Slow Server Upload Speed

[hemite]

**No Alliteration intended**

Hello again fellow players. Again I do apologize if this is in the wrong section, or if this topic has been posted before, but I could not find a solution when looking through the other posts.

I am currently hosting a server from my university which has around 70 Mbps upload speed. Naturally I should be able to upload at a much faster rate than (average) 15 kb/s and yet that is what is happening. I am running my own server using pretty much the default server.cfg file from the wiki. I am using mac os x and the command I use to launch my server is:

OpenArena.app/Contents/MacOS/oa_ded.ub +set dedicated 2 +set net_port 27960 +exec server.cfg +map ZTN3DM1

The server shows up on the master list and everything is fine, I would just like to uncap my upload speed. All help is sincerely appreciated.

[GrosBedo]

This is the right section, but this question was already answered before countless times, you should check the wiki.

I think you are here referring to uncapping your upload speed for contents, because for players (when they play on your server), you just have to set sv_maxrate.

About uncapping uploading of contents, there are some news on the subject so I will further detail:

- The old way: you need an http webhost where to put a mirror of your server's pk3 files (a dropbox may also fit your needs), and then you can set in your server's console:

Code:

seta sv_dlUrl "http://website.com/path/to/your/root/mirror"

Note: this should point to the root of your mirror (eg: mirror should contain mirror/baseoa and any other folders if you use a mod).

See the DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Http_redirection#Fast_downloading]openarena wiki for more infos.

- The new way: compile the latest experimental OA 088 + ioquake3 that you can find here:
https://github.com/undeadzy/openarena_engine

And then you can try to use /sv_dlRate to uncap your server's upload speed.

[hemite]

Yea the maxrate is at 25000 so I don't think that's the problem. I also was aware of the http redirect option, but I do not have a website set up at the moment to upload files from other people. The sv_dlRate seems like it might work, but I won't be compiling it anytime soon. Hopefully I'll be able to figure something out. This problem is also occurring when I host a regular multiplayer server from the game menu.

[GrosBedo]

sv_maxrate only manages the upload rate for in-game data communications.

For contents downloading/uploading, this is either sv_dlURL or sv_dlRate that you're looking for.

If you are reluctant to compiling (and also please remember that these binaries are experimental, they may be unstable to use for a server), you should maybe give a try with a dropbox account, it's very easy to setup.

[hemite]

Yea so I ended up setting up on dropbox. It works great. All the info I needed was on the wiki so I probably should have read that a bit more carefully. However, do you guys know if there is any way I can run a dedicated server on my computer but then still connect to it via the openarena game? As of now, if I am running a dedicated server I can't get the server list in multiplayer, and I cannot connect to any servers using specify.

[Gig]

Hi! I've just fixed some notes on the wiki.
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/index.php?title=Manual%2FAutomatic_downloading&action=historysubmit&diff=12054&oldid=12047
Are those ok?

PS:

sv_maxrate only manages the upload rate for in-game data communications.

Not exactly... if you set a lower sv_maxrate, also the autodownload speed slows down (IIRC, even if you play "locally" with "optimize for lan" enabled!). I suppose that with the new sv_dlrate, sv_maxrate will not influence it anymore... but I haven't tested it. Anyway, with official 0.8.8 executables, sv_maxrate does influence download speed (and even sv_fps can, but I fear it's dangerous to tweak it just for download speed!).

[Gig]

As of now, if I am running a dedicated server I can't get the server list in multiplayer, and I cannot connect to any servers using specify.

This sounds strange. You should be able to use both server and client on the same machine without problems. You should be able to find your server in "local" section, and internet servers in "internet" section.

Maybe are you specifying the same net_port in the command line of the client? If you don't specify it, it should automatically detect that 27960 is already in use (by the server) and use 27961 instead... maybe your firewall blocks port 27961? Do you see some errors or warnings in console?

[GrosBedo]

@Gig:  yes indeed sv_maxrate does influence but that was an oversimplification, because you can't really tweak the contents upload speed with sv_maxrate, you need either sv_dlURL or sv_dlRate.

@hemite: I would add to Gig's advices to try to set net_qport when launching your game client to any random port between 1000 and 65535

[Gig]

By the way, maybe we should think it sv_dlrate should be always enabled or it would be better a switch to enable or disable it?
I mean, having the download rate higher than normal clients rate would mean that a single upload may consume bandwidth like many players. Theorically, multiple uploads at once may have DOS-like effects on your server, causing players to lag.
If the server admin will want to be sure to avoid this, he should manually set sv_dlrate to the same of sv_maxrate (to emulate the classic download style). Of course this would not speed up downloads, but would avoid network congestion.
And what will happen with admins unaware of the existence of the new variable? They may get a misconfigured server.

Of course, cURL redirection will continue to be the best solution for downloads (sv_dlrate may be useful in LAN, maybe).

[hemite]

@Gig So now all of a sudden I can see my own server and the regular server list. I cannot connect to my own server fine as well. I don't know what the problem is so I'll keep trying to replicate it and maybe I can then find the issue.

[GrosBedo]

@hemite: try to use net_qport.

@Gig: I think sv_dlRate should be tweaked by every servers admin depending on their resources, so it's better to leave them off configuring it by themselves, because yes I too think there are some risks of congestions.

Of course cURL redirection (sv_dlURL) will still stay the best solution, but only if files are hosted on another webhost, because if they are hosted on the same server, the risk of congestion is still present.

But the major advantage of using sv_dlRate is that you don't have to manage a mirror, so you don't have any risk of mismatch and the impossibility for players to download the pk3 because you forgot to upload them on your http mirror.

[grey matter]

I don't see why you'd want to mess with any of the defaults of OA (code-wise as a publisher). sv_allowDownload defaults to 0, meaning OFF. Any admin who likes to enable either ingame or offsite cURL downloads thus has to at least take a look at some sort of readme to enable it. If he misses this opportunity to actually read what those variables are for, we can not safe him with sane defaults (since they can not cover all bases and all kinds of idiots).

Bandwidth should not be a problem with any proper server. I've yet have to find a gameserver that has less than 10mbps, which is more than plenty for both clients and downloads in parallel. Hosting game servers from a home dial up connection is just plain wrong, so those are not of interest here (and they are against the TOS of most ISPs anyways).

sv_maxRate has priority over sv_lanForceRate. The latter one just forces the client rate value to 99999 (while there is a hardcoded limit for a rate of 90000). Increasing sv_fps means that the server runs with more frames and thus sends more packets, but clients will need to have their snaps set high enough.
Conclusion; stick with sv_dlURL (preferred) or sv_dlRate (which at least allows for transfers faster than 25k, given enough bandwidth).

[Gig]

Taking a look to the bandwdth calculation ((DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Servers), it's possible to see that it's not so difficult to rapidly consume megabits of bandwidth.

Allowing a single client to download at 100 KB/s means that it will use 100*8=800 Kbps. 10 clients would use 8 Mbits (without taking in account overhead). Okay, it's quite unlikely that you may have 10 clients downloading at once, but it's just to say that having a "n" number of clients using much more bandwidth than "playing" players may screw up admin's calculations about bandwidth!

Ps: in Italy, the most common internet connection nowadays is ADSL, that provides nice download speed (usually 7 or 20 Mbit), but slow upload speed (400 kbit, 500 kbit or sometimes 1 Mbit). It's not very good to host a game server.

[hemite]

As of now, if I am running a dedicated server I can't get the server list in multiplayer, and I cannot connect to any servers using specify.

This sounds strange. You should be able to use both server and client on the same machine without problems. You should be able to find your server in "local" section, and internet servers in "internet" section.

Maybe are you specifying the same net_port in the command line of the client? If you don't specify it, it should automatically detect that 27960 is already in use (by the server) and use 27961 instead... maybe your firewall blocks port 27961? Do you see some errors or warnings in console?

Yea so the problem was that the server was starting at whichever port was ope, 27960 if I wasn't in game and 27961 If I was. However, while the server could change ports, my client ( snow leopard) refused to change ports, and only stuck with 27960, even if the server was already running at that port. I fixed this problem by always running the server on 27961, so now there is no conflict. I don't know if this is a bug or not, but I would be interested in knowing the cause of the issue (code wise).

Additionally, as I have said before, I have set up a dropbox server which has a fine upload speed for my purposes (not as fast as my internet connection but what can we do  )

Perhaps in future releases I will try sv_dlRate because as GrosBedo said, I would rather not deal with uploading duplicates to my server, and keep all files in one machine.

[Gig]

I haven't understood something. What does your machine exactly?

Normal behavior is:

The first OA session you launch (server or client does not matter) uses port 27960 (unless you specify a different one), the second uses port 27961, the third uses port 27962, etc.
Usually this is not a problem for clients (because often all outgoing traffic is allowed), but is a problem with servers (because firewall exceptions/NAT rules may be set to allow incoming traffic to the standard port only, and should be re-configured accordingly).

To avoid such problems, you can manually specify ports in the shortcuts to launch the server and the client, or you may simply always start the server first and only then the client.

Another note, "local" network server browser of the client lists only servers that use a port between 27960 and 27963 (you can still access local servers which use a different port manually specifying them).

If it does not work this way (e.g. the client ignoring the port you manually specify), there is something strange. If it's a Mac-specific issue, you may ask Jackoverfull to take a look.

[GrosBedo]

I concur with Gig, this is weird. To change your client's net_port, did you set it in the commandline launching your client (because it cannot be done once you're in-game). By modifying the commandline, it works on Windows 7 (I've just tested it).

[hemite]

I haven't understood something. What does your machine exactly?

So, if My server is running on 27960 ( I specified that port) and then I open the client (double clicking the mac app, not through the command line) then the client will not be able to connect to any servers. However if I start the server with port 27961 then the client starts fine. I assumed this was because the client did not automatically go to the next port but I'm not too sure. Anyway yes it might be a mac specific thing.

[grey matter]

To change your client's net_port, did you set it in the commandline launching your client (because it cannot be done once you're in-game).

You can do /set net_port xy; set net_port6 xy; net_restart, so your statement is only partially correct.

[GrosBedo]

Man, I'm learning new commands everyday thank's to you! Indeed that should avoid the need to set the net_port in the commandline!