Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
John, I recently forwarded similar info to Eric Smith at Valve and hetold me he was forwarding the info to someone to resolve. Below is what I disocvered a while back about the sv_region setting and how it effects servers. I wanted to post it but was hoping Valve would send out something about it instead. Since that hasn't happened, I'll share my findings that were sent to Valve a couple weeks ago: I have discovered some strange behavior with the sv_region setting on my TF2 servers that I felt you should know about immediately. I didn't want to post it on the email list until you reviewed it and was hoping you could release a message via the hlds list about it today. I have always used sv_region 255 for my US West Coast TF2 servers because I wanted them to appear in the default ALL list. A while ago I found using sv_region 1 caused the servers not to list in ALL list. My experience is that most people use the default unfiltered ALL servers setting so my servers showing being in that list was very important to me. I was told that this issue was apparently resolved at some point but I didn't change my servers back to 1 until this morning. What I discovered after resetting my servers to Region 1 and testing them in the server list was as follows. The first thing I found was that a bunch of servers from the west coast were showing up in the east coast filtered server list. After seeing this, I started playing with one of my Windows TF2 servers and found the following: When choosing sv_region 0 (US-East) - This Region simply doesn't work on my servers. If I enter 'sv_region 0' into the server console, the region will not change from what it was previously set to. Even more interesting is that if the server is booted with sv_region set to 0, the sv_region value is completely ignored and the server's region remains at the setting it was at prior to the restart. If I change the region from 0 to anything else after booting it with 0, the setting will change in about 10 seconds and the server will show the correct region in the Steam WEB API. Other things I discovered with regard to the region settings after some testing: When choosing sv_region 1 (US-West) My server appears in ALL, US-WEST and also US-EAST When choosing sv_region 2 (SOUTH AMERICA) My server appears in ALL and US-EAST but NOT South America where it should When choosing sv_region 255 (ALL) My server appears in ALL, US-EAST not US-WEST I found that the above issues are also occuring on an NFO Linux VPS server my friend owns as well, however the NFO folks are employing some sort of workaround for their servers because no matter what region the NFO client uses for US East Coast servers, the server only shows in the US East Coast list and the WEB API reports a -1 region code. Example here: 70.42.74.155:27015 NFOservers.com Anyway, you get the idea. There's something wrong with the sv_region variable that needs a second look and I just wanted you to be aware. For now, I'm successfully using sv_region 1 for my west coast servers, but people on the east coast of the US using sv_region 0 are probably hosed and don't even know it. Regards, Mike Vail -Original Message- From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of John Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 1:34 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: [hlds] sv_region ignored I noticed today that setting sv_region 0 doesn't work to change the output of the tool at http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=x.x.x. x (it still shows a region value of whatever was previously specified, or -1). Using another number does change that value. I delved deeper and found that the location field in the Steam browser is also being ignored, as I see many region 3 servers (for instance) when I try to filter for US - East. Is this intentional? -John ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
Didn't Valve copy Setti and start returning server results based on geographical locations instead of by octet? I guess what I'm asking is why does sv_region still exist when the change occurred two(?) years ago... Thanks, Kyle. John, I recently forwarded similar info to Eric Smith at Valve and hetold me he was forwarding the info to someone to resolve. Below is what I disocvered a while back about the sv_region setting and how it effects servers. I wanted to post it but was hoping Valve would send out something about it instead. Since that hasn't happened, I'll share my findings that were sent to Valve a couple weeks ago: I have discovered some strange behavior with the sv_region setting on my TF2 servers that I felt you should know about immediately. I didn't want to post it on the email list until you reviewed it and was hoping you could release a message via the hlds list about it today. I have always used sv_region 255 for my US West Coast TF2 servers because I wanted them to appear in the default ALL list. A while ago I found using sv_region 1 caused the servers not to list in ALL list. My experience is that most people use the default unfiltered ALL servers setting so my servers showing being in that list was very important to me. I was told that this issue was apparently resolved at some point but I didn't change my servers back to 1 until this morning. What I discovered after resetting my servers to Region 1 and testing them in the server list was as follows. The first thing I found was that a bunch of servers from the west coast were showing up in the east coast filtered server list. After seeing this, I started playing with one of my Windows TF2 servers and found the following: When choosing sv_region 0 (US-East) - This Region simply doesn't work on my servers. If I enter 'sv_region 0' into the server console, the region will not change from what it was previously set to. Even more interesting is that if the server is booted with sv_region set to 0, the sv_region value is completely ignored and the server's region remains at the setting it was at prior to the restart. If I change the region from 0 to anything else after booting it with 0, the setting will change in about 10 seconds and the server will show the correct region in the Steam WEB API. Other things I discovered with regard to the region settings after some testing: When choosing sv_region 1 (US-West) My server appears in ALL, US-WEST and also US-EAST When choosing sv_region 2 (SOUTH AMERICA) My server appears in ALL and US-EAST but NOT South America where it should When choosing sv_region 255 (ALL) My server appears in ALL, US-EAST not US-WEST I found that the above issues are also occuring on an NFO Linux VPS server my friend owns as well, however the NFO folks are employing some sort of workaround for their servers because no matter what region the NFO client uses for US East Coast servers, the server only shows in the US East Coast list and the WEB API reports a -1 region code. Example here: 70.42.74.155:27015 NFOservers.com Anyway, you get the idea. There's something wrong with the sv_region variable that needs a second look and I just wanted you to be aware. For now, I'm successfully using sv_region 1 for my west coast servers, but people on the east coast of the US using sv_region 0 are probably hosed and don't even know it. Regards, Mike Vail -Original Message- From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of John Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 1:34 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: [hlds] sv_region ignored I noticed today that setting sv_region 0 doesn't work to change the output of the tool at http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=x.x.x. x (it still shows a region value of whatever was previously specified, or -1). Using another number does change that value. I delved deeper and found that the location field in the Steam browser is also being ignored, as I see many region 3 servers (for instance) when I try to filter for US - East. Is this intentional? -John ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
Thanks for your previous extra work in troubleshooting this, Mike. I hope that it is fixed soon. Kyle, specifying a region is still (at least theoretically) useful in paring down the server list in the browser, allowing it to load to completion faster. If it is an intentionally abandoned feature, the option should be removed from the client. -John On 12/5/2012 1:50 AM, BOOM! Gaming Support wrote: John, I recently forwarded similar info to Eric Smith at Valve and hetold me he was forwarding the info to someone to resolve. Below is what I disocvered a while back about the sv_region setting and how it effects servers. I wanted to post it but was hoping Valve would send out something about it instead. Since that hasn't happened, I'll share my findings that were sent to Valve a couple weeks ago: I have discovered some strange behavior with the sv_region setting on my TF2 servers that I felt you should know about immediately. I didn't want to post it on the email list until you reviewed it and was hoping you could release a message via the hlds list about it today. I have always used sv_region 255 for my US West Coast TF2 servers because I wanted them to appear in the default ALL list. A while ago I found using sv_region 1 caused the servers not to list in ALL list. My experience is that most people use the default unfiltered ALL servers setting so my servers showing being in that list was very important to me. I was told that this issue was apparently resolved at some point but I didn't change my servers back to 1 until this morning. What I discovered after resetting my servers to Region 1 and testing them in the server list was as follows. The first thing I found was that a bunch of servers from the west coast were showing up in the east coast filtered server list. After seeing this, I started playing with one of my Windows TF2 servers and found the following: When choosing sv_region 0 (US-East) - This Region simply doesn't work on my servers. If I enter 'sv_region 0' into the server console, the region will not change from what it was previously set to. Even more interesting is that if the server is booted with sv_region set to 0, the sv_region value is completely ignored and the server's region remains at the setting it was at prior to the restart. If I change the region from 0 to anything else after booting it with 0, the setting will change in about 10 seconds and the server will show the correct region in the Steam WEB API. Other things I discovered with regard to the region settings after some testing: When choosing sv_region 1 (US-West) My server appears in ALL, US-WEST and also US-EAST When choosing sv_region 2 (SOUTH AMERICA) My server appears in ALL and US-EAST but NOT South America where it should When choosing sv_region 255 (ALL) My server appears in ALL, US-EAST not US-WEST I found that the above issues are also occuring on an NFO Linux VPS server my friend owns as well, however the NFO folks are employing some sort of workaround for their servers because no matter what region the NFO client uses for US East Coast servers, the server only shows in the US East Coast list and the WEB API reports a -1 region code. Example here: 70.42.74.155:27015 NFOservers.com Anyway, you get the idea. There's something wrong with the sv_region variable that needs a second look and I just wanted you to be aware. For now, I'm successfully using sv_region 1 for my west coast servers, but people on the east coast of the US using sv_region 0 are probably hosed and don't even know it. Regards, Mike Vail -Original Message- From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of John Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 1:34 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: [hlds] sv_region ignored I noticed today that setting sv_region 0 doesn't work to change the output of the tool at http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=x.x.x. x (it still shows a region value of whatever was previously specified, or -1). Using another number does change that value. I delved deeper and found that the location field in the Steam browser is also being ignored, as I see many region 3 servers (for instance) when I try to filter for US - East. Is this intentional? -John ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
Hi John, I totally agree that the feature is useful, I use it often. What I totally disagree with is relying on the end user to set the value properly (on the server). The data is already available to the master of where the server is geographically located in relation to the client. The only thing I suggested was to deprecate the convar from servers and don't duplicate already available data. It would solve a lot of problems, and would stop cheaters from abusing this with bogus data (being listed in every region). Thanks, Kyle. On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:27 PM, John lists.va...@nuclearfallout.netwrote: Thanks for your previous extra work in troubleshooting this, Mike. I hope that it is fixed soon. Kyle, specifying a region is still (at least theoretically) useful in paring down the server list in the browser, allowing it to load to completion faster. If it is an intentionally abandoned feature, the option should be removed from the client. -John On 12/5/2012 1:50 AM, BOOM! Gaming Support wrote: John, I recently forwarded similar info to Eric Smith at Valve and hetold me he was forwarding the info to someone to resolve. Below is what I disocvered a while back about the sv_region setting and how it effects servers. I wanted to post it but was hoping Valve would send out something about it instead. Since that hasn't happened, I'll share my findings that were sent to Valve a couple weeks ago: I have discovered some strange behavior with the sv_region setting on my TF2 servers that I felt you should know about immediately. I didn't want to post it on the email list until you reviewed it and was hoping you could release a message via the hlds list about it today. I have always used sv_region 255 for my US West Coast TF2 servers because I wanted them to appear in the default ALL list. A while ago I found using sv_region 1 caused the servers not to list in ALL list. My experience is that most people use the default unfiltered ALL servers setting so my servers showing being in that list was very important to me. I was told that this issue was apparently resolved at some point but I didn't change my servers back to 1 until this morning. What I discovered after resetting my servers to Region 1 and testing them in the server list was as follows. The first thing I found was that a bunch of servers from the west coast were showing up in the east coast filtered server list. After seeing this, I started playing with one of my Windows TF2 servers and found the following: When choosing sv_region 0 (US-East) - This Region simply doesn't work on my servers. If I enter 'sv_region 0' into the server console, the region will not change from what it was previously set to. Even more interesting is that if the server is booted with sv_region set to 0, the sv_region value is completely ignored and the server's region remains at the setting it was at prior to the restart. If I change the region from 0 to anything else after booting it with 0, the setting will change in about 10 seconds and the server will show the correct region in the Steam WEB API. Other things I discovered with regard to the region settings after some testing: When choosing sv_region 1 (US-West) My server appears in ALL, US-WEST and also US-EAST When choosing sv_region 2 (SOUTH AMERICA) My server appears in ALL and US-EAST but NOT South America where it should When choosing sv_region 255 (ALL) My server appears in ALL, US-EAST not US-WEST I found that the above issues are also occuring on an NFO Linux VPS server my friend owns as well, however the NFO folks are employing some sort of workaround for their servers because no matter what region the NFO client uses for US East Coast servers, the server only shows in the US East Coast list and the WEB API reports a -1 region code. Example here: 70.42.74.155:27015 NFOservers.com Anyway, you get the idea. There's something wrong with the sv_region variable that needs a second look and I just wanted you to be aware. For now, I'm successfully using sv_region 1 for my west coast servers, but people on the east coast of the US using sv_region 0 are probably hosed and don't even know it. Regards, Mike Vail -Original Message- From: hlds-bounces@list.**valvesoftware.comhlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-bounces@list.**valvesoftware.comhlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of John Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 1:34 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: [hlds] sv_region ignored I noticed today that setting sv_region 0 doesn't work to change the output of the tool at http://api.steampowered.com/**ISteamApps/**GetServersAtAddress/v0001?** addr=x.x.xhttp://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=x.x.x . x (it still shows a region value of whatever was previously specified, or -1). Using another number does change that value. I delved
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
On 12/5/2012 12:50 PM, Kyle Sanderson wrote: I totally agree that the feature is useful, I use it often. What I totally disagree with is relying on the end user to set the value properly (on the server). The data is already available to the master of where the server is geographically located in relation to the client. The only thing I suggested was to deprecate the convar from servers and don't duplicate already available data. It would solve a lot of problems, and would stop cheaters from abusing this with bogus data (being listed in every region). If it's removed from servers, then it also needs to be removed from clients -- there's no sense in having clients choosing an option that doesn't actually do anything, or than does something very different than they expect. In terms of bogus data, I imagine that you're talking about people running multiple servers at the same physical location and claiming them to be in different regions? If that's a serious problem, then it should be possible to limit that abuse at the master server by preventing servers with similar IPs from submitting different regions, and/or requiring that any selected region be on the same continent as the internal GeoIP guess. -John ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
If it's removed from servers, then it also needs to be removed from clients -- there's no sense in having clients choosing an option that doesn't actually do anything, or than does something very different than they expect. Why?! This sounds horrible. The feature is totally broken at the moment, but it's great to have. In terms of bogus data, I imagine that you're talking about people running multiple servers at the same physical location and claiming them to be in different regions? There was a 'magic' value that you could send to be listed in every region. While I believe it was fixed recently, I'm not sure. If that's a serious problem, then it should be possible to limit that abuse at the master server by preventing servers with similar IPs from submitting different regions, and/or requiring that any selected region be on the same continent as the internal GeoIP guess. Like I initially said, since 2010 GeoIP has been used to determine the players Region and (semi-)correctly return results accordingly based on location. This is instead of returning results by the closest network (octet). The only thing I've been suggesting is kill off sv_region and move the legacy system over to GeoIP. GeoIP is fairly accurate now, I don't think anyone needs to be manually reporting their region in 2012 (nearing 2013). Doing so would end this abuse, and would have *everyones* server being correctly added to the proper region. I don't really see a down side, besides slightly increased logic on the two masters, and cheaters not being able to cheat ;) Thanks, Kyle. On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 1:14 PM, John lists.va...@nuclearfallout.net wrote: On 12/5/2012 12:50 PM, Kyle Sanderson wrote: I totally agree that the feature is useful, I use it often. What I totally disagree with is relying on the end user to set the value properly (on the server). The data is already available to the master of where the server is geographically located in relation to the client. The only thing I suggested was to deprecate the convar from servers and don't duplicate already available data. It would solve a lot of problems, and would stop cheaters from abusing this with bogus data (being listed in every region). If it's removed from servers, then it also needs to be removed from clients -- there's no sense in having clients choosing an option that doesn't actually do anything, or than does something very different than they expect. In terms of bogus data, I imagine that you're talking about people running multiple servers at the same physical location and claiming them to be in different regions? If that's a serious problem, then it should be possible to limit that abuse at the master server by preventing servers with similar IPs from submitting different regions, and/or requiring that any selected region be on the same continent as the internal GeoIP guess. -John __**_ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hldshttps://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
On 12/5/2012 1:56 PM, Kyle Sanderson wrote: Like I initially said, since 2010 GeoIP has been used to determine the players Region and (semi-)correctly return results accordingly based on location. This is instead of returning results by the closest network (octet). My understanding was that it estimated the distance from the client to each server IP, and used this to determine which servers to ping first. This works independent of regions. The only thing I've been suggesting is kill off sv_region and move the legacy system over to GeoIP. GeoIP is fairly accurate now, I don't think anyone needs to be manually reporting their region in 2012 (nearing 2013). Doing so would end this abuse, and would have *everyones* server being correctly added to the proper region. I don't really see a down side, besides slightly increased logic on the two masters, and cheaters not being able to cheat ;) This is a debate that has come up with other networks. A few downsides to a purely automated system include that GeoIP lookups are not always accurate when it comes to server IPs (the nature of the data sources mean it is much more accurate with client IPs), that they don't handle border cases well (should Chicago be considered east coast, or west coast? ... the server admin should be able to decide), and that sometimes further servers perform better and are justified in overriding the setting (many servers in NYC perform better for BR players than BR servers, for instance, and as a result some BR-based server admins buy servers in NYC and want them shown as S. America). I wasn't looking to start a debate about whether sv_region should be kept or its design fundamentally changed. I just meant to point out that the current system has clear bugs (however you look at it). -John ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] sv_region ignored
One of the major new features is the new Masters should return dedicated servers ordered by their geographical distance from the player requesting the server list, making for lower latency and better connections. I've been totally incorrect for two years... . Thanks for the correction John! Sorry for the garbage, Kyle. On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 2:20 PM, John lists.va...@nuclearfallout.net wrote: On 12/5/2012 1:56 PM, Kyle Sanderson wrote: Like I initially said, since 2010 GeoIP has been used to determine the players Region and (semi-)correctly return results accordingly based on location. This is instead of returning results by the closest network (octet). My understanding was that it estimated the distance from the client to each server IP, and used this to determine which servers to ping first. This works independent of regions. The only thing I've been suggesting is kill off sv_region and move the legacy system over to GeoIP. GeoIP is fairly accurate now, I don't think anyone needs to be manually reporting their region in 2012 (nearing 2013). Doing so would end this abuse, and would have *everyones* server being correctly added to the proper region. I don't really see a down side, besides slightly increased logic on the two masters, and cheaters not being able to cheat ;) This is a debate that has come up with other networks. A few downsides to a purely automated system include that GeoIP lookups are not always accurate when it comes to server IPs (the nature of the data sources mean it is much more accurate with client IPs), that they don't handle border cases well (should Chicago be considered east coast, or west coast? ... the server admin should be able to decide), and that sometimes further servers perform better and are justified in overriding the setting (many servers in NYC perform better for BR players than BR servers, for instance, and as a result some BR-based server admins buy servers in NYC and want them shown as S. America). I wasn't looking to start a debate about whether sv_region should be kept or its design fundamentally changed. I just meant to point out that the current system has clear bugs (however you look at it). -John __**_ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.**com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/**hldshttps://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds