[0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

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eight-cube
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[0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by eight-cube »

I'm running a Factorio headless server and trying to join it as a multiplayer game. I try to join the game by IP address and port (the game is not publicly listed). Whenever I try to join, the Factorio client starts downloading the map, and does so consistently at about 300 to 600 kB/s (as shown in the Factorio UI while downloading the map). A green bar fills up as the map is being downloaded, and almost immediately after the download starts, a "server is not responding" green bar starts filling up too. The two bars fill up at about the same rate, and usually the not-responding bar fills up completely before the map is downloaded, and so the connection is lost. Sometimes the download is complete just before the not-responding bar is filled up, but the connection is lost before the actual game UI is shown anyway. The logs attached show one such instance.

This happens consistently, I have tried several times to connect to this server and it has never succeeded.

The server is running on Google Cloud Platform, on a g1-small instance, with 1.7 GB of RAM. No other client is connected to the server, it's just me. (then why am I bothering to use a server at all? Because I intend to play multiplayer with a friend once this works)

It's particularly frustrating that the client interprets the server to be "not responding" even when the server is steadily sending over the map at a reasonable rate! Client, the server is sending you data consistently. Take note of that. Don't be so impatient in a hurry to disconnect. As long as you're getting map data from the server, why not relax and wait for the whole map to reach you?

The ping latency to the server is about 55 - 65 ms. The client is on a home ADSL2 connection, download about 12 Mbps and upload about 0.9 Mbps.

Logs attached with some IP addresses and path segments redacted.
Attachments
fac-server-settings.json
(2.52 KiB) Downloaded 99 times
factorio-current-client.log
(60.2 KiB) Downloaded 99 times
factorio-current-server.log
(6.07 KiB) Downloaded 93 times

kitcat
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Re: [0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by kitcat »

The game communication uses UDP while the map download uses TCP. TCP connections can sometimes swamp out UDP packets, depending on network connections and routers used, so what you’re seeing is not too unexpected.

If the server runs on Linux, there’s some fancy network configuration stuff that you could try, but the easiest solution – if TCP swamping out UDP is the issue – would be to limit the server’s upload speed to something below the server’s max upload speed and your client’s download speed. Try setting max_upload_in_kilobytes_per_second to 250 and check if that helps.

stonehenge51
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Re: [0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by stonehenge51 »

I experienced this same exact issue but it was on the multiplayer that is built into factorio. Whoever hosted the game could play on the server but if someone tried to join to the game it wouldn't display "server not responding".

DaleStan
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Re: [0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by DaleStan »

That's probably the same problem. Did you try reducing the server's upload speed to something below its maximum? I'm guessing a bit here, since I've never played Factorio MP, but I'd visit speedtest.com from both the server and the client, and set the upload limit on the server to about 80% of the smaller of the server's upload and the client's download. If that doesn't work, continue reducing the server's upload limit down to about 50% of the smaller. If it still doesn't work at that point, it's probably not this issue after all.

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Re: [0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by eight-cube »

kitcat wrote:The game communication uses UDP while the map download uses TCP. TCP connections can sometimes swamp out UDP packets, depending on network connections and routers used, so what you’re seeing is not too unexpected.

If the server runs on Linux, there’s some fancy network configuration stuff that you could try, but the easiest solution – if TCP swamping out UDP is the issue – would be to limit the server’s upload speed to something below the server’s max upload speed and your client’s download speed. Try setting max_upload_in_kilobytes_per_second to 250 and check if that helps.
Thanks kitcat. I tried reducing the server's max_upload_in_kilobytes_per_second to 200 and even 100 (well below both the server's max upload speed and the client's max download speed). It didn't help. The map's transfer speed reduced as expected, but the behaviour remained the same otherwise.

Why does the client insist on heartbeat packets from the server even while downloading the map... surely receiving map data packets should be enough evidence that the server is responding?

adam_bise
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Re: [0.16.51] "Server is not responding" while downloading map

Post by adam_bise »

Log says your running Linux headless 16.51 A friend and I had the same exact problem and when we put the map on a windows box it suddenly worked fine.

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