Factorio Forums

A lot of servers have "Cannot reach" as ping and I can't connect to them with the message "Could not establish network communication with server". I figure that a few might not know that they had to do port forwarding, but it also applies to games with people in it (other than the host) and ones that are clearly meant to be public.

Example servers I can't reach (picking some with a high play time, so they are hopefully online 24/7 so you can check):
- Vestrox's game
- Komoteh Rus
- theceros's spel
- Biter Bait
- Captain--Red's game

Do these work for you?

The only one still online for me is 'Komoteh Rus' but I am able to connect to it.

Thanks for checking Rseding.

Re-checking, I still can't connect to it. As another random datapoint, the other match for 'kom' is 'LEAAAN KOM GAMEN' and I can't connect to that either.

Doing UDP traceroutes to the respective IPs and ports, I do get close to the destination host before the responses stop coming back, so it doesn't seem to be my router / a dumb ISP router / some transit router that drops udp in general or specific udp packets. The two traces for reference:

IDK if it's frowned upon to "+1" but I am having the same issue. A lot of the servers I've tried have the "cannot reach" message for the ping. [EDIT] I have been having this problem since I started playing multiplayer again, which was either right before or right after switching to 1.0

On top of that, today I tried to connect to an online game but the game doesn't show up on the list for me, alphabetically or with filtering. I know the game is up, because I'm watching people I know play on it on Twitch right now. So clearly something is going wrong there. I don't know if these are related, but I figured I'd mention that as well.

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:00 am

On top of that, today I tried to connect to an online game but the game doesn't show up on the list for me, alphabetically or with filtering. I know the game is up, because I'm watching people I know play on it on Twitch right now. So clearly something is going wrong there. I don't know if these are related, but I figured I'd mention that as well.

Check if that game has a password and/or mods and check if your filters match on the top right corner of the browse public games window. It happened to me several times that I looked for a game with a password but had the setting on no password.

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:00 am

I have been having this problem since I started playing multiplayer again, which was either right before or right after switching to 1.0

For me this issue has existed for as long as I remember (probably 0.16.x, maybe 0.17.0; before that, maybe if there was a public server list, but I wouldn't remember) but initially I figured it isn't something Wube can change. Now, though, I noticed it was really a lot of servers to which this issue applied and I figured maybe something is actually up with the code that they can test and fix if it's reproducible.

ickputzdirwech wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:58 am

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:00 am

On top of that, today I tried to connect to an online game but the game doesn't show up on the list for me, alphabetically or with filtering. I know the game is up, because I'm watching people I know play on it on Twitch right now. So clearly something is going wrong there. I don't know if these are related, but I figured I'd mention that as well.

Check if that game has a password and/or mods and check if your filters match on the top right corner of the browse public games window. It happened to me several times that I looked for a game with a password but had the setting on no password.

Yeah I made sure to set everything to "any" and clear the filter.

Okay I am convinced these problems are related. I am looking at the servers list (with it filtered to the name of the game) and today the game listing keeps disappearing and reappearing. The ping says cannot reach. I'm going to try joining once my mods sync but I doubt it'll work based on previous experience.

[Edit] As expected, "could not establish communication with the server"

luc wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 22, 2020 5:01 pm

I figure that a few might not know that they had to do port forwarding, but it also applies to games with people in it (other than the host) and ones that are clearly meant to be public.

Okay so now someone is telling me this could be from not using Steam while the server/host is using Steam. Are you using Steam or standalone Factorio? I'm using the standalone release.

(Also, sorry for so many posts in a row)

I'm also using the standalone release. (Always pay makers directly when possible, is the idea )

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:31 pm

ickputzdirwech wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:58 am

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:00 am

On top of that, today I tried to connect to an online game but the game doesn't show up on the list for me, alphabetically or with filtering. I know the game is up, because I'm watching people I know play on it on Twitch right now. So clearly something is going wrong there. I don't know if these are related, but I figured I'd mention that as well.

Check if that game has a password and/or mods and check if your filters match on the top right corner of the browse public games window. It happened to me several times that I looked for a game with a password but had the setting on no password.

Yeah I made sure to set everything to "any" and clear the filter.

Might be related to the game version. (edit: game / server version mismatch)

Ghoulish wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 10:28 pm

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:31 pm

ickputzdirwech wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:58 am

gardrek wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:00 am

On top of that, today I tried to connect to an online game but the game doesn't show up on the list for me, alphabetically or with filtering. I know the game is up, because I'm watching people I know play on it on Twitch right now. So clearly something is going wrong there. I don't know if these are related, but I figured I'd mention that as well.

Check if that game has a password and/or mods and check if your filters match on the top right corner of the browse public games window. It happened to me several times that I looked for a game with a password but had the setting on no password.

Yeah I made sure to set everything to "any" and clear the filter.

Might be related to the game version. (edit: game / server version mismatch)

I was going to wait to reply to this thread again until I had some evidence that switching on port forwarding would allow me to connect to a previously unreachable server, but the host that was going to help me test that hasn't set it up. Regardless, it's pretty obviously not a version mismatch because, even if it weren't for the fact that everyone and their grandma is on 1.0.0, the game shows you the version that the server is running on the multiplayer list, and I can confirm that every server I have recently tried is on 1.0.0 and I am also running 1.0.0, and so were the servers I successfully connected to.

I am playing this game since 2016. for me about 1/2 to 2/3 of the Servers are unreachable. I always thought, that this is because the ping to those servers is too high. the servers with the highest pings, i see, have a ping around 250ms.

so my question in context of this thread is, what makes factorio display "unreachable". is it a ping timeout? is it something else? and if it is a timeout, what is the time limit for a ping?

I'm sitting here in Austria, in the middle of Europe, wubes matchmaking servers assumingly right next to me and my location is well connected with the rest of Europe and i assume pretty good connected to North America. so why are 1/2 of the servers unreachable for me? i am pretty sure they aren't all in New Zealand or some poorly connected areas in Africa and Asia.

can some other users post their approximate location and what percentage of servers they see as unreachable? that would be interesting to me.

A server lists as unreachable if it doesn't reply to the ping request. As in: the packet never makes it to the Factorio process on the computer. The firewall on the receiving end most likely is blocking it due to the server not being setup with proper port forwarding.

Rseding91 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:18 am

A server lists as unreachable if it doesn't reply to the ping request. As in: the packet never makes it to the Factorio process on the computer. The firewall on the receiving end most likely is blocking it due to the server not being setup with proper port forwarding.

So, is Steam is facilitating something like a "punch through" to get through the firewall, such that this issue doesn't affect Steam-using players when connecting to Steam-using hosts? Hence why someone running a Steam multiplayer game could go a long time without noticing the problem.

gardrek wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 05, 2020 8:30 am

Rseding91 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:18 am

A server lists as unreachable if it doesn't reply to the ping request. As in: the packet never makes it to the Factorio process on the computer. The firewall on the receiving end most likely is blocking it due to the server not being setup with proper port forwarding.

So, is Steam is facilitating something like a "punch through" to get through the firewall, such that this issue doesn't affect Steam-using players when connecting to Steam-using hosts? Hence why someone running a Steam multiplayer game could go a long time without noticing the problem.

Yes; that's Steam Networking. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/feat ... networking

However the game does not require people use it; if properly configured anyone can host a server without needing to be using the steam version on any parties computer.

Rseding91 wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 05, 2020 2:51 pm

if properly configured anyone can host a server without needing to be using the steam version on any parties computer.

Right, but if they didn't? Can Steam players join other Steam players regardless of firewall/NAT, while if I use the directly downloaded version of Factorio I can't join that server? Because that would answer the question how it can be that there are a lot of servers with multiple people in it, but I can't seem to connect to it.

Or does Steam networking work in a way that it just opens the server up (e.g. with UPnP) for anyone (including non-Steam players)?

luc wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 05, 2020 4:41 pm

Rseding91 wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 05, 2020 2:51 pm

if properly configured anyone can host a server without needing to be using the steam version on any parties computer.

Right, but if they didn't? Can Steam players join other Steam players regardless of firewall/NAT, while if I use the directly downloaded version of Factorio I can't join that server? Because that would answer the question how it can be that there are a lot of servers with multiple people in it, but I can't seem to connect to it.

Correct.

luc wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 05, 2020 4:41 pm

Or does Steam networking work in a way that it just opens the server up (e.g. with UPnP) for anyone (including non-Steam players)?

Steam networking only accepts packets from other steam networking enabled things. Factorio listens through steam and through normal network transfer. So if the person hosting has their firewall configured correctly (or it works correctly with nat punching) then non-steam players can also connect. But the vast majority of home routers/setups don't work with nat punching and almost no one port-forwards.

I see, that's probably the answer then!

Is there a way to enable connecting through Steam Networking without including Steam's DRM package in the website download? Or perhaps filter out the unreachable (only-through-Steam-reachable) servers for those who don't have Steam?