Server Problems

[Kelerific]

Alright, I run a server from home, and recently it has encountered some problems. For a bit of background information, I have been hosting the server for over three years now, and have never had problems outside the usual exploits people try to use to crash the server etc...

 

The problem has been dubbed as the "Awaiting Gamestate Bug" by my members, because basically, it causes a large number of people to be stuck at the "Awaiting Gamestate" splash screen eventhough the server shows that they are connecting. The bug is completely random, but for the most part occurs when we change maps (the server is on a timer but it occurs when the map is changed manually anyways). There are two additional symptoms that occur while the bug appears, the first being that the server begins to lag sometimes causing connected players to lag out, and the second is that none of my admins can use RCON commands in-game, however they are able to using third party programs like RCON SE or Ultra Utility, and this never occurs I believe with less than 5 people on. Eventually, it goes away at variable times and people are able to connect normally.

 

The server is running on ForceMod III, and we have essentially tried everything that we can think of to find some solution to the bug:

-Tried reinstalling the game

-Reformatted my computer and reinstalled the game from scratch including downloading every individual file to ensure it wasn't caused by a corrupt file

-Checked to see if it was any issue with the firewall, my ISP, my modem and the router (although the bug first appeared before I got my router)

-Tested my connection speed while the bug was occurring, and it was fine

-Tried running it on a different port

-Tried running using both ./jamp and ./jampDed

 

On top of the standard checks, I ran this test about a week ago where I waited for the bug to appear and people were having trouble connecting upon a map change (we had around 10 trying to connect), so I put up a JA+ server and asked everyone via Xfire to connect to it, and not a single person had any issues. After everyone had connected, I asked them to reconnect to the FM3 server and the majority couldn't get past the "Awaiting Gamestate" screen again. I also ran a temp server on OJP for about five days trying to see if I could replicate the issue, and nobody had any problems connecting to it, which leads me to believe it's an inherent problem with Forcemod 3. I removed all unnecessary files from the Forcemod 3 folder, and still the bug occurs, so now I'm completely stumped, and was wondering if anyone has ever encountered anything like this before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.