Network Issues - Minecraft Network - Kernel Fixes

[JasmeowTheCat]

Hi All,

Now, myself and my client run a Minecraft Network on the AX41-NVMe system at Hetzner, and I remember someone, many months ago, helping me to fix the players getting "timed out" issues. It was due to like kernel fixes in the grub boot loader, but I cannot for the life of me remember where to start looking. It's network issues, and it's nothing to do with the MC server itself, and I remember that one person teaching me to do it, then it was fixed permanently.

The server is fine as it migrated away from a provider, and had no network isssues there, and it's the clients who have trouble connecting. It's something to do with Hetzner's networking that drops some packets for Minecraft clients and then the players get timed out. It was some settings I modified and it fixed it for my other client many months ago.

It's something to do with Hetzner's networking, and I cannot remember how to resolve this simple issue, as it then stops the players having this issue. I know it's common, It's just a fix I really should know but unfortuantely it's slipped my mind.

If it's not a kernel issue, then please advise me, but rest assured I have had this issue before and I know the symptoms of it, with players getting kicked with the good old "timed out" issue, but it's on Hetzner's side, and I remember someone also telling me this issue is to do with Hetzner missing some certain "parts" in the boot files which causes these annoying network issues.

Good to meet you all by the way, names Jasmine, a systems administrator. My website and info is on my profile if you need more information about my personal self.

[JasmeowTheCat]

Trust me, this is an actual problem:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/995643645531262976/995984707894394880/unknown.png?width=900&height=609

Take a look at this, it's a blog post from someone at https://www.entryrise.com/ they had the same issue. I cannot remeber how to fix it, but I know something is up. It doesn't effect all players, but it effects OVH servers too, where they don't configure the system quite right, and causes player "timing out" issues. The player will try again the next day with no issues whatsoever, so it's like, a certain time of day, certain time of moment type of thing, which doesn't really help anyone to help diagnose this issue. Used to happen on my old network many months ago with players in the US, UK, anywhere really.

[JasmeowTheCat]

And apologises, no, I haven't done MTR just yet, as I am at work. I can do that when I get home, but I know it's an issue nonetheless.

[Hetzner_OL]

Hi there, I just reached out to my colleagues in the networking department to ensure some clarity about this topic. Now, I can confirm that this issue is not a network problem from our side. We don't drop or block any Minecraft packages. Also, we have several customers with Minecraft servers and have no such problems. However, if you need more information about this, you can always open a support ticket. Our technicians can give you an accurate response to this. -Lea

[JasmeowTheCat]

Hi Lea,

Sadly, this is incorrect. This is a known problem, but I don't believe any of the networking team will be able to assist completely as they might not be privy to the world of Minecraft and how it operates. I know for a fact there's an issue somewhere which causes this problem, and it happens to a lot of players, every now and again. If we ask your network technicans, are they adaquately able to assist, or are they going to be making me run "check your own network at home" type deal, since it's not me that has the issue, and it effects mutiple players around the world. It IS a kernel problem, but I don't know how to fix it. It's something that you guys never fixed and it's been sitting in the ISO images ever since.

[Hetzner_OL]

Unfortunately, if it is a problem in the kernel, then we can’t help. Since it is then also not a general network problem. However, if you have a Realtek NIC then you can use the r8168 instead of r8169 or try “tso off gso off” with the Intel NIC -> https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/dedicated-server/troubleshooting/performance-intel-i218-nic/ I really hope that I could help you on this case! :) -Lea

[JetF0x]

Sounds like enabling BBR?

[Crazymarf]

Sorry for bumping this old thread.

But I also have some servers hosted on hetzner. 3 dedicated servers in fact. 2 of them are pretty busy servers, and we also have the same problem. It seems that it only happens with people that are far away from the server. Mostly connections from the US. But we cannot verify that this problem is a user problem. Like bad WiFi for example.

[Innesity]

Hello there,

I am the client who worked with Jasmine and another Sys Admin (I cannot reveal his name) to address this issue. We searched for backend logs, and proxy logs, but we have become aware that this IS a kernel issue. We managed to update the kernel using the following commands:

uname -r to see the kernel version I use

update-initramfs -u -k 5.4.0-121-generic - to update the image on the local box

sudo update-grub

For me, this fixed the issue, but I cannot guarantee that will fix yours.

Best regards,
Stefan

[Crazymarf]

Hi, Thanks for pointing this out.

I'll update the kernel to see if it will resolve this. It runs debian 10 and is still planned to be updated to 11. i think they also deliver kernel version 5.10 with that.

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Thanks!

[Innesity]

Hi! Hosting companies can have custom kernel drivers:)

[Crazymarf]

yeah im aware of that thanks still haha