Forums Connection Issues Ip blocking DCC

damn , mines gone off again today ?

seems they are messing with something, thats for sure, mine seemed to work randomly, for various ammounts of time ranging from 6 hours, to 2 minutes over the last 5-6 days...one thing to note, if a DCC is allready in progress, and then it stops working, it doesnt appear to stop the send, only the subsequent sends fail.

In my research on it, it seems as soon as the "client" trys to send me a file, it blocks me, not just me, but also that irc server, not quite sure on how DCC transfers work, but this is what happens most of the time.

I request a file, lets say for example an update for my xbox dashboard, i type :

/msg blabla xdcc send #x

now, what happens here, i would imagine is :

server gets the message, and forwards it to the blabla (name) who then sends me a message back (possibly via the server?)

which says "sending you file #x please accept the file"

as soon as i recieve the above message, i get disconnected from the server instantly (which means the file transfer doesnt get chance to start) sometimes before i even get this message.

so.....all i can think of is, BT appears to start blocking after the server sends me the start packet, or however it works. now, if im correct... once a DCC transfer starts, its sent on the specified port of the sender, to a random port your on PC, which means BT is blocking something before that...

anyway, what i would like to know from some IRC buff (i dont really know the tech side)

when a DCC is started, what happens? is it how i said?

user #1 messages the server who messages user #2

but what happens here?

does user #2 send a message to the server once he recieves the message, or does he send it directly to me? what i was thinking was, he sends it to the server, and the server does something, which leads to BT blocking it.

any info would be great, as if they phone me and say they cant find the problem, i can possibly give them some more info.

when you send a file to a user your mirc sends a hidden message across the irc server to the reciever of the file this is the format

DCC SEND filename ipaddress port filesize

This is a /CTCP, which is a infact a /MSG with a $chr(1) leading and trailing the text

so say your ip address was 1.2.3.4 and your going to send the file "bob.txt" which is 1024 bytes in size on port 9999 then your sending this....
//msg reciversnick $chr(1) $+ DCC SEND "bob.txt" 16909060 9999 1024 $+ $chr(1)

16909060 is the 32bit IP value of 1.2.3.4

So knowing that, you now know that, be you sent or reciving a file, you get a message like this or send a message like this.
Said message goes to the irc server, BT is monitoring connections and when it detects a message in this nature it terminates the connection.
Alot of people well have seen the "user suchand such sending you a file on (1.2.3.4)" or something like that, this is a polite let you know /notice mirc sends just prior to sending the DCC SEND message outlined above. From what i have gathered the connection is broken the instant the DCC SEND is detected, you do not receive the DCC SEND so you know a file should be coming becuase you saw the notice, that was however not actually part of the file send.

[edit: oops pushed submit]

There is also apparently some other dcc's BT catches , i think
$chr(1) $+ DCC CHAT chat longip port $+ $chr(1)
is also caught and terminates your irc server connection

It should be noted an actual DCC connection can be made by you, should you be connecting to a leistening port dcc chat/send/fserve as i have tested this with a BT customer, i was able to connect to his and he to mine.

just what i was looking for, thanks... Works kinda how i imagined it did.

Any idea from your experience why BT would be blocking this (even as an accident)?
Could it be something to do with IRC based trojans/botnets?

I spoke to someone in BT Edinburgh who said it might be also related to the 6.1.1.R firmware update. Mine was upgraded from 6.1.1.M, without so much as a by your leave from me, and stopped working. It was designed to fix a bug in IE7 for Vista, and has borked the entire network. They may/will have to issue a retrograde to unfix this new "feature".

Talk about annoyed. I got the run around from a "technical service officer" and ended up trying to diagnose the problem myself. I tried dcc in OS X and Fedora Core Linux to locate the problem to the router or the network. I thought I might have changed something in a firewall etc, so I reset the router and put it back to "factory", but still with 6.1.1.R.

It is ridiculous that we have no control over automatic "upgrades". They should issue a new firmware patch, which allows you to TURN OFF upgrades, from the web interface.

So it may take a while to get sorted. I think we should get a class action for damages going. I lost my Sunday off due to this utter BS from BT.

Your 'umble servant, gordboy

not 100% sure what you mean, maybe your talking about a firmware update for a router?...either way if it helps i have tried 3 of bts modem/routers

green frog
voyager
bt home hub

same problem on all 3, also tried my DLINK dsl504T same problem on that, its definatly something on the network, as i can take my router, and my comp to my gfs, plug it into hers and it works instantly without changing any settings.

Yeah, I was talking HomeHub firmware upgrade. Well that settles it. BT are officially Kings of the Network Clowns.

Like everyone else, I've been unable to DCC for over two weeks now. I tried it again after some people reported it fixed last week, still with no joy. I did a little experimenting and found a couple of interesting things. I know it's of little use, since the problem is clearly on BT's end, despite what the support staff keep telling me (I've yet to have someone who will even admit the problem exists), but I thought I'd pass the information on in the hopes that one of the more knowledgeable people here can make sense of it.

After I receive a DCC request I'm still able to send data. I just can't receive any. I can continue talking in a channel and everyone sees my text, but I can't see anything that other people say. I can still disconnect properly, with other people seeing my standard signing off message, but if I leave it connected I'll eventually time out.

While I was testing this I started a second mIRC session to monitor things. This client was, more often than not, able to continue working normally after the first encountered problems. It started exhibiting similar behaviour to the first client on a couple of occasions, but only after several minutes. It was never cut off at the same time as the client which received the DCC request.

Apologies if both of those have been discussed already and I just missed it.

noticed the exact same things as you menkey, connecting to the same server with multiple clients, only one is "dropped" when a dcc occurs, the other client appears to work perfect.

Well, a bt "second level" tech is supposed to be phoning in the morning, they have allready said on the phone something is definatly wrong, so he better have some answers for me .

I posted a message asking for an update in news.btbroadband.support FAO BT, this is the reply:-
'Unfortunately we have not received any firm update as yet. The only information we have received is that it is unlikely that an update will beavailable before 27/12/06.

I can only apologise for this - in the meantime I have asked whether it is possible for the Helpdesk to be briefed on the outstanding issue.'

well, they phoned me tuesday, said it should be fixed wednesday, then they phoned me wednesdays said it should be fixed thursday, then they phoned me thursday......and well, you can guess what they said, there customer service is appauling, if its not fixed tommorow, i will be contacting there complaints department via the phone, and if that fails, cancelling my service and blocking them from my bank account.

Mines started working today and been worikng all day so far

dcc has been working ok for 2 hours here

tested 2 downloads, appears to be working so far...lets hope it stays working

I'm still having problems with DCC sends...

Anyone else?

nope, BT got their fingers out i think...

....for now anyway

btk