Stuck "logging in to game server"

[Franz]

VPN fixed it for 1 login - now again stuck in the login..

it seems to be luck if it works or not...

[Foregone]

This is not a definitive solution to the problem, but I heard several "working" tricks for some people now:

1. Reset / Flush DNS
The first thing to try would be to flush your DNS. Depending on how your setup at home is, this might be a bit more complicated, especially for people who rock their own home server, but I trust they know what to do. If you're one of the few people just having your own PC on the router, try the following

Windows
- ipconfig /flushdns
- ipconfig /release
- ipconfig /renew
- netsh winsock reset

Linux
- resolvectl flush-caches
- ip route flush cache
- systemctl restart systemd-resolved (if you are using systemd)
- systemctl restart systemd-networkd (if you are using systemd)

2. Reset your router
If you have the possibility of resetting just the cache and maybe just do a quick reconnect, do that. Otherwise a complete router restart usually does the same. It causes the router to forget all the saved routes and dns cache entries. This CAN help, but doesn't have to.

3. Restart PC
After doing the first steps and not having any luck, you could also try to restart your PC. Some say it helped in this situation. Usually it's the same effect as 1., but who knows what you've got running on your PC.

4. Running a VPN
Some reports state that running a VPN, connected do Finland, Denmark or the Netherlands, helps circumventing this problem. ProtonVPN is a name I hear often, but you might try other ones.

--------------------

Just wanted to get out there that NONE of these solutions help me personally. I've completely cleared every cache of my home server, my PC, my router and restarted everything through. Not even with a VPN it works on my end. Not sure what causes this, but if someone in Germany is using Vodafone, I'd be glad for every bit of help here.

Hope you can connect to the server, folks.

As a followup of what I wrote here.

I've tried to find out what's the culprit here. Thought it was my ISP, but this seems to be wrong. For the tech savvy (and maybe the admins here):

We went for several different ISPs and did tracepaths to each of the servers (hc.octowow.st, pvp.octowow.st and normal.octowow.st). Both PvP and HC realm give me the same (vaild) answer, which reaches the endpoint royalehosting.net. The normal realm however completely cuts connectivity, once it goes out of my ISPs pipeline. Usually, every realm is showing me a path through twelve99.net, but the normal realm doesn't.

I believe the reason why it worked for so many people with ProtonVPN is that the path got updated from there on and was fine. For lots of other ISPs it seemingly didn't. If you want to try out if you can connect with your own PC, you could try:

Windows:
tracert normal.octowow.st

Linux:
tracepath normal.octowow.st

Don't worry about the different amount of hops - it depends on the ISP you're on. If the last replies you get are from "royalehosting.net", you're probably good to go.

Gonna mirror this into the announcement too.

[Magicpants]

This is not a definitive solution to the problem, but I heard several "working" tricks for some people now:

1. Reset / Flush DNS
The first thing to try would be to flush your DNS. Depending on how your setup at home is, this might be a bit more complicated, especially for people who rock their own home server, but I trust they know what to do. If you're one of the few people just having your own PC on the router, try the following

Windows
- ipconfig /flushdns
- ipconfig /release
- ipconfig /renew
- netsh winsock reset

Linux
- resolvectl flush-caches
- ip route flush cache
- systemctl restart systemd-resolved (if you are using systemd)
- systemctl restart systemd-networkd (if you are using systemd)

2. Reset your router
If you have the possibility of resetting just the cache and maybe just do a quick reconnect, do that. Otherwise a complete router restart usually does the same. It causes the router to forget all the saved routes and dns cache entries. This CAN help, but doesn't have to.

3. Restart PC
After doing the first steps and not having any luck, you could also try to restart your PC. Some say it helped in this situation. Usually it's the same effect as 1., but who knows what you've got running on your PC.

4. Running a VPN
Some reports state that running a VPN, connected do Finland, Denmark or the Netherlands, helps circumventing this problem. ProtonVPN is a name I hear often, but you might try other ones.

--------------------

Just wanted to get out there that NONE of these solutions help me personally. I've completely cleared every cache of my home server, my PC, my router and restarted everything through. Not even with a VPN it works on my end. Not sure what causes this, but if someone in Germany is using Vodafone, I'd be glad for every bit of help here.

Hope you can connect to the server, folks.

Just did all this and it changed nothing for me also, UK based. The only difference the VPN makes is it get's to the connected window rather than Success, the end result is always the same. It offers realms that don't work or seem down. Ty anyway though for the help.

[Franz]

Following up on the DNS flush / router reset / VPN suggestions above — wanted to share some traceroute data that narrows down where the problem actually sits, since none of the client-side fixes worked for me either at first.

I ran tracert against all three realm IPs (.47 hc, .48 normal, .49 pvp — they're sequential, same subnet) from three completely independent networks:

Deutsche Telekom (direct, no VPN): hc and pvp both route through NTT -> Telia (twelve99) -> royalehosting.net successfully. normal dies right after leaving DTAG's own backbone, before ever reaching a transit provider — full 30 hops, no response.
VPN exit in Finland (different ISP, different transit — via DataIX): hc and pvp reach royalehosting.net fine again. normal dies mid-transit at the DataIX exchange, before ever reaching royalehosting.
VPN exit in Netherlands (yet another unrelated ISP): hc and pvp reach royalehosting's network within 3 hops. normal fails at that exact same hop — never gets a response.

So across three unrelated ISPs, three different countries, three different transit paths, the pattern is identical every time: .47 and .49 always get through, .48 never does — and it fails right around where each path reaches royalehosting.net's own network.

That's hard to explain as an ISP or transit-provider problem, since it reproduces on networks that don't share any infrastructure. The most likely explanation is a null-route / blackhole on that specific IP applied at or very close to royalehosting's own network — probably leftover from DDoS mitigation — rather than anything wrong with our end.

If anyone's in touch with the server operator or royalehosting's NOC/abuse contact, this "neighbor IPs work, this one doesn't, from three unrelated countries" pattern is worth flagging directly — that's really the only place it can get fixed. VPN "working" for some people was likely just catching a network path where that specific block wasn't currently propagated, not an actual fix.

[Foregone]

Following up on the DNS flush / router reset / VPN suggestions above — wanted to share some traceroute data that narrows down where the problem actually sits, since none of the client-side fixes worked for me either at first.

I ran tracert against all three realm IPs (.47 hc, .48 normal, .49 pvp — they're sequential, same subnet) from three completely independent networks:

Deutsche Telekom (direct, no VPN): hc and pvp both route through NTT -> Telia (twelve99) -> royalehosting.net successfully. normal dies right after leaving DTAG's own backbone, before ever reaching a transit provider — full 30 hops, no response.
VPN exit in Finland (different ISP, different transit — via DataIX): hc and pvp reach royalehosting.net fine again. normal dies mid-transit at the DataIX exchange, before ever reaching royalehosting.
VPN exit in Netherlands (yet another unrelated ISP): hc and pvp reach royalehosting's network within 3 hops. normal fails at that exact same hop — never gets a response.

So across three unrelated ISPs, three different countries, three different transit paths, the pattern is identical every time: .47 and .49 always get through, .48 never does — and it fails right around where each path reaches royalehosting.net's own network.

That's hard to explain as an ISP or transit-provider problem, since it reproduces on networks that don't share any infrastructure. The most likely explanation is a null-route / blackhole on that specific IP applied at or very close to royalehosting's own network — probably leftover from DDoS mitigation — rather than anything wrong with our end.

If anyone's in touch with the server operator or royalehosting's NOC/abuse contact, this "neighbor IPs work, this one doesn't, from three unrelated countries" pattern is worth flagging directly — that's really the only place it can get fixed. VPN "working" for some people was likely just catching a network path where that specific block wasn't currently propagated, not an actual fix.

Seems to cover what I have experienced so far, too. The ones who were able to join via VPN in NL seemed to be connected to a direct node that had access to it. No clue, however, where the endpoint of the VPN lies.

Anyway, I think this is out of the hands of the user or ISP. In this case it might have to be solved by the Octo Team.

Thanks for looking it up!

[Lvkuang1]

the router reset worked for me

[Ziggler]

I get stuck all the time on the very last step, the game loading screen ... blue line goes all the way and i remain stucked there. If i click on the screen the game closes compleatley

[Reiker]

Neither flushdns or resetting my router worked for me. Just seems like they're blocking certain (most?) regions from connecting to the server.

[Ramune]

The only thing that fixed it for me was trying a VPN, instantly was able to login after that.

This. I've been playing without big issues for two days, so, I just tried to check it. I disabled vpn and stuck on the "Logging .." message with the realm selection. Then I turned on vpn and logged in instantly, tried it a few times again with and without vpn - there is always the same result, I can't log in without vpn, but can do it easily with it.

But I suppose not every vpn will work like this. I use a simple Cloudlare WARP wireguard config which is generated using a tool from github. It doesn't change your country, instead you just get Cloudflare IP from a data center in your country. It's kinda a useful thing since CF IPs are often whitelisted on various resources and it helps to bypass things like bot blocks, etc, which you can often encounter using generic and popular vpn providers.

[Moonfries]

I’ve always used a VPN to play. I use one called ExitLag. A few hours ago, I was able to play normally, but I logged out to have dinner, and now I’m stuck on “Connected.” I’ve already tried restarting my computer, renewing my IP address, and optimizing the route again, but it feels as if I’ve been blocked from connecting to the server