voice disconnection issues

[James Crutchley 1441481]

I'm getting frequent disconnects from voice for vatsim. Client stays connected to network but voice say "Disconnected from voice server. Reason: Lost Connection". This happened so far two times tonight. Flights earlier this week and in the past month have had frequent voice comms lost and earlier flight this week it was out for hours for me.

 

Any plans on making it more reliable and stable? Are there plans to update clients? Is server hardware just not up to the task of dealing with either bandwidth or such? Is it an issue on my end? I am using vpilot for p3d v4.5 and i have decent wired internet. I do not have access to the router or its configuration and cannot make any changes to it.

Edit: Just got disconnected for a third time in less than 3 hours.

Edit 2: Just got disconnected for a fourth time in less than 4 hours. And now "Error connecting to voice server: The request timed-out" so yah i have Center online and i'm reduced to texting him cause ya voice is down for the 4th time tonight!

[Nestor Perez]

Voice server went down tonight at around 0220z, but was back up shortly after.

 

Most of the times all connections are getting dropped out it is not an issue we can solve, unfortunately. If it happens to everyone else at the same time, up until now it’s usually been an issue at the datacenter where the server is at (except for one or two times that it was our fault). If it’s only you getting disconnected at that moment, it’s something either on your end or in between your end and ours, and unfortunately, we can’t help out with any of those.

 

Nonetheless, an auto-reconnect feature is planned to be implemented. When, I do not know... we’re all taking quite some time off to try and get back all the motivation we once had

[James Crutchley 1441481]

All i can say is i stay connected to network it appears i only have issues with voice itself. And yah it just went down again at 00:41:20. I am only having issues with voice not vatsim network in general that stays up and is working perfectly.

 

Edit: Ok i am flying into Australia to YMML with ATC center online and voice dropped again and now i cannot reconnect to voice. It is down for me and vatsim network is working fine but no voice. This makes 7 or 8 times voice has gone out today. I would like it if there is a method to troubleshoot issues and or submit logs so that i can try and resolve this. The main vatsim network is rock solid but voice feels like a beta product that has a lot of issues from my perspective

 

Edit 2: Just lost connection again to voice servers. Looks like if i wait a few min between and d/c from network and then reconnect voice will reconnect. Hopefully by the time i'm in range of ATC the voice servers will be stable again.

[Simon Kelsey]

Hi James,

 

Could you go to https://www.megapath.com/speedtestplus/ and run a test for me please?

 

I'd be interested to know the results, in particular the latency and jitter values.

 

Thanks!

[Daniel Grammer]

Voice dropping on both vatsim functions 1.ATC 2.xpilot. The problem is not consistent. For instance on 12/12/2019 at 17:30Z I went on line as KHIO_TWR to control for a while ... 7 and a half hours later I finally got off. Not much traffic or voice comms but I had no disconnects of the voice. Prior to this date I was having problems with frequent voice drops while controlling and I disabled my windows fire wall on 12/11 the day before the successful long shift. I figured that was the issue. On 12/13 during the same time frame the very next day I worked KHIO and KBFI twrs and wow I spent more time reconnecting to voice with ATC than I did comms with pilots. Frequency of voice drops was 3 to 5 minutes appart. Also on 12/13 sometime after 0000Z I brought up xplane and xpilot and voice drops on xpilot were rapid and I could not communicate with ground control long enough to taxi for departure so I just disconnected. Friends mention UDP ports and such but if I am at all able to talk on voice for any period of time I would not think that is the issue. I would think if I have a pc firewall or router firewall issue I would be dead to begin with. I am wondering if there is possibly some kind of timeout problem but disconnects vary in time between occurances. The network I believe stays up and just the voice falls off in ATC but I may be loosing the network on xpilot. If I come up with any answers I will add or repost. I will re-examin the xpilot happenings to see if it says disconnected from network.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

12/14/2019 2130z: I spoke with some of the other controllers today and they confirmed voice disconnecting issue also. I believe NOW that it is NOT an item for my facility engineer nor for me to tweak my computer. In fact I am going to re-enable windows defender firewall. This must be an issue with the AFV servers and that pretty much covers it. It would be nice for it to be fixed and or an auto reconnect being instituted as I believe I read something about above in this thread. I want to thank the people that are responsible to fix this ahead time for doing so. Such a great bunch of volunteers.

Edited December 14, 2019 at 11:04 PM by Guest

[Simon Kelsey]

Hi Daniel,

 

As I asked James above -- when you next experience voice disconnects please could you run the test I linked and let me know the results?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

[Daniel Grammer]

Yes sir. Today I compared that test to speedtest dot net and they seem to be close but I will use your test of choice and inform you. Thanks for digging in on this. Although I am not on vatsim at the moment here is an initial test result for you.

https://prnt.sc/qaxkds

Way slower than normal on both tests.

[James Crutchley 1441481]

Sorry about the delay i have a screenshot of website with info you requested. https://prntscr.com/qaygey

[Daniel Grammer]

OK, Tonight I was on KSEA_GND with an approach controller also on line. I was only on for 30 minutes because I HAD to get off. The follow is the disconnect times and results of MegaPath/SpeedTestPlus immediately following the disconnects.

Times are zulu in case that is important.

 

TIME CL[Mod - Happy Thoughts] DL UL LATENCY JITTER

0445Z Fair 0.96 0.22 91 84

0050Z Good 1.35 0.15 106 59

0100Z Fair 0.59 0.14 190 65

0105Z Bad 0.41 0.15 126 231

0110Z Poor 0.73 0.30 125 124

0115Z Good 0.98 0.24 115 12

 

These speed test are not representative of my normal connection speeds so I will follow this up if I get back to normal 3 to 10 down and 1 to 5 up. But you certainly don't need any more of these slow speeds. Please not the consistant five minute intervals if that is meaningful.

 

Here is an excerpt from the logfile.txt located in folder "logs" in AudioForVATSIM folder of my harddrive. There were several of these.

2019-12-13 16:40:28.5481 GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection Lost connection to Voice Server

2019-12-13 16:45:26.4830 GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection Lost connection to Voice Server

2019-12-13 16:46:13.9068 GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (0x80004005): A blocking operation was interrupted by a call to WSACancelBlockingCall

at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.ReceiveFrom(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags, EndPoint& remoteEP)

at System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient.Receive(IPEndPoint& remoteEP)

at GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection.TaskVoiceServerReceive(Logger logger, CancellationToken cancelToken, ClientConnectionData connection, UdpClient udpClient, BlockingCollection`1 receiveQueue) in C:\Users\Gary\Docomeents\GitHub\GeoVR.VATSIM\Source\GeoVR.Connection\ClientConnection.cs:line 243System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (0x80004005): A blocking operation was interrupted by a call to WSACancelBlockingCall

at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.ReceiveFrom(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags, EndPoint& remoteEP)

at System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient.Receive(IPEndPoint& remoteEP)

at GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection.TaskVoiceServerReceive(Logger logger, CancellationToken cancelToken, ClientConnectionData connection, UdpClient udpClient, BlockingCollection`1 receiveQueue) in C:\Users\Gary\Docomeents\GitHub\GeoVR.VATSIM\Source\GeoVR.Connection\ClientConnection.cs:line 243

2019-12-13 16:50:28.7358 GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection Lost connection to Voice Server

2019-12-13 16:55:26.5765

Then multiple lines of the same verbage: GeoVR.Connection.ClientConnection Lost connection to Voice Server

I just don't understand the verbage but I will share with you that my speed tests were SICK and uncommanly slow.

Thanks for your time. Maybe this info will help.

Daniel

[Roman Sill 1396053]

This is getting ridiculous. When vPilot was doing the disconnecting from voice issue, I was frustrated. At least I was okay training for ATC as observing via VRC and the standalone client was not a problem. Not anymore. Recently, the client for Audio standalone won't even connect stay connected to the network.

I'm losing faith in the techs, and propose going back to the [Mod - lovely stuff]py system that at least let everybody use it. If nothing changes, I am going to have to quit training for ATC, and will no longer elect to fly on the network.

I have made my network less secure manually compromising my firewall, downloading and run an unknown dropbox file that I cannot verify is secure to report the results to thread that is closed- in addition, I am playing MMORPGs, using Discord, Teamspeak, and other clients with no technical problems.

The tech support is not competent, and rarely reaches out, never reports progress or lack of. I think I'm done trusting the staff.

[Nestor Perez]

Roman, I've already replied to you and your disgustingly "nice" comments in another thread. Could you now run the test that Simon posted above and let us know what results you get?

[James Crutchley 1441481]

I have downloaded the dropbox file and will post a reply with debug text when i do next flight if i have issues and will also post all info that i can get at that time. Sorry i did not post info correctly before i will try to get it right

[Nestor Perez]

That was not for you James, but for Roman. You have already attached the screenshot with the information Simon requested

[James Crutchley 1441481]

Logs for loss of voice communication

GVRD region Vancouver, BC, Canada

time of disconnect roughly 9:10PM PST or 0510 Zulu

Logged in as CXA563

P3D v4.5 running Vatsim Client on beta channel

Logs: https://www83.zippyshare.com/v/rUiyA4TJ/file.html

 

[Roman Sill 1396053]

Roman, I've already replied to you and your disgustingly "nice" comments in another thread. Could you now run the test that Simon posted above and let us know what results you get?

 

I ask for you to understand my frustration, I acknowledge my intended harsh tone, as well as your valid claims of reply.

 

Respectfully, and without sarcasm (any perceived reproach is a difficulty using the correct wording on my end), One frustration has been the "thread hunt" for which of three or four threads concerning a specific voice disconnect issue. In the past, I feel the support replies were a little scarce, and often suggested user failure, ften a valid concern, howerver I saw the support request also often include data that would eliminate need for developer doubt of the user, especially when network and OS settings were described.

Please also understand that I have limited network understanding a little more advanced than a regular user, but not much further. With that, I am not suggesting I have skills that allow me to criticize an a specialist, but I am suggesting a specialist would rarely say "Run thus unknown, unsigned data file from a public server". To that end, I believe I had, and posted the results in that "other thread", along with a link to my logs. I intend to run it again, and post here in case I hadn't. (due to system integrity concerns). I will include another link to the logs, and perhaps additional logs. (Though given that it doesn't state the handshakes or any other real protocol data, I doubt it's helpful besides indicating the time in between connects and disconnects). I cannot provide logs for the standalone client which has now begun to decline connection, and is the crux of my frustration as stated, I've put a ton of time and effort into training as a controller with BVARTCC.

 

I take back my accusations of incompetence, though again, I'n not having issues with my weather client or either ACARRS or SmartCARRS. I also successfully use Avare with FSConnect. Outside of FSX, as stated, I stream on Discord, and chat text and voice in both Discord and Teamspeak on the regular basis, and I also have no issues with voice in TruckersMP, which is essentially VATSIM for Euro/American Truck Simulator. The only app that fails to maintain a connection on my rig is Audio for VATSIM.

 

That said,I'd look into the differences between Win7 and Win10, as my Win7 machine can stay connected, last I checked, but is not feasible to run a flight (or truck) simulator anymore (old i/o hardware is wearing out, as well as chip-set suffering from long and continuous hard demand) - the primary reason I upgraded my rig in the first place... to use VATSIM.

 

In summery, I understand I may be critical, but I do mean to be respectful, and if I had failed,it is my fault. I have communication issues when not actually speaking. I've wrecked relationships with texts that were intended to be positive, but my wording over written mediums just naturally make me seem cold.

 

Thank you for your time and attention. Despite my communication skills, know I appreciate your efforts. I will post my data soon.

 

Roman

[Daniel Grammer]

One fix for my every five minutes disconnect from AFV while using VRC while controlling I discovered tonight was:

Open Cmd prompt as admin

type: netsh winsock reset

Enter

Reboot

That worked for over an hour until some other issue discrupted comms for everybody. Not sure what that was. But the problem I had been experiencing was loss of voice every 5 minutes. The loss was like clock work. I research socket errors and found the solution above. It worked for me.

Good LUCK all.

[Daniel Grammer]

Hi Daniel,

 

As I asked James above -- when you next experience voice disconnects please could you run the test I linked and let me know the results?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

 

One fix for my every five minutes disconnect from AFV while using VRC while controlling I discovered tonight was:

Open Cmd prompt as admin

type: netsh winsock reset

Enter

Reboot

That worked for over an hour until some other issue discrupted comms for everybody. Not sure what that was. But the problem I had been experiencing was loss of voice every 5 minutes. The loss was like clock work. I research socket errors and found the solution above. It worked for me.

Good LUCK all.

 

Kinda like I had to do the laundry and wash the "socks" haha.

[James Crutchley 1441481]

I have noticed a pattern of behavior with the issues i have been having with voice. If ATC is online and i am connected to their channel i have no disconnect issues. If i am on unicom and there is no voice activity at all like on long haul flights over atlantic or pacific ocean i get d/c after about 10 min every time i reconnect. Its like its timing out or something.

 

Maybe if you add a keep alive byte to network traffic it might be an idea? And as to auto reconnect it would be nice to have a feature where u can turn it off and on in case of issues and/or it could become an issue with ppl like me if i am reconnecting to network frequently automatically when disconnected?

 

A solution that was a band aid fix on old codec with silent fail of voice for me was to que mic at least once every 10 min to keep me from being disconnected. I had an issue where if i did not activate mic at least once every 10 min or so i would not hear atc if he was transmitting on old codec either. So same issue except now i have a msg saying disconnected from voice.

 

I have no access to router and for security reasons i cannot open ports on wan firewall. If client and/or network protocal for voice had a feature where client could use a keep alive bit/bytle transmision saying keep me connected so port would stay open would be an idea i would like to put forward to help alieviate this issue. I may be totally looking at it wrong or it may not be practical to implement this idea but i have seen such work before with other network connections.

[James Crutchley 1441481]

Well my internet went out at 10pm tonight and i texted my landlord. He said wait i am upgrading the router i will get back to you. At midnight he sent new login info and i have had zero issues with voice for vatsim. I just wanted to say ty to mods and and devs that might have been working on this and mention i have had no issues since upgrading the modem tonight. I before this upgrade had near constant voice disconnects and now it appears fingers crossed not to be an issue.

 

I think it was caused by ports closing for some reason because of inactivity. But that is a guess on my part as i am not a dev or network engineer and it might as well be voodoo magic as far as i am concerned. TY to everyone who listened and may have been working on this issue.

 

My parting statement is a keep alive ping from client to server might help others if it can be worked into client. I think it may be a hardware issue for some at the router level with ports that are inactive being closed or such but hey again not a network engineer or dev so take what i say with a grain of salt.

[Nestor Perez]

That keep-alive packet is already sent James, which is why (in theory) there shouldn't really be that kind of issues for anyone on new voice. But... theory doesn't seem to like practice every now and then

 

Glad to hear you finally got it working anyway!

[James Crutchley 1441481]

well it appears it was only an issue when there was no voice activity on a channel and i figure it was hardware on my end closing the port at about the 10 minute mark. I don't believe it is on the server end and maybe a more frequent keep alive where client sends more data or more frequent keep alive as i can say with pretty high certainty it is at 10 min mark of no activity with active voice that i had issues. Oh and using bandwidth to do other things like an active download using most of my internet will still knock it out. So it could be a variety of things. Hogging my internet downloading stuff taking out voice is ok as that is my fault and kind of makes sense. Otherwise rock solid on my end now.

[Stephan Haas 811326]

For what it's worth: I had the same problem with continuous disconnects.

Redowloaded vPilot and installed it in a different directory (not in the suggested Appdata). Excluded the whole directory in Bitdefender (before only the .exe). Now it's working fine.

[Gary Oliver]

Any other people tried the Windows Defender or Winsock Reset fixes and confirm they work?

 

Cheers

Gary

AFV Lead

[Norman Blackburn]

Any other people tried the Windows Defender or Winsock Reset fixes and confirm they work?

Gary I was getting kicked from voice numerous times yesterday - all when on 122.800

I can't recall ever losing connection when the frequency has traffic.

I ran the winsock fix and connected. 13 minutes later "lost connection" is back

 

[20:18:11] Disconnected from voice server. Reason: Lost connection

Disconnect and reconnect immediately

[20:23:39] Disconnected from voice server. Reason: Lost connection

[Nestor Perez]

What were your results at https://www.megapath.com/speedtestplus/ when it was happening?