Problems Connecting to Achaea

Hey guys, not sure if this is the right place for this or not, if not feel free to move it.

So I have what seems to me to be a very odd problems. My character, Roam, in achaea, was logged in and d/c'd. Was unable to log back in on that world.

Weird part. I can log any other character on to achaea through that world. I can log any other character on through a brand new, blank world as well (but still not Roam). Roam CAN be logged in through the nexus client on the Achaea homepage, so I know he's not banned or anything.

Tried reformatting and reinstalling windows, and mushclient. Same results.

Tried on a different computer with mushclient. Same results.

I'm starting to get really stumped. Any ideas, questions, or comments are more than welcome.

Well that's odd. Can you be more specific about how it fails? Do you get a "cannot connect" error message? If so, what is it exactly? Or does Achaea reject you (eg. bad password)?



I would check the IP address for that world file, and also the password (if you store the password in the world file). Sounds like you accidentally changed one or the other. Or maybe the port number.

Not sure. Password is not stored, this is what I get if I enter an incorrect password...



Welcome to MUSHclient version 4.43!
Written by Nick Gammon.

For information and assistance about MUSHclient visit our forum at:
http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/


--- Connected on Saturday, July 10, 2010, 7:05 PM ---
Rapture Runtime Environment v2.1.6 -- (c) 2010 -- Iron Realms Entertainment
Multi-User License: 100-0000-000

******************************************

Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

"Your fate and fame shall be
an echo and a light unto eternity."

******************************************

Achaea's IP address is 69.65.42.66
For general questions e-mail support@achaea.com.
255 adventurers are currently in the realms.

1. Enter the game.
2. Create a new character.
3. Quit.

Enter an option or enter your character's name.
roam
What is your password?
*********
Password incorrect. For recovery, see http://www.achaea.com/password.php
--- Disconnected on Saturday, July 10, 2010, 7:05 PM ---
--- Connected for 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 10 seconds. ---




And this is what I get if I try with the correct password...



Welcome to MUSHclient version 4.43!
Written by Nick Gammon.

For information and assistance about MUSHclient visit our forum at:
http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/


--- Connected on Saturday, July 10, 2010, 7:07 PM ---
Rapture Runtime Environment v2.1.6 -- (c) 2010 -- Iron Realms Entertainment
Multi-User License: 100-0000-000

******************************************

Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

"Your fate and fame shall be
an echo and a light unto eternity."

******************************************

Achaea's IP address is 69.65.42.66
For general questions e-mail support@achaea.com.
253 adventurers are currently in the realms.

1. Enter the game.
2. Create a new character.
3. Quit.

Enter an option or enter your character's name.
TRACE: Trace on
roam
What is your password?
*********

... and it stops responding there. This is a brand new world connecting to achaea.com, port 23. It wouldn't seem so odd if It wasn't for the fact that I can connect to other accounts through this world just fine. It's only Roam. Yet I can connect to Roam on inferior clients just fine.

Hey, Roam. Send me a message/tell in-game, I'd like to try something. (It's Soludra, FYI)

What's going on here? Did you turn trace on? Does this world file have plugins? Try going into File -> Plugins and disabling the lot. Maybe a plugin is swallowing all input.

Also try turning MXP off, if it is on. Try disabling all triggers (there is a single checkbox to do that).

Actually, instead of poking me specifically, just find someone (anyone) and have them QW ROAM every few seconds while you try to log into Roam, then go back and ask them if they saw you log in at all. Or even better, FRIEND the person (and have them FRIEND you), then do CONFIG WATCHFORALLOW ON, and have them WATCHFOR ADD ROAM so they don't have to manually check.

If they see you log in, it's most likely a client thing, especially if you remained on the QW list afterwards. If they don't see you log in, it's most likely a server thing.

Try upgrading to the latest released version: 4.52



Maybe the Roam character has some in-game option set (eg. MXP) that is confusing the client. Try checking your game options when logged in with a different client.

Also try setting Edit Menu -> Debug Packets just before connecting. Then look in the separate window which will appear to see if in-game information is scrolling by, but you are just not seeing it in the main window.

Try looking in the world configuration -> Info pane, and seeing if Input/Output "Received" count is going up. Eg. type "look" and then see if the number of bytes received increased.

Yes, turned trace on just to show that nothing was happening. Like I said, it's a completely blank world, just to test and try and get it running. No plugins ect..

Getting someone to test the watchforallow thing

Ok here's the test with the newest version and debug packets..


Welcome to MUSHclient version 4.52!
Written by Nick Gammon.

Compiled: Jul 7 2010.
Using: Lua 5.1.1, PCRE 8.01, PNG 1.4.3, SQLite3 3.6.23.1, Zlib 1.2.3

For information and assistance about MUSHclient visit our forum at:
http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/

--- Connected on Saturday, July 10, 2010, 9:15 PM ---
Rapture Runtime Environment v2.1.6 -- (c) 2010 -- Iron Realms Entertainment
Multi-User License: 100-0000-000

******************************************

Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands

"Your fate and fame shall be
an echo and a light unto eternity."

******************************************

Achaea's IP address is 69.65.42.66
For general questions e-mail support@achaea.com.
252 adventurers are currently in the realms.

1. Enter the game.
2. Create a new character.
3. Quit.

Enter an option or enter your character's name.
roam
What is your password?
**********



and heres the debug...



The above was tested while friended with Boz. He said he saw me log in and sent a few tells, (which went through as if I was there) as you can see, I got nothing though. Really fustrating... :(

I hope that isn't your real password there. If so, I would change it right now.

:P Yeah, I did. It was a temporary password anyways. Realized too late. No edit function :(

The fact that you cannot connect, even with a new world file, strongly indicates to me that there is something about the configuration of Roam on Achaea. Using another client (like the Nexus client) I would check all your Roam character options (and change his password while you are at it). There must be some ATCP / MXP / MCCP or other configuration option that is turned on, that is confusing the client. Or maybe the server is just waiting on some response it is not getting.

From what I have heard, the IRE games are adding improvements to support ATCP2 / GMCP protocols, and maybe there is some sort of bug there. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that they generally test with zMUD/cMUD, so a bug in their code may go undetected for a while. Meanwhile, Twisol who is a major player of IRE games, is also strongly involved in MUSHclient development, and I am sure he would report if there is some major bug in the way MUSHclient works.

If you log into the forum (rather than putting your password on every post) there is an Edit link on every post of yours.

Try disabling compression too. (Checkbox in world Output configuration).

The packets you published earlier translate to:


IAC WONT ATCP IAC WONT ATCP2 IAC SB MCCP2 IAC SE roam CR NL What is your password? IAC GA


That looks pretty standard. It would have been interesting to see packets 1 and 2. I note that the server is saying WONT to ATCP and ATCP2, so it sounds like you aren't using the ATCP plugins. I also note that it is turning MCCP2 on, so it *is* using compression.

Rather interesting that it's saying WONT at all; I'd expect it to either say WILL and wait for a response, or not say anything at all. Wonder what's up with that.

According to:

www.mudstandards.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=107

[EDIT] (April 2015) Warning: Domain name mudstandards.org has been abandoned. That site is now an adult products shop.


Normal Telnet Option negotiation protocol is used with a telnet option number of 201 (un-registered).

Server sends:
IAC WILL 201

Client responds with

IAC DO 201
if it supports ATCP2


There isn't anything there about the server sending WONT 201. The first couple of packets might clear that up (and perhaps Twisol see what happens to your first few packets).

Possibly this happened:


Server: IAC WILL 201 (in packet 1)

Client: IAC DONT 201

Server: IAC WONT 201


Aaah, that's an excellent point. MUSHclient sends a WONT when no plugin returns true on an OnPluginTelnetRequest, doesn't it? So that's probably not the problem here...

The first packet was probably Achaea sending the title screen and options, and the second packet was likely MUSHclient replying to the option requests.

Strictly speaking I don't think we should be getting a WONT from Achaea.

Assuming in packet 1 they sent:

Server: IAC WILL 201 (do you want to use ATCP2?)

And then we respond:

Client: IAC DONT 201 (no thanks)

That should be the end of the negotiation. For them to then reply (to the DONT):

Server: IAC WONT 201 (I won't use 201)

... is getting into a negotiation loop. It's like they think they are being told to not use 201 (and are replying "OK I won't do that") but *they* started the negotation, not us.

The loop goes like this, translated into normal English:


Server: Do you want to use 201?
Client: No don't use 201
Server: Ah you don't want me to use 201? I won't then.
Client: Don't use 201? Ok then.
Server: Ah, 201 is out is it? OK I won't use it.
Client: So we aren't using 201 today? I won't use it then.
Server: I notice you don't want me to use 201. I wont then.
Client: OK, me neither.
Server: Nor me.
Client: I won't be using it.
...
And so on for thousands of lines.


So basically the server should remember it started the negotiation, and not keep replying to the reply.

Just popping in to see what's happening. Started playing midkemia a bit to while the time. (might be relevant; my character in Midkemia is named Roam as well, and has no issues.)

You guys mind translating a bit of what is or might be going on in laymans terms? I have a basic understanding of lua and mush (enough that I can code a system and plugins ect...) but you guys lost me somewhere around the wonts and iac's.

Also, anything I can do or post to help out lemme know. Seems like this may have to do with achaea's playing around with atcp, and I'd assume it would eventually effect others as well.

Off topic. Viva Espana!!! World Cup!

It was more or less just a lot of figuring out what could be going on. You might want to pay attention to this post though:



Specifically, try toggling CONFIG MXP to ON or OFF in Achaea, then try connecting with MUSHclient again. Also try disabling compression in MUSHclient in Game -> Configure -> Output. I'm 99% certain Nexus doesn't use compression (or it didn't last time I watched it with Wireshark), so that's a potential (but still unlikely) cause.

Also, I know you've reformatted and everything, but try connecting from another computer. I'm shooting in the dark, unfortunately.


Maybe, but you would think that it would affect every character. Not only that, but Achaea isn't even sending you ATCP (that's what the IAC WONT ATCP thing is all about). So that's probably not it...

The short answer is that since you can connect to all your other characters, and it fails even on a new world file, that there isn't really something major wrong with MUSHclient, but more likely some way your character Roam is configured on Achaea.

Twisol plays on Achaea with MUSHclient, and he hasn't noticed it either. Plus, around 1,000 downloads a week are made of MUSHclient and I haven't heard of this problem before.

If you can't resolve it I would contact the Achaea admins, and state that this particular character seems to hang after connecting, and can they look into it for you?

I seem to recall a bug report a while back that under Windows XP (from memory) MUSHclient may exhibit similar symptoms, unless you run it with Admin privileges. However again, if this was a daily occurrence I would be hearing about it much more often. Plus, you can connect to your other characters, so this probably isn't it.

It seems more likely to me that since only one character (of yours) on Achaea is having this problem, it is an issue at their end rather than the client end. And remember Achaea are playing around with enhancing their server with ATCP2 code. Conceivably some combination of flags for a character might confuse their server output routines.