Idle Out

Hello,

I used MUSHclient a year or so ago and never had problems with this, but now when I try to keep a world open for a long period of time with no activity from me, I idle out. The actual MUD does not log me out as there are people other then me who have been idle for much longer, so I'm fairly certain it's a client time out, but I see no settings for this. It never used to happen.

Is there anything that I can do to stop this from happening?

Hi,

I had such issues back last February. After a long search we found out, that I have to change a setting in my LPC MUD user setting to receive a Telnet-ping from the mud.
Before that I used a timer to send a random emote to keep me non-idle, and this idletimer is reset every time I send something to the mud.

Hope that helps
StuDraKi

By a strange coincidence the topic of time-outs was covered in detail only a few days ago in this thread:

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=8665&page=1

In that thread the author thought the MUD server was timing him out. Now you think the client is doing it.

In his case, the upshot was, after about 4 days of research, that his firewall was responsible, and turning it off stopped the timeouts.

There is no provision in MUSHclient to time you out, and thus no setting to change. You could, of course, write a timer to do that for you if you wanted, but I presume you haven't done that.

Timeouts can be fiddly to find, because there are a few places they might be implemented, between you and the MUD server ...

• I believe some versions of Windows drop a connection after a certain time has elapsed (eg. an hour or so). I think there is a setting to change that behaviour, but can't find it right now, and it would depend on which version of Windows you are using.
  
• Evidently, as reported in the other thread, your firewall might be responsible.
  
• Some routers have timeouts, so if you have a "home router" connecting you to the Internet, try connecting to its configuration port and changing its timeout.
  
• There might be some upstream router (eg. at your Internet Service Provider) that you don't directly control, that is configured to time out idle connections. Maybe you can change that, or have it changed.

This tends to indicate that MUSHclient is not to blame. Since the problem started, has something else changed? Eg. new firewall, router, different ISP, upgraded Windows, that sort of thing?


If all that fails, make a timer in MUSHclient that sends something periodically - just often enough to stop the timeout. For example, if you timeout after an hour, send something after 55 minutes. Just send something short (eg. "look" or "score") - just enough to fool all those routers and firewalls into thinking you are busy.

Thank you for your responses.

Lots has changed actually since the last time using it. New computer, new internet connection, new router, new operating system. I use a Dell Inspiron laptop running Vista, a Linksys standard configuration router with a very large cable internet provider.

I did try setting up a timer, even with that it timed out, which perplexes me greatly.

You haven't said what the "long period of time" is, but I am guessing an hour or two. Can you confirm that? Is it an exact period, or approximate? If it is always exactly (say) an hour, then you need to find some setting, somewhere, that says "disconnect after an hour".

It doesn't totally surprise me that it can happen even with the timer. Assuming the timer is actually doing its stuff, I have read pages of results from Google on the search topic "router disconnect hour" which seems to suggest that other people are being disconnected (not just anything to do with MUSHclient) by their routers.

I believe there might be some setting, possibly in Windows itself, or certainly in routers, that assume that a lengthy connection is some sort of fault, and drops it. Things you could try are:

• Google for "windows vista disconnect hour" (assuming you are using Vista) and see if you find messages that seem relevant. I think there is some registry setting you might be able to change.
  
• Upgrade your router's firmware. Sometimes there can be known problems with boxes "off the shelf" and getting the manufacturer's later firmware can help.
  
• Go to the router configuration port and look for any sort of "disconnect after x minutes" setting.
  
• If you are using DHCP (which you probably are) make sure that the "lease renew time" is not the same as the disconnect interval. Basically DHCP gets you a dynamic IP address from a DHCP server, and that address gets "renewed" at intervals (eg. 8 hours). The renewal process may cause the connection to drop. If the renewal interval is 2 hours, and you get disconnected after 2 hours, then try making it 8 hours (or 24 hours). Bear in mind that you won't necessarily have a new lease the moment you connect to the MUD, so you would have to look at the general time interval. Say, it renews every 2 hours, but is due for renewal in 5 minutes, then it might disconnect you after 5 minutes.
  
• See if your firewall has some sort of configuration that might apply. Check the firewall logs, if any. Try disabling the firewall temporarily.
  
• I saw a suggestion that "network filtering" software might be responsible. Let's say you have something like "net nanny" or similar, configured to filter out swearing. And let's say on the MUD someone nearby you swears. Maybe the filter drops the connection at that point. Try disabling any such software, if you have it.
  
• If you are using a wireless router, do the disconnections coincide with radio activity? For example, a mobile phone ringing, or using a portable phone in the house. Or, someone opening the garage door with a radio control, that sort of thing. If possible, test with a wired rather than a wireless connection.
  
• Google for "router disconnect hour" and see if you can get any hints. Specifically also search for your router model. There were some posts that a specific sub-model of certain routers is notorious for its unreliability. If you still have the old router, try that. Also consider taking the router back and complaining. Especially if you can print out some forum posts that mention how bad your particular model is.
  
• Try swapping stuff around if possible. For instance, if you have the old PC, try that. If it works perfectly with the old PC, then the configuration of the new PC is responsible. If it still happens, then forget the PC and look at the router.
  
• Check the forums for your ISP (or their FAQ or help desk). People who play online games, like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars, are likely to have similar issues. They may have suggestions, or be able to turn on some setting at their end to stop it happening to you. Try lodging a support request at the ISP.

Good luck. Let us know if you resolve it, that may help the next person.

More modern Linksys routers are fairly (in)famous for dropping connections that have been in in the 'established' state without any sort of data transmission (such as a NOP packet) after something like an hour or so.

It used to be on the order of days, much to the chagrin of those who love the warez/completely legal linux distributions via bittorrent, since bittorrent barfs up connections everywhere and then doesn't properly close them.

My suggestions would be one of the following:
*Make a ghetto keepalive timer
*Ask the admin of your MUD very nicely to implement some sort of keepalive system
*Wail and gnash your teeth
*Install a third party firmware such as tomato and change the value yourself to something higher.