Re: BF4 server connection problem

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Very interesting @GODSGRAV3 ,

It might then actually be the same thing?

We are om the PlayStation network, and from the symptoms we observe it appears as if the server park is being DDOS attacked, in very similar time intervals also as you mention there.  The servers hosted at the same location are definitely both for the BF4 on PC and also for the Playstation platform.  And we see that other servers than our own are also crashing down pretty much at the same time all together. 

In the BF4 game we can see suddenly the red server performance tacos popping up, on the screen top right.  And this is despite there may only be a handful of players on the game server itself.  And then within 1-3 minutes, the server stalls and then all freezes in the gameplay and then 20-50 seconds later it crashes/drops all connected players off in one go.  Often the server is then remaining in a frozen state and nobody can join it anymore for many minutes thereafter.  Sometimes this then is though for a much longer period of time. 

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Well, the behaviour is different from what we are experiencing. We have confirmation from our server provider (g-portal) that there is no DDOS. And they are pointing the finger to EA. Maybe it is the same bad actor but a different method?

We do not see the "red server performance tacos". The game disconnects us from the server, even tho the server it self is still up and running (talking about the actual server not battlefield software). We can still reach the server via procon and there is no disconnect from it when we are disconnected from the game. We are also no experiencing the issue that people are in a state of people not joining. Sometimes it does happen that people are in the queue, but thats something from the back-end again..

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So not getting the service from EA that we pay for, to rent the servers from them! 

(mind you, on PlayStation, all user support including server support has to be delivered by EA themselves.  I know that PC server renters can and should go straight to the server hosting partner, who they also pay for this.  Not so for Sony PlayStation environment.  So still waiting to see any action from EA's side to get this fixed...)

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You got this partly right. On PC we indeed host the server from a provider so we need to contact them. But it still uses the back-end of EA. This is called Blaze, as far as I know, this is what is being targeted we believe. So eventhough we need to go to our provider, they cant do anything as its the back-end of EA, not g-portal.

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@GODSGRAV3 wrote:

Well, the behaviour is different from what we are experiencing. We have confirmation from our server provider (g-portal) that there is no DDOS. And they are pointing the finger to EA. Maybe it is the same bad actor but a different method?

We do not see the "red server performance tacos". The game disconnects us from the server, even tho the server it self is still up and running (talking about the actual server not battlefield software). We can still reach the server via procon and there is no disconnect from it when we are disconnected from the game. We are also no experiencing the issue that people are in a state of people not joining. Sometimes it does happen that people are in the queue, but thats something from the back-end again..

You got this partly right. On PC we indeed host the server from a provider so we need to contact them. But it still uses the back-end of EA. This is called Blaze, as far as I know, this is what is being targeted we believe. So eventhough we need to go to our provider, they cant do anything as its the back-end of EA, not g-portal.

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BINGO @GODSGRAV3  !!!

Now I was only referring to the official runtime-support of the BF4 servers as such and the principles of this. 

Because here is the insights I also have digged out, after great and keen help also from the server hosting partner that EA uses for the PlayStation environment.  We have sat up 'live' direct measure and tracking 24/7 of my own local Playstation4 and its direct internet line linkage to the physical server box at the BF4 server hosting company (i3D.net here in Europe) and they had similar on their BF4 server box. 

So here we had hard evidence and proof that at absolutely no time ever, did we have even one single package lost between the two entities in their communication with each other.  Not one single line fault or disconnect.  And this setup we ran for 3+ days.  Al perfect, clean and complete.  Not one single bleep on the line or server or PS4 ever! 

And still.  The BF4 game server provided the message back to me the user that I had lost the connection to EA Game Server.   All despite this was physically and technically not correct, as I had still direct line connection with the test application and so did the test application on the server hosting side.  They could confirm the same thing from their end.  And their server was still fully visible and connectable from my end also.

i3D.net could therefore conclude that all on their end was absolutely working as intended and what they are asked by EA to provide of server hosting service to the internet.  But that their BF4 server was indeed at times getting a signal from the EA's own backend system to drop the attached players.  So they hinted towards it was on EA's side and something entirely going bad in the interactions between the hosted servers in the server park and the control/interfaces they have with EA's backend (aka managing the user directories, granting access or not, etc).

They acknowledged this was something they had to get fixed in the environment between EA and themselves and nothing we could do anything about on the users side and our connectivity to the game server itself with this hosting partner.

From what you share here @GODSGRAV3 , you then consider that the root cause is due to aka DDOS/script attacks on EA's internal backend (BLAZE?) that controls the user access to the external hosted game servers?