It appears to be a different problem than the load issues a couple weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the issue is that DNS cannot resolve any names in the "crypticstudios.com" domain, which makes everything unreachable. Something seems to have taken down the DNS records. People who have cached DNS records pointing to the servers are probably unaffected.
This could be a problem with the main record for the domain, or an issue with the DNS servers that handle the subdomains for crypticstudios.com. It may be fixable by using a different DNS server, I haven't tried that yet. Given that it's hitting multiple ISPs, I suspect the problem is closer to the root DNS servers somewhere.
> @nvek said: > looks like that network change or whatever they did didn`t do diddly squat!
I expect that was a stab in the dark so the admins could say they were trying something, not their fault really, but they'd have to do quite a bit to defend against determined, repeated DDOS attacks (assuming that's what this is)
> @iathor said: > It appears to be a different problem than the load issues a couple weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the issue is that DNS cannot resolve any names in the "crypticstudios.com" domain, which makes everything unreachable. Something seems to have taken down the DNS records. People who have cached DNS records pointing to the servers are probably unaffected. > > This could be a problem with the main record for the domain, or an issue with the DNS servers that handle the subdomains for crypticstudios.com. It may be fixable by using a different DNS server, I haven't tried that yet. Given that it's hitting multiple ISPs, I suspect the problem is closer to the root DNS servers somewhere.
Fleetmates who were having the issue a few weeks ago had exactly that problem, I had told them it seemed like a DNS problem more than an ISP problem. Cryptic said it was "an ISP problem" but we don't know what that actually means, someone could've screwed something up at their DNS registrar (or a million other things).
It's definitely something messed up in the DNS system. I tried the Google public DNS server (8.8.8.8), and it can't resolve crypticstudios.com either. Looks like the main DNS record is messed up, or both the subdomain DNS servers are offline. Might be a problem at the DNS registrar. I'm not enough of a DNS guru to tell exactly where the record went missing. Network Solutions is the registrar, and they still show the record there via whois, and it's active. It's entirely likely the problem is somewhere outside Cryptic's direct control.
> @iathor said: > It's definitely something messed up in the DNS system. I tried the Google public DNS server (8.8.8.8), and it can't resolve crypticstudios.com either. Looks like the main DNS record is messed up, or both the subdomain DNS servers are offline. Might be a problem at the DNS registrar. I'm not enough of a DNS guru to tell exactly where the record went missing. Network Solutions is the registrar, and they still show the record there via whois, and it's active. It's entirely likely the problem is somewhere outside Cryptic's direct control.
It's could be another DDOS attack, DNS can't resolve because their servers can't respond to requests. I was in a STF with my fleet, I was the first to drop and they were able to finish but then they started dropping out one by one.
Regardless their tweet makes it sound like the first they heard of the issue was the reports from the community (I know I filed a ticket). That would be the most messed up part, as a DataCenter Admin should multiple monitoring programs and not have their users be the one to tell them their network is down.
It's definitely not a DDoS attack on Cryptic's network, since the DNS record for crypticstudios.com won't resolve at Google's DNS server, well outside Cryptic's net.
And I just read their tweets from yesterday about server and network changes. Looks like the problems started almost exactly 24 hours after they were supposed to do some kind of network changeover. I'll bet the DNS records are cached for about that amount of time. I suspect they changed something in the main DNS record as part of the network work, and the update got botched somewhere in the DNS system. And it only hit now, after the DNS caches expired and updated. Changing anything in DNS is always kind of tricky.
Even the main Cryptic site is down, maybe someone messed up their DNS big time. I've "heard of" credit cards expiring with Go Daddy and having that take down websites before:
Star Trek Online @trekonlinegame 4m4 minutes ago
Appreciate the continued feedback including hwwp://crypticstudios.com being down. Our engineering team is looking into these issues.
> @iathor said: > It's definitely not a DDoS attack on Cryptic's network, since the DNS record for crypticstudios.com won't resolve at Google's DNS server, well outside Cryptic's net. > > And I just read their tweets from yesterday about server and network changes. Looks like the problems started almost exactly 24 hours after they were supposed to do some kind of network changeover. I'll bet the DNS records are cached for about that amount of time. I suspect they changed something in the main DNS record as part of the network work, and the update got botched somewhere in the DNS system. And it only hit now, after the DNS caches expired and updated. Changing anything in DNS is always kind of tricky.
Yep, I'm seeing what you're saying now, with the main cryptic site being down it really does point to someone TRIBBLE up DNS in a big way. People were dropping one by one but all in the same 60 minute period (seemingly as the cache expired).
At least it should be easy to fix, as long as they have a backup of the records they changed :D
was playing earlier loading into a galaxy encounter,needed to patch some files,and got disconected i tried to restart the game and got this multiple times
Trying to update the launcher. Please be patient. Tried connecting 16 times.
Followed by
Unable to establish connection to patch server. Please check your internet connection. If problems persist, please contact technical support.
even tried to reinstall getting the same thing as above trying to start the launcher
oh btw my internet is fine,yours not so much fix it pls
> @xanime0x said: > i can not even find hrrp://crypticstudios.com or hrrps://crypticstudios.com on google lol
They made a 'network change' last night, it would seem that they broke DNS for all of their sites (how exactly they broke it is speculation, that they broke it seems pretty clear).
The patch server is actually still up, I just tried a ping on it using a numeric IP address taken from a trace someone posted on the net a while back, and the server itself is quite responsive. But it's unreachable because the name can't be resolved via DNS, which is how everything is normally reached.
In theory, if one knew all the server names and patched up DNS entries on the client machine, the game would be playable. But I wouldn't recommend trying that...
it could be as simple as no setting the ip # right or worse
i know if you don't set the # in 2s digets asending or desending you can mass it up and not 1 2 3 4 order
> @iathor said: > The patch server is actually still up, I just tried a ping on it using a numeric IP address taken from a trace someone posted on the net a while back, and the server itself is quite responsive. But it's unreachable because the name can't be resolved via DNS, which is how everything is normally reached. > > In theory, if one knew all the server names and patched up DNS entries on the client machine, the game would be playable. But I wouldn't recommend trying that...
If you can get all of the right entries for the various servers into your HOSTS file it might work, I don't know how their launcher works though.
Either way, I think you should open a ticket and tell them to give you the helm so you can steer the ship away from the abyss. Or something.
Comments
This could be a problem with the main record for the domain, or an issue with the DNS servers that handle the subdomains for crypticstudios.com. It may be fixable by using a different DNS server, I haven't tried that yet. Given that it's hitting multiple ISPs, I suspect the problem is closer to the root DNS servers somewhere.
> looks like that network change or whatever they did didn`t do diddly squat!
I expect that was a stab in the dark so the admins could say they were trying something, not their fault really, but they'd have to do quite a bit to defend against determined, repeated DDOS attacks (assuming that's what this is)
> It appears to be a different problem than the load issues a couple weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the issue is that DNS cannot resolve any names in the "crypticstudios.com" domain, which makes everything unreachable. Something seems to have taken down the DNS records. People who have cached DNS records pointing to the servers are probably unaffected.
>
> This could be a problem with the main record for the domain, or an issue with the DNS servers that handle the subdomains for crypticstudios.com. It may be fixable by using a different DNS server, I haven't tried that yet. Given that it's hitting multiple ISPs, I suspect the problem is closer to the root DNS servers somewhere.
Fleetmates who were having the issue a few weeks ago had exactly that problem, I had told them it seemed like a DNS problem more than an ISP problem. Cryptic said it was "an ISP problem" but we don't know what that actually means, someone could've screwed something up at their DNS registrar (or a million other things).
> Well, if I had to guess, they're probably searching for the problem in their spaghetti mess of a server set up.
Maybe they should pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster for guidance....
They just tweeted this (guess we are their NetOps support monitoring):
Star Trek Online @trekonlinegame 2m2 minutes ago
We're investigating reports of server issues right now. Standby as we get more information. Thank you for flagging the issues.
> It's definitely something messed up in the DNS system. I tried the Google public DNS server (8.8.8.8), and it can't resolve crypticstudios.com either. Looks like the main DNS record is messed up, or both the subdomain DNS servers are offline. Might be a problem at the DNS registrar. I'm not enough of a DNS guru to tell exactly where the record went missing. Network Solutions is the registrar, and they still show the record there via whois, and it's active. It's entirely likely the problem is somewhere outside Cryptic's direct control.
It's could be another DDOS attack, DNS can't resolve because their servers can't respond to requests. I was in a STF with my fleet, I was the first to drop and they were able to finish but then they started dropping out one by one.
Regardless their tweet makes it sound like the first they heard of the issue was the reports from the community (I know I filed a ticket). That would be the most messed up part, as a DataCenter Admin should multiple monitoring programs and not have their users be the one to tell them their network is down.
And I just read their tweets from yesterday about server and network changes. Looks like the problems started almost exactly 24 hours after they were supposed to do some kind of network changeover. I'll bet the DNS records are cached for about that amount of time. I suspect they changed something in the main DNS record as part of the network work, and the update got botched somewhere in the DNS system. And it only hit now, after the DNS caches expired and updated. Changing anything in DNS is always kind of tricky.
Star Trek Online @trekonlinegame 4m4 minutes ago
Appreciate the continued feedback including hwwp://crypticstudios.com being down. Our engineering team is looking into these issues.
> It's definitely not a DDoS attack on Cryptic's network, since the DNS record for crypticstudios.com won't resolve at Google's DNS server, well outside Cryptic's net.
>
> And I just read their tweets from yesterday about server and network changes. Looks like the problems started almost exactly 24 hours after they were supposed to do some kind of network changeover. I'll bet the DNS records are cached for about that amount of time. I suspect they changed something in the main DNS record as part of the network work, and the update got botched somewhere in the DNS system. And it only hit now, after the DNS caches expired and updated. Changing anything in DNS is always kind of tricky.
Yep, I'm seeing what you're saying now, with the main cryptic site being down it really does point to someone TRIBBLE up DNS in a big way. People were dropping one by one but all in the same 60 minute period (seemingly as the cache expired).
At least it should be easy to fix, as long as they have a backup of the records they changed :D
i tried to restart the game and got this
multiple times
Trying to update the launcher.
Please be patient.
Tried connecting 16 times.
Followed by
Unable to establish connection to patch server. Please check your internet connection. If problems persist, please contact technical support.
even tried to reinstall
getting the same thing as above trying to start the launcher
oh btw my internet is fine,yours not so much
fix it pls
> At least it should be easy to fix, as long as they have a backup of the records they changed :D
Here's to hoping they dont use Windows Backups..... may be easier to just reformat and reinstall the servers at that point...
> i can not even find hrrp://crypticstudios.com or hrrps://crypticstudios.com on google lol
They made a 'network change' last night, it would seem that they broke DNS for all of their sites (how exactly they broke it is speculation, that they broke it seems pretty clear).
Star Trek Online @trekonlinegame 8m8 minutes ago
Our team has identified what could be causing the server issues and are looking to resolve it.
In theory, if one knew all the server names and patched up DNS entries on the client machine, the game would be playable. But I wouldn't recommend trying that...
i know if you don't set the # in 2s digets asending or desending you can mass it up and not 1 2 3 4 order
> The patch server is actually still up, I just tried a ping on it using a numeric IP address taken from a trace someone posted on the net a while back, and the server itself is quite responsive. But it's unreachable because the name can't be resolved via DNS, which is how everything is normally reached.
>
> In theory, if one knew all the server names and patched up DNS entries on the client machine, the game would be playable. But I wouldn't recommend trying that...
If you can get all of the right entries for the various servers into your HOSTS file it might work, I don't know how their launcher works though.
Either way, I think you should open a ticket and tell them to give you the helm so you can steer the ship away from the abyss. Or something.