Server Registration Problems

[Hatz]

Alright i know that a lot of times this is client side and plugin related if server side....

Here's the thing, i took off over 20 plugins on my server recently, 3-4 of which were major resource hogs, biggest being uwc3 mod.

Now, this has improved with showing less lag. But i get complaints of shot registration on my server, and have actually for awhile. Im not sure what to do, i assumed a lot of it was client side, but a cal-p buddy of mine was complaining of the reg and claimed nfo servers suck for reg, unless hyperaccel is on, which i dont have.

Now he isnt one to be an idiot with client commands and settings, so im convinced something is wrong. Granted my server isnt running stock, but the plugins i have arent many and they are small little things.

Any suggestions?

Does the server being in chicago also have anything to do with it? I live in mn, and im thinkin of moving it to denver or texas as most of my clan mates and overall cs players are west coast.

[Hatz]

Also, note that i get reports of lag spikes when players are shooting at eachother. Keep in mind this is with less the 8 people in server with these problems.

[BnD|Sleeper]

Unfortunately Chicago pipelines have been known to be quite convoluted with junk thereby preventing excellent data flow; Chicago is one of the cheapest cities in the U.S. to get bandwidth because it's known to not be reliable, nowhere near the rest of the country. I foresee John debating with me on this one but it's a fact and everyone knows it; Chicago is a nightmare bandwidth wise in comparison to other cities like Dallas as quite good, San Jose is known to be the best as it's the heart of Silicon Valley. By no means does that mean Chicago bandwidth doesn't work, it is just not as reliable as one may hope, hence the lower price for companies to host servers there.

Ok so my explanation is vague and poorly described but understand that a "Nightmare" bandwidth wise is pretty much even 1 night out of a 3 month period or less that is so latency intensive, the servers practically timeout every request to access them. With Chicago that 1 night/time out of a certain period is known to occur more often and latencies tend to be higher in General coming out of Chicago even without the heavy onset of that one night.

My recommendation: go to Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, or better yet San Jose.

Sleeper

[Edge100x]

We don't generally have any problems with our Chicago bandwidth, no. Generalizing about an entire city like that doesn't really make much sense, either, when in reality there are 6+ NSPs involved, each of which is independent of one another, and countless ISPs as well. Most of these still have quite a bit of dark fiber and the capability to quickly upgrade to later technologies if they were to run into bandwidth limitations.

I also do not hear many problems with peering in Chicago.

[Hatz]

From: rentals@nuclearfallout.net
To: sting9701@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Server Registration Problems [SNK] {snk*} <snk>
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:47:11 -0800

Nathan:
> Now, this has improved with showing less lag. But i get complaints of shot registration on my server, and have actually for awhile. Im not sure what to do, i assumed a lot of it was client side, but a cal-p buddy of mine was complaining of the reg and claimed nfo servers suck for reg, unless hyperaccel is on, which i dont have.

That doesn't really make any sense. If ours sucked with the regular accelerator, so would every other company's 250 FPS servers.

> Now he isnt one to be an idiot with client commands and settings, so im convinced something is wrong. Granted my server isnt running stock, but the plugins i have arent many and they are small little things.

> Any suggestions?

We could try moving you to a new machine if you'd like, since that sometimes inexplicably fixes such problems even when the current machine overloaded. Have you already tried removing all your plugins just to be sure it's not one of the remaining ones? Have you tried fiddling with the sv_maxupdaterate and sv_maxcmdrate at all?

> Does the server being in chicago also have anything to do with it? I live in mn, and im thinkin of moving it to denver or texas as most of my clan mates and overall cs players are west coast.

That would affect your routing to the server. If your issue is a routing problem of some sort (in the middle of the trace), moving it could potentially make a difference.

> Also, note that i get reports of lag spikes when players are shooting at eachother. Keep in mind this is with less the 8 people in server with these problems.

That's definitely something I do not hear about very often with our servers. My suspicion would still be a plugin =\

Thanks,
John




My response via email: (Btw, not sure i agree with that first comment he made at all. That's false, seeing as how it would depend on the quality of hardware the company hosts)


There appears to be no server side setting in server.cfg for sv_maxcmdrate maybe the minimum of maxupdaterate should be forced higher? I HAVE been getting reports of reg problems since day one of this server being up, consequently i do not think it is a plugin. So if this could be why, let me know if those should be in server.cfg and what a normal setting would be so i can test it.

If not, then i will have the server moved to denver. Please get back to me asap, thanks.


Btw, here is my server.cfg

sb_licenseid 13693
sb_licensecode LXjaO0F55UqVLPCDvCBLIXL53pkKQz
sb_action ar

// CS Specific Cvars
mp_autokick 0
mp_autoteambalance 0
mp_c4timer 35
mp_flashlight 1
mp_footsteps 1
mp_forcechasecam 0
mp_freezetime 5
mp_friendlyfire 1
mp_hostagepenalty 0
mp_limitteams 0
//mp_logdetail 3
mp_logmessages 1
mp_mapvoteratio 0.51
mp_roundtime 2.5
mp_buytime .5
mp_timelimit 20
mp_maxrounds 0
sv_restartround 0
sv_alltalk 1
mp_ghostfrequency 0
mp_startmoney 1200
allow_spectators 1
mp_chattime 2

// General HL Cvars
sv_contact "edge100x@edge100x.com"
sv_clienttrace 3.5
decalfrequency 60
mp_decals 100
mp_falldamage 1
pausable 0
sv_aim 0
sv_cheats 0
sv_maxspeed 500
sv_airaccelerate 99
sv_maxrate 20000
sv_minrate 2000
sv_timeout 120
sv_netsize 0
sv_maxunlag 0.2
sv_gravity 800
edgefriction 2
mp_fragsleft 0
mp_consistency 0
sv_allowupload 1
sv_allowdownload 1
//sv_visiblemaxplayers 18
//sv_challengetime 45

// Rcon Stuff
rcon_password "*"

// Make sure the right people are banned
filterban 1
exec banned.cfg
writeid

//files
mapcyclefile mapcycle.txt

logsdir "logs"
log on

// disable lag compensation
sv_unlag 0

heartbeat

// rate restrictions to make things run better on nonaccelerated servers
sv_minupdaterate 20
sv_maxupdaterate 100
sv_maxrate 20000
sv_minrate 3000

// important settings inserted by NFo
sys_ticrate 1000
max_queries_sec_global 150
max_queries_sec 3
sv_stats 0
mapchangecfgfile "server.cfg"

sv_voicecodec voice_speex
sv_voicequality 5
sv_region 0
sv_password ""
hpk_maxsize 1
sv_downloadurl "http://snkclan.nuclearfallout.net/server/"

[Edge100x]

That doesn't really make any sense. If ours sucked with the regular accelerator, so would every other company's 250 FPS servers.

not sure i agree with that first comment he made at all. That's false, seeing as how it would depend on the quality of hardware the company hosts)

It sounds like this requires some explanation, then.

To the extent that it affects the server-side FPS, hardware can make a difference. But a server running at a steady 250 FPS here (as ours do) will run the same as a server running a steady 250 FPS anywhere else (and better than one that's not steady), in terms of the game engine itself. Routing can also play a part as well, of course, but if this were a routing problem then you would see it with both 250 FPS and 500 FPS at once. So it is in fact true that our servers would not have a problem at 250 and not 500 FPS unless another company also had problems at 250 and not 500 FPS.

Please choose whether to request support on this matter (and on each matter in general) through either email or forums. The same people answer both, and using both methods at once just creates more work for those people and for you.

[Edge100x]

Keep in mind also that a "shot registration" problem is the most difficult type of problem to address. Unless there's packet loss, fluctuating FPS, choke, or another measurable problem with the server, it is especially difficult. Usually cases of "registration" problems without other symptoms end up being one of these two things:

- Pure perception issues
- Plugins causing havoc with the server in subtle ways

When we see them alongside choke but without dipping server-side FPS, which is a bit more common, registration problems usually end up being due to client routers that can't handle the PPS that the server is transmitting. Often reducing the server FPS or rate settings can help in these cases.

[Hatz]

Alright, well you say setttings are normal and such. One would assume it's client side problem, but im just getting too many reports of this, since day 1. So i would like to move my server to denver asap.

How will this effect server ip?

And sorry for sending the email too, sometimes it's different people answer there, and here. And ive been getting two different responses on here and on email, even though i believe you're John, the one answering me on the forums and email lol.

I try to get as many opinions as possible, but ill stick with forums.

Anyway, i will send one more email to change my server to denver as im sure i must make that request via email and not forums.

[Edge100x]

How will this effect server ip?

The server IP would need to change. Each of our locations is on a different IP block.

I generally would recommend using email first, before coming here. We're able to provide the most targeted help in emails.