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Teacher

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16 Messages

Sunday, November 13th, 2011 11:33 AM

Playing COD MW3 & Running out of NAT sessions....

Playing COD MW3 & Running out of NAT sessions....

 

I have the AT&T U-verse Max Turbo Internet package with download speeds up to 24 Mbps. It has been working well for the past couple of years as my son and I use it simultaneously to play most of the latest and greatest online multiplayer games together... World of Warctaft, RIFT, etc... This has worked very well even when we have guests over and they connect using this same connection. We can have three or four people playing online without any issues... Recently we assembled two brand new machines as a hobby project with most of the latest and greatest hardware. Could this be why when we are playing the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 we have this problem.... "Running out of NAT Sessions"? I say we play but we really don't because before the first game is over we are both lagging so hard we really can't play. I have called AT&T support a dozen different times but they have you reboot the equipment with only temporary results. Once they sent out a technician who completely replaced their equipment but within a day it was back the same way so laggy we can't play. Finaly after a dozen logged complaints to AT&T about this issue one rep had the insight to tell me to look at the NAT Sessions table and sure enough it was completely locked up...But he could not tell me how to fix it... I have been searching the internet for any solutions to this situation and the closest I have been able to find was a guy posting about his Skype program causing the exact same issue "Running out of NAT Sessions" and his resolution was to limit the upload to about 1/2 of what he was using in the skype program. I have not seen anywhere in the Valve / Steam client that I can do this (that is what is used to play MW3 online) Is anybody else having this issue? Does anybody out there know enough about networking, routers, LANs, and NAT Sessions to give me another clue as to how to resolve this because AT&T isn't going to do it for me... SAD FACE 8(


 

Images To Show The Difference:




Good Connection Not Really Doing Anything Here...







Try To Play Call Of Duty MW3 w/ My Son And Then We Get This NAT Session Overload...







We can get in a game or maybe only a half of a game before the internet connection goes to complete garbage... And thanks to that one guy who said check your NAT Sessions table I am now aware that I have a NAT Sessions table and it does appear to be full... Any thoughts? We can do the whole reboot the Modem / Router show etc... and then get in part of another game but I know this should not be like this... Our internet connectivity was excellent for almost two years and now all of the sudden... Fun Time Is Over!




... < -- INSERT UBER NERD RAGE HERE!!! -- >

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

I do not know about any of that other than to say I now know it has absolutely nothing to do with COD / MW3... I did start poking around in the AT&T 2WIRE MODEM/ROUTER Gateway and found a Firewall Setting under Attack Detection at the very bottom that was not checked... I just checked it and rebooted the AT&T gateway..

 

 

Teacher

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25 Messages

12 years ago

Do you have uTorrent or similar running on either of these machines?  Worse still, on both?

 

If so, try lowering the Max Connections to some reasonable value.

 

 

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

No. This issue occurs while running one program, the same program, COD MW3, on two very fast computers... Nothing else is running except the game... I boot up and start playing by myself and I can play for hours but the second my son connects and attempts to play or vice versa... the images above show what happens... I do not know enough about networking / NAT Sessions to know how to fix this issue... I did not even know what a NAT session was until last week... But it appears from what I have read on other posts across the internet about other programs etc... that the modem / router is not letting the "check packets" back in or something and they are backing up and one guy fixed this by limiting his upload and then his Skype started working. Which this was not AT&T equipment or even the same program we are having issues with...

Teacher

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25 Messages

12 years ago

This is pretty straightforward - something on your son's machine is consuming IP sessions.  That is what NAT is all about - read http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk648/tk361/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094831.shtml

 

 

I still cast my vote for a torrent downloader or similar.  If you post a large section of the NAT table (at least a few hundred lines), a bright person may be able to tell what is consuming the sessions.

 

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

It is not just my son's machine and it is not any other program. I think you are missing the details of information in that it does not matter which of us logs into the game first (and nothing but the game) when another person logs in the AT&T router / modem becomes overwhelmed with these "NAT Sessions" incoming that it almost stops working altogether the internet connection speed drops down so something unusable as show in the images. Thank you for the link I will go read that now. But to eliminate any confusion you may have there is no torrent program or anything else running on any other machine. It is only two machines running the Call of Duty / Modern Warfare games online multi-player... I have been playing for hours (by myself) this morning. I am now level 42 but if my sons logs in the internet will crash and then neither of us can play. This also works in reverse. My son can play for hours without interruption. However, the moment I log in and try to play with him the same thing. We get overwhelmed with these open incoming "NAT Sessions" that neither of us can then play. So it is now one at a time or nothing until we solve this little mystery. Thanks for the link going to read it now.

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

Thank you for the link it was very educational. After reading through the link you posted it almost looks like the AT&T router / modem has insufficient amounts of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)... Maybe if they would increase the amount of DRAM this issue would go away? Are we forced to use the AT&T equipment or can I go out and purchase a superior modem / router with enough DRAM to play the game on multiple machines and still use the AT&T U-verse ISP connection?

Master

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5.9K Messages

12 years ago


@Wyze wrote:

Thank you for the link it was very educational. After reading through the link you posted it almost looks like the AT&T router / modem has insufficient amounts of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)... Maybe if they would increase the amount of DRAM this issue would go away? Are we forced to use the AT&T equipment or can I go out and purchase a superior modem / router with enough DRAM to play the game on multiple machines and still use the AT&T U-verse ISP connection?



Although you can not use another Modem, you can use your own router between the Uverse supplied Modem/Router and the rest of the network for your computers.

 

 




__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

I have considered dropping AT&T altogether over this issue and purchasing a T1 connection but from what I have read a T1 connection would not be as good as the AT&T connection even though it costs considerably more... Unless we purchased a bundled T1 so that we had two T1 connections and then that would be fine for just me and my son as long as we did not have any company trying to connect but we can not afford to spend $600.00 a month on an internet connection. So unless we drop all AT&T services and share a T1 connection (I don't think this would be enough to play MW3) , we are then stuck with the AT&T U-verse... The only other thing I can think of would be based on your link and that hints that we may need a better Modem / Router than the AT&T supplied equipment so we can have more DRAM...

Master

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5.9K Messages

12 years ago


@Wyze wrote:

I have considered dropping AT&T altogether over this issue and purchasing a T1 connection but from what I have read a T1 connection would not be as good as the AT&T connection even though it costs considerably more... Unless we purchased a bundled T1 so that we had two T1 connections and then that would be fine for just me and my son as long as we did not have any company trying to connect but we can not afford to spend $600.00 a month on an internet connection. So unless we drop all AT&T services and share a T1 connection (I don't think this would be enough to play MW3) , we are then stuck with the AT&T U-verse... The only other thing I can think of would be based on your link and that hints that we may need a better Modem / Router than the AT&T supplied equipment so we can have more DRAM...


$50 or $60 will get you a decent wireless router which should clear up your connection issues as well as probably improving your wireless network as well.

 

Are you joining online servers?

Are they dedicated servers?

If your not joining dedicated servers, you are actually running P2P (multiple connections to multiple computers).

Have you tried games with a lower limit on the number of players?

Does the same thing happen if your playing something other than MW3?

 




__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

Teacher

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16 Messages

12 years ago

We have two wireless routers: The one AT&T provided and the Cisco router I used before AT&T. However, we do not use the wireless aspect of the router. We only connect with network cables. I am going to try the suggestion offered and connect my Cisco router to the AT&T router and then connect both computers into the Cisco router and see if that helps anything...

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