Your connection to the server has been lost

If you come by Grinn Productions around 2:00 pm, you're likely to find our software developers spending their lunch break playing Battlefield 2142. Although "Hot Pockets and Battlefield" is now the routine, it used to be "Hot Pockets and figure out what the hell is wrong with Battlefield." For some reason, my machine would randomly get dropped from whatever server I was on. Sometimes it was right when I connected, sometimes fifteen minutes into the game. After extensive Googling we were eventually able to get the thing stable. My problem had something to do with a little thing called "CPU Affinity", but it seems people reporting the same issue found their solution elsewhere.

Below we've compiled a list of all the various solutions to this problem that seem to have worked for someone out there in internet-land, starting with the solution that worked for us. Trying each of these one at a time will help you deduce which solution (or solutions) is the fix for your problem.

• If you're running multiple CPU's or a dual-core CPU such as the Intel's Core 2 Duo, or our AMD Athlon 62 X2, you might be experiencing the same issue as us! To correct this problem:
1. Start Battlefield 2142
   
2. Hit Alt+Tab on your keyboard to get back to your desktop while BF2142 is running.
3. Pull up your Task Manager by right-clicking on the task bar and selecting Task Manager, or hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del on your keyboard.
   
4. Under your Processes tab, find your BF2.exe. Right–click on it and select “Set Affinity...”.
   
5. In the resulting dialog you will see CPU0, CPU1, and perhaps several other CPU checkboxes. Each enabled checkbox represents an individual CPU core. Uncheck every checkbox other than CPU0.
6. Hit OK and close your Task Manger.
7. Go back into the game. You'll have to do this every time you start BF2142, but you'll be able to play!
• Manually update PunkBuster by clicking on the Software Updates link on this page.
• Disable any firewalls you are running. Apparently you should try disabling the Windows Firewall as well, however having it enabled doesn't seem to cause me any issues. Direct from EA, here are some instructions for disabling the Windows Firewall:
1. Double click "My Network Places" on your Desktop or in your Start Menu
2. Click "View Network Connections"
3. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and Select "Properties"
4. Click the "Advanced" tab
5. Make sure to uncheck the box under "Internet Connection Firewall"
• If you're behind a hardware firewall or router, try circumventing it altogether by connecting your PC directly to your cable modem. Although this may seem impractical, if you don't have issues while directly connected, you've probably found the source of your problem.
• Be sure to open the following ports on your firewall and/or router:
  UDP 27900 Client Server
  UDP 29900 Client Server Standard Server 29910
  TCP 80 Client Server Standard port for Gamespy
  TCP 29900 Client Sever
  TCP 29901 Not in use yet
  TCP 29900 Standard port 29920
  UDP 27901
  UDP 27900
  TCP 28910
  TCP 4711 4711
  UDP 55123
  UDP 55124
  UDP 55125
  UDP 1500-4999
  UDP 16567
  You may be able to find instructions for configuring your specific model of router here.
  
• EA also suggests attempting a reset of your Network connection:
1. Click on Start and then Run.
2. In the Open box, type in: winipcfg
3. Click "Ok"
4. When the Windows IP Configuration box comes up, Click "Release".
5. Then Click "Renew"
6. Then close the Windows IP Configuration box
• Disable VoIP in BF2142.
  
• Turn the settings for Textures or other video details down a notch.
• Disable any anti-spyware apps while you're playing online.
• Call your broadband internet provider and have them test your connection.

I almost forgot: If you're on the market for a copy of Battlefield (or any game for that matter,) I'd suggest checking out alphaleap.com. They're able sell brand new games in the box for a fraction of the price of retailers because they sell them through a distributor in Bangkok. The shipping takes a while, but if you ask they'll email you the key before they ship. That way you can download the game via newsgroups or torrent, using your valid key to register the game, and be playing that same day.

I hope all of this helps someone out there. See you in the game!

Web 2.0 for the Rest of Us

If you're reading this blog entry you probably don't know what Web 2.0 means. Perhaps you've never even heard of it. Well, I stumbled across an interesting article by a gentleman by the name of Paul Hernacki the other day that does a pretty good job of explaining why you should care. I think he doesn't give SaaS the credit it deserves (perhaps only because his firm isn't yet able to produce "fully matured" SaaS apps), but the article should give you a good idea of what Web 2.0 can do for Your Business 2.0.

Read: TechLINKS.