Fishing for help -- Impenetrable Vox problem

[Simaril]

I have a vox problem that apparently is technically impossible, according to Skuzzy. It shouldnt happen at all, no reason he can think of for it to act this way -- but its a major pain in the patootie.

I'd given up on solving it, and just lived with being deaf in the TA...but now I've realised that its affecting the Orange arena, and possible others. (For a while thought it was quiet just because no one was in talkative mood!)

So here's the trouble. In the affected arenas, my vox can be heard fine by everyone there...but I cannot hear what anyone says at all. There are no name highlights coming through either -- none of that little lit up name in the R upper corner when someone talks, so apparently my computer has no idea someone is trying to talk.

In every other arena, my vox works absolutely 100% fine. I can hear everyone and everyone can hear me (whether they want to or not).  


What makes it really interesting is that my son activated an account a few nights ago...and he has the EXACT same trouble in the exact same arenas. His computer (actually my old one) uses the same Zone Alarm, and obviously the same modem and router. Neither of us have sound cards.

I have the same problem no matter what I do. Here's what I've tried:

1) Turned firewall, antivirus, spam, parental control (all Zone Alarm) completely off. Had same issues when used Norton (hsssss).

2) Reset router

3) Manually used port forwarding off all vox ports (2000-5000) to my computer.

4) Directly connected network cable to cable modem, cutting router out completely.

5) Built a completely new computer, with no componenets from the old one. (OK, I didnt do this just to work on the vox problem...)




Here's my config:


Motherboard.............P5W DH Deluxe
CPU.......................... Intel X6600
RAM.......................... 2GB of PC6400 DDR2-800 Crucial RAM
Hard Drive................Western Digital SE16 250GB
Video Card...............HIS Radeon X1900XT 512MB
Drives....................... HP 16X CD-ROM DVD Burner With LightScribe, IDESound Card..............None for now
Operating System....MS Windows XP – Pro
Power Supply...........Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550W
Case........................T hermaltake Tsunami VA3000VWA



I'm desperate...any help or ideas would be great

[Irwink!]

By any chance do you have a friend who might let you set up your pc on their network using their network hardware and try to duplicate or eliminate the problem from their location? That's a weird problem to have on 3 different machines unless all 3 are configured EXACTLY the same way. It's a weird problem anyway.

[straffo]

If I'm not mistaken some arena are on others IP addresses may be the rules you have in your firewall are for some IP and not for all ?

I checked :

Early, Mid, Late War Main Arena Server Address: 206.16.60.39
All other arenas: 206.16.60.38

The rules in my firewall authorise only this @ for incoming packet.
If  there is only a rule for 206.16.60.39 you should (IMO) create exact the same rule for 206.16.60.38

check the range of the authorised port (TCP/UDP) it should be 2000-6000
I made a typo once  and typed 2000-4000 instead and randomly I would have no voice ... until I found out.

[maddog]

When you lose vox do you still hear plane sounds etc.....  AND could it be influenced my the number of people in that arena?  Just thoughts..... Oh, and do you use different profiles?... I had a vox problem where my local and squad vox kept shifting buttons (I thought) turns out profile 1 & 2 had diff key settings for range and channell...... Just some immediate thoughts.... Will think more about it  till it tires me out and I go take a nap...

MD

[Simaril]

Maddog:

The only thing affected seems to be receiving vox signals. I can hear the sounds of nearby aircraft and guns, so my FE is getting that stuff. Don't think the number of people affects things, since I noticed it first in the TA -- where 15- 20 is a pretty typical total.

Straffo:

That's an interesting idea -- but the problem occurs even when the firewall is off completely. Wonder if the ISP is blocking input from some sites?

Irwink:

I'll see if I can load the program up on a laptop, and try the vox only from work. That's a good idea.

[Simaril]

Well, I'm even more puzzled than before.

Worked with the Tech people at the ISP. They monitored connections while I logged into the game, and then had me use DOS command lines to see status on every connection while I was playing.

Showed that every time I connected to AH, the vox ports were live...that there was an established connection in the range skuzzy talked about.

Looked exactly the same with the affected arenas and the unaffected ones.


What really puzzles me is that the two arenas are constant, even though the posts are assigned randomly. There was even a time that we saw the same port used for an arena that I could hear vox in, and then again for one that I couldnt-- but there were no visible differences either on the connect analysis at the ISP or on my computer's connection log.

Sigh.

I guess the only thing to try now is to get a sound card and see if there is some tech voodoo going on inside the onboard sound chip. I dont know why it would be, epecially since the same thing happens on my sons computer...but i cant figure out any other explanations.

[Traveler]

have you entered your gameID into radio V to see if you hear your own voice?

[Simaril]

Well, I think we've located the problem but have no idea what to do about it.

All vox works fine on my laptop using DSL at the office. Same computer, vox problem with cable at home. (We can't get DSL in my township.) Using port analyzing stuff on my computer and watching the traffic cimulatneously at the ISP, the tech guys there can see the vox ports are open and functioning no matter what arena I'm in, and the ports show "connected" status on my computer even when in the deaf arenas.

But, even though they look the same from a tech standpoint, they dont work in the Orange or TA. The tech guys -- right up to the engineer who's in charge of this multi-county cable outfit -- cant find, or even think of, any reason for the problem.