I think I have figured out what is causing this, but only NoFate will be able to fix it if I am right.
It seems periodically, that the Master server becomes confused about the total slot allotment for a server is. For example, you can have a 32 slot server, the MS thinks it is only 26 and player #27+ will never be able to connect. I realized this one evening when I saw my server never filled past 24 slots, which was unusual. I checked my HLSW and it showed that 24/32 slots were filled. I left the server, waited for my slot to fill, and when there was 24 on, I tried to connect, and was not able to. I then remotely kicked a random player, freeing up a slot, and boom, was able to get right on. I tried this same experiment other times, when there would be 28 players and no more. In each case, if I kick a player and the slots drop to less then the MS thinks it should have, then I can get on. I would imagine this is the case, even when there are zero players. If you have it set for 32, but the MS sees 0 allowed, then NO ONE is going to get on that server.
I hope this makes sense. Would be nice if other server admins could confirm this. I can only confirm this bug on my own setup. I am quite convinced this is happening. However, it can change from map change to map change. Since the problem is intermittent, it is difficult to track. It could possibly be a ghost process/slot connection tying up a connection, but not showing as so, and confusing the MS.
If you ever watch the banner below for my server, you can see these "capped slot" patterns in the graph.
I have all but begged other admins to confirm this. Either they don't care, are clueless, too lazy to give a shit, or this bug does not exist. I am 99% certain this bug exists. Can we please get it checked out? Acknowledged and confirmed? Or written off as false?
As of this post, this false player cap has my server set at 22 and no one can get on beyond that.
This thread is in response to this post that people seem to just be ignoring.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2267
Thanks.