Router/FFXI Issues :(

[Furtwangler]

My friend has a chronic DC-ing problem, but only from FFXI, never from any other program. She continually disconnects at random times, but when she does get red-dotted, she can still see chat going and health bars move for a short period before she R0s, and dcs out completely. It happens on comp & ps2, however at separate times(If both are being used they do not dc at the same time). It started after getting a new router (D-Link WBR-1310) in place of an old one that had completely died.

She has tried everything that people have suggested including making sure the firmware was updated as well as trying port forwarding. Any suggestions?

[Devek]

Find someone who never gets disconnected that plays with multiple PCs.

Ask them what specific MODEL(not brand) router they have.

Purchase the same model.

[Panella]

I use a Netgear MR814v2. Usually has 3-4 computers running off of it, 2 of which playing ffxi and never had any issues. It's rather old and cheap but it gets the job done .

[Cephius]

More often than not issues like this are ISP problems, such as the line quality in your house. FFXI is very finicky when it comes to your connection, I've gotten booted, reconnected, and if you don't wait long enough, once you log back in you immediately red dot even though you can see text and actions going on in real time.

Anyway, when you say she only gets disconnected from FFXI, are you sure? Do torrents/AIM/whatever not stop working? Because that's very odd if FFXI is the only thing not getting disconnected. Also, if she's connected via wireless, try setting up a wired connection and see if the problem still persists. If really is an FFXI-only issue I don't know what to tell you.

[Furtwangler]

She doesn't have the money to buy another router . It's a wired connection, and only FFXI dcs, nothing else, not aim, no torrent programs. *edit* also, the old router she had didn't do this, but it flat out died so they had to get a new one.

[Osede]

one sugguest, try do this

go start > run > type "cmd' <enter> > type "ping <put router ip here> /t" , and leave it there open. check the ping status when the red dot dc happens. sometimes some brand of router tried to block alots of stuff that making itself into overload situation that keep restarting by itself. If there isn't showing any sign of losing connectivity from router, maybe you can try to plug your pc directly into the modem, and doing the ip release stuff.

[Auspice]

I had the same problem with my router until I set up port forwarding. Check and see if they the proper ports open for POL and XI to run.

From POL:

Question: I need the necessary port information for the game.

Answer: PlayOnline(including all related software such as FINAL FANTASY XI) may use any of the following ports. If you are using a router, please configure it to allow packets to pass through these ports.

Port numbers that may be used by the PlayOnline server group.
TCP 25, 80, 110, 443 or 50000 - 65535
UDP 50000 - 65535

Port numbers that may be used by terminals such as the PlayStation(R)2.
TCP 1024 - 65535
UDP 50000 - 65535

*Your router may require that you use a PC to configure your network settings. For more information about how to configure your network settings, please refer to the instruction manual that came with your router or contact the manufacturer directly.

*If your Internet service provider (ISP) specifies a DNS server, you may need to configure your settings to allow packets to pass through UDP Port 53 as well. For more information, please refer to the instruction manual for your router or the information provided by your ISP.

Hope this helps; it fixed all of my problems!

[Kuya]

Question: Where exactly do i install a router? Is it like separate hardware that you connect to your PC? I'm still not too clear on this router business.

[Auspice]

Question: Where exactly do i install a router? Is it like separate hardware that you connect to your PC? I'm still not too clear on this router business.

Yes; it's a separate piece of hardware like a printer or a modem. You plug your computer/consoles as well as your modem into your router.

[Kuya]

Question: Where exactly do i install a router? Is it like separate hardware that you connect to your PC? I'm still not too clear on this router business.

Yes; it's a separate piece of hardware like a printer or a modem. You plug your computer/consoles as well as your modem into your router.

So a router has the ability to fix my current problems with FFXI? I have the exact same issues as the OP mentioned. And what would a router do to fix this, and what would i need to do with it? I did read up on it, so i have a very basic, and poor knowledge about routers.

[Furtwangler]

If you have those issues without a router idk if getting one would fix it, usually they cause problems rather than fix them, but idk,usually people get routers to split their internet connection, or make a LAN with computers in their house, that's about it.

[Auspice]

A router will just split your Internet connection. I don't know of any way to set up port forwarding without having a router lol

[Evelyn]

All Port Forwarding does is make the signal go from your router to your computer faster over specified ports. Basically you're telling the router that information coming over a specific port is to go to one computer, instead of making the router decide which computer it goes to like it normally does. It makes things faster if you have a router in place. Its redundant if you only have one computer connected to the internet, since the information is only going to one place. So installing a router for one computer and setting up port forwarding is useless.

With the issue the OP is seeing, its rarely an ISP issue. *SOME* ISPs may lower bandwith over certain ports to combat illegal downloading/torrenting, but most don't, especially high-bandwith stuff like cable, dsl and fios. If nothing else, contact your isp to see if they do it, but again I doubt thats the problem.

In this case, it most definitely is a router issue. A couple of things come to mind:

1) your router's internal firewall may be causing connection issues over specific ports, including some POL/FFXI uses. Most routers will have options like this, however I'm not familiar with your specific router, so you may have to dig yourself.

2) having more than a handful of computers on a router simultaneously may be overloading it as well. with FFXI being a high-bandwith program (compared to stuff like AIM) you're more likely to see problems on FFXI than anything else. doing the open-ended ping like Osede said will help you figure out if thats the cause.

3) low signal strength may be a problem, but again I doubt it. if it worked on the old one, the new one should work just as well signal-wise.

Try the ping test and see what happens when FFXI goes out.

[Devek]

2) having more than a handful of computers on a router simultaneously may be overloading it as well. with FFXI being a high-bandwith program (compared to stuff like AIM) you're more likely to see problems on FFXI than anything else. doing the open-ended ping like Osede said will help you figure out if thats the cause.

The issue that is hurting these routers isn't the number of computers or the bandwidth, hardware wise they can all handle anything you could ever do with a residential broadband connection.

It has to do with the way they do network address translation with UDP packets. UDP is a connectionless protocol so it is not trivial to route. The router has to store a lot of state information to do its job and the problem happens when that memory becomes full. A good router will replace old state information with new information. A bad one will simply flush all the state information and start over (you get a r0 and disconnected, but can reconnect). A piece of shit router will totally crash and require a restart(most routers on the market fall under this category) :/ Apparently memory management is too difficult for the current crop of programmers in India.

Just browsing web pages and doing downloads via TCP just about any router on the market will go all day without having any troubles.

Someone should make a list of specific models (not brands) and firmware versions that have been tested to let someone dual/triple box all day without r0 in ffxi. More specifically they should also be tested on how long it takes to zone.. Thats what I hate about my cisco 820, I zone slower than anyone else cause it doesn't buffer any of the incoming UDP while figuring out where to send it like my openWRT routers do.

That might be a good idea too, if someone could sit down and write a good walk through to install openWRT on popular router models that laypeople can understand. openWRT would fix every single problem that people have (besides a crappy ISP in the first place).

[Mikeal]

http://lifehacker.com/software/route...ter-178132.php

Works great. I use the linksys linux model. I've done it for several co-workers.

I doubt you need to upgrade it for FFXI, but I like being able to use my wireless from across the street.

[Elesirdur]

I've been using a Linksys WRT300N for the last few months and have had zero problems with FFXI. I can dualbox on the same pc no problem, and my girlfriend frequently comes over and plays FFXI on her laptop with me using both wired and wireless connections. While the Received rate does generally increase when there's a second FFXI client running on the network, there's no major lag or disconnect problems.

[Tajin]

I have had the same problem (red dot, but chat works) twice during the weekend. I blame it on IP renewal from the router.

[Kuya]

Then, what should i do about my problem then, if it has nothing to do with a router? Should i just call my ISP?

[Tajin]

It depends on how often you get the problem. Once or Twice a day is somewhat normal due to IP renewal.

[Kuya]

It happends way more than 2 times a day alright.