Terrain not appearing on start-up. Anyone know anything about proxies?

[namyahmas 4]

Since moving to new accommodation recently, every time I've tried to log on, the only thing that loads for me is a sea of water in all directions, and a few buildings/building plans/fences.

No terrain of any type loads, and neither do any mountains, the world is all flat.

Completely stumped as to what the problem is, the internet connection here seems fast, and I haven't changed to a new computer or changed settings. The connection seems like the only variable so my guess would be something to do with that, but it's not like everything takes ages to load, it's that it actually never loads.

Has anyone else encountered this? And solved it?

Thanks in advance.

[tealc 149]

If this is student accommodation its very possible that the firewall has been configured to prevent certain ports being used. Probably the same ports that wurm uses to send landscape information.

[namyahmas 4]

If this is student accommodation its very possible that the firewall has been configured to prevent certain ports being used. Probably the same ports that wurm uses to send landscape information.

[tealc 149]

Unless you can contact the provider of the internet no. You could possibly use a proxy but there are no guarantees.

[namyahmas 4]

Thanks, I'll check my internet usage policy to make sure I'm not breaching anything by using a proxy, then investigate that option.

[namyahmas 4]

Opening a port on my firewall caused terrain to load nearly completely.

However, permanent "refreshing" is still there on right click menus.

Going to look for a proxy now, cannot find anything against using proxies in my agreement. Any recommendations?

[namyahmas 4]

Bumping for anyone with any experience with proxies.

Found a bit of information, but it gets a bit confusing with my lack of technical knowledge. Stories of free proxies basically stealing all your information too.

I'd rather not have to pay, but if it's cheap enough, I guess I would...

[Jberg 3,070]

How about a VPN (Virtual Private Network)?

It sure will cost money, and depending on where in the world you are it could be too expensive to be an alternative.

But the option exists.

[namyahmas 4]

Going to have a look at that now, thanks. I'd rather not have to give up wurm, but it looks like I'll be semi-retired (for at least a year) if this doesn't work. Probably not a bad thing if it means I pass and don't waste all my time playing.

Guess we'll see how it goes.

[Zncon 0]

Not sure if the info on this page: http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Firewalls is still correct, but does that page match the ports you opened?

It would seem strange to me if Wurm used different ports for different aspects of the game, as it's rather pointless and can cause trouble.

Were you required to have any software installed, or any settings changed to use the network at your new location?

If I have time tonight, I'll verify the ports used.

[namyahmas 4]

I read that page and opened up the ports it says, but the problem seems to be coming from the internet connection at my new place - it works fine at home. If you can verify the ports used, that'd be great, just in case.

Also, no, I didn't have to install any software, and I didn't have to manually change any settings, but it's possible it was done automatically.

Attempting to use a sockscap type program at the moment, but it only seems to work for .exe files, so I can't find wurm in the program list, so it won't work. Won't let me search for "all files" either, just executables. I'm thinking if I can bypass this problem I might be sorted.

[Zncon 0]

The .exe that runs Wurm is "JavaW.exe", so that would be the process to target. Java actually supports setting proxies itself (not positive that they apply to the software running on it or just java itself) this: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/proxy_setup.xml should help you find the settings. It's a bit old, but it still looks the same in the current version.

If it works fine with the same computer on another connection, I think you can blame the connection for the issues.

My confusion lies with the nature of the problem, I would have expected it to be all or nothing. It makes me wonder if the issue is caused by some form of packet shaping which is running on the network.

[namyahmas 4]

I think my connection is blocking some ports but not all, so it can start up and get some info (local list etc.) before it needs to use the other ports.

The problem is with running JavaW.exe is that you have to launch the program through the proxy program thingy, and so I have to choose the thing I want to run. I'll see if I can get Java through and then attempt to launch wurm seperately, see if that works.

I assume it blocks some port that is used for multiplayer games, as very very few multiplayer games, even some flash games, don't work.

Edit/Update - Running JavaW through Your Freedom and freecap does nothing, but modifying the Java settings to run through a proxy stops wurm loading at all. I call this progress. It must mean I need some different numbers to type into the box. What these are, I don't know, but I may have found the solution to the fix.

[ago 470]

Those are the connections opened by Wurm when connected to Indy:

 TCP    pc101:51225   jenn001.game.wurmonline.com:3724    CLOSE_WAIT  TCP    pc101:51226   freedom001.game.wurmonline.com:3724    CONNECTED

After connecting to jenn001 (the login server) you are handed over to the game server (Indy in this case). The most likly thing happening is the slow connection (or slowed down) which can not transfer the world data fast enough before you esentially lag out.

Maybe the connection also starts to drop packets as soon as a huge chunk of data is transferred which then results in a constant retransmission of packets which eventually leads to an almost stalled connection. Hard to tell without being able to analyze the network traffic.

[namyahmas 4]

I don't know about it being slow, as the rest of the connection is fast. It also turns out asking the university to unblock them is a no-go.

Their policy is that they do not actively block them, but they do not commit resources into making them work. This sucks a bit, I mean, they support xbox, ps3 and wii online gaming, although I guess opening ports on a computer could potentially be worse for a network?

That's one of the options gone, which means I'll have to find a way around rather than through.