Server Timeout/CTD

rocketman33 · October 2023

Since I'm not seeing any postings on this, it must just be me. Since the recent patch, every TFO, every mission map change gives me a server timout/ctd. I quickly log back in then log as "normal" instead of safe & that seems to work. I haven't yet tried any pratrols & I don't want my non-stop d/c's to TRIBBLE up other peoples' TFO's. I've rebooted twice. I'm going to try force verify next & see if that helps unless there are other suggestions. Also, I have a premium ISP that rarely has any problems.

baddmoonrizin · October 2023

thread /moved

inferiority · October 2023

rocketman33#0665 wrote: »

Also, I have a premium ISP that rarely has any problems.

There can sometimes be problems between you and your ISP, which you & they can usually work together to resolve.
Cryptic can easily keep and eye on the servers at their end, but between your ISP and the STO Server is the rest of the whole internet!
Anything along the way could potentially cause a problem so it's best to try a traceroute to determine where the problem lies.

Using Traceroute:

Pop up the Start menu and type in “cmd” and then hit “OK.” This initiates a command prompt.

Type in “tracert [hostname]” and press enter.

The term “hostname” or host is the website you are interested in or the IP address of a server, router, or device. The traceroute reports on this destination point. After the traceroute is done, it terminates on its own.

baucoin · October 2023

I was having the same issue with disconnects during map changes. Roughly 40% of the time I would d/c. A couple of weeks ago I was having upload speed issues and the tech that came out said it was most likely my modem needed updating. My ISP is Cox and I was renting a pw3 modem, I brought it in and upgraded to a pw7 and since then I haven't had one d/c during a map change.

rocketman33 · October 2023

I run tracerts every week & the usual bottlenecks are at all the game servers. I have a brand new O/P modem and router. I did run the "verify files" option & read a couple of book chapters while I waited. The few old episode map changes I tested worked as did a couple of patrols. Every TFO I launch on every character gets the timeout & boot. I can get back in, but I'm late to the party. Very clunky way of doing it though. BTW I use Cox as well & even though I had an approved modem they said I needed a new one; so $350 later with new modem/router I still had problems and they found two bad connections outside!

rocketman33 · October 2023

So here are today's tracert & pathping. It looks to me like the tracert is good, but the pathping has a 100% loss problem at Boston1 (Perfect World?). Sorry about the word wrapping.

Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms 1 ms arrisatom [192.168.0.1]
2 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms 10.36.80.1
3 10 ms 9 ms 11 ms 100.127.74.74
4 11 ms 10 ms 9 ms 100.120.100.16
5 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms phx-b6-link.ip.twelve99.net [62.115.173.20]
6 22 ms 13 ms 18 ms lumen-ic-358768.ip.twelve99-cust.net [62.115.176.123]
7 77 ms 76 ms 74 ms ae1.11.bear2.Boston1.level3.net [4.69.159.254]
8 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms PERFECT-WOR.bear2.Boston1.Level3.net [4.16.14.234]
9 85 ms 82 ms 78 ms 198.49.243.237
10 76 ms 76 ms 75 ms patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.200]

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>pathping patchserver.crypticstudios.com

Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 DESKTOP-C4T9RO5 [192.168.0.167]
1 arrisatom [192.168.0.1]
2 10.36.80.1
3 100.127.74.74
4 100.120.100.16
5 phx-b6-link.ip.twelve99.net [62.115.173.20]
6 lumen-ic-358768.ip.twelve99-cust.net [62.115.176.123]
7 ae1.11.bear2.Boston1.level3.net [4.69.159.254]
8 PERFECT-WOR.bear2.Boston1.Level3.net [4.16.14.234]
9 198.49.243.237
10 patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.200]

Computing statistics for 250 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 DESKTOP-C4T9RO5 [192.168.0.167]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% arrisatom [192.168.0.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 10ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.36.80.1
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 10ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 100.127.74.74
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 12ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 100.120.100.16
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% phx-b6-link.ip.twelve99.net [62.115.173.20]
0/ 100 = 0% |
6 14ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% lumen-ic-358768.ip.twelve99-cust.net [62.115.176.123]
0/ 100 = 0% |
7 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% ae1.11.bear2.Boston1.level3.net [4.69.159.254]
0/ 100 = 0% |
8 76ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% PERFECT-WOR.bear2.Boston1.Level3.net [4.16.14.234]
0/ 100 = 0% |
9 77ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 198.49.243.237
0/ 100 = 0% |
10 76ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.200]

Trace complete.

protoneous · October 2023

Do you have on demand patching turned off ? Leaving that particular box unchecked can sometimes help.

rocketman33 · October 2023

Yes, but thanks. I never use on demand patching & only use Force Verify when I'm in situations like right now. I went back in & got server timeouts/ctd for doing old episodes too. There's a clear problem between twelve99 and Boston1.level3.net (most likely). I'll try extreme measures tomorrow (resetting all devices, turning off firewall(s) and virus scans) but I don't think that's the problem. I run two other online games without ctd issues & I'm on both US and Euro servers on one of them.

rocketman33 · October 2023

Final attempt: reset modem & router, shut down Windows firewall, shut down virus scanner, made sure no overlays were running.
Today's test: first TFO-elite (Into the Hive) was successful, second TFO-elite (Miner Instabilities) = game server ctd, third test with a different character TFO-E Into the Hive was successful, second TFO-E Miner Instabilities = game server ctd.
I can't find any way to submit my documentation to Cox Communications so I'm going to visit them in person. The breakdown (see above) is the handoff between twelve99-cust.net and bear2.Boston1.level3.net. I don't know where the Cox process ends and the Perfect World process starts, but bear2 seems linked to Perfect World.
STO is not playable for me in the current state, so Plan B is to play other games that don't CTD, log toons in/out every 10 ten days to keep fleet status up, and watch to see if anything gets addressed and fixed. Not only are constant ctd's annoying for me, I'm late to the TFO's and may be locking them up sometimes, which is not good for at least four other players.

rocketman33 · October 2023

Wrap Up. My ISP (Cox) sent a tech to my house today plus had a different level tech on the phone to evaluate my pathping. They said it looks like the first stop at Perfect World is blocking the ping tests; it doesn't mean anything is broken as it could just be their policy. But the handoff from Cox to Perfect World/Cryptic is good, so what's happening to me is in-game. I keep trying just TFO-elites and the best I can do without game server timeouts is two of four. Often it's every try. And I hope it's not because of my D/C then return, but many times in Into the Hive it takes a very long time for the instance to activate. Usually one or two people leave instead of waiting. I stopped testing other map changes like with episodes & patrols -- I may try a couple tomorrow.

conradhauser · October 2023

sounds like the same thing happening to me
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1272053/random-client-crashing

rocketman33 · October 2023

Your ctd looks worse than mine. I get into the game but get "game server timeouts" when I try to do anything, but stay in the game, all since the last patch. You could try Force Verify at startup if you haven't already; it takes awhile.
There are a lot of distractions going on at Cryptic right now, so I'm not overly confident things will get fixed.

klastsotsi · October 2023

Same here

rocketman33 · October 2023

Post Mortem.

I have no problem logging into the game. I get game server time outs on nearly every TFO run (just running Into the Hive elite & Miner Instabilities elite), occasionally patrols, and most recently just trying to get into the Fleet Spire. Maybe those two TFO's are seeing too high volume!?!
My ISP is good, per an in-home tech visit and level two tech phone consultation. I've run force verify twice. I tried the US proxy server and did get one good TFO run then ctd's. I cleared my RAM, eliminated any overlays, tested a run with no virus software running & no firewall. I nearly refreshed my IP address, but decided that might cause more problems & not solve the STO problem.
I re-named my shortcut "Admiralty Game" because that's about all I can do. I'm anxious to see if anything changes after the next patch, even if nothing is announced. My problem started immediately after the last patch.

rocketman33 · October 2023

No luck with the console patch (was hoping for a stealth fix). It may be worse. Game Server disconnects still on TFO's but now on patrols too.
I'm not into Starfield, but I have high hopes for Star Citizen. This is way too frustrating for a "game".
Auf Wiedersehen and LLAP.

uchinator · October 2023

I got problem with disconect in play, from last day and today. My network is ok, check what I can. I am from Poland. My Brother in law hes similar problem same tame, difirent city. 30 seconds of game and disconect counter shows up. Can't play, can't du any mission. Ther is aproblem with game?

phoenixc · October 2023

Yes, server timeouts are a worse than usual lately, the problem comes and goes to some extent (worse or better but always there to some degree) when major patches happen, and this time it seems to have been for the worse. It was an annoyance before but got a lot worse when the devs fixed the massive rubber-banding a few years back.

rocketman33 · November 2023

After eliminating my ISP as the culprit, Arc determined that my ctd's are due to a TCP timeout; in other words my client stops talking to their server. It's odd that this primarily happens with my TFO's (Into the Hive, Miner Instabilities) and not with logins.
The Windows 10 event viewer on every crash says it's an "event 10010, DistributedCOM. The server Windows.Gaming.GameBar.PresenceServer.Internal.PresenceWriter did not register with DCOM within the required timeout." I don't know if MS or STO is expecting me to have an x-box using the Game Bar & I have everything "game bar" disabled.

So my choice seems to be to keep playing the current CTD game under WIN10 or go ahead & order my new system with WIN11 where I'll have to deal with about 122 MS security updates.

ussvaliant2 · November 2023

I've been getting this for months. If I'm on a map I'll only DC if I go afk and the server logs me off for being afk. However if I transfer maps it's a lottery whether the game will disconnect me. 100% not my PC as it's followed across 3 different machines. So either server side is an issue or my isp is the issue.

cxeronockx · November 2023

I know and realize that it is not popular, but let's call it what it is, and of course there will be people who will proclaim and/or speak against it. Or...my comment will even be moderated away.

I have been experiencing the problem for several months now and it is not the first time I have raised this, there is already a topic about it, and there are always comments that this is on the side of the player or his ISP. I personally tested it with two different ISPs from Belgium (Europe), Proximus and Telenet, both with a business and a private connection, with always the same problems. Whether I used a TOP gaming PC or a more mainstream PC, the result remained the same.

It is simply NOT true that it is the player's fault or their ISP. And why? Before the takeover of Cryptic by Gearbox, which is part of the Embracer Group, we supposedly never or almost NEVER had that problem, only occasionally an SNR (server not responding) but that never lasted long and did not happen that often. Many of the connection problems we have now started after the takeover.

Translated with Google Translate

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1269464/disconnected-when-switching-maps-space-ground

leemwatson · November 2023

It isn't you or Cryptic that is at fault here. It is Akamai. If your run a traceroute, you will see them midway along the hops. What's happening is Akamai runs a high sensitivity to sudden burst traffic and it deems it as a DDOS at times. We have had issues with them before. Cryptic managed to get rid of them before, but it is the publisher, not Cryptic that routes most traffic.

rocketman33 · November 2023

leemwatson wrote: »

It isn't you or Cryptic that is at fault here. It is Akamai. If your run a traceroute, you will see them midway along the hops. What's happening is Akamai runs a high sensitivity to sudden burst traffic and it deems it as a DDOS at times. We have had issues with them before. Cryptic managed to get rid of them before, but it is the publisher, not Cryptic that routes most traffic.

My private tech people tell me Akamai most likely is causing most of our grief. Now we have lag & rubber banding also. Most fans of the game (me included) don't want to admit that we're going into "maintenance mode" but it's worse than that if they can't address their server management.

canuk99 · November 2023

So frustrated, I get disconnected 15-20 times a day. In a tfo, lose server. Mining a rich dil lose connection (and all the 5k dil).
Patrols, missions, selling junk, buying junk, does not matter time of day or what I am doing, I will time out and have to log back in.
No probs with other games/apps and my isp has come and replaced the modem. I have a new comp etc.

please obi wan kanobi you are our only hope cuz star trek ain't cutting it atm.

ussvaliant2 · November 2023

Maps I can guarantee will timeout are Acamar and Transwarping to the Fleet Research Station.

rocketman33 · December 2023

I got excited when I saw in today's patch notes "Resolved a number of issues that caused the game to crash for some players" so I came back to test it. After a cold boot & doing nothing else in-game I qued for an elite ground TFO and my old nemesis "game server timeout" ctd returned. I rebooted again, logged as a different toon, qued for an elite ground TFO, GOT IN successfully, but on the next attempt at a TFO, it crashed again.
Everything I see posted world-wide points at Akamai either reducing bandwidth or kicking me as a DDOS attack. Who knows. I'm gone until another patch can give me false hope.

phoenixc · December 2023

rocketman33#0665 wrote: »

I got excited when I saw in today's patch notes "Resolved a number of issues that caused the game to crash for some players" so I came back to test it. After a cold boot & doing nothing else in-game I qued for an elite ground TFO and my old nemesis "game server timeout" ctd returned. I rebooted again, logged as a different toon, qued for an elite ground TFO, GOT IN successfully, but on the next attempt at a TFO, it crashed again.
Everything I see posted world-wide points at Akamai either reducing bandwidth or kicking me as a DDOS attack. Who knows. I'm gone until another patch can give me false hope.

You could be on a CDN that Akamai does not play well with, network group forums I read a year or two ago were talking about that quite a bit. It seems that for some reason crossing certain CDN boundaries, especially when one of them is Akamai, can be problematical with bouts of high latency and lost packets.

There were accusations that Akamai is trying a Microsoft style hijacking of the market (by deliberately introducing subtle incompatibilities and specification drift to shake off smaller competitors), but no one seems to have any proof except the problem itself, which does not actually prove anything either way.

If it is any consolation, the dump bug seems to wax and wane, though it often takes a few updates (or a single major one) to change, and you could be on the lucky side of it in a few months. When it is bad, I usually don't bother with missions because I get tired of having to log back in every time I attempt a map change and ride it out doing just the daily TFO event until it gets better.

lordatrocities · December 2023

I too am getting the "failed to authenticate - Connection Lost -" launcher issue.

warpaint21 · December 2023

I keep getting "Unable to authenticate: Lost connection to Account Server." and "Failed to talk to Cryptic servers for initial connection. Please try again." And it's been happening all day long. Granted I did get a maintenance notice from my ISP that was scheduled around Midnight to 6am.

rocketman33 · December 2023

You could be on a CDN that Akamai does not play well with, network group forums I read a year or two ago were talking about that quite a bit. It seems that for some reason crossing certain CDN boundaries, especially when one of them is Akamai, can be problematical with bouts of high latency and lost packets.

There were accusations that Akamai is trying a Microsoft style hijacking of the market (by deliberately introducing subtle incompatibilities and specification drift to shake off smaller competitors), but no one seems to have any proof except the problem itself, which does not actually prove anything either way.

If it is any consolation, the dump bug seems to wax and wane, though it often takes a few updates (or a single major one) to change, and you could be on the lucky side of it in a few months. When it is bad, I usually don't bother with missions because I get tired of having to log back in every time I attempt a map change and ride it out doing just the daily TFO event until it gets better.[/quote]

I think I'm helpless with CDN issues. I've been playing for years & this just started in mid-October. I continue to go "casual" & just log in my key fleet toons to hold their status once/month or week. Oddly, I've never had a ctd with an Event TFO. Regular TFO's crash about 99% of the time & random patrols, map changes not so frequently. I don't have much hope; I've played other games that evolved into maintenance mode.

rocketman33 · December 2023

Final post -- I promise. Unless something major happens. My STO minimalist strategy is to log in & do the event tfo/mission and refresh my fleet status. I got in too early this morning for the event so I did a safe endeavor -- kill Borg ships. Found a space encounter for assimilate the barbarians, tried to go in and boom -- ctd timeout. I struggle to force myself to log in once a day so I'll finish this current event then refresh fleet status once a month until I get bored with that! This game went from "fun" to whatever the opposite of fun is. Frustrating?

Server Timeout/CTD

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