Server Issues?

[Izzy]

But were they using the same computer/PS2/X-Box 360?

And honestly, I'm more apt to believe Taj over SE.

lol, new pop conditions for Steam Cleaner.

so am I, and that makes me sad Q_Q. it so should not be that way haha

[Jujubie]

My husband can't zone into Port Jueno.

He tried with both his laptop and the PS2, same problem on his character on our ISP (charter cable modem). Then he connected to our neighbor's unprotected wireless with his laptop and logged on and it worked.

Go figure.

[Popsiclestick]

Can anyone sniff their packets for differences between dead zones and good ones.

[Elesirdur]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, these R0 and 3113 problems started before the DST shift so I don't think it's related. The only noticeable change has been the FFXI version update.


When I logged in before work to put my character on bazaar duty, there was a small update of 5 files - ffximain.dll and 4 .DAT files I think. I don't know if this was to fix the Aura Steal crashing bug or another problem, but I still R0'd when I zoned into Ru'Lude Gardens, just as I have for the last 4 days.

[Sanjiyan]

Regardless of the actual cause of the problem, it wasn't prevalent before the update. So you can just reason it down to something SE did to their code that suddenly either caused their packet headers to be mangled by an outside source, or their server is sending bad packets, or our updated clients aren't recognizing the packets properly.

It doesn't take a software genius to figure that logic out. Whatever SE did this patch, they need to undo.

Alternatively if it's a hardware problem, up/downstream of SE's servers, or even inherent in their servers, it isn't our responsibility or ISPs across the globe to address, and SE has to look into it too.

[Epical]

My dead zones are: Ru'Lude, Yhoator Jungle, South Sandy, Hall of Transferrence <-- got stuck here for like 6 hours due to the fact that I couldn't select anything in the environment to get out. I'm scared to go anywhere you have to select something in the environment to enter/leave. My friend from across town that is on the same ISP logged onto my character and moved me so I don't get how SE can blame ISP's.

I've got the same dead zones, plus Port Jeuno. I doubt we're on the same ISP (Shaw Cable, B.C., Canada) so it's got to be something about the way FFXI's interpreting network data.

PS: Good info Taj, makes a lot of sense from what I, and many others, have been experiencing.

Hmm, odd. I'm on Shaw Cable (Alberta) as well, but Ru'Lude, Yhoater and South Sandy work for me (haven't tried HoT yet).

[Tulia]

Can someone post up some bad packets... DL ethereal if you don't have a packet analyzer program..

[Elesirdur]

My dead zones are: Ru'Lude, Yhoator Jungle, South Sandy, Hall of Transferrence <-- got stuck here for like 6 hours due to the fact that I couldn't select anything in the environment to get out. I'm scared to go anywhere you have to select something in the environment to enter/leave. My friend from across town that is on the same ISP logged onto my character and moved me so I don't get how SE can blame ISP's.

I've got the same dead zones, plus Port Jeuno. I doubt we're on the same ISP (Shaw Cable, B.C., Canada) so it's got to be something about the way FFXI's interpreting network data.

PS: Good info Taj, makes a lot of sense from what I, and many others, have been experiencing.

Hmm, odd. I'm on Shaw Cable (Alberta) as well, but Ru'Lude, Yhoater and South Sandy work for me (haven't tried HoT yet).

I have no clue if they use the same backbone as the BC Shaw systems, but I would bet no, they don't. I can see the Alberta/prairie backbone being routed through Minneapolis or some point east, whereas the BC Shaw backbone running through Seattle or some other West Coast backbone.

[Aaros]

In Ethereal, the data looks like gibberish anyways because of the data encryption. So there isn't much point to that unless you have the tools to decrypt the packets.

Can anyone sniff their packets for differences between dead zones and good ones.

[Khamsin]

My dead zones are: Ru'Lude, Yhoator Jungle, South Sandy, Hall of Transferrence <-- got stuck here for like 6 hours due to the fact that I couldn't select anything in the environment to get out. I'm scared to go anywhere you have to select something in the environment to enter/leave. My friend from across town that is on the same ISP logged onto my character and moved me so I don't get how SE can blame ISP's.

I've got the same dead zones, plus Port Jeuno. I doubt we're on the same ISP (Shaw Cable, B.C., Canada) so it's got to be something about the way FFXI's interpreting network data.

PS: Good info Taj, makes a lot of sense from what I, and many others, have been experiencing.

Hmm, odd. I'm on Shaw Cable (Alberta) as well, but Ru'Lude, Yhoater and South Sandy work for me (haven't tried HoT yet).

I have no clue if they use the same backbone as the BC Shaw systems, but I would bet no, they don't. I can see the Alberta/prairie backbone being routed through Minneapolis or some point east, whereas the BC Shaw backbone running through Seattle or some other West Coast backbone.

I'm in Seattle and haven't discovered any dead zones at all. A friend of mine in California also hasn't had any issues, yet someone who lives like 45 min away from her can't enter Eastern Altepa Desert, Sauromugue Champaign, and Garlaige Citadel (so far).

In Ethereal, the data looks like gibberish anyways because of the data encryption. So there isn't much point to that unless you have the tools to decrypt the packets.

Can anyone sniff their packets for differences between dead zones and good ones.

There's some taru somewhere that knows how, I think. Perhaps get a hold of them?

[Aaros]

Taj obviously, then probably Cliff, Azrail, and anyone that works on projectXI. Taj is our best bet so far though, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

In Ethereal, the data looks like gibberish anyways because of the data encryption. So there isn't much point to that unless you have the tools to decrypt the packets.

Can anyone sniff their packets for differences between dead zones and good ones.

There's some taru somewhere that knows how, I think. Perhaps get a hold of them?

[Galkaporn]

I find it hilariously absurd that SE keeps pushing this back on every customer (thousands?). I can see if it was only one or two ISPs, but this is like a four year-old saying "I didn't do it" when he was the only one around.

Is Bart Simpson in charge of SE NA?

[Buzer]

In Ethereal, the data looks like gibberish anyways because of the data encryption. So there isn't much point to that unless you have the tools to decrypt the packets.

There's some taru somewhere that knows how, I think. Perhaps get a hold of them?

Takes about 10mins to find the site. Also, from what I understood from Taj's post, the header of packet (http://winterstorm.ca/download/packets.pdf) is mangled with (which isn't exactly possible (nor there is really any reason to) to encrypt in normal cases).

I have no idea why they would be touching headers tho since in 99% of cases people use libs that take care of that low level stuff (since generally there isn't any reason to alter them) and only make the packet data by themself.

(disclaimer: I'm in no way low-level networking expert, but I have general understanding of it, so take what I said with a bit of doubt. Most of stuff should be accurate tho)

[Litium]

My dead zones are: Ru'Lude, Yhoator Jungle, South Sandy, Hall of Transferrence <-- got stuck here for like 6 hours due to the fact that I couldn't select anything in the environment to get out. I'm scared to go anywhere you have to select something in the environment to enter/leave. My friend from across town that is on the same ISP logged onto my character and moved me so I don't get how SE can blame ISP's.

I've got the same dead zones, plus Port Jeuno. I doubt we're on the same ISP (Shaw Cable, B.C., Canada) so it's got to be something about the way FFXI's interpreting network data.

PS: Good info Taj, makes a lot of sense from what I, and many others, have been experiencing.

Hmm, odd. I'm on Shaw Cable (Alberta) as well, but Ru'Lude, Yhoater and South Sandy work for me (haven't tried HoT yet).

k Epical.. its creepy that we're on the same server, but now I know we live in the same province with the same ISP. anyway, I can't goto rolanberry or windurst woods.

Also I can't seem to download this version update for the aura steal, I just sit at 0% and nothing happens =/

[Kirst]

Reset of modem/router means I now get stuck on the acquring player data screen. Protocol time-out error.

I'm on Tiscali in the UK.

[Sanjiyan]

I'm on shaw cable, alberta too, and my R0s include Ru'Lude and Yhoat.

The variability between people on the same network in the same region precludes it from a possible ISP problem, IMO. But then again how else could you explain such a big difference between different people?

Well I'm just not gonna worry about it and hope SE fixes it, or that it fixes itself, because currently 30-50% of all non-ToAU zones are inaccessible to many people and that just sucks.

[zoobernut]

I am still having issues with Newton Movapalos(SP?) and Temple Uglypie. I did not have these issues right after the update but rather they started after that secondary followup update having to do with the chocobo hot and cold quest.

[Aaros]

I think what Taj meant was the encapsulated data headers for the FFXI data itself, not the headers in the UDP packet. Other wise the client wouldn't be receiving the UDP packet in the first place since the information necessary to route the packet wouldn't be valid. Taj said the SE is sending the data back to the client, but because the (presumably) encapsulated data headers are corrupt the client side drops the UDP packet. When someone says the packet is encrypted, its the data not the headers. So the encapsulated data sent from SE is encrypted, yet containing mangled data.

Takes about 10mins to find the site. Also, from what I understood from Taj's post, the header of packet (http://winterstorm.ca/download/packets.pdf) is mangled with (which isn't exactly possible (nor there is really any reason to) to encrypt in normal cases).

I have no idea why they would be touching headers tho since in 99% of cases people use libs that take care of that low level stuff (since generally there isn't any reason to alter them) and only make the packet data by themself.

(disclaimer: I'm in no way low-level networking expert, but I have general understanding of it, so take what I said with a bit of doubt. Most of stuff should be accurate tho)

[Palom]

Well I'm just not gonna worry about it and hope SE fixes it, or that it fixes itself, because currently 30-50% of all non-ToAU zones are inaccessible to many people and that just sucks.

Actually, I'm locked out of all ToAU areas now >< Whitegate is an R0 zone (gates are shut, so can't zone to Al Zahbi; can't talk to NPC to move into mog house; and can't use runic portals) and Wajaom is an R0 zone (can't use Olduum ring). I had to beg some friends to merit with me in sky so I could EXP. Oh yeah, and to top it off, I can't get into Port Windurst either, so I can't even use Outpost warps. Love having to chocobo everywhere like a nublar.

[Reality]

What would cause your connection in FFXI to R0 about once every 20-30 minutes? my internet (browser, AIM, vent, etc) all stay connected, but FFXI has been constantly R0ing about once every 20-30 minutes since the update

any ideas? i've reset my cable modem & wireless router and it doesn't alleviate the problem at all, restarting my machine doesn't help either

blah