I confirm the exact same situation. Server runs perfectly however... Client side search whilst running steam as administrator = realistic Ping info (between 30 & 70 ping). Client side search whilst running steam as non-administrator = 2500 ping. Numerous client side tests from numerous locations provide the same results. Main issue here being most client side connections will not be made via running steam as an administrator.

I can confirm this issue too.
If Arma3.exe (client) is started as administrator, the showed ping times are realistic, if arma is started under normal useraccount a lot of servers (not all) in the list showing ping time of 2500 or an empty field for this value.

have you tried running your steam client as admin.

Turn off UAC and you will likely find the issue disappears

I'm pretty sure it has do do with the computer running the server.
The host probably is blocking ping packets: Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

Try to allow WAN ping packets or WAN ICMP in your router/firewall settings. Then host the server.

falconx1, could you plase tell me what "Run as administrator" of _client_ has to do with ICMP blocking on _server_? Thank you!

I have this issue, spent a lot of time trying to understand what is different about my server that the client must be running in admin mode for it to show the correct ping. Mainly because others in the list show the correct ping without me doing this???

I know that running as admin client side appears to resolve the problem but as stated, not everyone will be doing this. Very frustrating, My head may explode here.

Hello!

I have the same issue (I guess ArmA 2 and 3 is using the same method to do this). Looks like the client is using ICMP to "obtain" the ping value when it is started as admin.

22:47:03.866071 IP 83.xxx.xx.xxx > 89.160.xx.xx: ICMP echo request, id 3368, seq 39430, length 14
22:47:03.866140 IP 89.160.xx.xx > 83.xxx.xx.xxx: ICMP echo reply, id 3368, seq 39430, length 14

(Well, it sends the request to my NAT since I don't redirect the ICMP traffic, but yeah, that doesn't matter).

If the client isn't started as admin, I don't see any traffic at all directly from the client that is trying to retrieve the ping from my server. Guess it goes through some other servers?

I have searched in many topics but haven't found a solution yet. Some people say "forgot it" if you are behind a NAT (in my case, a debian box), but that doesn't sound like a solution. I know we are not alone.

Yes, exactly what I've seen - client don't even try to send an ICMP request.

Do we know how the client measures the ping value when it doesn't run as admin? I can't see any specific traffic that happens when people are refreshing the server in the server browser. I can see that my server talks with a gamespy and a Valve-server sometimes, which is a UDP-packet in both directions. But not more than that.

If we knew how it does it, maybe we can find out what is going wrong. By the way, the server lists correctly if you watch the gamespy server list here:
http://tools.poweredbygamespy.com/masterserver/index.aspx?gamename=arma3pc
Guess the "ICMPip" is what the client is using when running steam as admin?

I tried to filter on other servers on that list behind NAT (with a local IP set) and i receive the same thing.

if i recall, some security settings can require an administrator for an application to open firewall ports in windows and/or via upnp.

Those with issues, i'd be interested to know what you all use for windows-installed firewall, and also what and how you've configured your router (manual forwarding vs upnp)

--

fyi it appears udp is being used in place of icmp - packet timing matches ping counts in server browser - udp is unreliable and thus ping counts in game cannot be trusted as real network latency

A real solution would be good, not a workaround. The "run it as admin" is even a bad one.

easily solveable, on server firewall set enabled for any ICMP V4 incoming
(or specifically ""Destination Unreachable" , ""Echo request"", ""Time Exceeded"", ""Source Quench"", ""Redirect"")
also make sure you allow NAT traversal for this rule in the firewall

Same here. It seems its for all dedicaded root servers.
If you look here: http://tools.poweredbygamespy.com/masterserver/index.aspx?gamename=arma3pc

All Servers with 0.0.0.0 at icmpip works fine with a normal ping. All servers with an ip there have 2500ms ping.

I search at google for a long time but theres nothing about the icmpip at gamespy master list. But it seems, all gameserver-hoster like "vilayer" or "gameservers" have 0.0.0.0 at icmpip.
We have shut down the firewall completly but the ping is the same on 2500 on our root-server. Any sugestions? Without any firewall, the problem should be solved, easier then the idea from dwarden.

in my opinion gamespy/arma3 should display N/A instead of 2500.
ICMP can be a firewall issue on windows but also in your/their router setup

@Dwarden
Windows Firewall is disabled (netsh firewall set opmode disabled) and Server is in DMZ.

If your suggestion were the case the clients running Steam\Arma 3 in 'Run as Administrator' mode wouldn't make a difference is my understanding. There is no link between the two?

Hey guys,

are you still experiencing this issue? I would like to know if it happens to you when you switch to Steam in server browser list [instead of default Gamespy].

Thank you.

If it was a firewall issue in the server router, then surely everyone should receive a 2500 value for the ping. (This is not the case).
If it were the clients router/firewall then every server would show up as 2500ms for that client. (This is also not the case).

We had this issue on one of our members home dedicated server.
The issue disappeared when he reset the geolocation to the correct values .......
So maybe this is something to do with that, maybe measuring a virtual distance based on these settings and if that is too far, returns the max ping automatically . (Just guessing)

@BIS_Iceman

No, there is no such issue when using Steam list - all servers (I care about) are showing ping correctly. But! Steam list is much slower than Gamespy (when filtering by server (or mission) name, it takes more than 4 minutes to get all matching servers in Steam mode, and almost instantly in Gamespy mode). Please check this video - http://youtu.be/u39HK_3_NjU

Thank you for your report! Sadly, I cannot reproduce the problem with delaying the server load. Can you please make sure you had set the Download region on Steam to correct location?

It can be found here:
Steam > Settings > Downloads > Download Region

Please let me know, thank you.

I had 'Download Region' set incorrectly, but changing it doesn't really help. Steam's "View > Servers" list has the same low performance for me.

How is the server load fast when not applying any filter? Is there a significant diference with displaying the servers?

Thank you for your time, this helps us in a significant way.

About the ping and user/administrator, the game takes the values from the GS API (or Steam API in case of Steam browser), the values are calculated by the provided libraries, that's why you are detecting only GS/Steam communication.

About the Steam browser and slow update. The difference is that GS provides ability to query only sessions which matches certain string in name, map, mission... The Steam doesn't have that, only map can be filtered (and it has to be exact string), so the client has to download the whole list of servers and filter it locally.

Please create another issue with the slow Steam filter since it's another problem, I try to look for some solution.

Hey guys, thx for helping out with this.

I cannot for the life of me work out how to switch to the Steam in server browser list [instead of default Gamespy?

:S

It's only available in the dev build for now.

There is no gamespy support anymore, game over.

I guess this issue can be closed