Drunken Master, if I can get you a few wireshark captures from my console as a point of comparison would that be helpful?

For example I have one from May 2014 from GameSpy which was basically from a time when the game was working with default settings. I could also get one from SWBFspy so we can compare it with that and with Snake's. Finally I can also do one from another GameSpy emulation service called qtracker.

Qtracker isn't working all the way either, but it is not giving me the patch message, and I do not get "host registration failed" when I create a 4 man. However when getting the server list it still sits at "busy 0%" so I don't know if its fully functional. Their Primary DNS number to use is 63.239.170.150.

Also I don't know everything about wireshark so let me know what you meant by filtering, and how to turn that off so we can get all the information. Another question I have is, would it be easier to do a smaller capture of just 1 task, like connecting, for comparison sake? Or would it be fine to just capture everything for as far as I can get (including connecting and putting up a server and for example)?

I tried it a little while ago after that change and I get the same result.

Patch screen, can get past it, but the server list is empty when I do.

So Oldsnake you are able to connect no problem? You are the only one right now I think.

I am trying to do the exact same settings you are doing in your video

but its a little difficult as I am using a slightly different method. I know you have the network configuration iso / disc and you use that to make a connection setting. I use the one that is built into Battlefront 2. When I pick a connection I can press square to edit it and it brings me to the connection manager that way. I make the connection in there.

Also you are on emulator and I am on console. Both me and one other player have gotten the same results using the exact same settings, the only thing we changed was Primary DNS to 74.91.125.138 everything else was default and automatic. We both got the download patch thing. We can get past it, but when we do the server list is empty.

Trying to do it the exact same as you so we can figure out what's going on here. The checking for patch screen happens differently than it did on GameMaster.

EDIT: IDK how this could possibly be relevant for the patch thing but just incase it is, I have 106 KB of free space on my PS2 memory card.

Quote from: Led on May 29, 2016, 09:57:47 AM

Hmm, please explain!

DNAS stands for Dynamic Network Authentication System. It is something designed by Sony for their products as a security feature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNAS

DNS stands for Domain Name System, it involves associating a domain name with an IP address and it is not limited to only Sony products.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

No I mean I can get on TeamSpeak right now, its just that when I join you, my mic might not work right away, but I am available to talk right now.

That information from Snake is basically what Playstation 2 players would use if we wanted to host a big server, like a 24 man server from my computer or another computer. He edited the Playstation 2 battlefrontii.exe to replace the GameSpy values with your values so that the server will show up on the PS2 SWBFspy list. He helped me before with this when we were using GameMaster too. However I can't see that list from my PS2 right now.

Yea I do, but my computer is not the best so it might take me a minute for my microphone to get setup once I get into a server.

Quote from: Led on May 30, 2016, 04:44:40 PM
Looks like we got it to work--anyone else care to try ?

Hey Led, I tested out your new DNS number today.

The first thing I did was try both the default connection, and the GameMaster connection. Using either of these results in an error message, as expected, because these are both down right now (I actually thought these settings would still get me to the server list and have it show up as empty, but something changed and they just show an error right away now).

I then tried to test out your new setting and I used 74.91.125.138 as the Primary DNS, and 0.0.0.0 as the Secondary DNS. This results in getting past the error message that the default connection and the GameMaster one currently stop at. It authenticates DNAS fine (this is a Sony PS2 security measure thing). It then gives a message about a new patch being available.

This is an odd problem that has happened on PS2 before, even when GameSpy was up, but I don't fully understand it. There was once a time where some players were unable to connect to PS2 servers because of this problem, and the game would mistakenly download a patch file to your memory card which seemingly did nothing.

Anyway right now it asks you if you would like to download the patch, hitting "no" brings you back to the multiplayer screen, hitting "yes" results in another message "error processing patch", and it then asks you again if you would like to download the patch. After hitting yes about 10 times or so eventually it lets you bypass that screen and lets you get to the GameSpy login screen. On GameMaster we didn't really use accounts, I know they had it working and some of us did but I usually just chose to "enter without logging in" so that's what I did here. This brings you to the screen where you can join a server, or create a server (a 4 man).

Hitting join right now results in "Busy 0%" for about 30 seconds, and then brings you to an empty server list. Its hard to tell if the list is actually empty or if the workaround isn't working. In 2014 when I was testing other workarounds like OpenSpy, the 0% was a cue that it wasn't actually working.

Hitting create, meaning making a 4 man server via my Playstation 2, results in "Host registration failed" and the game oddly puts you into a local game where you have single player options available, and you are not put into a server.

I should note that I know that at least one other Playstation 2 player, Kintaro, got the exact same results as me when he tested this earlier. So these results are just not specific to just me.

All in all I think your workaround is doing something, because it does not run into the error screen right away like the older methods do, however at some point there is something that is not configured properly because it seems that we cannot see the server list, or put a server up onto the list.

Should we try to maybe use 162.248.92.172 as the Secondary or Primary DNS?

Here's another thing I would like to point out. On GameMaster, if I am not mistaken, I think that the DNS server address they used was the same one that the GameSpy replacement in general was hosted on. What I mean is that the IP address number they had in the hosts file, which people used on PC and for hosting servers, and the number we put into our Playstation 2s for Primary DNS were the same number. For you I see that you have 2 different numbers. I am not sure if this matters because GameMaster also had 2 servers as options for numbers at one point, and I think you both just redirect traffic to the other one so it might not matter. I just thought I would point it out though.

The wireshark capture Snake provided might be helpful for configuring your server, but I am not sure on the details. It is basically a readout of all the internet packets our PS2 is trying to send over the network connection. I can also get you more of these, if you need them. I have ones from back when the PS2 connected to GameSpy by default.

Hopefully Kalle is still able to help you guys if you get stuck. Let me know what you think I should do next, or if there is anything else I can do to help.

Ok sure, just let me know when you are ready for me to test it out and I will.

I wanted to post here again because I don't fully understand what happened, but it is a problem we could run into in the future.

Thanks for the more info Anthony and Phobos!

As Snake said, around the start of April, there were DNAS issues when connecting to Battlefront 1 and 2. This seemed to line up with the rumor that Sony would shut down DNAS on April 1st for Final Fantasy 12. However, strangely a couple days later it seemed like everything started working again.

So maybe they only shut it off for Final Fantasy 12 somehow? Or maybe they never shut it off at all, but currently DNAS is still working on Battlefront. As we transition over from a GameMaster master server list to a SWBFspy master server list, this is basically the only other problem that could come up.

Reminder: DNAS and DNS are not the same thing!

Whatsup Led, about 2 years ago you guys pointed me in the right direction of finding GameMaster, I then contacted Kalle and was able to test some PS2 things for him back in 2014.

I am totally down to help you test SWBFspy for PS2. A website I help run has been doing tournaments on PS2 SWBF2 for many years now and the players want to keep it going.

I would be able to personally help starting on Monday night when I'm with my PS2. I know that there are others who I can ask to do something if you wanted to test something tonight. Antony and Snake were also super helpful when we were setting things up on GameMaster so they should be helpful again too I hope.

I'll explain the process we did for GameMaster, and then you can tell me what you think we should test first.

On PS2, we can't edit our hosts file or .exe. The only thing we have access to is the network configuration screen. It lets us change a few things but the most important thing was the ability to change Primary DNS and Secondary DNS. The screen looks like this:
Note that this number is an old one we used to connect to GameMaster.

At some point in May 2014 I found GameMaster, and I did a DNS lookup on their website domain, and I was able to get the IP Address of their website, aka the DNS address. This is what we used to connect to them. It did not work right away, but after I spoke to Kalle and he did some setting up on his end, things were working.

So, looking at the hosts file you made, I am assuming we would use 162.248.92.172 as the new Primary DNS number for SWBFspy. I could try this on Monday but I would need at least one other person to test it with because the server list would be empty. Ideally, I would try out your DNS number, and then host a server on this list via my PS2. On PS2 there is an option to host a small server from the machine itself. We usually call these "4 mans" because the maximum amount of players is 4. Then I would have someone else try your DNS number and see if they can see my server on the list and join it. If that works then we know its all working.

In order to host larger servers we will need to hex edit the Playstation 2 Server Manager to redirect all the GameSpy addresses to your addresses. However we might not need to do this for another month because Kalle is redirecting the GameMaster server to you guys for a month so maybe we won't need to do anything just yet. I can try to find the old vanilla files at some point so we can get them edited properly. Finding the SWBF1 one might be harder though.

I also have a copy of SWBF1 for Playstation 2 and I am willing to help you guys test that too.

Phobos, I think Sony may have shut down DNAS today or yesterday, so your work may become very important.

I know that when I was trying to get my emulator up and running to try SWBF2 online via emulator, it was pretty hard to deal with DNAS authentication.

But anyway do you think your patch could be burned to a disc and then put into a PS2 and it would work on SWBF? I don't know if this would require changing something in the PS2 also. Anthony do you know the answer to that?

Hello everyone, I know most of you are SWBF1 players, but I still wanted to let you know that sign ups are open for a SWBF2 PC Conquest tournament, which will be starting soon. This tournament will be using the Gamemaster GameSpy workaround to conduct its matches.

The tournament will be in an open ladder format and will consist of mostly 4 on 4 matches (although teams can still play in 3v3s at the minimum if they would like to, larger matches are also possible as long as its even). This format means that teams will be able to openly challenge teams and play matches at their leisure. Points are awarded for wins and deducted for losses. At the end of the open ladder period the top teams will move on to the playoffs, which will be a bracket format. Some matches in this tournament will be streamed provided one of the streamers is a available and individual stats will be recorded as well (inputting scoreboard stats into google sheet). This could also be the last SWBF2 tournament hosted on this site as the new game will be out soon.

Right now there is no official set start date because this will be influenced by the number of signups (once there is about 8 teams signed up things can start).

If any of you guys would like to sign up as a team (meaning you have at least 2 other people in mind who you can play with) you should go here:
http://www.theswbfc.com/page/register-clan

If you don't have anyone in mind, you guys can feel free to organize a team right here in this thread, or you can post on the free agent section of the site, letting pre-existing PC teams know that you would like to play:
http://www.theswbfc.com/viewforum.php?f=27


Lastly, once the new game comes out this site will be hosting competitive tournaments on that game too, but since we don't know a lot about the game yet I don't have any details about that at this time.

Hey guys, I figured I should post here too. Delta runs the BFC site but I do help out with it. I have an account on here from a year or so ago when we found out GameSpy was going to go down. Led and Oldsnake (who I got confused with Snake) were extremely nice and helpful in giving me information and testing some small stuff with me. It was you guys that eventually led me to the GameMaster forums, and I was able to get them to support PS2, which stays up to this day. Both of you were thanked in my guide as a result:
http://www.theswbfc.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=60

If you register there I can tag your accounts  .

Anyway I'm happy you guys are doing good and we will be playing with you on the next game for sure. The BFC will have our usual summer tournament, Season 12, on PS2 starting at the end of May. When the new game comes out we're gonna host tournaments on PS4 at first while we figure out a good ruleset and get stabilized. Once we know people on the other platforms and have a good idea about the game it is possible that we'll have competitions on PC and Xbox1 too.

Quote from: oldsnake on June 01, 2014, 08:17:15 PM
hi Mike. i just tried to connect to the servers on the ps2 i switched the dns 99.198.122.113 from openspy*which works great*  to the new one 5.230.233.61 no servers show up on the list*swbf1*. so i switched the server over to lan and the server shows up so i know the server is working in lan mode. on swbf2 the servers show up with the new dns 5.230.233.61 when clicking join my game stops responding while trying to get into the server.

Interesting. I too was able to play SWBF1 on OpenSpy and it worked fine, but it wasn't configured properly to work on SWBF2. That's why I am trying to use GameMaster for SWBF2 for now. I think I may have the wrong DNS address, but I'm not sure yet.

Thanks to Led I was able to track down and talk to the developers of GameMaster directly over here:
http://gameshare.co/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8

I think they are interested in supporting PC and PS2 which is good news for everybody. I think I can get everything sorted out soon.

Quote from: oldsnake on June 01, 2014, 07:10:46 AM
hi Mike. I was able to get a swbf1 no patch ps2 server up using this hosts file. So it should work for the swbf2 version. *this hosts file is for swbf1 only*.

Awesome, thank you for that. Were you able to your server on the PS2 server list?