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Author Topic: WormNET Service Updates  (Read 15828 times)

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Offline CyberShadow

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WormNET Service Updates
« on: March 22, 2020, 08:41 PM »
Some updates due to the recent jump in activity:
  • HostingBuddy now sends replies from a rotation of nicks to avoid server flood limits
  • Fixed a crash in the WormNAT2 server
  • Changed how the rank/flag is obtained from WormNET, to better work during very high WormNET activity
  • GOG versions are no longer detected as a snooper
  • Fixed being able to reopen games after HostingBuddy is restarted, which would lead to erratic behavior (games randomly closing and "wrong game ID" errors)
  • HostingBuddy and friends will occasionally remind people about some alternatives to !kick (!close and !phost)
  • Allow old URLs (as obtained with /url) to work after a !reopen
  • Fix WebSnooper history getting erased due to the new rank/flag query mechanism
  • Fix encoding of non-English characters in some places
  • Add Host button on WebSnooper
  • Many internal fixes
The new host button is a little experimental. (If you want to mess around with it, I recommend using the staging server.)

As usual, post here if you notice any problems.

Offline Kaleu

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2020, 08:52 PM »
Thanks.. COVID 19 helping worms activity, who wouldve think of that  :D
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Offline Kradie

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2020, 09:14 PM »
Nice, thank you. Keep it going :)
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Offline SigmaTel71

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2020, 10:42 PM »
The new host button is a little experimental. (If you want to mess around with it, I recommend using the staging server.)

As usual, post here if you notice any problems.
It tells me that I can't connect to the server, at least inside the game.
[attachment=1]
Hello, Moto! :D

Offline CyberShadow

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2020, 10:44 PM »
Sorry, I keep forgetting that you need 3.8 to connect to the staging server with the game itself. But hosting and joining games on the WebSnooper instance there should work.

Offline Danger135

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2020, 10:14 AM »
Only few estetic ideas:
1. On regular websnoop could be link/button to redirect at legacy websnoop (for those which dont know about it, and regular websnoop dont work for they).
2. When will HB server restart and all HB hosted games goes crash, it can inform in lobby or in game chat little time ahead about it. Something like "HB server need restart, this game will end in 1 min".
123  My teams use this, this, and this soundbanks.

Offline CyberShadow

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2020, 02:13 PM »
Only few estetic ideas:
1. On regular websnoop could be link/button to redirect at legacy websnoop (for those which dont know about it, and regular websnoop dont work for they).
What is this circumstance?
2. When will HB server restart and all HB hosted games goes crash, it can inform in lobby or in game chat little time ahead about it. Something like "HB server need restart, this game will end in 1 min".
That's not how we restart HB. All games continue in the background until all games are done, only then the old HB exits. Today HB crashes are very rare (less than 1 per month).

Offline Danger135

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2020, 02:37 AM »
On older browsers page snoop.wormnet.net looks like in attached picture. There could be somewhere for this issue "SOS" button for redirect to page http://snoop.wormnet.net/snooper/legacy.html, which work normal. If somebody have old browser and dont know about working legacy snooper, have just bad luck? Simple hypertext "if it not work, click here", or "older version is >here<" could help they.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 02:39 AM by Danger135 »
123  My teams use this, this, and this soundbanks.

Offline SigmaTel71

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2020, 07:56 AM »
The warning showed up in servers list.  ::)

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Offline CyberShadow

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2020, 04:44 PM »
On older browsers page snoop.wormnet.net looks like in attached picture. There could be somewhere for this issue "SOS" button for redirect to page http://snoop.wormnet.net/snooper/legacy.html, which work normal. If somebody have old browser and dont know about working legacy snooper, have just bad luck? Simple hypertext "if it not work, click here", or "older version is >here<" could help they.

Sorry I haven't replied to this in so long. I didn't like anything that I could say.
W:A is a 90's game, so retro computing and maintaining support for old technology is close to our heart. The game was even backported to Windows 95.
However, such endeavors are not free and they take an ever increasing amount of effort to maintain.
In case of the Web Snooper, it was originally written to support Internet Explorer 6, because it was still widely used at the time.
But, adding new features while maintaining such compatibility gets very messy, so I hope you will forgive me if I say that I think it would benefit the Worms community more if we spent our time on new features that benefit everyone instead of compatibility with old systems that only benefit some very rare use cases.
So, I would rather not add a link, because I don't want people to think that the old version is being maintained. In fact, it could stop working at any moment, and I'm surprised it works at all currently, due to the recent changes in the XHR API used between the JS and the server.

Offline CyberShadow

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2020, 05:01 PM »
Hi,

Yesterday during testing WormNET flood detection we discovered a serious limitation. The WormNET IRC server has an upper limit for the number of simultaneous connections (a little lower than 180). When this limit is reached, users who try to join will see this:



Unfortunately this limit is hard-coded deep in the software, and we can't easily raise it.

I have observed this limit to be reached (and the above error message generated) during the past few weekends, which is unfortunate as it prevents players from connecting to WormNET. For this reason, I added a new module to SheriffBot which attempts to ensure that our very limited number of connection slots is used fairly. During times of very high activity (more than 120 simultaneous users), SheriffBot will kick out users who are idle (just sitting in a channel with no activity), starting with the users who have been idle the longest.

I understand that getting forcibly kicked off WormNET can be unpleasant, especially if you are used to being online all or a lot of the time. However, I count on your understanding that by staying online, you are occupying a slot which can't be used by someone who just wants to connect, join or host a game, and free up the slot for the next person, within the span of usually under a minute.

  • Who is affected by this change? - Mostly, snooper / IRC users, or third-party bots. Users who have been online for less than two minutes, or made any public activity less than two minutes ago, are never affected.
  • When will this occur? - The change is already live, but this behavior activates only when there are over 120 users in channels simultaneously. This is pretty rare. For comparison, at the time of writing there are 67 users in total.
  • What exactly happens when an idle user is detected during high activity? - The user is kicked from WormNET. However, if the user rejoins WormNET and continues being idle, they will be banned for a short duration (1 minute). If this keeps happening, the duration increases (2 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 4 minutes etc.). This is so that AFK users whose clients are set to automatically reconnect do not wastefully take up a connection slot.
  • What should I do if I want to stay online and chat in channels, or keep an eye on WormNET? - I invite you to use the Web Snooper, which uses only one WormNET connection slot no matter how many users are using Web Snooper at the moment.
  • What should I do if I want to stay online and chat with people by PM? - I invite you to join #worms on GameSurge, which does not have the drastic user limitations that WormNET has.
  • Why is SheriffBot's limit (120) much lower than the WormNET limit (180)? - A typical WormNET IRC connection needs to go through these stages: 1) TCP handshake 2) Authentication 3) Identification 4) Initialization (MOTD, server capabilities, channel list) 5) Joining a channel. SheriffBot can only count users which have reached stage 5, but the WormNET limit takes effect all the way at stage 1. Additionally, the WormNET server reserves some connection slots internally, which is why in /users you will see a maximum of 174, not 180. This is why we reserve a buffer to ensure that there are enough slots for connecting users, users who are currently switching channels, as well as to account for connections which never join a channel (such as some bots).
I have also reduced the number of HostingBuddy PM sender proxies from 8 to 3 connections, which frees up connection slots while hopefully still being enough to avoid WormNET PM limits.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2020, 05:52 PM by CyberShadow »

Offline CyberShadow

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Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2020, 06:00 PM »
Other updates since March 22:
  • Lower the width threshold to activate the narrow layout in WebSnooper
  • Fix the WormNAT2 server running out of ports
  • Fix bots not rejoining WormNET channels when they are temporarily locked by ChanServ
  • Make WebSnooper use the same restart mechanism as HostingBuddy, so that hosted games continue in the background
  • Fix WebSnooper's hosting feature generating bad wa:// URLs in some cases
  • Disable some confusing syntax in the Help bot
  • Fix a very rare crash in games hosted by HostingBuddy and friends

Offline h3oCharles

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2020, 07:39 AM »
are you saying that you just found the slot limit of the server?

Offline TheKaren

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2020, 01:09 PM »
Personally I have always found it frustrating to log on, message someone, and realize they aren't even at their computer, possibly not even in their house!

I've always personally thought it would be nicer if people weren't allowed to remain idle on the server for more than 10 minutes, I mean, it's not exactly a lot of effort to re-connect when you are finally ready to be active again.

I know there are people who will disagree, but I for one welcome our new auto-idle-kick overlords!

Offline Anubis

Re: WormNET Service Updates
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2020, 11:41 AM »
Personally I have always found it frustrating to log on, message someone, and realize they aren't even at their computer, possibly not even in their house!

I've always personally thought it would be nicer if people weren't allowed to remain idle on the server for more than 10 minutes, I mean, it's not exactly a lot of effort to re-connect when you are finally ready to be active again.

I know there are people who will disagree, but I for one welcome our new auto-idle-kick overlords!

Yup, I have also always avoided using a snooper in the past and prefer if every user in the channel was actually there and not just in idle mode. In times of high activity I wouldn't mind a broad kick to any and every snooper if that makes room for active players.