POL News: All Worlds Maintenance

Everlasting said:
Sorry big U but I think this is SE's problem too.

I'm a troubleshooting dork for a living. The first question I ask when a problem pops up is "What changed?".

In this situation the only part that has changed is FFXI.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that doesn't mean its FFXI's fault.

Have any of you actually even ATTEMPTED to perform a tracert, or even talk among eachother to find a common connection between everything?

Or are all of you just sitting on your hands waiting for the problem to be fixed?
 
If I pay for a product or service, I expect to get use out of it. At the moment, the overwhelming evidence suggests that SE is at fault because the problem did not exist prior to this update and hundreds of players are all with the same problem use varying providers, computers, video cards, etc with no commonality. But let's look at it from a different perspective and say we knew the exact reason for the problem. Suppose it's because we are all using the exact same ethernet adapter. Is it our fault that the adapter does not function properly with the gaming software or the fault of the gaming company which did not code properly for the adapter? It's not like we can logically say "I can fix the problem", most of us do not have a degree in the necessary fields to do that; I know I don't. Perhaps I could buy a new ethernet adapter, but why should I when it seems to function properly for literally everything else? Or SE could admit fault and fix the game so it functions for those of us who are having problems.
 
Uzor you do realize you are complaining about the fact that we are making excuses and complaining instead of trying to fix it our selfs.

We ar complaining about the fact that SE is making excuses instead of fixing it.

Think about it.
 
Idea time: SE probably has multiple servers which are used to serve the update files.

Maybe one or more of these servers had bad/missing/corrupt data files which only some players downloaded.
 
Uzor said:
Everyone don't have the problem, so its obviously not SE's fault. Otherwise everyone would have the same problem. And I do know what I'm talking about, because if you'd read ym entire post, you'd see I've had that very same problem 3 times. One of them being after a major update. A lot of people in Sweden had the same problem. Everyone with the same ISP.
Click to expand...


The problem with this statement is that not everyone will always have the same problem if it's something that is SE's fault. There can indeed be problems that affect only a certain percentage of a population. That doesn't exclude SE from being responsible, if indeed it is a problem on their end [I will get to this down below*]

Secondly, are you confirming that indeed you have had the same exact problem. I just want it clarified and confirmed. After reading your posts and the general summary, I get the sense that it was a connection problem, but you haven't described it in a way that it's exactly like the current problem at hand.

Third, as of now you've had no problem, congratulations, I wish I was in your situation. But, I have friends in game who are just now starting to run into the R0 connection problem. I'd like to get a confirmation that you've been to every single non-ToAU signet zone post-patch (and i mean everything from dynamis to CoP zones to main cities, far away zones, and even little BCNM zones and Avatar zones, etc.).

And that you've been able to zone in and run around with no problems whatsoever before you make the general statement that you have no problems. Even now, I am starting to find various zones I've just gone to post-patch that gives me R0. This is starting to happen so much so that I don't dare enter a zone that I cannot exit out of either by multiple log-ins to get me back across the zone line elsewhere.

Lastly, there is something to be said about customer service. For example, I found my first zone problem on Friday Evening, I posted a GM call, in fact I posted 5 GM calls, because for some reason it dropped me and it never reached me after 8 hours of being online. They updated the GM call problem, I suspect because so many people queued it up because of this R0 problem.

So what did I do on Monday since I was out of town the weekend? I had the day off, I logged on the web service and sat for 5 hours waiting to connect to a tech rep. I got the same problem a LS Mate got. When I finally connected, they did not even let me say one single sentence, gave me a short blurb of, "Our servers are fine, It's not our fault, We recognize a connection problem, good luck to you, see you again."

I fail to see why they could not give me 5 minutes, let alone 1, after 8 hours of waiting Friday evening through Saturday because tech support is closed for the weekend, let alone 1 minute on the web chat to ask if there's anything I can do.

Part of the problem is not about complaining perse, but the way I am treated as a customer. After all, I am paying money for their service.

And i'm not even exaggerating

Here is the session with the POL rep:
The next available Agent will be with you in a moment.
As of Mar. 9, 2007 5:00 (PST), we are aware of connection related issues with an underlying backbone outside of our servers control. This is not affecting all ISPs. This is affecting NA and EU players primarily. Please try again later.
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
An agent will be with you in a moment. Thank you for your patience.
You have been connected to TechGuy.
POLGuy: Hello, thank you for contacting the PlayOnline Information Center. Just a few moments while I review your question, please.
POLGuy: As of Mar. 9, 2007 5:00 (PST), we are aware of connection related issues with an underlying backbone outside of our servers control. This is not affecting all ISPs. This is affecting NA and EU players primarily. Please try again later. We apologize for any trouble (connection related or otherwise) you are experiencing, but please be aware we are working on finding a resolution to any connection related problems. We are experiencing extremely high hold times for this reason, we cannot continue on this chat. Your understanding and patience is extremely appreciated.
Thank you for visiting our PlayOnline Chat line. Take care and hope to see you online!
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.
Click to expand...

that is the real chatsession after 5 hours. Oh, and how ironic that he hopes to see me online when in fact, i can't get online into ffxi and i need someone else to move my character for me.
 
Last edited:
Uzor said:
Yes, but that doesn't mean its FFXI's fault.

Have any of you actually even ATTEMPTED to perform a tracert, or even talk among eachother to find a common connection between everything?

Or are all of you just sitting on your hands waiting for the problem to be fixed?
Click to expand...

Yes, there are threads on Alla, BG, and KI where people are posting information. :)

Tracert isn't a good way to go about it, it won't tell you what you need to know. If anyone wants to do some serious investigation use a LINUX/UNIX box and with their traceroute you can specify it use UDP and you can specify the FFXI port. You can do the same with ping as well. By default tracert uses a different protocol than FFXI so the testing is moot.
 
Lavi said:
If I pay for a product or service, I expect to get use out of it. At the moment, the overwhelming evidence suggests that SE is at fault because the problem did not exist prior to this update and hundreds of players are all with the same problem use varying providers, computers, video cards, etc with no commonality. But let's look at it from a different perspective and say we knew the exact reason for the problem. Suppose it's because we are all using the exact same ethernet adapter. Is it our fault that the adapter does not function properly with the gaming software or the fault of the gaming company which did not code properly for the adapter? It's not like we can logically say "I can fix the problem", most of us do not have a degree in the necessary fields to do that; I know I don't. Perhaps I could buy a new ethernet adapter, but why should I when it seems to function properly for literally everything else? Or SE could admit fault and fix the game so it functions for those of us who are having problems.
Click to expand...
There seem to be no commonality because no one have attempted to find one. If you'd actually perform a tracert, and a static ping to their servers, you'd most likely see soemthing happen the second you DC. And if everyoen posted their results, you would most likely find out where the problem is.

But did any of you do this? No. Do you know how long it takes to do this? 5 min at the most. Personally I did it in roughly 1 min.
duncanrun said:
Uzor you do realize you are complaining about the fact that we are making excuses and complaining instead of trying to fix it our selfs.

We ar complaining about the fact that SE telling the truth and can't fix it
Think about it.
Click to expand...

fixed.
 
Unless someone who posts here works for SE no one can know that the problem is and we all be circle jerking this fight. Let's agree to disagree. >.> it's getting annoying reading the same shit over and over.

Edit: WTF is a "tracert"?
 
Last edited:
Great Idea! I'll run a tracert as soon as I finish my computer science degree... in 2010... Last I checked, I didn't need a degree to play FFXI and if it did, I probably wouldn't play.
 
Everlasting said:
Yes, there are threads on Alla, BG, and KI where people are posting information. :)

Tracert isn't a good way to go about it, it won't tell you what you need to know. If anyone wants to do some serious investigation use a LINUX/UNIX box and with their traceroute you can specify it use UDP and you can specify the FFXI port. You can do the same with ping as well. By default tracert uses a different protocol than FFXI so the testing is moot.
Click to expand...

Everything uses a different protocol then FFXI, because FFXI's protocol sucks.

Yes, part of the problem lies with SE because their way of making sure packets reach their destination is to send everything twice. So if both those packets are lost, you'll DC. If they used a more reliable protocol, like most things use (internet, AIM etc.), you wouldn't have this problem at all. This is why your other applications work the way you'd expect them to work.

but you probably didn't read the above part anyway.

You can still perform a tracert. I know, the Swedish FFXI population did th esame thing and found out the problem was a bottleneck in one of the backbones in Russia. We told our ISP and PlayOnline about it and the problem was eventually fixed.

Tracerout is still a good way to find where a bottleneck occurs simply because it sends a packet to a destination to see how long it takes to reach it. If it finds a bottleneck, it choses another route to attempt to reach its target. Atleast that's how I remember it when I took networking courses.
 
Tok said:
...umm

before the update...no one had this problem

suddenly the update comes and ALLLLLLLLLLL these people are reporting the same problems...the SAME problems

i dont care how many people have it whether it be 10 or 10,000 if all these people are having the exact same problems after the update when everything was working fine prior to the update its SE's deal not ours
Click to expand...

Maybe because ALL these people use the same third party stuff (and cheats) ... Ive never used "3rd party" on this computer, and reinstalled Windows+FFXI recently because Windows is a fucking OS, so in a sense my FF folder is clean. Everything works just fine. All the ppl i know that don't have trouble downloaded the update as soon as it was available (took like 30 mins).


Instead of arguing it's SE's fault, just uninstall FFXI and resinstall it after, and i bet your problems will disappear. You know, on thursday i tried to download the update on my 2nd computer, and gave up, because it was impossible, so i bet all those problems put corrupted files in your PS2/xbox/PC. If your want to have the game work fine juste like me, reinstall the game. You'll have a 3H update to do .. no big deal.
 
Myrrh said:
Edit: WTF is a "tracert"?
Click to expand...
TraceRoute. Contacts each hop between you and the destination you specify, so you can determine if there's extensive delays between two specific points. Helpful for narrowing down problems in the Internet cloud.

Uzor said:
Tracerout is still a good way to find where a bottleneck occurs simply because it sends a packet to a destination to see how long it takes to reach it. If it finds a bottleneck, it choses another route to attempt to reach its target. Atleast that's how I remember it when I took networking courses.
Click to expand...
It's not that smart, it won't auto-adjust routes. The cloud (more precisely, BGP) is supposed to do that.
 
Lavi said:
Great Idea! I'll run a tracert as soon as I finish my computer science degree... in 2010... Last I checked, I didn't need a degree to play FFXI and if it did, I probably wouldn't play.
Click to expand...

you don't needa computer science degree to run a tracert ~.~

You just simply open the command prompr and type tracert addresstobetraced

There's several switches to use for it, but you only need to type the basics. Doesn't take a computer degree in science to do.
 
As an example, when I run a tracert, I get the following when I do it to www.google.com

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [216.239.59.147]
over a maximum of 30 jumps:

1 26 ms 22 ms 21 ms ua-83-227-173-65.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se [83.22
173.65]
2 38 ms 212 ms 23 ms ge4-9.dr1.sto2.se.bredband.com [195.54.118.141]

3 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms ge4-0.cr1.sto2.se.bredband.com [195.54.119.141]

4 36 ms 63 ms 128 ms pos12-0.cr2.sto2.se.bredband.com [195.54.123.94]

5 43 ms 43 ms 43 ms pos5-0.br1.ams1.se.bredband.com [195.54.123.110]

6 43 ms 44 ms 43 ms core2.ams.google.com [195.69.145.100]
7 48 ms 48 ms 48 ms 209.85.248.86
8 51 ms 51 ms 52 ms 209.85.248.81
9 62 ms 66 ms 62 ms 66.249.95.107
10 63 ms * 62 ms 72.14.232.241
12 65 ms 65 ms 65 ms 216.239.49.126
13 63 ms 62 ms 62 ms gv-in-f147.google.com [216.239.59.147]
Click to expand...
 
And for us stupid people that means.....?
 
CmdrFly said:
TraceRoute. Contacts each hop between you and the destination you specify, so you can determine if there's extensive delays between two specific points. Helpful for narrowing down problems in the Internet cloud.


It's not that smart, it won't auto-adjust routes. The cloud (more precisely, BGP) is supposed to do that.
Click to expand...

Yes, it saves information all the time which route it have previously take, and how long it takes to adjust the route in order to find the fastest one to take. Tracert don't do that though, as you say. But it still technically finds another way.

I don't remember exactly how, was 3 years ago I took that course >.> Well, 4 soon
 
lol uzor if SE really can't fix it with all there resources how do you expect us to I gues i should have said.

You: Complaining about us not fixing a problem we can't fix.

Us: Comlaining about SE not fixing a problem they can't fix (so you say)

I have done all the things you said to do and I still have the problem on my PS2, Xbox 306, PC and even when I use my laptop at work I have the problem although in different zones than at home. So now that I have tried everything I can think of I am askin SE to do something about it even if they have to contact another company and get them to do it. I pay for the service and I expect to have it.

BTW just because it happens to you in sweden all the time doesn't make it all right. It also proves that the problem has happend before and they should know why and how to fix it.

I choose to actually get what I pay for instead of sit by and let them stick it to me. You can let them take your money in return for nothing if you want thats your choice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top