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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
13 years ago
Solved

How do I fix my "connection to the server timed out" error?

I've spent a month or so looking around online for a solution to the problem, but nothing I've tried has worked. Basically the problem is that every now and then - anywhere from every 5 minutes to e...
battlefield 3
  • Carbonic's avatar
    Carbonic
    13 years ago

    Ah, didn't know it was a laptop.

    Well, alot of laptops suffer from overheating which can cause all kinds of problems. The only two things you can really do about it is to:

    • Buy a laptopcooler, which cools the laptop from underneath
    • Remove the dust in the laptop - spraying it off using compressed air is the most effective method.

    You format your computer by googling and finding a comprehensive guide, but in general steps it's:

    • Take backup
    • Format your harddrive (effectivly deleting everything on your computer)
    • Install Windows anew.

    Please accept the solution if it's correct and press the XP button if somebody helped you.

    Cheers
    -Carbonic

Carbonic's avatar
Carbonic
Hero+
13 years ago

Well, as you can read from the guide, som hosts along the way will just not respond as that is not their intended function. However, if you run the test, specificly when you are having problems, you might notice that there are packetlosses or high ms's.

Some questions:

  • Are the problem happening in other network intensive games? Other online fps games perhaps?
  • How is your network configuration? (Cable-->Modem-->Router(brand model)-->switch-->computer)
  • Have you updated your drivers, ie. motherboard, network adapter, etc. ?
  • Are you playing on different servers? (I presume they have good ping)
  • Is your router using the newest firmware?
  • Have you tried connecting your computer directly to the modem or however you are getting the internet.
  • Does it happen more frequently when you are using torrents, downloading, have several users on the internet?

Looking at your uotrace there might be some problems, especially with the first one to "* Unknown Host" which I suspect is the Apple Airport thing. It should never reach a worst ping of 128ms also the next step reaches 132ms which is quite high. I don't think it should be high enough to course you to be kicked from the servers but it could indicate a problem.

 

Again, this is the hard way to do it, the easy thing would be for someone else to play BF3 on your network 😉

 

Please accept the solution if it's correct and press the XP button if somebody helped you.

Cheers
-Carbonic

Ps. just as a reference, this is how my UOtrace looks(my ip replaced with x's):

Host Name IP Address Hop Ping Time Ping Avg % Loss Pkts r/s Ping best/worst
DIR-615 192.168.1.1 1 0ms 0ms 0% 142 / 142 0ms / 1ms
ip-15-1.bnaa.dk x.x.x.x 2 0ms 5ms 0% 142 / 142 0ms / 23ms
te-2-2.core16.net.bnaa.dk 84.238.2.74 3 12ms 10ms 0% 142 / 142 5ms / 20ms
* Unknown Host * 194.255.178.97 4 5ms 5ms 0% 142 / 142 5ms / 14ms
telia-dk-106842-kbn-b1.c.telia.ne213.248.66.146 5 5ms 5ms 0% 142 / 142 5ms / 7ms
kbn-b1-geth2-3.telia.net 213.248.66.145 6 5ms 9ms 0% 142 / 142 5ms / 55ms
kbn-bb1-link.telia.net 213.155.130.96 7 29ms 12ms 0% 142 / 142 5ms / 85ms
nyk-bb1-link.telia.net 80.91.254.89 8 103ms 98ms 0% 142 / 142 85ms / 167ms
nyk-b5-link.telia.net 213.155.131.137 9 87ms 91ms 0% 142 / 142 86ms / 139ms
* Unknown Host * 192.205.36.109 10 97ms 93ms 0% 142 / 142 87ms / 145ms
cr2.n54ny.ip.att.net 12.122.81.110 11 96ms 100% 0 / 142
cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net 12.122.3.38 12 97ms 100% 0 / 142
cr84.wswdc.ip.att.net 12.123.10.250 13 94ms 100% 0 / 141
gar2.ascva.ip.att.net 12.122.134.117 14 107ms 100% 0 / 141
* Unknown Host * 12.116.77.34 15 92ms 92ms 0% 141 / 141 92ms / 102ms
fert07-eqx-iad.ea.com 159.153.224.226 16 96ms 100% 0 / 141
meav5-pub.pt.iad.ea.com 159.153.226.105 17 98ms 100% 0 / 141

 

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
13 years ago

I don't play any other intensive games online on pc, but I do occasionally diconnect even on TF2, which is relatively light.

I connect via wifi from my Airport Extreme, which is connected to my modem (don't know what kind; my ISP is Bell if that helps, since they supplied the modem)

I haven't updated my drivers and don't really know how to

I've had this problem on at least five different servers, all with ping under 50ms

I believe there's an update available for my router, which I'll update before I try playing again

No I haven't tried tried directly connecting to my modem but that's a good idea; I'll try that

I don't know if other people using the internet, downloading, etc makes it disconnect more, but the rate of disconnection fluctuates like crazy so that could definitely be the case

  • Carbonic's avatar
    Carbonic
    Hero+
    13 years ago
    1. TF2 is not light on network traffic since there's many players. so that means it's not Battlefield's or EA's fault 🙂
    2. Now I don't know how far you are away from your wifi and what quality it is, but using a cable instead might help
    3. Look here how to update: https://help.ea.com/article/finding-devices-and-updating-drivers or just google it - your network card drivers are the most important
    4. Ok, problem is in several servers which means the server is not to blame
    5. Yes please update your router
    6. If connecting directly to your modem fixes it, then we know the router is to blame
    7. Well, testing this seems straight forward, test it when you are the only one there

    I hope this will lead to you solving your problem, I think I have been pretty helpfull so please click the xp button at my usefull posts and if this fixes and when you figure out what the problem is and thus it's solution then accept it so others with similar problems can find this thread easier 🙂

     

    Looking forward to hear how it goes.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Ok thanks for the help; hopefully I'll be able to get it working. 

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