Server kicks players randomly out of server, but server wont crash.

[Voldemort]

Hi all,

I need some help troubleshooting an issue with my server. For some reason, all players are being kicked from the server due to a "poor or bad connection" error. The server itself doesn't crash or shut down—it just disconnects everyone. The disconnections seem to happen randomly, sometimes once per day, or even twice in a day. Other times, it might go for three days without any issues. After about 10-15 seconds, we can reconnect with no problem, but these random kicks are really frustrating and stressful.

I contacted my hosting provider, Gportal, and they assured me that it's not an issue with their hardware or the server itself. They claim everything on their end is fine.

The server console doesn't provide any useful information or a proper reason for why everyone is getting kicked out, which makes it even harder to pinpoint the issue.

For reference, I’m running the server on vanilla settings with version 1.19.8 (stable).



Also this is my server config

{

  "FileEditWarning": "",

  "ConfigVersion": "1.5",

  "ServerName": "Vintage Story Server  | Vanila 24/7",

  "ServerUrl": "https://g-portal.com",

  "ServerDescription": "Vanila Vintage Story server feel free join!",

  "WelcomeMessage": "Welcome {0}, may you survive well and prosper in the world of Vintage Story!",

  "Ip": "(censored)",

  "Port": 30700,

  "Upnp": false,

  "CompressPackets": true,

  "AdvertiseServer": true,

  "MaxClients": 15,

  "PassTimeWhenEmpty": false,

  "MasterserverUrl": "http://masterserver.vintagestory.at/api/v1/servers/",

  "ModDbUrl": "https://mods.vintagestory.at/",

  "ClientConnectionTimeout": 600,

  "EntityDebugMode": false,

  "Password": "",

  "MapSizeX": 1000000,

  "MapSizeY": 384,

  "MapSizeZ": 1000000,

  "ServerLanguage": "en",

  "MaxChunkRadius": 12,

  "TickTime": 33.333332,

  "SpawnCapPlayerScaling": 0.5,

  "BlockTickChunkRange": 3,

  "MaxMainThreadBlockTicks": 10000,

  "RandomBlockTicksPerChunk": 16,

  "BlockTickInterval": 300,

  "SkipEveryChunkRow": 0,

  "SkipEveryChunkRowWidth": 0,

  "Roles": ( removed not important - all vanila )

 

  "AntiAbuse": 0,

  "WorldConfig": {

    "Seed": "4492743",

    "SaveFileLocation": "//home//sid_7405387//vintageStory//Saves//default.vcdbs",

    "WorldName": "VintageWorldSeason1",

    "AllowCreativeMode": false,

    "PlayStyle": "surviveandbuild",

    "PlayStyleLangCode": "surviveandbuild-bands",

    "WorldType": "standard", ( 30% Ocean, 70% Land )

    "WorldConfiguration": {

      "worldClimate": "realistic",

      "gameMode": "survival",

      "deathPunishment": "drop",

      "blockGravity": "sandgravel",

      "creatureHostility": "aggressive",

      "creatureStrength": 2,

      "harshWinters": "true",

      "seasons": "enabled",

      "daysPerMonth": 30,

      "playerlives": -1,

      "playerHealthPoints": 15,

      "bodyTemperatureResistance": 0,

      "playerHungerSpeed": 1,

      "playerMoveSpeed": 1.5,

      "foodSpoilSpeed": 0.5,

      "saplingGrowthRate": 1,

      "toolDurability": 2,

      "toolMiningSpeed": 1.5,

      "classExclusiveRecipes": "true",

      "auctionHouse": "true",

      "allowCoordinateHud": "true",

      "allowMap": "true",

      "allowLandClaiming": "true",

      "allowUndergroundFarming": "false"

    },

    "MapSizeY": null,

    "CreatedByPlayerName": null,

    "DisabledMods": null,

    "RepairMode": false

  },

  "NextPlayerGroupUid": 18,

  "GroupChatHistorySize": 20,

  "MaxOwnedGroupChannelsPerUser": 10,

  "OnlyWhitelisted": false,

  "VerifyPlayerAuth": true,

  "DefaultSpawn": {

    "x": 510813,

    "y": 182,

    "z": 515152,

    "yaw": null,

    "pitch": null,

    "roll": null,

    "RemainingUses": 99

  },

  "AllowPvP": true,

  "AllowFireSpread": false,

  "AllowFallingBlocks": true,

  "HostedMode": false,

  "HostedModeAllowMods": false,

  "StartupCommands": null,

  "RepairMode": false,

  "AnalyzeMode": false,

  "CorruptionProtection": true,

  "RegenerateCorruptChunks": false,

  "ChatRateLimitMs": 1000,

  "DieBelowDiskSpaceMb": 400,

  "ModIdBlackList": null,

  "ServerIdentifier": "70eb7e31-0b45-4ebd-9848-fedfd74d07fd"

}

Has anyone experienced something similar or have any suggestions on what could be causing this?

Thanks for your help!

 

Edited January 16, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Voldemort]

Also someone suggested that i should increase "ClientConnectionTimeout": 600     to      "ClientConnectionTimeout": 1500

but im not sure if that even work.

[Thorfinn]

Increasing the timeout might help. But you need to figure out what is causing the lack of response. The server says there's no malfunction on their side, which isn't quite the same thing, but there aren't that many causes for a server to fail to respond if their hardware is not malfunctioning. One is trying to handle too many block updates, which is surprisingly easy to have happen if you have multiple forest fires going. 

One  or more of your clients is likely the issue. The first thing I'd do is ask everyone to examine their maps, and see if there are any incongruous black spots. Another signal that arises from time to time is places where the lighting is blacked out. Both of those can indicate performance issues, that machine not keeping up, whether unable to create new chunks or to upload them.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I would run a "tracert 123.456.789.000" command (replace numbers with the ip or url of your server) the instant you get kicked. Or download PingPlotter and just let it run while you're on the server. If there's any issue, you'll find it.

[Voldemort]

9 hours ago, traugdor said:

I would run a "tracert 123.456.789.000" command (replace numbers with the ip or url of your server) the instant you get kicked. Or download PingPlotter and just let it run while you're on the server. If there's any issue, you'll find it.

I will try PingPlotter and see how it goes thanks.

11 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Increasing the timeout might help. But you need to figure out what is causing the lack of response. The server says there's no malfunction on their side, which isn't quite the same thing, but there aren't that many causes for a server to fail to respond if their hardware is not malfunctioning. One is trying to handle too many block updates, which is surprisingly easy to have happen if you have multiple forest fires going. 

One  or more of your clients is likely the issue. The first thing I'd do is ask everyone to examine their maps, and see if there are any incongruous black spots. Another signal that arises from time to time is places where the lighting is blacked out. Both of those can indicate performance issues, that machine not keeping up, whether unable to create new chunks or to upload them.

Fire on my server is disabled, and I asked about black spots on map and lighting - didnt find any issues with that.

also they recently changed my hardware 1x and issue was same.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Voldemort]

10 hours ago, traugdor said:

I would run a "tracert 123.456.789.000" command (replace numbers with the ip or url of your server) the instant you get kicked. Or download PingPlotter and just let it run while you're on the server. If there's any issue, you'll find it.

Also, server runs on Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 v5 @ 3.60GHz 64 GB of RAM. NVMe

.

 

Here are the result, server did his thing.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Looks like your host is partially correct that they personally don't have any issues. But their ISP is certainly having issues. I would forward them this information as well as this screenshot:

While the ping to your server is fairly steady (it will always fluctuate depending on what the server is doing at that moment), it appears that your host's ISP is causing the pings (and therefore the communication data that VS requires to keep you on your server) to get lost in the magic black box known as the internet. It looks like your host uses aurologic.net as their ISP. I'm unsure what rules Germany has about internet connections stability, so I'm not sure what leverage you have here to getting this fixed, but I would label this "unacceptable" if it happened over here in America.

Hope you see some resolution and happy gaming!

[Voldemort]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

Looks like your host is partially correct that they personally don't have any issues. But their ISP is certainly having issues. I would forward them this information as well as this screenshot:

While the ping to your server is fairly steady (it will always fluctuate depending on what the server is doing at that moment), it appears that your host's ISP is causing the pings (and therefore the communication data that VS requires to keep you on your server) to get lost in the magic black box known as the internet. It looks like your host uses aurologic.net as their ISP. I'm unsure what rules Germany has about internet connections stability, so I'm not sure what leverage you have here to getting this fixed, but I would label this "unacceptable" if it happened over here in America.

Hope you see some resolution and happy gaming!

Well, I have contacted them and shared this information. Now, I'm just waiting for a response from GPortal. Anyway, I might change my hosting provider if this continues; it's kind of frustrating to deal with.

Also, do you know any hosting providers based in Europe? Thanks again.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

7 minutes ago, Adnyeus said:

Also, do you know any hosting providers based in Europe? Thanks again.

Alas, I am based in America, and I host my server on my home network... so I wouldn't have any idea which providers would be good in the EU scene.

[Voldemort]

3 minutes ago, traugdor said:

Alas, I am based in America, and I host my server on my home network... so I wouldn't have any idea which providers would be good in the EU scene.

I would love to host my server on my own network, but sadly, I don't have port forwarding, and my ISP won't allow it due to the risk of abuse and security issues. 

 

[Voldemort]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

Looks like your host is partially correct that they personally don't have any issues. But their ISP is certainly having issues. I would forward them this information as well as this screenshot:

Also got message from them.

agreed with new hardware switch, so it will be interesting how it will goes.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I also wondered if it was also DDOS protection, but that was a huge reach so I suggested this first. At least they're working with you!

[Voldemort]

25 minutes ago, traugdor said:

 At least they're working with you!

Yeah

[KD Wolf]

Did you ever get a fix for this? having the same issue right now and nothing is working