174 replies to this topic

[Valorous]

A pets update fixed the problem - thank you! The number of my pets has changed and this has probably confused the autotrainer.
 

 

I see! I have indeed noticed that during the day the Manager does do different dailies, which could very well amount to all of them at the end of the day. This wasn't an issue for me until recently, but because due to me changing jobs I don't run Valorsuite for hours anymore, and thus it doesn't do all dailies anymore.
When I do my dailies manually I do them all at once so I'm done with them for the day. Would it be possible that Valorsuite does the same? For example, even though Food Club is most interesting sometime after 2 pm NST, if I run the Dailies Manager every day at 1 am NST it could collect my winnings and bet anew. Trudy's Surprise isn't tied to any time whatsoever, but I noticed that it often doesn't get done.
On a similar note, what it the Toy Chest daily that Valoursuite does? If it's "Weltrude's Toy Chest" I'm afraid the daily is not functional anymore (which would explain the empty pages it gives me to download when it's done).
 
Regarding proxy issues, it's interesting that you (Valorous) wrote that a slow response causes problems. Sometime ago I wrote about my own proxy issue -

 

 - and I since wondered if this is because of somewhat unreliable internet where I live. When we stream movies our TV sometimes says "no internet connection", but the stream itself is totally unaffected by this (and my computer doesn't tell my about any issues whatsoever), which leads me to the conclusion that these are minor connection issues that are resolved in a very short time. Is it possible that Valorsuite's tolerance for this sort of thing is simply too low for me? Can you shed some light on this?
 

 

1. The daily manager initially always does them in a row. As the randomization snowballs it will spread out how often it does them instead of stack them. I could provide settings to control how random it is though. If I did this you could have it always stack dailies as you intend.
2. I was not aware that toy chest was killed. I do not play Neopets. I will remove it next major update.
3. An unreliable or slow proxy will cause the account to be disabled constantly. If you have unreliable internet but the proxy that you supply is reliable than there will be no problems.

 

I'm confused - is the cause of the account getting disabled is about proxy speed (or lack thereof), or is it about VS failing to calculate the speed?

It seems strange it would always fail to calculate the speed right after logging in to Neopets, though.

 

VS can contact Neopets and log in OK, then my account is disabled for a failure to calculate latency.

Besides latency calculations, is there something else that's happening at the same time to cause the account to disable?

 

Thank you both so much for your help.

 

1. It logs in and checks the speed of the proxy immediately after. It kicks off other requests at the same time by your "on login" settings. If any of these fail after multiple tries the account will be disabled.
2. My suspicion is an unreliable proxy because there are hundreds of accounts logged in on VS at any moment.

I thought I finally found a good proxy company, I'll be disappointed if their speed is the problem. I don't understand what the speed test numbers mean, so I don't know if my proxy is "too slow" or not. All I can say is it seems OK through a browser.

Even if it is "too slow", I still think there's a lot of benefit to VS - the very idea of having my dailies done for me every day before I wake up so I can actually enjoy my time on Neopets without the grind is good enough.

 

I'm hoping Valorous can clear some things up, I'm anxious to hear if there's a solution for both of us.

Try that proxy and get back to me.

 

 

The proxy script that is on these forums is not reliable. It is meant only for testing. There is a guide on the forums to setting up a reliable proxy by @kuwazome http://www.neocodex....b/#entry2027072

[Purrina]

Try that proxy and get back to me.

 

The proxy script that is on these forums is not reliable. It is meant only for testing. There is a guide on the forums to setting up a reliable proxy by @kuwazome http://www.neocodex....b/#entry2027072

 

 

What I meant to say was - I found a good proxy that works from my home, but ValorSuite consistently disables it.

 

I looked at the link you posted -- I would rather not use my home IP, I prefer to use a purchased dedicated proxy for the account.

Is there any way to disable the informational latency so I can run ValorSuite?

[Perdita]

 

1. The daily manager initially always does them in a row. As the randomization snowballs it will spread out how often it does them instead of stack them. I could provide settings to control how random it is though. If I did this you could have it always stack dailies as you intend.

That would be great!

 

 

1. I was not aware that toy chest was killed. I do not play Neopets. I will remove it next major update.

Oh! It's funny that no one told you yet because it's been removed in 2016. oO

 

 

 

1. An unreliable or slow proxy will cause the account to be disabled constantly. If you have unreliable internet but the proxy that you supply is reliable than there will be no problems.

Let me get this right; the script that I use, which is the one used for the guide by ortin, is unreliable. If it was reliable it wouldn't matter that I sometimes have minor issues with the internet at home that "feeds" the proxy - it would still work. Is this correct?
I'm aware of kuwazome's guide, but if I read everything correctly the proxies based in Europe are not free and I'd rather not pay for a proxy, no matter how cheap they are. I'm currently looking into other ways to "build" a proxy, but it does require acquiring some new knowledge for me.

[Valorous]

That would be great!

 

Oh! It's funny that no one told you yet because it's been removed in 2016. oO

 

 

Let me get this right; the script that I use, which is the one used for the guide by ortin, is unreliable. If it was reliable it wouldn't matter that I sometimes have minor issues with the internet at home that "feeds" the proxy - it would still work. Is this correct?
I'm aware of kuwazome's guide, but if I read everything correctly the proxies based in Europe are not free and I'd rather not pay for a proxy, no matter how cheap they are. I'm currently looking into other ways to "build" a proxy, but it does require acquiring some new knowledge for me.

If your internet is unreliable then you can't ever have a reliable proxy if the proxy uses your internet.

[Purrina]

It's working now 

 

For anyone else struggling with their account being disabled for latency issues - I was using username/password authentication with my proxy. Talk with your proxy provider and see if they offer "IP authentication" Switching to that solved my problem.

 

A HUGE ~Thank You~ to @Valorous for doing so much testing, and for being so helpful and patient to help me figure this out.

I really appreciate all your help!

[kuwaz]

That would be great!

 

Oh! It's funny that no one told you yet because it's been removed in 2016. oO

 

 

Let me get this right; the script that I use, which is the one used for the guide by ortin, is unreliable. If it was reliable it wouldn't matter that I sometimes have minor issues with the internet at home that "feeds" the proxy - it would still work. Is this correct?
I'm aware of kuwazome's guide, but if I read everything correctly the proxies based in Europe are not free and I'd rather not pay for a proxy, no matter how cheap they are. I'm currently looking into other ways to "build" a proxy, but it does require acquiring some new knowledge for me.

 

You dont need a proxy based in Europe.

 

The proxy is for ValorSuite to use when it connects to Neopets. To get a good latency, just use a region that is closest to both ValorSuite's servers and Neopets servers. I'm having pretty good latency with US west and US central regions. I updated the instructions to use docker, so it should be very trivial to setup now.

 

The only time you will need to use the proxy from your own computer is to check on your bot accounts. In that case, some latency doesnt matter since its not mission critical. Using your own network as a proxy when you live outside of north america is not a good idea, because of these reasons:

1. You dont want your main account's IPs to be the same as the ones you use for botting
2. ValorSuite has to connect to you (in Europe), then the proxy running in your network has to connect to neopets (in US), so youre making a trip to Europe and back on every request. This will add a lot of latency.
3. No matter how good your internet is, youre not going to beat AWS, Azure, or GCP datacenters, they have the best networking on the planet.

 

@Valorous

 

What AWS region are your servers running on? Then I can recommend a region for people to use.

Edited by kuwazome, 08 November 2018 - 05:38 PM.

[Valorous]

You dont need a proxy based in Europe.

 

The proxy is for ValorSuite to use when it connects to Neopets. To get a good latency, just use a region that is closest to both ValorSuite's servers and Neopets servers. I'm having pretty good latency with US west and US central regions. I updated the instructions to use docker, so it should be very trivial to setup now.

 

The only time you will need to use the proxy from your own computer is to check on your bot accounts. In that case, some latency doesnt matter since its not mission critical.

 

@Valorous

 

What AWS region are your servers running on? Then I can recommend a region for people to use.

@kuwazome

Atlanta

[kuwaz]

@kuwazome

Atlanta

 

Based on this and the nslookup of neopets.com going to Azure in Virginia (at least their inbound). I would recommend anyone using proxies to use GCP region us-east4 (North Virginia). But its excluded from the always free tier, so us-east1 is the best second choice.

Edited by kuwazome, 08 November 2018 - 07:57 PM.

[Perdita]

You dont need a proxy based in Europe.

Yes, I do - I don't have botting accounts, I only have one main account that I play and cheat with. I don't doubt that in other cases a US-based proxy would be the best choice; there is indeed quite some latency (< 1.5 s).

[kuwaz]

Yes, I do - I don't have botting accounts, I only have one main account that I play and cheat with. I don't doubt that in other cases a US-based proxy would be the best choice; there is indeed quite some latency (< 1.5 s).

 

Why cant you run the bots from the proxy (in US) and just access the account directly with your own computer (in Europe) when you need to? The two methods can be entirely separate, you dont have to use the same method for both. You only have 1 account and dont care about using multiple IPs, so whats the problem?

 

Neopets servers are in the US, it doesnt matter if you use a proxy or not, youre connecting to US servers. Theres latency for you as long as you live outside of the north america, regardless of what you do.

Edited by kuwazome, 09 November 2018 - 07:39 AM.

[Perdita]

Why cant you run the bots from the proxy (in US) and just access the account directly with your own computer (in Europe) when you need to? The two methods can be entirely separate, you dont have to use the same method for both. You only have 1 account and dont care about using multiple IPs, so whats the problem?

I don't use multiple IPs; the proxy I use for Valorsuite uses my regular home IP (it uses the script provided here in the forums). Using IPs from Europe and the US will probably look very interesting, that's why I don't do it. Apparently the script is unreliable, so I'm loosely looking for an alternative. The latency isn't really a problem for me because I don't autobuy with Valorsuite.

[kuwaz]

I don't use multiple IPs; the proxy I use for Valorsuite uses my regular home IP (it uses the script provided here in the forums). Using IPs from Europe and the US will probably look very interesting, that's why I don't do it. Apparently the script is unreliable, so I'm loosely looking for an alternative. The latency isn't really a problem for me because I don't autobuy with Valorsuite.

 

Okay, in one post you say latency is a problem, in another you say its not...? Confused.

 

 

 

As for using a proxy, theres some options here

• Use an US proxy and pipe all traffic to it
  • Both ValorSuite and your regular neopets traffic
  • Reserve a browser like firefox and configure the proxy there, so its always used for neopets
• Use the same docker proxy in your house
  • Use your own computer or a raspberry pi or something, it just needs to be online when you run ValorSuite
  • Forward port 3128 (or some other port for the proxy to sit on) from your router into this computer or machine
  • Install docker (https://www.docker.com/get-started) on this machine and run the same docker command I provided for GCE on this machine
  • Connect ValorSuite to your the proxy at (your ip):(your port)

To customize the proxy port, just change the -p 3128:3128 to something like -p 443:3128. The syntax is -p (machine port):(docker container port).

 

Docker images work the same way, as long as the host machine supports the docker runtime.

Edited by kuwazome, 09 November 2018 - 12:11 PM.

[Perdita]

Okay, in one post you say latency is a problem, in another you say its not...? Confused.

Sorry for the confusion. What I meant to say was that you're absolutely right about there being a lot of latency - I was very surprised to see that it's so high, so this part of my post was more to confirm what you said. I don't think I need low latency because I don't autobuy with VS and everything else works fine, but I can imagine that at times, when my home internet that supplies my proxy takes a bit longer to respond, everything becomes too slow and that this is the cause of my account being disabled in irregular intervals. Either that or it's that the proxy script I use is at fault.

If it's the former I guess there's nothing I could do besides using a dedicated IP like you suggested, which would probably also be the easiest solution. If it's the latter an alternative like docker could help - so thank you for all the information! Docker won't let me install because I don't have Win Pro but Home, but apparently upgrading to Pro is much easier than it used to, so I might look into that later.

[Purrina]

For the Money Tree Grabber - is there a way you can set it to allow grab items of "Unknown Value"?

 

For the Dailies - is there any way to set the order? It seems to be a random order every day.

I usually do Trudy's Surprise first so I have NP on hand, and do the Healing Springs last after I did all the HP damage & potentially illness causing dailies.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

[Valorous]

Now that I actually have a chance to use ValorSuite Web, I have a few small suggestions to make to improve user friendliness:

 

• Enabling accounts should be in the control page. It's a bit annoying to go into the edit page, save, then check the control page if it's enabled

Update released that contains this and many legal changes.

 

For the Money Tree Grabber - is there a way you can set it to allow grab items of "Unknown Value"?

 

For the Dailies - is there any way to set the order? It seems to be a random order every day.

I usually do Trudy's Surprise first so I have NP on hand, and do the Healing Springs last after I did all the HP damage & potentially illness causing dailies.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

Items of unknown value are completely unknown to VS. It won't touch them. These items automatically get learned though so normally within a couple of days they will be priced and understood.

 

Daily orders are always random. I don't intend to change this because doing it always the same way seems suspicious. There is a randomness multiplier on my to-do list. You still won't be able to change the order they are done though.

[Purrina]

Items of unknown value are completely unknown to VS. It won't touch them. These items automatically get learned though so normally within a couple of days they will be priced and understood.

 

Daily orders are always random. I don't intend to change this because doing it always the same way seems suspicious. There is a randomness multiplier on my to-do list. You still won't be able to change the order they are done though.

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Ah, I understand. The 'unknown value' item it didn't grab was from the Trick or Treat bags, so it's pretty new. VS will probably 'learn' about it soon then.

 

Thank you for explaining, I understand your reasoning about randomizing the dailies order.

 

Can you have two (or more?) bots that are running in scheduled times that overlap?

For example, the pet trainer and the kad feeder -- so the kad feeder could be checking for hungry kads, but the training bot would also be running and check if it's time to put the pet into training?

 

Thank you for your help, and also thank you for ValorSuite.

[Valorous]

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Ah, I understand. The 'unknown value' item it didn't grab was from the Trick or Treat bags, so it's pretty new. VS will probably 'learn' about it soon then.

 

Thank you for explaining, I understand your reasoning about randomizing the dailies order.

 

Can you have two (or more?) bots that are running in scheduled times that overlap?

For example, the pet trainer and the kad feeder -- so the kad feeder could be checking for hungry kads, but the training bot would also be running and check if it's time to put the pet into training?

 

Thank you for your help, and also thank you for ValorSuite.

 

Absolutely and it is intended to be used that way.

[Purrina]

It's been discussed above in this thread that your proxy location has a great impact on latency / speed of connections, which to me would translate into your ability to successfully AutoBuy.

I'm still a bit confused trying to grasp the way the connections work, so I would appreciate a clarification on this question ...

 

If I was trying to improve my AB times by the location of the proxy (not by changing any settings in ValorSuite) - would I be better off buying a proxy in or near Atlanta (where the servers for VS are) or a proxy in or near New York (where I believe the servers for Neopets are - please, jump in and correct me if I am wrong about this.)

I would *guess* the answer is Atlanta?

Also I've read the servers for Neopets are in New York but it's a big state ... does that mean New York City, or elsewhere? For example, if the servers were in Niagara Falls NY would Cleveland Ohio be a good nearby proxy location?

 

Thank you in advance for any clarifications.

 

 

 

--

 

ETA Clarify: Originally, I posted a question then figured out the answer later.

Rather then double post, I'm editing this original post to add a new question that I have.

Edited by Purrina, 22 November 2018 - 11:09 AM.

[kuwaz]

It's been discussed above in this thread that your proxy location has a great impact on latency / speed of connections, which to me would translate into your ability to successfully AutoBuy.

I'm still a bit confused trying to grasp the way the connections work, so I would appreciate a clarification on this question ...

 

If I was trying to improve my AB times by the location of the proxy (not by changing any settings in ValorSuite) - would I be better off buying a proxy in or near Atlanta (where the servers for VS are) or a proxy in or near New York (where I believe the servers for Neopets are - please, jump in and correct me if I am wrong about this.)

I would *guess* the answer is Atlanta?

Also I've read the servers for Neopets are in New York but it's a big state ... does that mean New York City, or elsewhere? For example, if the servers were in Niagara Falls NY would Cleveland Ohio be a good nearby proxy location?

 

Thank you in advance for any clarifications.

 

 

 

--

 

ETA Clarify: Originally, I posted a question then figured out the answer later.

Rather then double post, I'm editing this original post to add a new question that I have.

 

It goes like this:

ValueSuite Server > Your Proxy Server > Neopets Server

 

Its best to have the proxy somewhere between the location of ValueSuite and Neopets. There will be some latency regardless of where you choose, simply because theres 3 servers involved. As for latency within the same state, its pretty much not a concern, latency only becomes a problem once the distance is much greater.

[Purrina]

It goes like this:

ValueSuite Server > Your Proxy Server > Neopets Server

 

Its best to have the proxy somewhere between the location of ValueSuite and Neopets. There will be some latency regardless of where you choose, simply because theres 3 servers involved. As for latency within the same state, its pretty much not a concern, latency only becomes a problem once the distance is much greater.

 

Thank you so much for clarifying this for me, kuwazome!

I'm getting out of using a VPN and changing to proxies so I can use ValorSuite, so your information will be a great help to me as I try to figure out the best locations to buy proxies from.

[kuwaz]

Thank you so much for clarifying this for me, kuwazome!

I'm getting out of using a VPN and changing to proxies so I can use ValorSuite, so your information will be a great help to me as I try to figure out the best locations to buy proxies from.

 

The proxy can also be used manually as a means to completely separate your regular IP from the bot.

I have an old laptop with a virtual machine that I use when I go on neopets manually for that bot account.

 

For bot control

ValueSuite Server > Your Proxy Server > Neopets Server

 

For manual control

Your computer > Browser with Proxy configured > Your Proxy Server > Neopets Server

[Purrina]

My logs stop at 23:00-ish UTC hours in 2018.

Nothing has been logged for 2019, at all.

Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing this?

 

Also, I'm having trouble getting some of the bots to run when manually starting them.

I'll start a dailies bot that I have set to run for 6 hours, and within 3 minutes it will go back to "following schedule". When I restart it a second time, it does seem to continue running then.

I can go into the individual account settings to verify that the bots are running, but I can't see what they're doing.

 

When you get a chance, could you look into this please? Thank you Valorous!

 

[Perdita]

 

My logs stop at 23:00-ish UTC hours in 2018.

Nothing has been logged for 2019, at all.

Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing this?

It is not just you, I am having the same issue. The bots are working, but I can't see what they're doing exactly.

[Valorous]

It is not just you, I am having the same issue. The bots are working, but I can't see what they're doing exactly.

Can you disable then enable this account and let me know if it is resolved?

[Purrina]

The Logs are working for me now, and you can see what the bots are doing again.

 

The only odd thing I noticed is some bots (like MainShopAB, MoneyTreeGrabber) seem to be rather verbose, like they are stuck on "Give a lot of status updates" even though that option is not checked.

It's not that big a deal to me though, I just wanted to mention it in case it was significant for troubleshooting reasons. I'm just grateful to have the logs working again.

 

Thank you Valorous, for all you do to make Neopets more enjoyable!