...

[Decicus]

Just tested on both platforms, and I see the same behavior on Linux and Windows, sv_password doesn't allow it to be queried, and the password does nothing to block people from joining.

You can still connect to the server using this command:
connect 123.456.78.9; password mypassword

If you're saying the password does nothing to block people from joining, what's the point of using the password command together with connect? Then I might as well remove sv_password as well, and let it be queried.

Thanks for all the help and tips guys!

I don't know, I suspect it was broken at some point, and valve never bothered to fix it. I had a group of 4 people get quickmatched into my passworded server while I was testing on it...

I Google'd a little bit about L4D2 and sv_password, and it does seem to be something that has been broken for a long time. Kind of sucks, because I don't expect any fix for it any time soon (not that L4D2 is updated that frequently).