Very slow POL when connecting online

[orinthia]

New problem: POL 1158 described below

Quick summary:
ASUS 1215N; win7 ult x86; Steam downloaded POL; drive re-imaged to restore a working optimus install (too easy to bork); POL's check files button doesn't have FFXI in its menu, only POL shows up there; POL 1158 error shows up after pressing play on POL and after it downloads patch information for FFXI - gets no farther than this.

old problem in spoiler

Spoiler: show

Random tech problem a friend is experiencing: she has an asus 1215N with win7 x86 ult and is having problems with POL. Downloaded off steam, ran without steam, and when it goes to check for pol updates, it goes from normal speed to terribly slow. Check files takes 2-5minutes PER FILE to check! This should take like a second or less normally per file.

She kept most of the useful asus software on there, killed the junkware, updated to newest nvidia drivers, uses avira antivirus and win7's builtin firewall. I had her try uninstalling the steam version and download win7 POL from playonline and she reported no change - still slow as hell only when it's connecting to the internet and checking files (like 500 files to check total). She let it run overnight but it crapped out somewhere in there.

I installed/updated just POL on my machine (also win7 x86, worked fine) and sent her a zip of the directory so it'd be fully up to date, and while she managed to input her login, it goes back to super-slow upon trying to retrieve her friendlist, usually just timing out after about 10 minutes. I got her to uncheck QoS on her wireless card and disable avira temporarily to no change as well...

Really have no idea what to try next. POL is the only problem for her so far.

[xerodok]

Can you please describe your current network layout at home?

Is her computer connected via wireless or wired? What kind of router are you working with?

[orinthia]

Wireless, connecting through a Linksys WRT54G, same as my setup. Oh, that's one thing to have her try later: disable wireless and try wired and see if there's a difference. Think her wireless card is an atheros brand (whatever comes default with the 1215n, I'll have to ask her to be sure).

[izembo]

just POL runs very slowly? when i had this problem before the solution was to change desktop resolution, for some reason on certain drivers pol lags like a bitch when its on certain resolutions

[orinthia]

New problem after a number of things tried: POL-1158 error.

Things tried to get there: Wired and desktop resolutions made no difference unfortunately. She did have a drive image from just after receiving the laptop where she had everything how she wanted it, so she restored to that point (made sometime in november). Other problems had arose as part of the driver updating and stuff, like 720p mkvs were no longer watchable and other games started to screw up. Who knew optimus was so touchy... No combination of driver installs (asus versions or otherwise) was able to restore the gpu functionality so the drive re-image was absolutely needed. Laptop's hdd was divided into C and D, only C was imaged over, leaving D (with steam installed there) unchanged.

After the restore, games and mkv stuff worked as normal. Downloaded ffxi off steam again and this time POL acted like normal! She was able to get past the friendlist loading screen and everything, but now trying to start ffxi leads to POL-1158 error. It's when it tries to update ffxi after pressing the play button on POL. It'll download patch information and then error out before it can check any ffxi files.

POL can check its own files just fine, but there's no option to check ffxi files. Only POL shows up in the Check Files menu list, not FFXI. I looked up the error and it seems that has to deal with ports, but as far as I know, there's no port blockage going on. Even got her to install a different firewall than win7's built in one (private firewall 7, think ease of use like the old sygate firewall) and there was no difference. Made antivirus exceptions, etc, no change.


A side note: The optimus/gpu stuff going to crap so fast is making me reconsider suggesting it to others for their laptop choices...