[0.13.3] Unable to determine external IP address

tsubaki · Post by **tsubaki** » Sun Jul 03, 2016 11:15 am

Whenever I try to create a multiplayer game (regardless of the settings like private/hidden/etc.) I get the following notice:
Failed to determine external IP address. Other players might not be able to connect.

Looking at the log I found that the pingpong server did reply with the same IP address, but that the port differs (in this log it's 84.73.229.124:62613 vs 84.73.229.124:62625).

log

This happens every time I try to host a game (the address always only differs in the port, never in the IP address).

(On a side note: This also happens to a few friends of mine, but not to all)

knub23 · Post by **knub23** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 3:43 pm

I have the same issue since 0.13.0.

Log

TruePikachu · Post by **TruePikachu** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 4:08 pm

Are ports set to be different from default?

knub23 · Post by **knub23** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 8:09 am

Mine ist still 34197. Config says:

proxy=
port=34197

I reported this as a bug and a dev pointed out this part of the log (see viewtopic.php?f=7&t=27130&p=176865#p176865):

47.630 Info Router.cpp:1003: Asking pingpong servers (pingpong1.factorio.com:34197, pingpong2.factorio.com:34197) for own address
47.680 Warning Router.cpp:858: Received own adddress message reply with conflicting address (got 178.6.45.186:34198, expected 178.6.45.186:34199)
47.680 Warning MultiplayerManager.cpp:715: Determining own address has failed. Best guess: 178.6.45.186:34199

Said it is a configuration issue. I didn't change anything from 0.12.35 to the new release. Would be great if someone could help with this, I don't know how to fix it.

tsubaki · Post by **tsubaki** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:22 am

Same here:

The port was never changed, it even says in the log file:

33.150 Hosting game at port 34197, peerID 0, session magic 1054

And in config.ini:

port=34197

I tested every version from 13.3 to 13.5 and on all versions the same error occurs.

Post by **Klonan** » Thu Jul 07, 2016 3:19 pm

This isn't an error in factorio so much, there are any number of ISP, router of network configuration reasons why our servers are not able to determine your IP address

tsubaki · Post by **tsubaki** » Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:32 pm

~~I disagree that this is an error on the client side (i.e. configuration of network gear).~~
Not being satisfied with doing nothing I fired up Wirershark.
I filtered for traffic only from and to the two pingpong-servers (pingpong1.factorio.com // pingpong2.factorio.com) and tried to host a new multiplayer game. Interestingly all packets sent and received have the same source and destination port 34197

I then inspected the response from pingpont1, pingpong2 respectively:

Screenshots of captured packets

You can clearly see that on the bottom part of the packet my IP address is returned correctly. But the port returned inside the data-part of the UDP-packet is clearly different from the port all packets were sent and received on.

If need be I can save another capture in Wireshark and upload it to some file-share-service.

Edit: I now think this is a configuration issue (see response below)

Zeblote · Post by **Zeblote** » Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:46 pm

Seems like your router is randomizing outgoing ports?

tsubaki · Post by **tsubaki** » Thu Jul 07, 2016 8:44 pm

Ok, the suggestion with the port-randomization made me think a bit.
I then tested with a few friends how my UDP-packets are getting changed by my router.
It seems that my router changed the source port of the packets to some number in the 60000 range.
Why it did this I have no idea.

I then removed the port forwarding for the port 34197.
After some testing (without success) I then enabled forwarded port 34197 again.
This seems to have fixed the port-randomization issue and I am even able to host games with the matchmaking server.
How/Why this is now fixed is beyond me.

knub23 · Post by **knub23** » Thu Jul 14, 2016 8:45 am

So basically "magic" fixed your problem. I still can't figure out anything because my software/computer skills are not high enough. What I know is:

- It (opening a multiplayer game to play with friends) worked fine before 0.13 hit.
- It doesn't work anymore.
- Someone else had the same problem and fixed it by magic.

Well at least it works for you again. I removed port forwarding, enabled it again multiple times, tried different port numbers but that is all I am capable of, so I guess I have to hope for magic, too.

Bluelight · Post by **Bluelight** » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:53 pm

I stated this a while back and I have the same issue still.. I also get randomized port numbers, why can't the damn list server just place the port I put in the configs? Would be heck of a lot easier..

This is a router issue! But this is the first time I have ever seen it as an issue.. No other game or application have this problem.. And the ports are open, the server can be connected to using the direct connect.. It is listed in the server list and this problem started with 0.13.0 and I'm now 0.13.8 and it is still very much an issue.. There is no setting I can do in the router config that will change this.. I even got into admin mode and turned off the intrusion detection.. But it's still randomizing ports.. This is a weird and stupid problem and I cannot see why a game would need such a problematic system in place for listing servers.. It's listed! I has the default port open! And it should work! This is a stupid problem! And I waited eagerly for 0.13 to actually be listed and play on the server! If the default port is used, why not connect to that? If another port is used, connect to that.. Very easy!

xavizus · Post by **xavizus** » Fri Jul 15, 2016 7:51 pm

What for router modell do you have?

(Manufacturer and Modell)

Usually it's an NAT setting that does this in your router.

Bluelight · Post by **Bluelight** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 5:26 am

THOMSON TG789vn

nr2117 · Post by **nr2117** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:30 pm

Hi, see this is an old issue. I'm at my uncles house and he has a thomson tg585 as well. Going to do a quick test.

Tried making an exception for port 34197, assigned it to this computer, didn't work. Turned off extended security, didn't work, took off the exception for port 34197, didn't work.

At my other home, I've hosted a game, a friend was able to connect to it via the internet, my other friend who was playing on lan kept having bad lag issues. We pinged one another, response times was less than a milisecond.

Hope this can be fixed, and if others get this issue? The thomson router was the one given out by plusnet, other router with no problems was netgear.

impetus maximus · Post by **impetus maximus** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 8:03 pm

if there is no option to disable outgoing NAT with router you could either...
if you OWN the router you could try running OpenWRT on it.
if you have an old PC with 2 or more NICs, turn it into a router with something like https://opnsense.org/

SOHO routers are shet for running servers.
again only install OpenWRT if you own the equipment.

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