Unable to use any SOCKS5 Proxy - but was previously working

[t1337duder]

Hello [h],

Over the last 24 hours I've been obsessing over an issue that I have no idea how to fix. For the last month I've been using a SOCKS5 proxy to play a certain game on a specific server that is across the USA from me. I've been using Win2Socks to facilitate the connection. For the last three weeks, it has worked extremely well. My average ping and game responsiveness was measurably improved (~175ms average to ~140ms average). I have a few different dedicated residential IP's available to me, but for those three weeks I've simply stuck one the same IP because it worked for me.

Unfortunately, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to experiment with the other proxy addresses available to me. My goal was to test between them to see which provided the best performance. After I switched to a different proxy (which belonged to the same datacenter and ISP as the first IP), I found I was no longer able to make any connection with the desired game server. Not just that, but I'm unable to connect to 90% of the game servers for that game. Some servers work, but the majority don't. I can see that bytes were sent over UDP, but no bytes are received from the majority of the servers. If the specific server that I liked to play on worked, I wouldn't even care about the rest. There's no distinct pattern I can detect between the servers that work and the servers that don't.

Afterwards, I switch back to the original proxy that I used for the last 3 weeks. Now, the proxy which once working perfectly, was now experiencing the exact same issue as the new proxy I had just tested. Bizarre.

From there I pulled a new proxy that belonged to a different datacenter and different ISP altogether, and it's the exact same issue. Three different proxies, but same connection issues across all three. What are the odds?

From there I could only conclude I was having a software issue. I switched from Win2Socks to ProxyCap. And with different software entirely, I'm still experiencing the same issue.

I've tried restarting my router, my PC, disabling my firewall, etc. but I've run out of ideas in regards to troubleshooting this issue.

Why would the act of switching from one proxy, to another proxy, break usage of all proxies on my machine? Thanks for reading. When I have a chance, I'm going to test on another PC to see if it's an issue specific to my computer, or if it's an issue specific to my entire network, I just haven't gotten to that point yet.

If anyone was feeling generous in regarding to help, I could provide them with the proxy and authentication details for testing to see if they can replicate the issue on their end.

 

[SamirD]

I think you're on the right trail with it being a software issue. Not sure exactly what, but it could be many possibilities as today's network stacks are such a huge mess.

Using a different PC to test will help confirm this. But if you have the same issue, then it could be something on the network, and quite possibly out of your control as these are always undergoing changes behind the scenes.

 

[t1337duder]

I think you're on the right trail with it being a software issue. Not sure exactly what, but it could be many possibilities as today's network stacks are such a huge mess.

Using a different PC to test will help confirm this. But if you have the same issue, then it could be something on the network, and quite possibly out of your control as these are always undergoing changes behind the scenes.

Thanks for the advice. I had the opportunity a little bit ago to test with a different PC and unfortunately I'm still having the same issue.

I've worked in IT and seen a wide variety of issues, but I'm completely out of my depth when it comes to this aspect of networking. To be honest, I've already spent more time on this issue than what it's worth to me (I can always just play a different server/game), but I'm stubborn about letting issues go unsolved (which is why I enjoy troubleshooting). Some possibilities I've brain-stormed...

A) Issue between my internet connection (Starlink) and the proxy server. For example, perhaps there's a common service managing the proxy servers behind the scenes that flagged my IP address and restricting my usage in a specific manner. If I dig through my Win2Socks logs, I notice an error that is popping up after I started experiencing my issues.

2023-07-28 04:44:16.916 -07:00 [WRN] RedirectServer occurs exception.
Socklient.ProtocolErrorException: Server replies incompatible version: 0x00.
   at Socklient.SocksClient.HandshakeAsync(Method[] methods, CancellationToken token)
   at Socklient.SocksClient.PrepareAsync(CancellationToken token)
   at Socklient.SocksClient.UdpAssociateAsync(IPAddress address, Int32 port, CancellationToken token)
   at al.j.a.d()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at al.j.a.d()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at al.h(IPEndPoint A_0, IPEndPoint A_1, ReadOnlyMemory`1 A_2, Int32 A_3, ad A_4)
   at aq.e(ValueTuple`2 A_0)

I emailed Win2Socks support and they told me that "the proxy server either rejected your connect, or the server implements the incorrect SOCKS5 protocol". The three proxy servers I'm using are from the same provider. Despite the IP addresses being different, as well as the ISP's - is it possible that their proxies are all managed by the same software on their end which is rejecting my connection?

Another possibility I've considered is that the proxies themselves are having an issue communicating with the game servers.

B) When I switched proxies and subsequently broke my ability to use them, perhaps there's a setting I changed unwittingly which is causing my proxies to malfunction. Having said that, I can't figure out what I would've done to break the proxy functionality in this specific way.

---

EDIT: after all of this, *one* of the proxies started working again, and is properly receiving traffic between the game server. I'm stumped but thankful I'm able to get it working for my purposes...

 

[SamirD]

I've noticed over the years that upgrades and bug fixes at the carrier level can break stuff that was working before. Sounds like this was a bit of that.