Not a Bug Chat not working

[DeletedUser]

Just wanted to check the chat in game but all I get is "Could not establish chat connection!". It was working fine about 2 hours ago.

Game version: v1.31-(1b0231415) (2017-05-18 13:04)
Game world: zz1
Browser + version: Firefox 53.0.2 / Chrome 58.0.3029.110 (64-bit) / Vivaldi 1.9.818.50 (Stable channel) (32-bit)
Flash Player version: 25.0.0.171
Operating System: W7 x64 Enterprise
Screen resolution: 1920x1080
Account name: Lord Soth / Jasper
Humans or Elves: Elves

 

[DeletedUser118]

Strange, its all fine for me. I even had a reload but chat still works all fine.

 

[DeletedUser]

I'm at home now and chat is working fine here. Will check tomorrow at work again...

 

[DeletedUser118]

Maybe its blocked from there.

 

[DeletedUser]

Maybe its blocked from there.

It was working fine and since I'm currently the only firewall administrator and didn't change anything I doubt it.

 

[DeletedUser]

Hmm, still no chat at work and no (new) blocks/denies in the firewall. Live Server has no problems, only Beta. Tried a different PC, no luck. So it doesn't seem to be a local PC problem.

I'm seeing a Bad Gateway when using the dev-tools in Firefox.

On Live server everything seems fine:

 

[Kersepitje]

Is anyone else getting this issue?

Soth, have you tried clearing your cache as they asked to do since the login problems? maybe its a a cached url you are getting the bad response from (i know not making much sense but you never know)

 

[DeletedUser]

Soth, have you tried clearing your cache as they asked to do since the login problems? maybe its a a cached url you are getting the bad response from (i know not making much sense but you never know)

Yes, did all the usual things, cache (also flash), ccleaner, reboot, other browsers, nothing works. Also on another computer it isn't working either so doesn't seems to be a local issue. Only have this with Beta, live is working fine.

 

[Kersepitje]

Could you please contact support about this? they can log in to your account and see if they have the same issue then. As a QA mod i dont have access to do that on zz1.

 

[DeletedUser]

OK, done. But I have it will both my ßeta accounts.

 

[Kersepitje]

Support is telling me they cant help you, since its working from home and not at your workplace, it means it is working sometimes.

Maybe they changed the socket for that on beta server, if that is the case you will have to adjust your firewall maybe.
If all that doesnt work, maybe you can try using a vpn connection?

 

[DeletedUser]

Since that update went live the chat didn't work there either. I finally changed our (hardware) firewall (explicit open port 843) and it's working again.

 

[Valtitude]

@Jasper
I'm a long-term Elvenar player (started in June 2015) who's having Chat problems on Winyandor (I know this is beta, but I'm getting desperate). I was away from the game for several months, returned in early Jan 2018 - haven't had Chat since I got back! I've done the cache clearing, try another browser etc stuff. Nothing has worked.
I'm not a system admin expert per se, but I have a lot of experience with Unix/ Linux and Windows and am not afraid to tinker and make changes. If you could share how you debugged your connection and changed your firewall, I'd be very appreciative (lots of thank you's, lol ). Not familiar with Firefox dev tools, but willing to learn.
I'm using an older Win 7 Pro 64 bit machine, Firefox or Chrome (mostly Firefox), local ISP. I have access to a good VPN. I'll try that when I log off as well as take a good look at my router with this page open on my screen. Thanks in advance.

 

[DeletedUser]

@Jasper
I'm a long-term Elvenar player (started in June 2015) who's having Chat problems on Winyandor (I know this is beta, but I'm getting desperate). I was away from the game for several months, returned in early Jan 2018 - haven't had Chat since I got back! I've done the cache clearing, try another browser etc stuff. Nothing has worked.
I'm not a system admin expert per se, but I have a lot of experience with Unix/ Linux and Windows and am not afraid to tinker and make changes. If you could share how you debugged your connection and changed your firewall, I'd be very appreciative (lots of thank you's, lol ). Not familiar with Firefox dev tools, but willing to learn.
I'm using an older Win 7 Pro 64 bit machine, Firefox or Chrome (mostly Firefox), local ISP. I have access to a good VPN. I'll try that when I log off as well as take a good look at my router with this page open on my screen. Thanks in advance.

Hi Valtitude, welcome to the Beta forum.

You can access the dev tools by menu Tools > Web Developer > Toggle Tools (Ctrl+Shift+I). On the Network tab you can see all the request the game is doing and the responses it is getting.
But if you suspect that the Firewall is causing the problem you would also need access to those logs or monitoring. That's what I actually did, I started monitoring our hardware Firewall for connections to zz1.elvenar.com [212.53.139.12] and saw that port 843 was being blocked. Googled that port and it has something to do with Flash and since this is a Flash game I decided to see what would happen if I made a rule to unblock it: voilà, it's working again.
Since chat was working fine before it mustn't have used that port 843 (or it wasn't implemented correctly). Only after the game update in May 2017 did the chat not work anymore. So they must have done something to how chat connects to the server and now it needs port 843.

Setting up a socket policy file server
"With the introduction of Adobe Flash Player 9,0,124,0, Flash Player will not make a socket connection directly to a server without first obtaining explicit permission from that server. This will require some systems and networks to open up ports or run new services in order to support granting permission."

Socket policy request process
Flash Player checks for a socket policy file in three places for each IP connection. The checks occur in the following order:

1. Flash Player first checks port 843 to determine if there is a socket master policy file. If there is no socket master policy file or the socket master policy file has a site-control tag specifying "all", then Flash Player proceeds to the next step. If the site-control tag has a value of "none", then the process stops and the socket is denied a connection.
2. If an ActionScript Security.loadPolicyFile() command exists within the SWF file, then the Flash Player runtime checks that location. Flash Player checks the destination of the loadPolicyFile() only after it has checked the master policy file on port 843 for permission to acknowledge other policy files. If the developer has not specified a loadPolicyFile() command, then Flash Player checks the destination port of the connection.
3. The destination port of the connection is the last check made by Flash Player. This check is only performed if the socket master policy file permits Flash Player to check additional locations. If Flash Player still cannot locate a policy file granting permission, then the socket connection is denied.

 

[Valtitude]

Jasper - thank you for all this information!
Somewhere in my travels trying to figure out what happened to Elvenar's Chat, someone suggested trying a VPN. I have one, but wasn't using it for Elvenar. "Hey, I'll try it!" I declared. Tally ho! and off I go into the wild blue yonder.

The VPN allowed me to login to Elvenar, view Chat and do anything I wanted to here in the game. I logged out feeling I'd overcome the No Chat problem successfully, with little effort.

Then came the downside. Various non-gaming important-for-work sites began freaking out that I was logging in from unknown locations. Security measures kicked in on those sites and our network and for the last 24 hours, I've been working out the kinks and crooks of this mess. I've gotten back to a semblance of stability, but OMGosh, what a PITElbow! These work sites have never reacted to the VPN in this manner before. I'm baffled.

Who knew attempting to deal with such a seemingly simple part of this game could cause total - and I mean TOTAL - chaos in the real world!

Jasper - I'm copying your reply for future needs. Thank you for your time posting it.