Ping Heatmap / Vanguard

[mindlash]

Per request, I'm opening a standalone topic.

After a cloud sync for heatmap:

[DumaOS] Cloudsync Ping Heatmap result 'true','nil', Friday, July 01, 2022 14:01:48
[DumaOS] Ping Heatmap has finished merging data from the cloud!, Friday, July 01, 2022 14:01:48

I now only see one server that is pinging as yesterday I had two:

I've also turned 'on' "Respond to Ping on Internet Port" in WAN Setup.

I'm puzzled because any other game, example, Apex do fine, with only one failed IP address:

I have a Microtik router that serves the majority of the house, but wanted to utilize my geo filtering for better games, as such, I've forwarded all ports for COD (that I'm aware of) to my NetDuma router, and this has worked just fine for a long time.  Over the past month, I've noticed that while trying to geo-filter, it's taking longer and longer, and eventually I have to turn it off just to get a game.

My initial thought is that, my computer, also connected to netduma, may not be getting the proper port forwarding needed to get responses from these servers -- but then I recall that I can get pings just fine for Apex.  So, I'm a bit confused.

Looking forward to your thoughts.  

Thanks!

 

[mindlash]

for what its worth -- when first starting up vanguard, while watching the geo-filtering (while off)... I can see the following peers/servers:

 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Thanks for creating your own topic, whether Ping Heatmap can ping servers or not wouldn't affect your ability to Geo-Filter servers. Ping Heatmap simply pings a loaded list of IP addresses whereas the Geo-Filter detects and filters any connections within your set range of parameters (Games Console service) in real time so you should be able to filter just fine, you may need to encompass 1 or 2 more servers to speed up the search, as in your polygon example only the border covers some servers while the contents covers none.

I have compared your Warzone list with my working list on the R2 and they do appear to be different, I also checked Apex Legends, prior to resyncing the cloud I had the exact same number of successful pings and failed pings as you, after resyncing that number changed indicating it has downloaded a new working list. So even though other games are working, it's not downloading the updated lists correctly on your router. Could you resync the Ping Heatmap cloud again and then provide the full log from the System Information page so I can compare it to mine please?

[mindlash]

Thanks for the reply.  I cleared my logs, resynced the cloud, tried to run a ping of warzone servers (same result) and have the logs from that moment below.

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Thanks for that, could you go on to the Ping Heatmap page, then unplug the ethernet cable from the internet port, then refresh the page - hopefully it will then tell you it can't connect and to force a cloud update, if it does put the ethernet cable back in, then wait 30 seconds so it can get internet and then force the update. Then see if it pings the servers correctly please.

[mindlash]

Thanks for the idea.  Unfortunately it just sat at this window for over 5 minutes:

Don't suppose there are any url variables that could force the same thing? Or possibly you can provide a list of updated IP's I can manually add?

[Netduma Fraser]

Ah yes of course, instead, unplug the internet cable and put it into LAN port 1, then do the rest of the method if it works. 

The game servers don't respond to normal pings, for example, you can see I pinged the first IP on the heatmap list but it times out, whereas heatmap gives me a ping:

so the same thing would happen if you manually added them to a list - just fyi though for if you make a custom list on Ping Heatmap in the future, click the server IP on the list, then scroll down to the panel that appears and then click add to list. This will let the feature know that it is a game and it will work its magic to give you the ping, if you add the exact same IP manually it will fail to ping because you could be adding an IP for anything.

[mindlash]

So, not to muddy the process... but even though my LAN ports are labeled 1-4, they're actually... backwards.  Found this out in looking at device manager.  I literally have them plugged into 3 & 4, and they're showing up as 1 & 2 -- but not sure that's either here nor there... just odd.

Beyond this, I did as you asked, went to the ping heatmap, and unplugged the cable from port '1' on the router -- When I refreshed the page (having no internet connection) the page sat there, with a message about waiting for an internet socket ... needless to say, I waited for 5 minutes... Nadda.  To be fair, I'm not sure how the interface is going to exist on a page refresh if there's no internet -- but I'm not the brains around here.

Side note, about manually pinging.  I find it interesting that I'm able to manually ping via DOS each server in Apex, Destiny, DOTA, etc... and get replies.

Curious, are there any types of UDP ports/ranges I should be forwarding to allow my NetDuma to do its magic?  

Also, I'm not not getting any responses (all failed)

Thanks for your time.

[Netduma Fraser]

The port order yes that is normal so no need to worry about that. It was definitely the cable from the internet port you unplugged? The router is a standalone device, it doesn't require internet to access it as all the pages are coded into it. I can ping Apex etc as well, CoD used to be pingable until they changed it so you may come across it in future from other games as well if they decide not to respond to pings. 

You mentioned you had a Microtik router, what is your exact physical network setup e.g. ISP modem/router > Microtik > XR and what is the model of the ISP modem?

[mindlash]

Quote

It was definitely the cable from the internet port you unplugged?

The first go-round, I unplugged the cat 5 from my laptop... the second go-round, I unplugged the cat 5 from 'port 1' on the XR... but what I'm sensing here is that I should have unplugged the internet cable (Yellow WAN port)?

As for the Microtik, indeed ISP-supplied Modem (DOCSIS 3.1) > Microtik (192.168.88.1) > XR (192.168.88.100 / 192.168.1.1)

 

[Netduma Fraser]

12 minutes ago, mindlash said:

The first go-round, I unplugged the cat 5 from my laptop... the second go-round, I unplugged the cat 5 from 'port 1' on the XR... but what I'm sensing here is that I should have unplugged the internet cable (Yellow WAN port)?

As for the Microtik, indeed ISP-supplied Modem (DOCSIS 3.1) > Microtik (192.168.88.1) > XR (192.168.88.100 / 192.168.1.1)

 

Yes that's right, unplug the ethernet cable that gives the router internet, sorry if I didn't make that clear, then plug that into another LAN port. 

Is the ISP modem a pure modem i.e. it doesn't have WiFi? Could you put the .88.100 IP for the XR in the Microtik DMZ if you haven't already and see if that makes a difference please?

[mindlash]

I'll give it a shot -- likely my brain not working... I'm 3 days into covid... bleh.  Also, I'm not a wiz at microtik -- had an engineering buddy set it up a year ago due to getting DDoSed -- and it's worked marvelously for that.  I personally have no idea how to put it into DMZ mode.

... ok, this gets me thinking if, for whatever reason, it's thinking these Warzone servers are DDoSing... I'll do my best to dig into the firewall and see if I can see anything.  I'll keep you posted.  

Thanks again for your help Fraser.  

[Netduma Fraser]

43 minutes ago, mindlash said:

I'll give it a shot -- likely my brain not working... I'm 3 days into covid... bleh.  Also, I'm not a wiz at microtik -- had an engineering buddy set it up a year ago due to getting DDoSed -- and it's worked marvelously for that.  I personally have no idea how to put it into DMZ mode.

... ok, this gets me thinking if, for whatever reason, it's thinking these Warzone servers are DDoSing... I'll do my best to dig into the firewall and see if I can see anything.  I'll keep you posted.  

Thanks again for your help Fraser.  

Sorry to hear that, hope you feel better soon! It should be pretty easy, just a case of finding the DMZ option on the router - usually they're located in WAN or Security settings, if you're having trouble locating it have a Google for your specific Microtik model manual and it should show where it is. 

I wouldn't have thought that would be the case as the Warzone servers won't be manually pingable for anyone, more likely the Microtik router is blocking the download of the cloud update so if you can get the DMZ done it will pass all traffic directly through to the XR without interference and should allow you to download it. 

[mindlash]

Quote

 It should be pretty easy

I wish -- This is enterprise-level software/hardware at consumer-level pricing.  You seriously need to be a wiz at this.  There's no 'DMZ' section, instead it has to do with NATing... and other firewall-related stuff.  I'm trying to read up on it, but my mushy brain is all bla.

Pic for fun...

Note, I've even whitelisted all the IP's (from my current list)... still no go.

I'll try and reach out to my friend (again) and see if he can help me out here.

Sorry for taking up your time if this turns out to be my primary router.

[Netduma Fraser]

Ahh I see, that does make it more complex, probably the easiest thing to do to see if it is the issue would be to disconnect the Microtik briefly, then connect the XR direct to the modem and attempt to resync the cloud, then see if it downloads the new list and pings them correctly.

[mindlash]

I will do this as soon as I’m mobile again, and report back. 

[mindlash]

Ok, so I plugged the XR directly into my cable modem (non wifi), got new IP, and was still unable to download/ping Warzone.  That should have been enough to test... but I had my buddy work back the firewall to ensure those IP's weren't being blocked... So not being double NAT'ed I still was unable to get the latest list (from what I can see) and still unable to ping Vanguard/Warzone servers.

Thoughts?

[mindlash]

So, I decided to factory reset the XR, and sadly, same results.  I can access Apex, Destiny, and 'any' other servers via the ping heatmap ... just not vanguard/warzone ... it's bazar... 

 

 

 

[mindlash]

I saw in a few other threads with the XR1000 they revered to their .52 firmware and got their heatmap working.  I decided to try my hand at that.  As it stand, I found the heatmap didn't get introduced until firmware .120 .. I loaded that one up, fully reset... and still, same thing sadly.  I am trying to troubleshoot, I promise.

 

[mindlash]

@Netduma Fraser… do you have any other suggestions? 

[Netduma Fraser]

Whitelisting those IPs wouldn't do anything as they cycle the servers they're using so all that would need to be done on the Microtik is to make sure it isn't interfering with traffic being sent to the router so the new list can be downloaded. I can't ping Warzone or Vanguard now so looks like we need to do an update, I've let the team know so they can do that tomorrow and if it's still an issue once that list has been pushed we can take a look further.

[Netduma Fraser]

@mindlashjust so you know, we have pushed an update now so please resync the cloud and see if it works for you

[mindlash]

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Thank you so much.  

 

[Netduma Fraser]

That's brilliant to hear, thanks for the update!

[mindlash]

SO...  might we be dealing with the same thing as before?  I've tried updating the ping list too.  Thoughts?