What's the deal with "Reason 2"?

Some people have a recurring problem connecting to the server. There are typically three reasons this occur. Unfortunately, two of these reasons are indistinguishable, so if you can’t connect you’ll typically be told that it’s either Reason 1 or Reason 2.

Reason 1 means the server is down. The only time you should see this is if we’ve taken the server down for maintenance reasons or to update it somehow, like to fix a bug, or roll out a new feature.

Reason 2 means the server is up, but that it couldn’t create a connection with your client. In the vast majority of cases, if you see Reason 2, it is because you have a firewall installed. Firewalls are great, but they make it very difficult to create multiplayer connections. Battalion uses a bunch of sophisticated protocols to get around firewalls, but the process is somewhat brittle and we are limited by the bounds of the technology that accomplishes this.

If you are getting repeated Reason 2 connection problems, the best thing for you to do is wait. If you try to keep reconnecting before the server can successfully get around your firewall, it resets the process and basically makes it impossible for you to reconnect as long as you keep retrying.

How long should you wait to reconnect? That part is tricky. The firewall technology can’t consistently create a timeout window, so I recommend you give it at least 20 minutes before you retry.

Another fix is to modify your firewall so that it will let you play multiplayer games. If you don’t know what a firewall is, or how it was installed, then this probably isn’t an option for you, but you could talk to the person in charge of administering your machine. The port that Battalion connects on is 9898 in that case, and if a connection can be established with port 9898, then there is no need to see Reason 2 ever again.

I’ll do my best to answer any questions on this topic, but given the plethora of firewall configurations, hardware and software that could cause these issues, I probably cannot be much help. My suggestion will always be to leave it for as long as you can (20 minutes at least) and come back later. Chances are that is all it needs to reset and make a new connection.

Interesting….

Hmmmmm….Quick question. Is there any way to tell what the problem is when you’re first connecting, and you can’t get in?
I mean, when you’re in a game and you start to disconnect, it’ll show you reasons, but…when first connecting, sometimes the reason # won’t pop up.
And when it does, half of it is outside its box, which makes it slightly difficult to read.
Is that something with the server, or just my computer?

Ok, but i get a message saying trying to reconnect, attempt 1, attempt 2, attempt 3 then it says it can`t connect and try refreshing. This occurs within 2 minutes of losing connection.

Usually I`m playing for awhile just fine, then it disconnects me. When that happens, I can go to chat and a lot of see other people just got disconnected too, cause they`re complaining about it. I can still cgat fine. How can all our individual firewalls act up at the same time …

Then I can`t reconnect to the actual game, no matter how many times I try, sometimes even if I leave it for hours and do other things.

I also play other multiplayer games and never have this issue.

Originally posted by pauljs:

Ok, but i get a message saying trying to reconnect, attempt 1, attempt 2, attempt 3 then it says it can`t connect and try refreshing. This occurs within 2 minutes of losing connection.

Usually I`m playing for awhile just fine, then it disconnects me. When that happens, I can go to chat and a lot of see other people just got disconnected too, cause they`re complaining about it. I can still cgat fine. How can all our individual firewalls act up at the same time …

Then I can`t reconnect to the actual game, no matter how many times I try, sometimes even if I leave it for hours and do other things.

I also play other multiplayer games and never have this issue.

Occasionally, i get disconnected breifly and it causes me to leave the game, I think its the same as Pauljs

i think because too many people connecting to the game, it overburdens the server and causing it to go berserk. They should upgrade server to one that accomodates more players, now it’s hovering around 60players…

I’m not getting “Reason 2” I’m getting “Reason 1”. What’s the deal with the “Reason 1”? Is it the same as “Reason 2”?

Originally posted by urbansquall:

Reason 1 means the server is down. The only time you should see this is if we’ve taken the server down for maintenance reasons or to update it somehow, like to fix a bug, or roll out a new feature.

WHY WILL THIS NOT WORK!!!!!!, THE SERVER HAS BEEN DOWN FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES AND I AM PISSED OFF, SO FIX IT!!!!

…Does anyone else find dbrusers statement hilarious?
I mean..its 5 minutes. If that seems like a long time to you, ya kinda need to work on your patience.

Hey, Urban.

I got Reason 2 since today. First time ever since the game was launched. I enabled port 9898 in my FW, but this didn’t help. I switched off the FW completely leaving just the Virus Protection on and it didn’t help either. Maybe there’s more to it than just the FW issue?

IE6 Win2k SP4, latest flash and sun java

Add me to the list of people who are just now getting reason 2..

I have seen reason 1 before.. but it is new for me to get reason 2. And I am on the same computer I have always been on, with no changes to the firewall.

I just started getting reason 2 a few hours ago. I’ve never had it before.

Thanks for the posts guys. Rustcrumb and I will go through these new comments (some of this is new information) and see what we can figure out.

Looks like this server has been down since around 8 pm EST last night. Did it ever come back up? I’ve tried from a 2nd location this afternoon.

PS: if this is any help: the gamecode itself seems to be loading ok. It goes all through the steps (loading, resources, data) until initiate connection. Then the Connecting to Server message comes and turns into Reason2.

Also tried it on Firefox 3.0.14. Gamecode loading fine, but Reason2. Java, cookies etc enabled, popup disabled. Didn’t help.

maybe urban should create some kind of notice that tells you BEFORE loading whether the server is up or down.
would save me from the frustration of loading the game over and over again…

I think that if server goes down it should only disable the multiplayer cuz for alot fo ppl it goes down in the middle of the day :/

there is no “single-player”. single player is just multiplayer with all players except you set as ai. you’ll know that if you host a game and kick one of the AIs out. somebody else can see your game and join it.

I’ve been connecting fine with most multiplayer games on Kong OK, but not this one, so is this still my firewall?

reason 2 for 22 hrs. It must be my firewall…
NO, wait, it’s only this game

Alright, Urban. Dunno if you guys have tried to fix anything, yet, but it’s now working for me. Didn’t try anything since my last post. Weird glitch. :)

Whilst I appreciate that software programmers hate giving ‘the user’ any real information, it might perhaps be better to show ‘Server Down’ rather than ‘Reason 1’ … and when ‘Server down’ is posted, perhaps the message ‘Try Refreshing’ should not be shown ??

[why ?
well for a start it might discourage people from constantly ‘Refreshing’ (and thus loading the Server with multuiple unnnecessary downloads) and second it will prevent a lot of wasted time & pointless user changes to their Firewall settings, rebooting of PC’s, uninstalling MS Updates etc etc etc … ]

NB If you loose connection part away through a ‘solo’ game with the AI, the game continues until it ‘reconnects’, at which point the game is aborted == plainly you have to very fast off the mark to pull out your internet cable (or hit ZoneAlarms ‘STOP’ button) if you want to complete the game :-)

Perhaps one day ‘reconnecting’ will allow you to finish the game correctly (instead of trashing it) ??

im getting a green screen with some dots
is that reason 1 or 2, cu theres no message/popup!

ok its working- but u might wanna make a guest mode, or a way so guests can play!

yeah but its a snap to make an account but good idea