Server Problems, Post Here!

Discussion in 'Empire Help & Support' started by chickeneer, Nov 3, 2014.


  1. Irritatingly, sometimes connection is possible to parts of the internet, but not other parts, and the reasons why are pretty complicated. Solving such issues is also pretty complex. Bear with me and I'll try to explain and help as much as I can ^_~*

    Like Shell said above, sometimes parts of the web stall out (or go down entirely), and if your internet connection is directing you through those parts that aren't fully-functioning, then your connection suffers (and occasionally makes it so you can't connect to certain places at all).

    A path connecting you to any one location on the web can take many different routes, and if one of the nodes along that path is "unresolvable" sometimes fiddling with your DNS settings will resolve this, but not always (and it's not easy to tell whether it will actually solve the problem). Usually if a particular part of the web is stalled, slowed, or down, it's just a matter of time before the issue is resolved (unless it's a really big issue or if the fixers don't know something needs to be fixed).

    Without knowing much else aside from what you've described, the best I can advise is:
    • check the status of EMC itself (which you've done, looks like)
    • restart your router (a simple unplug/replug should work if your router doesn't have a power/restart button. just be sure to wait at least 10 seconds before plugging it back in)
    • check for outages in your area
    • see where your route goes and drops or gets slow
    • check to see if your route from that step crosses into any outages from the step before
    • if there are no outages that are nearby and likely causing the troubles, change your router settings to use a different DNS server (I'd link to a reputable step-by-step how-to, but there are too many routers to reliably know which guide you need)
    I really hope these things help you :D
    p.s. - a DNS server is like your router's phone-book. it looks up a name like "google.com" and the DNS server tells it exactly which address it needs to get there, which looks like "64.233.160.0" - here's a slightly more in-depth explanation for this stuff.
  2. Thanks for the help, explanations and suggestions. I will try them out later today. I have to go in a few minutes, but i quickly checked and still nothing. if its a router/switch or DNS thing I'll try via a VPN via another country. see what that does.
    Sazukemono likes this.
  3. Ok, i'm in again for now. Did not do anything actually..its just working again.. ooh well :)
    ShelLuser, We3_MPO and Sazukemono like this.
  4. Good to hear! Usually when the problem isn't on your end, waiting a little bit is enough for the problem to get fixed.
    Nickblockmaster, We3_MPO and WeezerNL like this.
  5. Undersea cables can go out or be unplugged for maintenance. With satellite you can get operator issues if their control center goes down etc, and any weather that creates lots of ions (severe, usually) can cause interference and signal degradation. In terms of landlines, well any number of things could affect landlines, from someone in your neighborhood over-using the bandwidth or some construction equipment breaking a cable to your provider working in the central office that you connect to. The physical internet is gigantic, in fact it's the largest physically interconnected thing on earth. The fact that it's usually mostly working most of the time is pretty amazing.

    - Andy
  6. Can't seem to connect to smp3 I get an error message i can connect to every other one *wonders who broke smp3 or if its just a me problem haha* I'm getting a "Could not connect to default or back up server"
    We3_MPO and Storm_ily like this.
  7. Also having problems with SMP3 and SMP3's livemap not connecting
    We3_MPO likes this.
  8. weird smp2 is down now also
    We3_MPO likes this.
  9. I was on SMP7. Got some kind of error and got disconnected, Cannot reconnect. Live map still works
    We3_MPO likes this.
  10. Server timed out, and cannot reconnect on smp3 also.
    We3_MPO likes this.
  11. weird.... cause when i type /who smp3 it shows srhoel on the list... so are people not really on or were u able to reconnect?
    We3_MPO likes this.
  12. I can reproduce problems on SMP1, SMP2 and SMP3. I can connect to Utopia and SMP4 seems also safe. Haven't tried any more due to time restrictions. This is the error you get when you try to connect either directly (direct connect to 'smp2.emc.gs' for example) or in-game (/smp2):



    Hope this can help.

    (edit)

    They most likely timed out so the system still seems to think they're connected. You can see the same when checking the server overview page.

    Of course it is also possible that these problems only show when you're trying to connect, but not if you're already connected. Then the players are perfectly fine as long as they don't switch servers. Scratch this theory, srhoel already mentioned this not to be true.
    We3_MPO and Sefl51 like this.
  13. It just timed out w/ me on, haven't been on in like 15 minutes .
    We3_MPO likes this.
  14. I am only able to connect to utopia no other smp works for me....
    We3_MPO likes this.
  15. I just heard from a staff member that EMC has network outages and it's being worked on. Smp1-3 seem to be affected. :)
    We3_MPO likes this.
  16. All done. Move along, move along.
    We3_MPO, Sydney4363 and Sefl51 like this.
  17. Appears to be working again indeed! :)
    We3_MPO likes this.
  18. The "Power Distribution Unit" for SMP1, 2, 3 went out at our datacenter. They moved us to another PDU and will have to have maintenance in the near future to replace the bad hardware.
  19. I was wondering why so few players were logged in! Mystery solved it seems... :)

    - Andy
    ShelLuser likes this.
  20. Entire server just crashed, I think....
    bravebob, FadedMartian and Storm_ily like this.