Contact FacePunch and Valve Regarding "Anycast" In Garry's Mod

I will add that anybody using any cast is absolutely doing this intentionally, no sane person would be hundreds of dollars per month for any cast if it didn't also boost server ranking.

5 minutes ago, Xy said:

I will add that anybody using any cast is absolutely doing this intentionally, no sane person would be hundreds of dollars per month for any cast if it didn't also boost server ranking.

I wasn't aware GMC made server owners pay hundreds of dollars extra for Anycast technology. I thought it just came with GMC.

If that is the case, then there is no doubt the server owners pay for this option just for the exposure in the Valve Master Server lol. It is intentional.

Thanks.

This is no longer a problem in just Garry's Mod. It is also becoming a problem in Rust. Server owners are starting to use GMC Hosting with Anycast in games outside of Garry's Mod. I will try to email Valve next week and hopefully they'll find a solution before this starts spreading to other games (it really shouldn't be difficult to patch, but Valve has proven to be very lazy). This is if Valve even bothers to read my emails

If that doesn't work, I do plan on making Reddit threads in multiple sub-reddits related to Valve or even FacePunch. The fact that this type of stuff is left unresolved is ridiculous. But we are talking about Valve here...

Thanks.

I have sent a few people at Valve an email regarding this issue.

Here is the content of the email:

 

Quote

Dear Valve,

 

I would like to address an issue regarding the Valve Master Server. This issue is currently impacting Garry’s Mod and Rust. However, this could spread to other games as well. I believe it would be best if this was addressed before the issue gets any worse and spreads into other games. It is possible this will start spreading into Valve games as well.

 

The issue has to do with a specific game server hosting provider using Anycast which is a network addressing and routing method. You can read more about what Anycast does here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycast

 

Server owners are paying the hosting provider hundreds of dollars a month for Anycast.

 

Unfortunately, this is impacting the way servers are displayed in the Valve Master Server. Here’s a Facepunch thread that explains the issue regarding servers using Anycast in the Valve Master Server:

 

https://gmod.facepunch.com/f/gmodgd/bsryo/Anycast-DDoS-Protection-How-many-popular-servers-are-manipulating-pings/1/

 

Basically, the hosting provider is caching the game server’s A2S_INFO packets using Anycast. As a result, the ping from the player to the closest PoP (Point of Presence) server is used in the Valve Master Server instead of the player’s ping to the physical server itself. 

 

For example, the hosting provider and physical servers are located in Dallas, Texas, United States. However, players in Europe will see a <30ms ping to the server depending on where the closest PoP server is located. Once they connect to the server, they will have the actual ping to the physical server which is usually higher depending on how close the PoP server is to the physical server. For players in Europe, depending on where the closest PoP server is, many players see the server in the server browser with <30ms ping. However, when they connect to the server, they see 100ms or higher (usually).

 

This upsets players because they connect to the server expecting low ping. Instead, they have higher ping than expected. This is also unfair to gaming communities not using Anycast because most game’s server browsers sort servers by ping. Servers using Anycast will show up at the top of the list for a majority of the players due to Anycast.

 

Overall, I believe this is a major issue and I hope this is addressed by Valve. If you need any additional information, please let me know!

 

Thank you for your time.

Let's hope for a reply!

Thanks!

I have also submitted an email to Facepunch regarding this issue. I would like to know if Facepunch is up to do anything about this issue as well.

Thanks!

I have received a reply from a support agent at Facepunch:

Quote

Hello,

 

I'm not sure if the Gmod developers have the ability to do anything about this since it may be a Valve/Steamside issue, but I can assign your ticket to one of them for a check-up. Do you have any examples of servers that may be doing it?

I have replied with:

Quote

Hey xxxx,

Thank you for the response!

I would assume Facepunch wouldn't be able to do much since it's a Valve/Steam-side issue. I wasn't sure if they were willing to build their own master server or other options.

As far as I'm aware, the following list of servers through GameTracker are using Anycast:

https://www.gametracker.com/search/?query=208.103.169

As you can see, these servers are very popular and ranked well in both Garry's Mod and Rust.

If you could assign this ticket to the developer team, that'd be highly appreciated!

Thank you for your time! 

Thanks!

Once the ticket is assigned to a developer, I will be asking if they have tried reaching out to Valve as well. It would look bad on Valve's end if they aren't even replying to Facepunch regarding this issue considering how big Garry's Mod and Rust are. But it also wouldn't be surprising given the state of Valve's support for communities.

Thanks.

I explain what the current situation is in this status update:

https://gflclan.com/profile/1-roy/?status=9194&type=status

I will be posting the discussions here once it is either resolved or I don't get any responses in a week.

Thanks.

Will be requesting an update from Valve some time later this week. I haven't received any replies from Facepunch. If Valve doesn't come back in the next couple weeks, I'm just going to close the project out. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem like Valve cares too much about this issue. I understand this is also a complex issue. However, I also believe there should be some way to resolve this issue.

Thanks.