R0 woes

[Dooom]

So, about five weeks ago now, I started getting pretty bad r0ing, and I'm at a loss as to why. I hadn't changed any of my settings, no new programs were downloaded, just... bam. I was hoping that the update might have fixed it, but alas. So maybe I can get some help here, if only to work out what's wrong.

Things of note:

- happens between 6pm and 9pm GMT mainly (1pm-4pm EST); also happens around 3pm on Sundays, when conquest tally occurs.
- is worse in some zones than others; WOTG zones are the worst; release, zilart, and CoP areas are the least affected, though dynamis can be pretty bad.
- occurs mainly upon zoning
- will never actually DC me. My "S" value never drops, and my connection % very rarely drops.
- LS, party, and say chat I do can still be seen by others, but I will only get parts of what others say. Makes for some very confusing conversations!
- after zoning, it normally "goes away" after a period of time (varies, between 30s and 10 minutes).
- sometimes, my gear will vanish because of this. However, it returns if I log out and back in again (a process which itself can take 10-15 minutes to get back on properly, because of this r0ing issue). Nothing like finding all your ele staves are missing as rdm!
- only FFXI is having issues. Speedtest, pingtest all came back fine; other online games and programs are having no issues.
- occurs regardless of firewall or antivirus settings (even occurs when these are turned off). Scans have found no viruses or anything wrong with my PC.

Other people I know - in different countries and using different ISPs - are having similar problems, but none as bad as I. So, I can only conclude that there's a problem at POL's end, but I have no idea what, if anything, I can do about it. I've tried opening the ports used by POL (going by the POL website), and even a re-install. I tried doing a system roll-back to a time before this started just in case a windows update or something had caused it, but that had no effect. So I'm stumped.

I did make a small post about this a while back on a random question thread and some people said they're having it too, so I've a feeling this isn't just a small problem. Or maybe I just don't wanna be alone in this, haha.

Any advice/similar stories/whatever?

[Cleverness]

I've gotten it 3 times, all in Whitegate and almost always when I'm in a party for Assault/Nyzul/whatever, and it'll keep going for abit while I'm still in WG, then stop completely. Other members in the party had the same thing. I also didn't DC, my % dropped as low as 64% on one occasion but never fully dc'd. I've only noticed it when they did that "preparation" patch back in October so I assume it was that.

I'm not always in Whitegate unless I plan to afk or shower or go out for abit and just want to read shouts, so I wouldn't notice a slight DC during those moments.

[Dooom]

I've only noticed it when they did that "preparation" patch back in October so I assume it was that.

Said pre-update patch was on the 29th October, which is three weeks after this started for me, so it's not that causing it (for me, at least).

Also might be worth noting that this occurs whether I'm in pt, alliance, solo, with or without LS on, etc. etc. If I zone and it happens while I'm in pt or alliance, people's information won't load up properly. It's pretty weird zoning into somewhere and seeing people stood in front of you, but on the alliance list it still says <place name>.

[Hanyoko]

I've experienced similar. Whitegate seems the worst.
Had a party in W.woodlands where we were all getting R0 at the same time; and after discussion found no similar ISP or region that we all shared.

[Cleverness]

I've (luckily) only ever gotten it in Whitegate. That place is a lagfest as it is so it didn't surprise me. If it's occuring in other areas then it's a bigger issue.

Incase this thread goes anywhere for data purposes, my ISP is Optimum Online, area is Brooklyn, NY. It's possible if a traceroute is done that it may just be a problem along the route that several ISP's go through.

[WANG]

I didn't realize so many people were getting it, but I'm having similar issues as well. No new applications installed, downloaded, etc. Did a full scan for spyware and viruses and all that good stuff. I'm also using a wired connection, and will stay connected to Vent and AIM, however, my FFXI will get R0. Sometimes I'll come back and other times I'll get fully disconnected...

This started around a few weeks ago as well. I'd say about 3 weeks ago...

[Dooom]

I didn't realize so many people were getting it

Tbh, I have a gut feeling that the majority of player are having it, but most people are just writing it off as "oh, lag happens, no big deal I guess" - that's what I did at first. But now, almost everyone in my LS has had it happen to them, and it's got to the stage where I'm not wanting to log on during those times - which is a real kick in the nuts as 6-9pm GMT is when my LS is most active and I have events, lol ><

It's possible if a traceroute is done that it may just be a problem along the route that several ISP's go through.

If it is then - going solely by my LS - it's affecting ISPs in Canada, the USA (think all my shell's NA members are East Coast), England, Portugal, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark... quite a nice selection of countries and ISPs really, lol.

[idklol]

I was getting this on Sunday. Would R0 and recover every time, no DCs whatsoever. It hasn't happened since so i just ignored it. I'm on xbox too if it makes any difference. Just a random annoyance as far as i'm concerned.

[Vito]

I've been having a similar problem for about the last month (minus the missing gear) and then I will randomly get booted out when I'm not lagging/r0 at all. Another of my friends has been having the problem too and we're on different ISP's so I'd say it's the game.

[Nalyr]

Been seeing R0 problems for a long while now, long before this update and even the last major one. It's most frequent in Whitegate as some others have mentioned, one time going so far that it dc'ed everyone in the zone and no one could log back in for a few minutes, although that was a one time occurrence. I've seen it happen in a variety of field areas as well, along with the party/alliance text someone else mentioned where it just says the zone name instead of hp/mp bars even though we are all in the same zone.

I changed ISP provider after this began (for other reasons), so I'm fairly sure this isn't my ISP. Seen it while on AT&T/Bellsouth aDSL and Suddenlink Cable. I play on PC and PS2/3 primarily. Haven't played on the 360 version enough to notice if it has these kinds of effects too.

[Shamaya]

Was doing a tier3 ein on saturday and we were doing fine, then half of our group dc'ed >,<. Got the boss down to 75%, would have definitely won.

[Silenka]

Time for another server upgrade. My friends and I have also been getting random R0s, sometimes there are server-wide ones too like this past Saturday. Today I lost my connection completely and out of the blue, and it wasn't my ISP, just booted me off FFXI suddenly with a connection problem, and then I had trouble logging back in.

[Valafar]

So, about five weeks ago now, I started getting pretty bad r0ing, and I'm at a loss as to why. I hadn't changed any of my settings, no new programs were downloaded, just... bam. I was hoping that the update might have fixed it, but alas. So maybe I can get some help here, if only to work out what's wrong.

Things of note:

- happens between 6pm and 9pm GMT mainly (1pm-4pm EST); also happens around 3pm on Sundays, when conquest tally occurs.
- is worse in some zones than others; WOTG zones are the worst; release, zilart, and CoP areas are the least affected, though dynamis can be pretty bad.
- occurs mainly upon zoning
- will never actually DC me. My "S" value never drops, and my connection % very rarely drops.
- LS, party, and say chat I do can still be seen by others, but I will only get parts of what others say. Makes for some very confusing conversations!
- after zoning, it normally "goes away" after a period of time (varies, between 30s and 10 minutes).
- sometimes, my gear will vanish because of this. However, it returns if I log out and back in again (a process which itself can take 10-15 minutes to get back on properly, because of this r0ing issue). Nothing like finding all your ele staves are missing as rdm!
- only FFXI is having issues. Speedtest, pingtest all came back fine; other online games and programs are having no issues.
- occurs regardless of firewall or antivirus settings (even occurs when these are turned off). Scans have found no viruses or anything wrong with my PC.

I'm getting almost the exact same stuff. Nearly every single night, starting anywhere from ~5-7pm and carrying on til ~10-11pm GMT. Near constant R0's, and it's almost impossible to play FFXI properly now. I'm not noticing many problems with my net in itself, but more just with FFXI - although, I haven't done any indepth testing to prove that.
I haven't had any of the "gear vanishing" as you described though, however my R0's are pretty much respective of the zone I'm in/entering. A small zone such as, say, a bcnm arena, might only R0 me for a few minutes after zoning in and periodically throughout, whereas somewhere like Al'Taieu is such utter hell that I've not actually been able to sit there long enough for it to stop lagging.
It seems as if, for some reason, I just can't recieve data fast enough from the ffxi servers, like it's being limited or blocked by something. Strange to think it's happening only certain times of day though.

If anyone has any solutions or ideas at all, please do tell. It really sucks to be utterly useless/unable to play smack in the middle of primetime, and it's been going on from the same period of time that Dooom mentioned; must be 6-8 weeks now.

[Sensui]

Happens to me and my wife a lot, and usually at the same time - we'll R0 or something, get down to like, 25% and come back, and if we do DC, I'm not completely kicked off POL and I go right back to the character select screen. If it's not the router goofing up which happens once in a while. But, it's not a router/internet problem because my computer's still connected, router still shows a connection and I don't completely DC, it just seends me to the character select screen. If I don't shutdown and log back in, a few minutes after I log back into my character I'll start to R0 again and get a POL-error and DC back to the Character select screen. So everytime it happens I just log all the way out and start up POL again. Usually after it happens once it doesn't keep happening. Been happening for a while, I haven't really been keeping track of the times it does it though.

[Dwayne.TG]

Pretty much a carbon copy of what Dooom said, mine has been like it for about 8 weeks roughly too, starts anytime between 4pm-5pm GMT and can go on up till midnight, i used to be able to bit the bullet with it and just wait but now i just stop playing around 5pm because i just can't handle zoning which takes upto 15mins, called my internet company about it and they have ran line tests along with me doing virus scans and they are 100% sure my line is running above average for the time of day.

So i have no clue :\

Edit: Just to be clear, i never ever get kicked off FFXI it will take me down to a % which is around 64 (Iirc) then bounce back up, i know when it resets because my R number will bounce from 0 to anything over 1000 then its back to normal.

[evilpaul]

Anyone else unable to get on POL right now?

[Deathgazer]

1/2 the LS just red dotted and got kicked from game 10 seconds after entering Dynamis. Can't get through PoL either

[Budonez]

like 8 people dc'd mid-dynamis run and can't log back on... rofl

[Rajwa]

Just d/c'd and cant get back on as well.

[Necronus]

Anyone else unable to get on POL right now?

A bunch of ventrilo peeps just dropped and the server total dropped to 900. Its slowly reclimbing now, but for a while there 100 people dropped in seconds.