Technic launcher reliant on technic servers being available for authentication with minecraft.net

[Mordritch]

Launcher Version: 1.1.20

Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit

Java Version: 1.7.0_15 (64bit)

Antivirus Program: n/a

Description of Problem:

Speaking as a software developer who also spent some time as a technician at an ISP, I have informed observations about the circumstances which ultimately made it impossible to play Technic this morning, even though minecraft.net was in fact reachable.

The source of the issue this morning was due to an unusual network routing problem affecting Cloudflare, which was likely not their fault. This affected Technic because you use using them to host your DNS records, which means that no one could resolve any .technicpack.net addresses.

What I find worrying about this situation is that Cloudflare made a poor decision to host their primary and secondary DNS servers on the same network block. Had they made a secondary server available on a different network block, then the above problem would not have made your DNS records unavailable to the entire internet.

If I were Technic, I would take up this failing in their network design with Cloudflare and find out how they are going to correct it. If they aren't, then you should move your DNS records to someone else.

However, this alone should not have prevented players from playing Technic. If I am unable to connect to any of Technic's servers, then I would expect an error to the effect of "Could not check for Technic updates" . Instead, it tells me that Tumblr and minecraft.net are down, which was a lie. I should have still been able to authenticate with minecraft.net and log into the game. There would of course have been the risk that the game would be out of date, but this can be addressed in other ways, perhaps as you try connect to your own multiplayer server.

In summary, I advise following by Technic to avoid repeats of this morning's issues:

- Technic should check and see if Cloudflare is planning on correcting this failing in their network architecture, and if not, move to a different DNS host.

- Technic developers should ensure that the launcher will still work even if Technic's servers are unavailable, provided that minecraft.net is still online.

Error Messages:

Could not connect to minecraft.net, even though vanilla Minecraft could connect fine.

Error Log:

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	------------------------------------------

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	Launcher is starting....

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	Launcher Build: '1.1.2.0'

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	Allocated 2730.6875 Mb of RAM

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	Java VM: '1.7.0_15-b03'

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	OS Version: '6.1'

[12:08:28] [sEVERE]	Is 64-bit: 'true'

[12:08:41] [sEVERE]	Loading Launcher from 'techniclauncher/tekkitlite'

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	------------------------------------------

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	Launcher is starting....

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	Launcher Build: '1.1.2.0'

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	Allocated 2730.6875 Mb of RAM

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	Java VM: '1.7.0_15-b03'

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	OS Version: '6.1'

[12:09:34] [sEVERE]	Is 64-bit: 'true'

[12:09:57] [sEVERE]	Exiting the Technic Launcher

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	------------------------------------------

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	Launcher is starting....

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	Launcher Build: '1.1.2.0'

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	Allocated 2730.6875 Mb of RAM

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	Java VM: '1.7.0_15-b03'

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	OS Version: '6.1'

[12:10:02] [sEVERE]	Is 64-bit: 'true'

[12:10:10] [sEVERE]	Exiting the Technic Launcher

[12:10:15] [sEVERE]	------------------------------------------

[Mordritch]

Here is a screenshot of what I could see this morning: