Nat 1 and still no proper connection

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I know there are some topics but they could not solve my problem.

Like some others i have those strange disconnects.
I tried everything as far as i can tell.

DMZ, Port forwarding etc. Still have disconnects even if i play on my own in my lounge.

Yesterday i connected the ps3 directly to the cable modem. After seting up the connection again i had nat 1. I joined my lounge and started practicing for the online race. I played 1.5h straight with no problem for the first time and thought everything is fine now..

At 20.30 the qualify started and at 21.00 the race began. After 12 of 15 rounds i dropped out due the disconnect from host error again :(

I already lost many points in the last championship because of this :(
Does anybody have some more ideas which could solve this problem?

Problem with the provider? Is it a fault of gt5?
 
I take it you were not hosting?, if you have NAT 1 and it's "open" then you should be able to do anything you want on psn without drama's, some questions for you..... what type of modem are you using.... 1 port?, 4 port? check portforward.com for settings, might help.

Does seem very odd that you can get type 1 and have connection issues, maybe it's your friends that have the issues.....
 
Yes correct. Forgot to write it down. The race was hosted by a friend in his own lounge. So it was not an open lobby.

The modem has only one port + 2 ports for the phone which are not used.

I'll check this page when i get home. Thanks.

I would love to be able to play gt5 online without those issues :(
I love the fact that i can play gt5 online.
 
Check that it's still nat 1

How have you ensured you have nat 1? Are you putting the ps3 in the dmz?

If it is nat1 , then it could be ISP (unlikely) , or the host you were connected to... Though this is unlikely, if you see it regularly even when you host.

I assume from your post, you have your ps3 connected directly to the modem.. If so you will need to check your modem logs for disconnections.

What's odd here, is that you are connected, and then lose the connection.
It's possible that the latency between you and other players/host is too high.
Is it only you that gets disconnected?
(btw, you cam get so called jitter where latencies vary over time, i.e. It may look at one time that the latency is low, but the you get spikes where latency increases dramatically for a short period, this will cause disconnects)
 
I tried i few settings.

1a.
Modem -> Router/Switch (Dlink) -> PS3 = Nat 2
Everything automatic - no settings

-> Regular disconnects

1b.
Modem -> Router/Switch (Dlink) -> PS3 = Nat 2
Set an IP, DNS etc. + Port forwarding

-> Regular disconnects


1c.
Modem -> Router/Switch (Dlink) -> PS3 = Nat 2
Set an IP, DNS etc. + PS3 in DMZ

-> Regular disconnects

2.
Modem -> PS3 = Nat 1
Everything automatic

-> no disconnect for 1.5h in my own lounge playing alone.
-> disconnect after 3/4h in friends lounge.


I know its nat 1 because the ps3 is telling me this when setting up the connection.

Good idea with logging the modem.
I will ping a ip for an hour or two and then have a look in the log. There i would see those high latency period shouldn't i?
 
I regularly host organized races of up to 16 players. And I've been doing it for a long time. Over the last 2 years, both with GT5 and other racing games before GT5, I've asked the group regulars to do exactly what you're doing: forget the whole DMZ/Port forwarding, simply hard wire the PS3 directly into the modem and create a NAT1 connection. It completely eliminates any potential bottlenecks created by your own network. (Specifically for GT5, I also ask everybody to clear the cache). It's a hassle to go through but we've had races, long races up to 2 hours that were completely stable, generally free of lag and without connection issues. But sometimes, even taking these steps, it's a nightmare. Some people can't enter the lobby. When some people enter, they're kicked and they often kick other people with them. Then they can't get back in.

The compromised nature of the P2P connections most games utilize means that you can have a very stable, very fast connection but if somebody in the lobby has a poor connection, excessive latency, packet losses, etc, they not only become the weakest link but they can also affect others.

Over time, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it's not really GT5 and possibly not even really people's connections but the Playstation Network itself that's to blame. I once tried to call Sony and ask some specific questions about the PSN, how the connection works, why one might be dropped, what that criteria is, how P2P works within the PSN framework, but I really didn't get answers and it's frustrating. The people you speak to follow from a script and have you jump through hoops and steps like a circus bear. They want to open a help ticket, solve a specific problem and close the ticket. If you just call up asking specific technical questions about how the PSN operates, things that are not necessarily public knowledge, they either don't know or they won't tell you.

I can tell you, to local host servers, I have about 15-MBs down, 2.0-MBs up and ping of 10~15 M/s. I've also done some extended testing to check for packet losses and it's very stable. At least on my end. And hard wired into my modem, I've been dropped from my OWN lobby when somebody pops in who I'm 'incompatible' with, for lack of a better term.

It makes no sense that people with a PC, using the same connection, can enter lobbies in other racing games with 25+ people and not have anywhere near these kind of problems. And yet GT5, Supercar Challenge, Ferrari Challenge, NFS:Shift, SSV8 racing, ALL suffered from these same problems. The common denominator is the PSN.
 
:( that doesnt sound very good.
Thanks a lot for sharing this information.

I never cleared the cache. Will do this tonight.

But all in all if it is not working with nat 1 there is no big chance of get rid of this problem? It is a shame. Maybe they should charge for the psn and get some good servers running...
 
I'm really not sure if the PSN is the problem but it's starting to look that way. Much of it remains a mystery. I know the PS3 can access online without connecting to the PSN. But you need to be connected to the PSN to play any online games. Or at least any of the ones I've played. As far as I know, if you're disconnected from the PSN itself, you'll automatically be kicked from the lobby as well.

I've been kicked and I've seen people kicked from lobbies without being disconnected from the PSN. I think both online games and the PSN itself have certain criteria that have to be met for you to remain connected. And I've heard comments that your ping has to be below certain parameters and that packet losses could force you out. But I don't know if it's true. Perhaps certain ISPs or simply under certain conditions, bandwidth to the PSN itself is limited or constricted and that could be a source of the problem. So it's a theory I have that you could have good bandwidth through your ISP but the PSN gateway at that particular time may be over stressed.

I can only tell you, I've been doing this for a long time with the same group of people and sometimes it works fine and other times it doesn't. And since we know each other, we regularly share details about our connections. So there are some outside factors at work which affect the situation. But until Sony themselves or perhaps a tech who works for Sony is really willing to post and fully open up about what's going on, it's just guess work.

Taking the steps you've taken certainly helps, I promise you that. And of course everybody else in the lobby needs to take these same steps (something possible but a PITA in private lobbies, impossible in public lobbies) But it's not the ultimate solution and unfortunately I don't know what is.
 
I totally comply with jjaisli.

And after all that there are also local reasons for connection problems: copper cable packet losses, operator backbone issues, poor operator traffic management over certain servers... even a modem's IP connection track table might become full which requires booting for the modem. I've personally experienced all of those too.

Sometimes you are just powerless and need to think of something else to do than racing GT5 online! :D
 
;) Sure sure..

But its is not about general Inet Problems if you drop out in every race every weak ;)
It is working fine in all other games even with nat 2. Only GT5 is not running fine.

I pretty much gave up. Cleaning the cache didnt help and i dropped out again in the race. This time after 3 or 4 rounds..
Well next race next try.

The last race i finished was on 2.3.2011
It is strange.. i think those disconnects are more often since patch 1.05 or 1.06.. Something is just wrong with the online part..

I hope they find a solution.. i dont want to buy a xbox :( But if GT5 Online is not working proper i will have to change to forza 4... It would be soo stupid.. i bought a ps3 4 years ago for gt5...
 
I just switched mine off the router(nat 2) to the modem(nat 1) and it has fixed all my online issues. Haven't had a disconnect since.:)
 
so what do i need to do to connect my ps3 straight to the modem instead of the router , what settings would i have to do/change ?
 
GT5 seems very noise sensitive - contact your ISP's "help" desk and get them to assess the ratio on your line. Turning the line speed down by around 5% can often increase the performance dramatically.

Other than that it seems (on the face of it) as if you've done everything right.

Never take any notice of the 'max' figures your router gives you :D
 
hard to tell where the issue is.
On one hand i see posts like yours where suddenly issues occur. on the other hand i have nat 2 because of my switch and never experienced issues (even not in a full lobby with 12-16 players).

In case you have a PC, you should familiarise yourself with the commands/tools
- traceroute
and
- ping

(There are also network sniffers around which can be used. The above too are included in every windows or linux distribution though)

let these run continously against your ISP Proxy and the playstation network.
It will show you when issues during a connection appear (timeout, bad route etc) and where they appear.
If for e.g. the route the network packets take is to long, you can easily google for alternative DNS servers and add them to your PS3 or PC. (i once had an issue where i wanted to connect from Cologne to Berlin and the standard route went over Moscow...)

no easy topic if you are not used to the tools and technic aspects however but it pays off.
 
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