help with connectivity issue

[cdfurry]

I am a fairly recent addition to the p99 community. I started with the wife in October and things have been great after a few minor hiccups that the forums had ample information on resolving (device reset issues, running eqgame.exe in compatibility mode, etc.); nothing major.

The last 3 weeks or so intermittently we have started having an issue where after zoning, or switching characters we might freeze or get disconnected. When attempting to log back in, I either get a timeout, it says to check my internet connection, or it will go in but the server select screen is blank. If I purposely enter an incorrect password then it does tell me the password is incorrect so there is obviously some communication. But this problem has been very intermittent and clears up typically in 10-30 minutes and all is fine again.

Tonight however it does not seem to be resolving itself. I suspected it is a routing/dns issue with my ISP but I am not sure what information to take to them. The problem prevents any computers on my network from connecting (windows and linux). And if I connect to a VPN service then i am able to connect without issue which is what makes me certain its on my ISP side. I use AT&T fiber. Any help on what I may need to take to them to get a resolution would be helpful.

Thanks
jaladiun 47 druid (green)

[mcoy]

Unfortunately, you're experiencing what you suspect - a routing issue. These are hard to communicate to your ISP's technical support as they'll insist "all tests are fine". It will eventually get resolved - from previous posts it appears to be anywhere from 1-2 weeks. You may be able to shorten this if you're able to reach a higher escalation with support, but how to obtain that remains a mystery.

Personally, I would play via a hotspot or VPN until it is resolved as it's not worth the effort arguing with your ISP in my opinion. I don't know the magic keyword to say to get a resolution.

I believe this is an issue because EQ uses what they call "reliable UDP" :

https://www.pcgamer.com/breaking-the...ed-everything/

In the before times, when we had to wait for internet content, EQ was somewhat groundbreaking with this. Unfortunately, it has not carried over well into the modern era.

If you find out the "magic phrase" to convince your ISP's support that your traffic is experiencing a routing issue causing UDP packets to arrive out of order - please share it with us as this is a commonly reported issue.

I've been fortunate and have never run into connectivity issues. It probably has something to do with my location as I live within walking distance of numerous datacenters. I take that with a grain of salt, because the first EMPs will definitely hit here and send me back to the dark ages...

Oh yeah, and power cycle your router/modem. Can't hurt.

-Mcoy

[cdfurry]

Yea I was back and forth with them last night. They didn't even seem interested in what addresses/ip's i was having issue with.

The last guy I got on the phone said "oh your modem firmware is way out of date, let me force an update and clear the errors". In his defense it did start working again after it updated and restart, so I will see you all back in the game. But I think that was coincidental timing, as im not sure how the VPN i was using could bypass a firmware issue on the modem.

[cdfurry]

just to confirm - problem returned last night about 8pm, and started tonight at 6. So whatever "firmware update" AT&T support did was just to get me off the line.

Resorting to VPN usage, but hoping whatever the issue is becomes more severe or widespread so it can be repaired. I may try to contact AT&T again, but they were pretty uninterested in the specifics of the connection issue so far.

[Tunabros]

im at a constant 100+ ping whenever I play lol

[plainolewhitey]

I don't know what's going on right now. My speedtest is fine, but something is wacked. I was playing literally 4 hours ago. Never had a connection issue before. Then all of the sudden I went to log in and from character select it simply never logged into the world from my viewpoint. Disconnected, tried again, this time it went to server select screen which was blank. Closed all windows and rebooted. Same again.
Now it's not even getting to a blank server select screen - after entering password it just clocks.

Tried some of the port and eqhost fixes listed in the forms (which are also running slow for me to load up) but nothing helped.

Anyone else having this? Or HAD this before?

[plainolewhitey]

Wow, well ain't that somethin'. I have AT&T fiber as well. Loaded up Nord and connected via VPN like a champ. Jesus. Thank you for the heads up!

[AenorVZ]

Ok so all of us who are having the problem are on AT&T. It's not going to do you any good to bring this to AT&T's attention because the problem is happening downstream after it leaves their network. If you look at the MTR in my thread you see in the % column that it's zero percent packet loss until it hits Level 3's network in Boston. From there, Level 3 hands of to Lightstream which has four different devices on the trace.

I suspect this is the last mile provider that hands off to Rogean's floor space but I can't be sure. Because the problem is happening downstream it will likely require someone at the Boston end to either cease advertising their ASN to Lightstream (doesn't work if they're the last mile provider) or open a ticket with Lightstream to investigate what's going on at the handoff from Level 3 where the packet loss starts.

What would help is if as many people who are experiencing the problem as possible could post an MTR of at least 100 pings to login.eqemulator.net and post the text output here using this tool:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmtr/

It would also help if someone who is NOT experiencing the problem could post an MTR so we can see what that looks like.

[Cenyan]

I sent an e-mail to support@lightower.net about this issue and provided tests and traceroutes. They didn't seem interested in helping and asked for my CID (customer identification) number. I'm on ATT fiber and the packetloss has been terrible for the past few weeks. and sometimes over 70% since the past weekend at nights.

I'll reply back to them and see if I can get an traction but I doubt it.

[Jibartik]

Web MD says you have network connectivity issues.