IS it supposed to be THAT bad?

[jheiss]

Since this is a free game, I can't really complain.
All I ask is to know if this is supposed to be like this (so I will forget about this game) or is there anything I (or you guys) can do to fix it.
I can only log in once every 50-100 attempts, and usually is in the first few attempts that I succeed, only to get kicked out when loading a new area. Then after ours of retrying NADA, always back to the connect screen.
I am not in the US, could it be that the reason?
I tried all the usual things.

Here is the relevant info from the dbg.txt
[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00025isplay init done.

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00026:net_connect(), (g_rdp=0x00000000, g_world=0x00000000) before receive

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00027:net_connect: rdp 0x029353b8 is connecting to 72.55.164.91:9000...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00028:net_connect: I am connected to 72.55.164.91:9000...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00029:net_connect: returning 0...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00030:WorldAuthenticate. sending on conn 0x02937598...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00031:wait_message(), (g_rdp=0x029353b8, g_world=0x00000000) before receive

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00032:wait_message(), after receive, msg is 0x00f296d0

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00033:wait_message is returning: msgptr = 0x00f296d0

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00034:WorldAuthenticate. I got a message of type 188...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00035:WorldRPServer message: server name

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:19 2008]00036:wait_message(), (g_rdp=0x029353b8, g_world=0x00000000) before receive

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:29 2008]00037:wait_message(), after receive, msg is 0x00000000

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:29 2008]00038:*** ERROR: wait_message(), no message, bailing

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00039:*** ERROR: WorldAuthenticate. My message arrival was NULL, the net has been shutdown...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00040:*** WorldAuthenticate. Checkpoint 3...

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00041:Cleanup 4

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00042:Cleanup 5

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00043:Cleanup 6

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00044:Cleanup 7

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00045:Cleanup 8

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00046:Cleanup 9

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00047:Cleanup 10

[Sun Jun 08 01:07:31 2008]00048:Cleanup 11


Thanks

 

[iaeolan]

Are you getting 1017 errors? or is it some other error?

 

[Wesell]

I’m not sure how to fix your problem, but I’ll say that for me connectivity is comparable to subscription games (almost always available).

 

[Ikaa|LoveYums]

Looks like a connectivity issue, but your location has nothing to do with it.

Since, like all the other tech support threads today, theres little information to go on to even begin helping, will you provide things like connection type, firewalls, antivirus, etc? Anything that may be relevant?

 

[jheiss]

I have 1 M cablemodem, no firewalls, no antivirus. The problem is not in my computer or setup since this morning I gave it another try and everything was working smoothly, so it seems is a timing thing. When the internet traffic is high, the thing doesn't work. Whether is my ISP's fault or some weird setting in the server, I dunno.
Oh, Off course I also get a lot of 1017 error, but not always, about half the times.
Maybe I should do some ping o something to test the connectivity, and if is too slow, not bother trying....

I just did ping for 67.205.76.13 with Utility Ping for windows an I got 172 ms (and TTL=117 what is that?). Is that bad?
Now is 22:00 here and after trying 15 times to connect to the game, I decided to give up for today and checking the replies in this forum.


Thanks for the help.

 

[puhutes1]

I would highly suggest you check your internet connectivity... the best way I know is to download a free program called ping plotter (found at http://www.pingplotter.com/) Download and install it... it is really fantastic for monitoring intermittent internet connectivity issues. It pings wherever you want it to ping ever 10 seconds or so... usually ping www.yahoo.com for testing purposes. Ping Plotter with give you a nice, easy to understand graph to show you when your connection has high ping MS and red (connectivity loss). If you are noticing any red (packet loss or connectiviy issues) contact your ISP. You can also check your speed at sites like www.dslreports.com ... however, with original EQ, it was possible to play with dial up... so it probably isn't a speed issue, more a packet loss issue. Hope this help!
-=puhutes=-

 

[Finkk]

(and TTL=117 what is that?)

TTL is short for Time To Live. All packets are designated a time to live to prevent packets from travelling through cyberspace indefinitely. Every time a packet is passed through a device, such as a firewall/router/etc the TTL is decremented by 1. If one of those devices encounters a packet with a TTL of zero, it simply drops the packet and does not pass it along.

Summation: Don't worry about it.

 

[Boehm]

Go to Start -> Run -> Type "cmd" # Without quotes

Then at the command prompt type;

pathping -n ipaddress

Cut and paste the whole results here. You can either do it out of the command window or re-direct standard out into a text file by appending;

pathping -n ipaddress >> outputfile.txt

One other thing what OS are you running? And have you used any utility that might have "optimized"
your networking stack?

 

[jheiss]

Ok.
First I want to apolize for the tone of the post. I was very frustated when I did it.
Seccond, here are some results of the above suggestions:

1- I tried the pingplotter thing, in the morning, when I could connect fast, easely asn without trouble, I got this:

2- Now (it is 22:33) there is no hope to connect, and the pingplotter gave me this:

3- I also did now the pathping and got this:
Tracing route to 67.205.76.13 over a maximum of 30 hops



0 84.109.69.62

1 10.166.128.1

2 * * 212.179.61.74

3 * * *

Computing statistics for 75 seconds...

Source to Here This Node/Link

Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address

0 84.109.69.62

0/ 100 = 0% |

1 8ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.166.128.1

0/ 100 = 0% |

2 19ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 212.179.61.74

100/ 100 =100% |

3 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% 0.0.0.0



Trace complete.


SUMMARY:
If I got this correctly, Shards server is ok, my pc software and conf. are ok, but my ISP is VERY BAD (To put it in a diplomaticly correct way).

The question is if the shards server can be more robust, so as to handle people like me.

By the way, I have a fresh instalation of windows XP home SP2, no optimizers or anything.
My PC is fine, but my ISP is very bad.

 

[Canhona]

Looks like some bad hops. I'd call your ISP and threaten to cancel unless they fix. Might help....might not.


Edit: Do you have Net Framework 1.1 installed?

 

[jheiss]

I do have the Net framework, off course.
There is something I don't get from the plot above:
The average round trip to the server was 176 and 179 ms, which sound pretty good to me. How can it be that this 3 ms made such a difference???
I am confused again, since it seems that my conection is ok after all.

 

[Boehm]

I do have the Net framework, off course.
There is something I don't get from the plot above:
The average round trip to the server was 176 and 179 ms, which sound pretty good to me. How can it be that this 3 ms made such a difference???
I am confused again, since it seems that my conection is ok after all.

A coast to coast US connection is usually between 90-100ms. 176 ms is more like a connection from Central US/East coast to Central Europe. It's not that great, and you have massive packet loss.

EDIT:
You also should have mentioned that you are connecting from Israel. I would have used a more apt comparison, but it still doesn't change that the ISP has at least one router that is saturated, failing, or misconfigured.

What is happening is that you are getting a 178 round trip but you are losing 50% of your payload either way at best, and 90% at worst. (100% according to pathping) The loss is going to hinder your gaming.