Connection probs - Apple Airport + FFXI

[noodles355]

Hey guys, My old man has recently changed the wifi network in the house to an Apple AirPort Extreme (With an Airport Express signal booster thing).

Ironically, it's because the signal was bad in some areas of the house, but only areas that affected me, and in an attempt to fix that he's killed FFXI...

The Game connects to POL fine, logs into POL and FFXI all fine, but once in the game I get disconnected anywhere from 30secs-5mins. Sometimes it's just a normal R0 and time out, sometimes I see the redball beside my character name, can see people moving and speaking and don't get R0 in the corner (but am still DCing, other people can see me DC and talking to NPC, typing text, hitting macros etc do nothing).

I've been searching around the internet for help with this but all searches with FFXI and the airport dont seem to turn up much. A LS mate said it could be the ports (because it's always the ports if you ask SE support), and having no idea how to check port forwarding on the airport, went to portforward.com, where it said this:

The AirPortExtreme will not allow you to forward enough ports, to run Final Fantasy XI - PC. You should try using the DMZ portion of this router if it is available.

So I googled the DMZ thing, which apple calls Default Host, but helpfully anywhere that describes how to change the settings there take me to a dead end, EG:

(ref: AirPort Utility > Manual Setup > Internet > NAT > Enable default host)

Go into Setup>Internet, there is no NAT tab, just Internet Connection, TCP/IP or DHCP. Searcing Default Host in the "Find a setting search" takes you to the DHCP tab, but I don't see anything here about a default host, just DHCP Beginning/Ending Address, Lease, Message, LDAP Server and DCHP Reservations.

I can give you any airport settings needed, but I'm not sure which ones they are and dont want to bulk up the OP with pointless stats.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

[The Stig]

This sounds like a very familiar problem I had with the forsaken Linksys 54 something router where nothing I did will help me stay connected, I would eventually disconnected 30s to 5 mins. Every other online game website torrent whatever, works absolutely fine though.

The only thing that "fixed" it for me was to buy a new router, however, the workaround with the Linksys was to make sure no one else and nothing else (on your machine) was using the internet (this means no browsing either).

I've suffered with the issue for 2 years before replacing the router. I'm sure someone will offer you better advice, but I gave up with the fixes I've tried (including tweaking the shit out of the router) including the ones you've mentioned.

If you can, try a wired connection. If it happens there too, then I would place the blame on your router. Otherwise, stop everyone from using the net and see how long you last. In my experience I can go for hours if no one else is using the net and I don't attempt to do any browsing.

[noodles355]

I'll try a wired connection then first. There "isn't a free lead" from the router at the moment, but I'll just unplug something and try it temporarilly.
Considering how much my dad loves apple shit and evrything to do with it, I doubt he'll want to change back to the old router or get a different new one. He has such a hard on for apple i really pisses me off...

Edit: Still DCs shortly after logging in with my machine's wireless turned off using a wired connection....

[noodles355]

Ok so I wanna check if it's the ports, so I'm trying to forward them on but I'm having a hard time doing this. I'm a windows 7 machine on a apple airport network. I apparantly need to set a static IP (done, but DHCP is disabled, is that right? Is DHCP just the thing that automatically configures your IP address?) and then set up something to do with DMZ or Default Host? So I type "Default Host" into the airport utility on my dad's mac, and it comes up with nothing. Theres not as many options as there should be.

So I go to Internet>Internet Connection, and it's checked as Connect using: Ethernet. (other option is PPPoE). There is no NAT tab or Port Mapping tab at this point. If I change Ethernet to PPPoE and then back to Ethernet, suddenly the NAT, Port Mapping, and serveral other things turn up.... So now I have more options but haven't actually changed anything yet. Is that right? God I love apple. Everything is so bloody simple. So now I have the NAT and port mapping tabs, I'ma try this, see if it works. I just hope it doesn't fuck anything up with his precious network. I'll never hear the end of it if it does...

[The Stig]

Good luck, but I've tried all of those options before in a desperate attempt to get FFXI working. Even static IPs, DMZ, ports, whatever, all that stuff, and turning off UPnP and all the connection details/channels/security, nothing worked, at all

I understand it is a frustrating problem but I really believe it's the way some routers handle the traffic and uniquely for FFXI it's always weird. In direct comparison I had more reliable performance from a 3G dongle on an EDGE (2.5G) connection playing FFXI than I did with the linksys router I used to own.

One thing you've yet to try though (which worked for me on the linksys router as you're displaying similar symptoms, but only temporarily) is to play/try when absolutely no one else is using the connection in any way at all, including iphones PS3s other devices.

Because of the hard frustration I went through with all the configs and stuff I concluded nothing else actually matters it's just the router. Sorry to seem not much of help though. Also, if your previous router worked fine with no need to actually tweak with the settings then I'm highly confident you shouldn't need to tweak it at all anyways.

Also, I highly doubt you'll mess anything up, unless he has some (which sounds unlikely) complex stuff networked around your home.

[noodles355]

I did mess it up a bit lol, atfer I tried reverting it to what it was, the internet wouldn't work. Though when I woke up today he's obviously fixed it, because all the NAT and port mapping option tabs are gone and the internet works. Guess I'll try closing everything else and running FF... though not holding my breath.
Thanks for the help anyway,

Edit: Nope. No dice.

[The Stig]

doh. he probably hard reset it.

I'm not sure if this is possible and I've no knowledge of it, but if you know how to bridge routers together (think of it as an extender) that may or may not work, since you technically have 2 routers now. You'll want your old router (which worked with FFXI) to be the primary and the Apple one to be the secondary.

Here's what I found in 5 seconds of Googling:

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/r...wo_routers.htm

Give it a spin. I didn't read too much into it as I do not have 2 routers to try with.

[noodles355]

So it would be possible to have both routers up? I'll put that to him tonight see if it'd be an option, thanks for the tip!

[The Stig]

Yes think of it as socket extension for electrical appliances, the same principle applies but in this case electricity = internet. If you think about large offices they are essentially doing the same thing. One internet + several switches/routers/etc to help people at different locations "plug in". The only difference is you're doing it inside your own home, but how well this will work is entirely dependant on how much work you put into it, as simple as that link/article (well, it IS "about.com") makes it, I'm skeptical about it. Still, it's worth a try if you can convince your dad (perhaps use my electric analogy).