Internet Explorer of Pain VII

[Spirit]

Hi there;

I have been trying to get this game working again on my main box pc for a while, without a decent amount of success. I have been running Horizons on a laptop without issue while the main box was without internet. IE7 was put on that pc just before internet was unavailable. This laptop has IE6.

Both pc's are running XP Home SP2, using Avast antivirus and the standard windows firewall. Router is a normal BTOpenworld router, tweaked to work on Plusnet.

The laptop with IE6 sails straight in. The main box, on running horizons, does the following:
- patcher launches and completes fine.
- Splash window appears and goes fine.
- Game goes full screen (or windowed etc) and sits there.

then either:
- forced exit to desktop with a window saying that there was a problem with downloading a manifest, followed by an error saying it couldn't connect to any server.

or:
- Gets in game, extremely slowly (although downloading data at 7kb/sec every now and then), then when in-game scenery builds extremely slowly in bursts. If I port to another zone, I've always ctd'd with an error like above, however I expect it could randomly succeed like running the game.

I have tried the following:
- suggestions on http://vnboards.ign.com/horizons_general_board/b5252/91033457/r91033471/ except the patcher ports. Patcher has no issue. The port forwarding is set up for TCP/UDP on the router for the main box. However no settings for the laptop and that logs in.

- both pc's running identical copies of the Horizons installation (cache, config, etc). I copied the working one from the laptop to ensure the main box did not have a borked installation.

- disabling the windows firewall. Laptop has it enabled and no issue; in exceptions list. Main box also has Horizons on exceptions list, but disabling the firewall should make it work if that was the problem. Tried also killing the router firewall, but the options are unclear on the setup page.

- deleting the config files (after the copying of the installation).

World of Borcraft game works as well as ever, although that patches slow (torrent). Plusnet and p2p are not a great combination by reputation it seems!

The only real difference I can see is IE6/7 ... does anyone run the game successfully with it? I'd gladly remove it, but it says it is dependent on patches installed since then, so I'll wager good money that Windows will be borked if I remove it. I should *not* have to reinstall Xp for this surely.

Any advice welcomed and the winning answer gets to be my first vict... err guest for Dinner on Chaos. Or if you live near Southampton I'll buy you a very real beer.

Cheers;

Rakku

[Tcei]

What I ended up having to do with IE7 (before I started using the Launcher) was to completely turn off of the security stuff in IE 7. Wich wasnt a very big deal for me as I only use(d) IE to launch Horizons.

Go Tools>Internet Options>Security Tab

and set the slider to low on all four of the options there, then go to Privacy and do the same, once Hz launches you can and probably should set it back to defaults or whatever you set it to.

After I did that I had no issues with launching from the site.

[Spirit]

A cunning plan! I'll give it a go. I've tried launching via the website, once I was able to get the control to install, and via the stand-alone launcher. Both produce the same result, but since Hz's is net enabled I reckon IE7's internet settings could still cause grief.

Many thanks;

Rakku

[Spirit]

Why can't I edit after 15 minutes? *Swears loudly*

Anyway it didn't work. It's been trying to run for 15 minutes now. Every now and then there is a blip of internet activity, an increase in the memory used (Task Manager) and an almost locked game window with nothing in it. It's like something is restricting the data flow to the game to a mere trickle. Just enough to stop it quitting out. I want to kill IE7, unless someone has a cunning plan?

Many thanks for your help!!

Rakku

Edit: Error 106 (Transport failure): The client has been disconnected because of a communications failure.

[Steelclaw]

Hm. It looks like you are actually able to get the patcher running and game to launch. The browser has no role or function once the game launches -- thus your problems are not browser related.

The problems you describe (bursty loading, frequent and random disconnection) are more likely the result of network connectivity issues. Horizons uses UDP as the transport. It looks like WoW uses TCP. TCP will retransmit when the underlying network has packet loss. UDP does not implement any sort of reliable or ordered communication -- it is all up to the application to do that.

So what now? Start with some basic troubleshooting.

See if you have a good route to the HZ servers for one. Get a command prompt window open and ping horizons.istaria.com (it's NOT the shard, but they are on the same local network, so it should suffice).
ping -t horizons.istara.com
should work. Don't forget the -t! If you do, you'll only send 4 pings, which is pretty useless for our purposes. Let it run for about a minute or two and hit ctrl+c. You'll get a summary at the end. The % packet loss is the interesting number. Ideally this number is 0. If not, it better be very close to it. The second item of interest are the min/avg/max ping times. A solid connection will have the min/avg/max numbers very close to each other and 0% packet loss. Go ahead and run that test and post those numbers here. (just the # of packets sent, # received, %loss and min/avg/max times)

[Spirit]

Hi Steelclaw;

Thanks for the suggestion. Here is the results:

C:\Documents and Settings\Graeme>ping -t horizons.istaria.com
Pinging horizons.istaria.com [68.142.64.212] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=195ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=185ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=187ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=185ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=186ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=184ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=186ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=185ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=186ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=186ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=184ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=113
Reply from 68.142.64.212: bytes=32 time=183ms TTL=113
Ping statistics for 68.142.64.212:
Packets: Sent = 29, Received = 29, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 182ms, Maximum = 195ms, Average = 184ms
Control-C
^C
C:\Documents and Settings\Graeme>

So seemingly no problem reaching the server. Could it be the ports in use?

One thing I tried was logging into my isp account and disabling the firewall there, followed by my router firewall and then the windows firewall. That's all the levels I'm aware of. I've also removed IE7, which actually uninstalled successfully... I'll never understand that! Also tried updating the display driver, since the screen did seem to be locked. Unfortunately to no avail.

I'll try the game now, while it's early on a Sunday morning (best possible net conditions).

Many thanks again;

Rakku

[Chasing]

Copied this of old support site

How do I set up my software firewall or proxy to work with Horizons?
While Artifact Entertainment does not official or formally support any firewalls or proxies, steps to set up the more popular software to work with Horizons have been provided, if current settings are creating issues.

Some firewall packages will not allow Horizons to connect after a patch. This is because the firewall software detects the change and thinks the executable is a different program. The solution is to configure your firewall to not perform an application authenticity check (a CRC check) or recreate the firewall rule.

Internet Settings

• We strongly recommend that any firewall settings be associated to the horizons.exe application, rather than specific IP ranges. When configuring your firewall for Horizons, it is recommended to allow horizons.exe unlimited access to the internet. By configuring your firewall settings to be associated to horizons.exe - rather than specific ports - you will avoid having changes to the shard configuration (such as adding more servers to a shard) to not require a firewall reconfiguration.
  
  General Settings
  Application: horizons.exe
  IP Addresses: 68.142.64.*
  Ports: 47101 – 47104 and 47701 – 47704
  Traffic Type: UDP
  
  Zone Alarm:
  • - Double-click the Zone Alarm system tray icon (the system tray icon is located in the lower righthand corner of your screen, where your clock appears).
    - Click Program Control.
    - Move the slider to the Low setting.
    - Close the window and run Horizons.
  Internet Connection Firewall:
  • - Right-click My Network Places and click Properties.
    - Right-click LAN Connection (or whatever you might have named your broadband connection) and click Properties.
    - Click the Advanced Tab.
    - Click the check box that states "Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet."
    - Click Apply.
    - Close the window and run Horizons.
  Sygate Personal Firewall:
  • - Right-click the Sygate Personal Firewall icon in the system tray and select Sygate Personal Firewall Pro.
    - Click Security, then click Allow All.
    - Close the Window and run Horizons.
  Norton Personal Firewall:
  • - Go through the Automated Setup.
    - Setup Home Networking if you need to do so.
    - Run the Automatic Program Scan.
    - Check boxes next to all Horizons related programs and select Permit All under Internet Access.
    - Click Finish.
    - Double-click the system tray icon for Norton and select Personal Firewall.
    - Click Configure.
    - Slide the Firewall slider to Low.
  McAfee Personal Firewall:
  • - Run through the Configuration Assistant.
    - Select "Allow all traffic."
    - Follow through the Startup Options and the Control Access to Shares sections.
    - Under Allowed Applications, select Search all drives IF Horizons did not show up under the initial scan.
    - Place check marks next to all Horizons related applications that show up.
    - Click finish and allow the Firewall to apply the settings and reboot your computer.
    - Run Horizons.
  Tiny Personal Firewall:
  • - Right-click the Tiny Personal Firewall system tray icon and select Administration Tool.
    - Click Application Groups.
    - Click Settings, then click Create new Application Group.
    - Name the new Application Group Horizons and set the Security Level to Unrestricted.
    - Go into the Unrestricted Applications group, look for all executable files listed under your Horizons directory and move them to the Horizons Application Group you just created.
    - Close the window and run Horizons.

Category/Topic : Support / Technical Support / Software Issues

[Spirit]

Cracked it, at least as far as I know!

The port range above is too restricted. I found an article on IGN that said this port range:

IP Addresses: 68.142.64.*
Ports: 47101 – 47110 and 47701 – 47710
Traffic Type: UDP
... from http://horizonsvault.ign.com/faq/index.php?category=11

I changed this after the pc got in after 10 mins of 300 bytes/sec, and the change was noticable as soon as I went to town again. Then I ported and that, while leisurely, was typically Istarian in duration.

Additionally, my bl**dy router was changing my pc's IP address every hour (why??!!), so any port forwarding rules were becoming invalid after an hour at most. Small wonder why I had such erratic results. The laptop ran the game for 20 mins a time at the most, but still I've added no rules for that at all and it still gets in (luck?). I have still asked my isp to look at it.

If I have any further issues I'll post back, but I think it's mystery solved.

Many thanks for all your help again! Much much appreciated!

Best rgds;

Rakku 'Sherlock' Amiya

[Spirit]

We're getting there lol.. I don't think there's anything I can do this end. I have a torrid time getting ingame, but once in I seem to get a dialup experience at worst. It's no good so ISP emailed with the port settings.

If I discover any underlying information, which may be of use to others I will post it here.

Cheers;

Rakku

[Chasing]

My router does the same to my internal IP's whenever i restart both computers at the same time or the router, i just set all LAN ports to allow the same port forwarding rules. However will need to try adding on those extra port numbers

[Roguar]

I think i need to learn a new language. hope all is well no the less

[C`gan]

I guess my question is concerning the router itself. Granted, the ISP IP is usually fixed and the DNS and WINS connections are dynamic for security reasons, but why is the router having it's own dynamic set of numbers to attached computers? They should be pretty much static for a hard-wired network/LAN or at least set up with the same WEP as the computers that are wirelessly networking for security.

To translate:
ISP IP #: static (usually 2 or 3 sets of numbers)
ISP DNS #: dynamic (allow the router to auto detect those)
ISP WINS #: dynamic (allow the router to auto detect those)

LAN IP #: static per computer (I'm familiar with Linksys routers. There's usually an IP table with static addresses assigned per computer based on which port it's connected to)
LAN DNS #: static if wired, dynamic if wireless (WEP configuration for wireless should match on both computer and router)
LAN WINS #: static if wired, dynamic if wireless (again, same configuration for wireless should match on both computer and router).

[Draygon]

Bloody idiot forum. Spent time typing out a response only to be told I was not logged in (I was) and then that the topic did not exist (??). Edit: Twice! Rrr..

In short my suggestions were:
Check the router to make sure it isn't losing power (loose plug) and/or that the battery is failing or dead, which might cause it to wipe out some or all settings in the event of even a brief outage.

Disable power-saving settings for any network interfaces in Windows. It's possible that turning the network devices off/on may be leaving the device in a halfway state, which could interfere with its detection by the router.

Make sure you have updated chipset and network drivers (checking for BIOS updates rarely hurts either). No specific reason, save that it can sometimes eliminate variables of what is at fault.

Incidentially, my ISP is a DSL service, so my external IP is dynamic, being acquired automatically and changing periodically (about once a month on average). Though this has never resulted in any router firewall rules becoming invalid, nor in any internal IP addresses being remapped.

Final thought: I get the communication failure message every so often, even when things should be working peachy. Sometimes it seems to be related to my software firewall (Zonealarm), other times the only cure seems to be waiting a while and trying again later. Though naturally that's not a solution if those failure messages persist.

[Spirit]

Wow there some good, if somewhat complicated, stuff there. I am going through it all and seeing what happens.

Incidentally I've been using Wireshark to look at what's going on when Horizons logs in, and there is port 1929 also being used. Very useful program I can highly recommend it!

I'll check back here if I have any positive results, but my finger still points at the isp primarily.

Many thanks again;

Rakku

[Chasing]

2 webpages that might be of use

http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

this one is for a bittorrent client, but has some useful info
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php...NAT_problem_is

[Draygon]

Wireshark eh? I'll have to give that a looksee. I usually just launch TCPView and Process Explorer (Sysinternals Tools) when I want a quick overview of what processes and ports are doing.

[Spirit]

That port 1929 thing was a load of hullaballoo... there must be another port range in the lower numbers that is used generally, as when you run the game again another port is picked.

Anyway, it's neither here nor there as the game works properly now! I forwarded the ports to my ISP, who have added them to their mysterious 'list'. It worked, so I then tried removing the forwarding rules from my router, and it still worked. That was worth a try since WoW needed no router rule to work well.

Many thanks to all of you who helped get to the bottom of the problem. Much much much appreciated!

See you online!

Rakku