Connection issues

[jwarrend]

I tried to host a game last night for four other players and all four players, when trying to connect to the game, got the message "Connection failed. The requested connection has timed out". What was particularly weird was that just the other day, I had hosted a game and one of the other players from last night had been able to connect up with me hosting just fine. All of the players were using the same version of the game box and all of them had them open. In fact, we had another member of the group act as host, and we were all able to connect up fine to his connection. Any ideas why hosting might work on some days but not on others? (I have a DSL modem if that makes a difference)

Second, we had a weird problem with the voice chat. 3 of the players could talk and hear everyone just fine. I could talk but couldn't hear what anyone else was saying, except for the first word of each of their sentences. The fifth player didn't have a headset but did have speakers, but he couldn't hear the conversation of the other players through the speakers. (Does Zun Tzu only run an audio setup if it detects a microphone?) The problem wasn't (just) my headset; we switched over to a Skype chat and everything worked fine. And again, I've hosted games before and it worked just fine.

You know, it sounds like both of our problems were trackable to my computer last night. Are there any obvious things to look into to figure out why ZT was giving my computer problems last night but hadn't previously?

I appreciate any troubleshooting suggestions!

Thanks,

-Jeff

[Jerome]

I tried to host a game last night for four other players and all four players, when trying to connect to the game, got the message "Connection failed. The requested connection has timed out". What was particularly weird was that just the other day, I had hosted a game and one of the other players from last night had been able to connect up with me hosting just fine. All of the players were using the same version of the game box and all of them had them open. In fact, we had another member of the group act as host, and we were all able to connect up fine to his connection. Any ideas why hosting might work on some days but not on others? (I have a DSL modem if that makes a difference)

That's strange. I don't understand what happened.

All things indicate that your game session was accessible from the Internet. When a player starts hosting a game ZunTzu runs a set of tests from this web server to make sure the game session can be accessed from the Internet. My server logs tell me that your computer responded to the test server. It is a strong indication that your computer was OK.

Currently there is no equivalent test for players connecting to a session, so it's possible that joining players are blocked by firewalls without being notified. However it is not what happened the other night, because all players were eventually able to join your friend's session.

So I don't understand what prevented you from hosting the game.

Second, we had a weird problem with the voice chat. 3 of the players could talk and hear everyone just fine. I could talk but couldn't hear what anyone else was saying, except for the first word of each of their sentences.

All voice data went through your friend's computer last night. Three of the players could talk and hear fine, so it looks like the problem was with your Internet connection. Maybe your Internet connection was losing too many packets.

Next time you suspect a problem with your Internet connection, text chat "cmd netstats" in ZunTzu. It will give you statistics about your connection such as the roundtrip time and the percentage of packets lost.

ZunTzu only knows a single way to transmit voice, whereas Skype can choose from several different strategies depending on the network conditions. Therefore ZunTzu is more sensitive to packet loss and lag then Skype.

The fifth player didn't have a headset but did have speakers, but he couldn't hear the conversation of the other players through the speakers. (Does Zun Tzu only run an audio setup if it detects a microphone?)

Good question. I don't know. All my computers have built-in microphones.

[jwarrend]

Thanks Jerome! As I said, we were able to play the game once we figured out that someone else should host, so it wasn't too big a deal. And I appreciate the tip about getting netstats during the session.

Thanks again,

-Jeff

[Jerome]

Was the fifth player using Vista?
Voice communication doesn't work in Vista.