"Please Wait..." - not syncing to server?

Symptoms

About 2-3 weeks ago I started having issues connecting to MP servers, specifically with the game stalling on the Clouds screen with "Please Wait" shown below.

Sometimes I can connect, sometimes I'll try again the next hour or day and I can't. However the success rate on connecting seems to be dropping from 70% to about 20%.

Tonight I've tried and failed to connect to GAW, 104th, BlueFlag, TTI-Aus. All Caucasus maps.

The last message in DCS.log when it stalls on this screen is:

2019-11-05 14:26:20.663 INFO Dispatcher: loadMission Done: Сontrol passed to the player

And if it succeeds it will write:

2019-11-05 14:26:20.663 INFO Dispatcher: loadMission Done: Сontrol passed to the player

2019-11-05 14:26:20.663 INFO NET: sync seems good, telling server we are ready

2019-11-05 14:26:20.924 INFO NET: MsgClientInit(serverTime=49622.171759, modelTime=4996.565039)

2019-11-05 14:26:20.924 INFO NET: local time=47.924837, offset=49574.418087, error=0.005100, samples=16

2019-11-05 14:26:20.924 INFO NET: scheduled start at 47.748644

2019-11-05 14:26:20.924 INFO NET: MsgClientRun

(then more stuff)

What I've tried

I've tried repairing DCS, no change. I've also tried completely reinstalling DCS (and removing all files and \Saved Game\ data) without SRS/Tacview, still the same however. No mods are installed.

What I've ruled out

DCS is Open Beta on an M.2 NVMe, 64Gb RAM. It can load singleplayer lightning fast and has no trouble with FPS. I'd previously been playing DCS MP for about 2 years and built a new PC maybe a month ago.

My ping is around 110 to Aus and 240-270 to US servers. No wireless on local networking. No firewall messages.

Anyone have any ideas? It makes it difficult to hook up with a wingman when I'm unable to connect.

So it appears to be linked to other internet activity. I'm on a 50mbit connection, but if there's a slow rate download going on (around 100kb/s) then it will have much more trouble syncing.

I'm surprised it takes this little to destabilize it, the other day I was playing AoE II multiplayer while the 16Gb HD pack accidentally downloaded in the background without me really noticing.

I have exact same issue but all the time not only if something is downloading. It works when I have a VPN enabled, which is weird. Any help would be much appreciated.

Same issue here, unfortunately i wasn't playing for a month or two and when back it seemed not working properly anymore. Tried repairing and cleaning to no avail. As the others are suggesting, any help would be much appreciated.

Pretty similar issue here as well. When I try to join a server I get a loading screen that lasts forever. It never gets to the point it tell me its loading the map or anything. I've tried router resets, checking my firewall, restarting both DCS and my PC, my network extender, repairing DCS. Nothing works all i get is, Loading.......

I was hoping in today update to be able to play again in MP. The wait was killing me so i tried some of the past suggested solutions to this problem. Like, delete the savegame folder, but it didn't work. Can we have a solution? Should we provide logs?

(EGG already did but i can do it too if necessary)

I'm not using any antivirus software and the firewall allows DCS to go through. I've been trying to solve it since i wrote my first post, a couple of days ago. Many people tried to be helpful but nothing worked. Depression starts to kick in! :(

TCP/UDP are router rules isn't it? I'll go check them too, i'll let you know if it worked or not. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

I had a look at my tcp/udp rules, on the router i have both 10308 and 10309 open for DCS. I'm still at the loading screen, "please wait" and clouds. Same message in the log as the other users, "Dispacther: loadMission Done: Control passed to player", nothing else.

In my case if it was Firewall rules (Windows or router) it would be applying 100% of the time. But sometimes I can get in and sometimes I can't.

A couple of people (one here, and one on PM) have mentioned the problem goes away if they use a VPN, so I'll try this next time I see the issue.

I checked my firewall rules, some say you have to put it in private net only. I tried that but didn't work, so i deactivated the firewall completely, nothing happened.

I tried to see if changing map on the server solved the issue, but no.

The server sees me as connected, but i'm on the waiting screen with control only of my cursor and can't use windows keys, shift-tab or ctrl-esc, just call the task manager with ctrl-alt-del and kill the process.

The only things happening while i was away the past months were a couple of updates of DCS and a couple of updates from Windows. Most of the users are still playing, so i tried to go back in time with Windows updates, deactivating the recent ones. Nothing again.

@EGG i'll try VPN too hoping it will solve it. The mistery continues :)

I solved my issue thanks to Auntystatic, she led me to examine my router. I plead guilty on this one. A 4g booster was added to the router while i was away. Apparently the router harware supports upnp only on the port the booster was added. Shifted the ethernet port, the issue was solved. Could connect again to any server.

Totally my router problem, nothing to do with DCS or Windows.

I hope it will help others, perhaps changing the ethernet port of your router will allow you to play again, apparently they are not the same, not in my case.

Thanks for your patience!

Hey, same problem here, tried the same possible solutions without success. Haven't tried a VPN, but I don't think that's a real (lasting) solution.

Cheers.

A VPN is not a good fix since it makes my latency so high it is almost impossible to do a2a refuel in server or formation fly

I am experiencing the same issue since a few weeks now, can't relate to any change that might have been occured to my system in form of windows or dcs updates…

All servers are visible but if i want to connect i am stuck forever in the "Please wait…" screen until i timeout...

Multiplayer issue: Please Wait

We have two people in our 62nd Fighting Falcons group who have now got this problem.

We can’t seem to find what is causing it, and it’s a real bummer for those guys.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers

Boomer

This seems to be a continuing real issue for two of our group.

One of them is lodging a ticket with ED after trying lots of possible solutions.

They really need to have a look at this.

We had this issue on our dedicated server with one of our players.

It was very odd, he only had this issue with our server and could connect to others just fine.

His router was a bit old and did not support UPnP, instead it had a page for Port Triggering.

After hours of trial and error we found a configuration where he was able to connect again.

Client Side

• Enabled port triggering on ports 50,000 to 55,000 (both TCP and UDP)
  

Server Side

• Changed dedicated server to run on a port in that range (in our case, 51587)
  
• Port forward that port for the dedicated server
  
• Added to the server's Saved Games\DCS\Config\autoexec.cfg:
  

  net.use_upnp = false

  
  

Hi, i have the exact same problem with "Please wait screen" and can't at all connect to any server.

I mean that is the problem, why all other multiplayer games work but DCS does not?

Any help would be really useful;)

Same Problem Here. "Please wait screen". Any Help? Thanks!!

I have solved my problem by asking my ISP to get me off the CG-NAT routing which they did and now everything is ok. But i don't know why it is a problem because all the other multiplayer games worked.

I meant to post back here (I thought I had done) to say that the problem was CG-NAT on my ISP also. Once that was removed it was a lot easier to get in. And similar to krakovv I hadn't had the problem with other multiplayer games also.