Faulting application server

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Well, first time posting here, figured I’d give my ongoing problem a shot here.

I run a small game server out of my house. The game is Freelancer by Microsoft (Digital Anvil) and has been around since 2003.
I’ve been running the server out of my place since 2006, so I am not a noob when it comes to running this server. At one point during its heyday we had over 3,000 players worldwide playing on our server.

Lately, since September, we’ve been having the following error causing the game to crash.
Faulting application flserver.exe, version 1.0.1254.11, faulting module content.dll, version 1.0.1254.11, fault address 0x00014dbc.

The error seems to happen always in that module and at that address.

Otherwise the machine runs perfectly without any problems. Routine full scans of the HDD by AVG and Malwarebytes turn up no nasty software.
Currently the machine is currently a dual-core Pentium4 (D) at 2.8ghz with 4G of RAM running WinXPsp3. Other than the game server software, windows, and AVG there’s nothing else installed on the machine.

We had been running the same machine, same operating system, same game, same mod, and same server management software since October of 2008 without a problem. The server management software did update back in April, but no problems between April and September.

All of a sudden back in September we started experiencing these random crashes of the game. They do not seem to be tied to any particular player or player account.
We tried wiping the hard disk and reinstalling everything but no joy there.
We tried re-wiping the hard disk and having all players start with a new account and game file(s) figuring perhaps there were a number of corrupted player files but that didn’t fix it either.
Since April we’ve: replaced the entire machine, replaced the modem, replaced the router, and completely wiped everything. We’re still getting these problems.

What else should I be looking for before I just pull the plug. Unless you all can come up with something, I’m looking at ruling out the ISP (Comcast) by leasing a professionally hosted server (can’t afford that…), or it’s something hostile being done by an angry ex-player, or a competing server.

It should be said that until the middle of December, the game program used to crash in a couple of other *.dll modules as well before finally settling down to the content.dll file. Due to the evolution of the behavior, I’m leaning towards possible hostile activity, but would like some ideas on how to catch that activity if that’s what it is.

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Replies

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I would have said it’s a memory problem, but you have replaced the server…
It is possible that the software has a bug that just happens to crash on your set up?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

That’s what I thought at first, that perhaps a recent Windows update might’ve hosed the system.
So, I initially formatted the system and then reinstalled WinXP and applied ONLY the service pack 3 update which was how it was initially set up and run for years.
That didn’t fix it either.

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

Understanding of course that this is not a game server support forum, I noticed something yesterday and today that piqued my interest.

I happened to be glancing at the game server while it was in console view instead of summary view. While I was thusly occupied, I also spotted a login attempt on an account just as the ‘flserver has encountered a problem’ message popped up. This login attempt did not show up in the debug log, the connect log, or the fl-server-errors log.

I wrote down the account name and went back into the event log and searched for that account. What to my wondering eye should appear but that a very large number of the crashes in the event viewer are associated with a certain behavior and in our case, the same behavior coming from 3 accounts and from 3 IP addresses.

The event log shows a login and within a second, at most two, a logout on the same account. Immediately thereafter the server crashes.

I’ve taken the three IP addresses and put them into FLAC’s (server management program) firewall, but, this will only work as long as these players don’t renew their IP address. I’ve also banned the accounts, but I think they’ll end up crashing the server before FLAC identifies them as being autobanned and prevents the connect.

This is the log from our server management software.
My server runs on the same modem and router as my personal PCs.

2010-01-13 21:22:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter Resolved to 192.168.x.yyy <= This is my LAN address
2010-01-13 21:22:52 Biggs_DarkIighter has MAC address 0E-A6-22-**-** <= This is my MAC address
2010-01-13 21:24:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:24:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:26:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (192.168.x.yyy:2304) <= This is my account and LAN address.
2010-01-13 21:26:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:26:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:28:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:28:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:30:38 Creating statistics
2010-01-13 21:30:39 Statistics created
2010-01-13 21:31:27 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, note the IP change. My WAN IP is the same as the server which is 24.14.xxx.xxx, so this isn't even my WAN IP although the first number seems to indicate it might be my provider. I'm fairly certain that NOBODY has my MPID, so nobody should be able to login on my account. I can't be sure if that's me logging in at that time or not. I do know that about that time I was switching chars to make sure their timestamps were up to date, but each time I was logged in for more than just two seconds.
2010-01-13 21:31:28 [account 24111177] Resolved to c-24-22-106-161.hsd1.or.comcast.net <= This is my account, but not my IP although, it is my provider.
2010-01-13 21:31:29 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-24111177 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is my account, but not my IP
2010-01-13 21:31:49 Login C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
2010-01-13 21:31:51 Logout C:Documents and SettingsServerMy DocumentsMy GamesFreelancerAcctsMultiPlayer23-11c56549 (24.22.106.161:2353) <= This is NOT my account, but it's the same IP that was resolved to me moments earlier
Server crash immediately after.

So, any ideas whether or not there's anything within Windows that might cause this account resolution problem? I know very little to nothing about how network traffic is handled or interpreted by a NIC, Windows, modem, etc. All I know is that in the past I've plugged it all in and seemingly by magic, it usually works. (I also don't really understand electricity, but that doesn't stop me from turning on the lights at night). It looks to me like sometimes there's an error in resolving a network address which confuses the game software. I'm guessing that this issue is with Windows because it happens regardless of whether or not any game server management software is running, therefore it's not FLAC.

Either Windows is confused about incoming traffic identifiers, or Comcast is doing something (good luck getting them to admit that possibility…), or, it's something a player is doing deliberately.

HELP!!!

Reply | Quote

My money is on a malicious user or two, but it is hard to be sure.

The IP addresses shown in your logs, except 192.168, do not necessarily belong to an individual PC, more likely an ISP using NAT for their users. This shows the users are from the same ISP, but not much more.

Windows is probably not involved with the problem, except that it may be a crash caused by the game server overwriting some of Windows memory.

Can you change your account and lock the old one, or even change your password to a much more complex one?

cheers, Paul

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