Host connection lost- 3-4 times per day

[Big G]

Hey guys
Ever since last Tuesday (8/9) I have been getting this message on my screen it then says something in the text screen about losing UDP and go to TCP.
I get this around 3-4 times in a 4-5 hour period.
Funny thing is, I have IE6 up and running at the same time and it's still got a connection, my mailbox is still up and running fine.
Any ideas or suggestions ?

[StarOfAfrica2]

Well, first of all a web browser's connection is nothing at all like the kind of connection you need for online gaming.  A web browser will wait patiently if you have a flaky connection, downloading bits here and there until it has it all.  A gaming connection needs a constant connection.  You start losing packets with a game connection and its going to dump you quick.  

Second, you could very well be overloading your CPU if you have stuff running besides the game.  If the computer is processing too many things at once and the game has to wait, it could kick your connection too.  I'm going to assume you just meant that after the game crashes you can OPEN your web browser or email client and they work fine, not that you had them open and running while playing.  I'll include the warning though just in case.

What you should really do is run a pingplot of your route to the game server, and see if you have a bad hop somewhere.  Send it to Skuzzy and see if he can help you by contacting the company with the flaky equipment and getting them to fix it.

[Mustaine]

Originally posted by Big G
Hey guys
Ever since last Tuesday (8/9) I have been getting this message on my screen it then says something in the text screen about losing UDP and go to TCP.
I get this around 3-4 times in a 4-5 hour period.
Funny thing is, I have IE6 up and running at the same time and it's still got a connection, my mailbox is still up and running fine.
Any ideas or suggestions ?

a few things wrong here... but you need to understand UDP and TCP first.

UDP is a connectionless protocol, meaning packets are sent out, and they are assumed to be delivered.

TCP is a connection based protocol. it sends out a packet, then expects a return packet confirming recipt of the outbound data.

obviously UDP is MUCH faster, but less stable.

in AH the server gets all these packets, and it also sends info to your PC. after a period of time, if those dont match up, you switch from that fast UDP to a more detailed TCP (though slower, and bad for gaming).

basically, if lets say 2 of 100 packets sent are lost you may lose UDP in AH. i dont know the exact threshold they have set, but it is rather tight.

now, why would you lose a packet? many reasons, including the network traffic in your immediate area, or even the network traffic in bora bora.

if you are running email, and IE on the same machine, email goes out, takes over the internet connection and checks for mail on the pop3 server.

you just lost connection with AH because the PC gave control of the network traffic to another program.

AH sences the momentary loss in connection, and responds in turn by switching to TCP to verify every packet.

also IE could be refershing a page, and there is a stall in the connection. many reasons for this can make a packet or 2 go bye by with AH.

on the internet, packets are lost by the billions every second. but with things like web browsing, IE just asks for that packet again until it gets it. online gaming with the need for stable connection is so low in the world the big networks don't even bother to worry about a 5% packet loss on their system. 99.9% of the users will never see a thing wrong.

hope that helps.

[Big G]

Thanks guys