Yep. In fact, both of their boxes are pretty much brand new. Well, one is brand new (my wife put it together for him) and the other is a fresh install of Windows.
That's one of the things my wife did last night. Pretty much went through everything they've got with a fine toothed comb.
She even pinged the server and got zero response from it. It's like both the server and the website simply don't exist to them.
Still unable to connect, was on last yesterday afternoon since then I can not connect to GW websight or PFO. No issue's with anything else internet related.
LOL!
Except that anything "goblinworks" apparently doesn't exist for them.
Goblin Squad Member
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I will look into firewalls, but I have a friend a few miles from me who is on an playing, he has the same provider. Its just odd was play 7.1 fine and 8 when it came up, then nothing, have multiple machines in the house that can play it same issues for all of them, no PFO, no goblinworks web sight.
I told them to call the ISP.
Firewall isn't an issue. That's one of the things my wife checked.
And what Calis is talking about is exactly what I've been saying.
All of the computers in his (and my friend's) house have to have similar IPs....which would be different than those of a friend that lives close to them.
Hey...wait....wasn't there a DOS command to release an IP? Crap...Gonna have to look into that. Back in the day, there was a way to release your IP and get assigned a new one. I wonder if that'd do it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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ipconfig /displaydns : Displays the contents of the DNS client resolver cache, which includes both entries preloaded from the local Hosts file and any recently obtained resource records for name queries resolved by the computer. The DNS Client service uses this information to resolve frequently queried names quickly, before querying its configured DNS servers.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The new form of grinding - trying to connect to the server ...
It doesn't help that my own network connection seems flaky. I tend to have a browser open in parallel and noticed several time that the connection was reset - so I lose both.
Doesn't matter for the browser - that one recovers when the network is back. Just not sure if it is on my site or coming from GW or both.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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One other thing I did in the course of resolving this problem at my house was an IPCONFIG renew. Open a command prompt and type in "ipconfig/renew" (without the double quotes)
After this, you might try shutting everything down again, and restarting in this order:
1. modem/router (wait until it has fully reconnected to the internet)
2. any machines
Maybe this will help, maybe not...I'm pretty much at the extent of my technical skills here too...
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I told them to call the ISP.
Firewall isn't an issue. That's one of the things my wife checked.
And what Calis is talking about is exactly what I've been saying.
All of the computers in his (and my friend's) house have to have similar IPs....which would be different than those of a friend that lives close to them.
Hey...wait....wasn't there a DOS command to release an IP? Crap...Gonna have to look into that. Back in the day, there was a way to release your IP and get assigned a new one. I wonder if that'd do it.
just saw this note...yes, the command is ipconfig/renew
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Goblin Squad Member
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just saw this note...yes, the command is ipconfig/renew
I'm only about 90% sure, but think you should do a release first. All renew does is tell your computer to request a lease extension.
Using:
ipconfig /release then
ipconfig /renew
will tell the machine to give up it's existing connection and then start a new one.
Yep, we did the release/renew and nada.
I told them about the only other thing I can think of is to call the ISP...but even that's "iffy."
You know, the DDoS they went through happened right after they ported over to a full-time server. I doubt if PFO was the target of the attack...I'm betting it's collateral damage.
Again, just a hunch here, but if PFO were the intended target, you'd think that noone would be able to get in....as opposed to just a handful here and there being shut out.
Either way, I'm pretty much at a loss to help them at this point. Either our ISP can get the job done or they're beat.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think it was actually excluding anyone. I think the interference was probably stronger and weaker in waves, and that some people's browsers and computers were willing to wait, and others weren't. I was doing multiple game windows on my high-end machine, and some were opening within a minute, while others took 20 minutes or longer. But I couldn't get to the website at all, as my browser was timing out before it got a response. I think if my browser was willing to wait, I'd have gotten in there, too.
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Goblin Squad Member
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My household has three different pc's from 2 years old to about 4 years old, all of them have the exact same issue, goblin works web sight will not load, and they will not connect to the game. Also before 5 pm Sunday est, alhpa 8 would run on all three rigs. So i dont think its the pc's that are the issue. As resting the ip, and calling the isp,I am working on those options, mostly waiting for the more PC savy person to wake up and see if he can get anything running.
No, trust me, it's absolutely excluding them.
We have the same ISP and I live exactly one mile away from them...however, in a newer neighborhood.
We did EVERYTHING (read previous posts) to try to resolve the problem.
They were both in game and on the goblinworks site Sunday morning...albeit, the website was loading very slowly.
After the patch came out (and there was a secondary patch Sunday afternoon), they were completely unable to connect to either the game (alpha.goblinworks.com) or the website (goblinworks.com).
I coached them through what I could over the phone, however, with the level of frustration involved...eventually, I took my wife to their house. She's head and shoulders better than all of us combined when it comes to this kind of thing.
She went through both of their systems with a fine toothed comb. Bitter Thorn's computer is brand new...my wife put it together for him. Gwyndar's computer is my old Alienware that I gave her with a fresh copy of Windows on it. Bitter Thorn's level of paranoia combined with the amount of time they've had either computer (less than a week) pretty much ensures that they haven't managed to get any nasty viruses....and that was confirmed by my wife.
Along with everything else she did, she also brought down their Norton firewall just to try to connect and got nothing. She eventually pinged both locations through DOS and got a complete failure to connect. It's as if both alpha.goblinworks.com and goblinworks.com simply do not exist to them.
This morning, after posting here, I got this brilliant idea to release/renew the IP...if the DDoS attack were IP based, getting a fresh IP address should (in theory) solve the problem. Nope. Nothing.
I suggested contacting Comcast (our ISP) and seeing if perhaps they can do anything about it. If you know anything about Comcast, it's an "iffy" proposition at best...odds are fairly good you're going to get a $10/hr person that flips through a binder and blows smoke up your third point of contact. But, it's worth a try.
Now, granted, I'm not up to speed with computers anymore. 20 years ago, I'd have been right on top of this. Unfortunately, technology (much like children) have progressed way beyond my ability to cope. I read up on DDoS attacks and they seem to be something that targets a given server cluster. Ok, that makes sense to me but....and see if my logic is flawed here...I doubt that PFO was the intended target.
PFO Alpha has been around for a minute or two now. Granted, they were on a "local" server that was only up on the weekends. Recently, with 8.1, they ported over to another server...or, rather, a company that supports the server and it's online all the time except for maintenance.
If the DDoS attack were specifically targeted at PFO, one would think that if the attacker were competent, NOONE would be able to get into the game or access the website. As it stands now, it's just a few people here and there that are having this problem.
My logic is telling me that the attack was targeted at the server itself...possibly for something else it hosts and PFO is collateral damage. Let's say the server hosts some kind of paypal sort of client, you know, something that processes money or something. Someone attacks it with a Distributed Denial of Service attack and pretty much everything else the server hosts is going to be affected as well.
Again, I'm not a smart man...I'm a barbarian. But, this kinda makes sense to me.
I'm posting pretty much all of this over on the goblinworks forums (yeah, why didn't I do this earlier? I told you, I'm not smart)and maybe they can look into it. Hopefully, they've called Comcast and seen if anything can be done on that end. One would think that eventually, someone that knows what they're doing will get hold of this.
On the bright side, they're accumulating XP while sitting around.
Oh dear god, don't private message him. He won't understand how to operate it and will consider it an "attack." Good god, the communists are coming to get him through private message....
You see what I'm up against here?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Multiple people in the UK have the same problem.
Me - 3 different accounts - Deal (East, Kent)
Up North somewhere
Close to Cambridge
Unknown location in the UK
1 member in the US
I have heard issues from approx 20% of my alliance - expect underreporting - it likely is closer to 50%. I can try to map them out but doubt that more then 2 have the same ISP and all are at least 50km apart.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Trying goblinwork landrush webpage from work.
Different computer, different ISP
Timed it and closed the window after 5 minutes and still no connection. Can't test out the game as this is a workcomputer.
I only closed it when I tried in parallel a graphics heavy webpage needed for work that loaded in 1-2 seconds flat.
This is UK - close to Canterbury. Can't post on alpha forum as I can't get a connection there.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Looks like a problem with the local setup not the routing tables. We will do some more brainstorming.
I missed this. Is it possible that anti-DDOS affects some customers (but npt others). Not sure how anti-DDOS measures work. But if there is a botnet and several other infected computers from my ISP spam you, then I could assume I'm also getting on a blacklist.
This seems to make most sense with the behavious I see. Sometimes it works fine. Sometimes you just can't get a connection (possible block?) Sometimes it seems you get kicked after you established a connection.
I'm sorry you have these issues. Good this is alpha. I guess it would be easier if it would effect everyone or at least affect the people it does effect always. Unfortunately there is some random variable involved that makes it frustrating.
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Goblin Squad Member
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My pc works perfectly except for GW and Pathfinder. I can play wow until the cows come home and surf anywhere else I want to go. Those are the only 2 places I can't access or that have been affected at all.
I have taken the same laptop to three locations and get perfect connection at two houses and intermittent timing out at the third.
The third location plays all other games perfectly.
Victory is mine!!!!!
Thank you Ryan and Bonnie!!!
Hmm what did you need to do ?
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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They had blocked IP addresses in our firewall due to excessive connection attempts on Sunday.
Looks like we have had some ddos activity this Sunday. We are still investigatng.Good luck telling the attackers from the customers.
I thought I was being sarcastic, pointing out that the unavailable servers resulted in the more zealous customers trying to connect enough to look like part of the attack...
