Well.. I've been running a server for some time now, and if you check in your program manager under 'processes', you may see that it is eating HUGE amounts of ram. Starting the server it uses very little, but some time later, it may be using alot more. I've been told this is due to memory leaks.. but I've no real idea. Best to get a server auto restart program? Hope this helped.

Memory leaks seem to be tied to people logging onto the servers with modified characters. What a shame, they really should just log onto their own servers or ones that are set up to accomidate them and stay away from the server that are just trying to give legitimate, regular players a place to play.

Rob "Stinger" Lordier
Moderator - Lancers Reactor
Creator Privateer FAQ
no good deed will ever go unpunished

Thanks for the replies!

The server I run is a private, password protected server for a group of my friends. We all got the game recently and I know for a fact that they are not modding their characters.


Nolan: That sounds like the way to go for now. Can you point me in the right direction? I saw someone mention "Server Doctor" but have so far been unable to find it.

The machine I use is a P3 750Mhz, 512 RAM, Win2k Professional, DirectX 9.0, connected to a T1. Right now its's only job is running the FL server.

I think this should be sufficient for 7-8 simultaneous playes, but so far I've only had 3 at one time.

Yesterday I set a new record, up-time was only 2 hours



Edited by - Oldmold on 26-03-2003 17:27:17

Yeah, sorry for the bum steer there Oldmold. It must have been a fluke that flserver.exe stayed happy for almost 32 hours after installing RAMpage. It's crashed consistently every 16-20 hours since then.

What this community needs more than anything is even the slightest *hint* from Digital Anvil or Microsoft that they acknowledge the problems and are doing something about it.

Blue Harvest 24/7 Dedicated Server... minus the few minutes when the memory leak takes us down.

I think adding the server-config and OS is helpful.

Up to now I have been running a passwordprotected flserver for my clan and it functioned like it is supposed to be. Mind you ... it was on my PC (non-dedicated server) and the max-on time was 14 hours.

Today I will make it dedicated for flserver only. 866PIII, 512Mb running on XP Pro and connected by a 768/128 ADSL. I will keep you posted about the results.

Well my piratemod server (68.13.100.104:2302) is running stable for 1 day and 15 hrs at this moment
I noticed if the server starts using more memory and i maximize it and then minimize it again the memory usage drops to normal again
yesterday i was checking my task manager and the server used about 35Mb
thats not extreme ,but since i wanted to check who was all logged on i maximized the window
Afterwards i minimized it again and it dropped to 5Mb and then slowly crawled to 8Mb and stayed there
After a few hours i did it again and the same result
This might be the reason my server didn't crash yet , but it works for me right now since i'm curiouse about my visitors anyway

Yes, minimizing the GUI window to the taskbar helps on the memory usage quite a bit. I've seen a reduction of 1/2 instantly many times before.

You might consider yourself lucky, becuase my local server crashes usually before I'm able to finish a single mission. Sometimes server crashes, sometimes freelancer. Statistically, it crashes more often when I try to land somewhere than in the middle of the action - mostly right after the action is finished.

I'm running server (and freelancer) on the same system (alone), I'm not using any modifications at all. Haven't installed the DirectX 9a patch yet, might this help. Otherwise, I'm dissapointed, if there is not a problem with the sound then something else pops up. ehhh (how come that I don't have problems with few of other games?)

In my opinion, MP didn't reach the quality to be released, but probbably I'm to much angry right now to say this.

So, I would be happy if you can advice me, how to extend the server stability for few hours?

Hi there!
I've got the same prob like Spherical.
My Server crashes every 15 min !!! It's not a problem of my Memory ( I've got 1 GB RAM and 120 GB Space)
It really sucks if you're on a mission ,then the server crashes and if you restart again , your Character died
I've installed Direct X 9 .
Here is my System (it's absolutely save) :
Athlon 2000+ unlocked to 2,1GHz watercooled
1 GB RAM 333MHz
GeForce 3 Ti200

Has anybody a solution for this problem ?

Thanks a lot

Wow, i have had my server running for at least 3 days, and it has never crashed, i ususlly reboot it between my desktop and laptop, but i have never had a complete server crash.

I have Windows XP, severly optimized, all unused services disabled.

If you want to know what I'm talking about go here http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

007 Commander

I have had my server running since Feb. with no major crashes, minus the ones that happen from people playing with cheated/modded characters. The secret, that I can see as far my opinion is concerned is XP-AntiSpy program. Checked everything. Before this, my server would not even start, now it runs pretty smooth (minimized also). The only problem I have now, that I think is contributed to Directx9.0a is the server will not stay listed. I have been reading posts on reinstalling Directx9.0 but this is to no avail. So I shut it down now and restart, whenever someone complains they can no longer see it on the network.

I hope this helps, if anybody has any suggestions to the server-not-listed prob. I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Hi there,

this weekend me and my friend hooked our two computers using crosswired lan cable. We were able to play for about 10 hrs then server crashed.

Here is the scenario:
- Played the game, during my landing animation, server crashed
- restarted server
- when friend was logged in, it worked OK
- when I joined, server crashed
- I have moved both account infos to my computer and started server, still no luck
- I figured that, there is something wrong with my account (on the last mission when I tried to land server crashed)
- then I have copied the friend's account file and renamed it to suite my account info (file name)
- server worked fine and we were able to play (we had the same name, ship, money, but who cares he he he)
- but only for a short time, server crashed again
- when we tried again to login, server crashed (but only if both of us tried to login, if one player is logged to server, it works fine - no matter which player)
- If, we start from the begining creating a new character we were able to play (ehhh)
- tried to restart both machines, no good
- gave up, packed machines and said some nice words about DA and MS

I came to conclusion that, something is wrong either with the:
- Server: Something crashes it during parsing the account file?
- Game: Or the game saves a fault info into the account file

We are both using WinXP pro, 512/256 MB RAM, 1.7 AMD, DX 9, no modifications to FL.

see you

Whatever causes the problem I hope they fix it soon. I can play on my LAN server just fine(no crashes), but on the net is a PITA.

sandorski

I hooked my laptop together with my desktop computer into a LAN yesterday. I found few interesting things:
- Started server and game on the desktop (nothing run on my laptop) and start playing. During the game play (in the middle of the mission), I disconnected my laptop (pulled out network cable) and guala, server crashed even that nothing was running on the desktop (This is because windows "disables" network if no connection is established). Unable to use account, which was at that time used for playing (server crashes at login). If I created a new account, it worked perfectly.
- Another case. Played game, intentionally killed the game in the middle of the mission. Server crashed, unable to use the account used at the time of playing (server crashes at login). New account works perfectly
- Another case. If I'm killed in the middle of the mission, I'm unable to use that account (server crashes when trying to log in). New account works fine.

Bottom line: Something is wrong with the account file if user doesn't land on whatever base after the mission (get killed, lost connection). When you land, the file is written correctly. (state machine problem?) As I expected, there is something wrong with the parsing of account file when user is trying to log in. (at least in my case)

Possible solution: When you successfully finish the mission, make a backup copy of your account file (server side). Next time when server crashes (or game) and your server crash at login, restore the account file. I was unable to use any account after a crash - needed to create a new one.

This isn't a nice solution 'cause you have to switch (alt+tab) to desktop and make a copy each time you finish the mission, thus you have to be a server administrator.

It would be nice to have a tool for that.

Hope this helps...