POL Error Code 0011, 3001. WTF

[Yokoh]

Hey, I was playing absolutely fine yesterday. I get my 1st DC in months and now im getting hit by loads of SE server Errors.. I have looked around different forums and made sure that everything is in the right and working order. I have not changed any settings to make these errors occur and this is a littler frustrating as i know many other people are getting it to.

Any news or response from SE would be great about a reason as why the servers are failing on me now?

I repeat. I have checked/rang ISP/SE Tech support about this issue a few years ago and it ended up being a fault on SE side.

What is going on? Thanks.

[Yokoh]

May i also add.. Error 1160 and 3100 too. Thankyou.

[Yokoh]

wow seriously.. everything from SE (Forums/Official site) are being slow and sluggish - Including timeouts too.

[DAM0]

Having the same issue here! Was perfect yesterdat but now cant log onto ffxi getting 4-5 different error codes, my network seems fine no other issuies other than these forums are sloooooow!

High Wycombe - UK
Bt Infinity

[Alkimi]

Same here, using BT in the UK aswell.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

It's a BT problem.

[Yokoh]

really? that sucks

[Yokoh]

Im on BT too, it crashed out on me (FF11) at around midnight last night..

[Alkimi]

Seems to be anything and everything SE related, XI, XIV and these forums aswell.

Haven't noticed issues with anything else.

[Frankbrodie]

Ah well at least I know it's BT now.
Been struggling away to get on this morning.
BT has been very iff-ish for a couple of weeks.

[Alkimi]

Yeah at least 4 of us in the linkshell having the same problem.

Hoping someone will post with a fix at some point.

[TerriousMaximus]

The issue with logging into your account is a BT issue.I have spoke to SE and that is what they have said.I too had probs all morning trying to log in,a few times i actually succeeded then thrown out when i zoned.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Error has supposedly been fixed by BT.

[Sanddie]

On BT and can get into both ffxi & ffxiv now

[CPBismarck]

im using BT landline but BE internet and cant sign in same issue :/

[Karma]

Getting FFXI 3100 error cannot connect to lobby server and Im not with BT

[CPBismarck]

this isnt a BT issue. My main account logs in fine. my mule when zoning gets stuck on server side. im extremely unhappy about this as a gm told me it could take 2-3 weeks before it fixes it self. really? i mean seriously why am i even paying?

SE, this is your official forum and you have not even made one comment or contribution to help us. is there any purpose for these forums at all other than us venting at you and you lot laughing at us?

[Hokuten85]

I am also seeing this issue. What is this BT all these people speak of? I am able to log into my mule and I am able to log into all of my siblings accounts, but my main gets stuck at the black loading screen when I try to login.

I am also seeing a large number of errors when I try to connect to the lobby. Very inconvenient...

*edit* and being directed to your technical help page is infuriating... your technical help page is terrible and I never find answers to my questions. Why can I log into a number of other characters, but not my main?

[CPBismarck]

your lucky now im locked out of all my accounts....

[CPBismarck]

also just to update, i have completely reinstalled the game from scratch did the update and all was fine, went to log in and boom stuck on loading screen, now i cant get past the username and password screen. gives 0011.


This all occured 100% the time when i tried to zone in to misareau coast Abyssea. Moment i confirmed on the maw and the screen went to loading it went and stayed there for all eternity

[Hyzenthlay]

Also getting FFXI-3100, am with O2 but BT landline. Been trying since last night and still no joy. O2 weren't particularly helpful.

[CPBismarck]

Another Update just did a file check after a clean install and am getting 708 corrupted files. And they are not fixable. Ill reinstall for another 10 hours i guess :/ and try again but either something seriously is broken on server side or im getting misinformation. That many broken files from a fresh install, like seriously????

Just out of curiosity the people who say they are with BT, do you mean Landline or Internet? Cause i have a BT landline but a BE internet connection

[Hyzenthlay]

O2 Broadband, just been talking to them for a few hours, they've pretty much tried everything but still no joy. Just hoping SE gets back to us on what's going on.

[CPBismarck]

now im getting 1160 error message, wont pass username and password authentication, simply wont connect. Im going to uninstall the game and reinstall again seeing as i ihave 700+ corrupted files and they are not repairable :/ 10 hour update here i come, if this doesnt work and SE continue to ignore, and the rest of us having a problem, i think i may just be done with this game. Its sad as i just got my relic and what not and still intend on helping people, but if the CS is this terrible and they simply dont care what happens after the point of them taking my money, then i dont see any reason why i should continue paying for a service im not happy with...

Please SE sortt his out

[kierie]

I am on o2 and getting the 3001 error message this has been happening for the last couple of days, I am wondering if the o2 users have had their router firmware updated with the new update? Mine has been and i am wondering if this is where the problem lies.

[CPBismarck]

BE and 02 use the same servers. Mine wasnt working on firmware 0.06 updated to 0.12 and still nada. not directly answering your Q but hope it helps somewhat

[Maydot]

Another O2 user with the same 3100 error - have just contacted O2 and they have confirmed its a known issue and being worked on. May want to make alternative plans for today as they have told me it should be resolved within 24 hours......

[Hyzenthlay]

O2 guy i spoke to today updated me with the latest firmware and that didn't fix it so removed it. He didn't know what the cause was and whether it was on their side or SE side tho. I hope what Maydot was told is right *crosses fingers*

[Maydot]

Well what ever they are doing is making it worse - getting error code 0011 now. Has anyone else had any luck logging in?

[kierie]

Mine is worse also cannot even connect at all now :( error 1160

[CPBismarck]

i managed to get rid of POL 1160 by uninstalling and reinstalling POL, however 0011 still remains.

[Hyzenthlay]

Can't connect to POL, Code POL-0007 "There may be a problem with your route address or the communication route."

[CPBismarck]

0019 is my new error now lol this is slowly becoming a joke

[kierie]

I managed to log onto a mule and i got excited so i tried to log onto my main and 6001 error again and now i cant get back onto my mule either /cry :(

[Exodias]

I too am with 02 and having the same issues with logging in to SE services. I have just spoken to 02 support for the second time today and after they said i have a faulty router, they are now saying they are aware of the issue in accessing certain online services and are estimating that things will be fixed within 48hrs.

[RAIST]

Don't recall exactly where all this has been broken down before to link to it, so just gonna try to rehash it all again off the cuff.

I forget the exact numbers, think it was either 3001 or 3011, but if you are getting the message indicating no response from server, it <should> simply be a communication issue--not necessarily an issue with your actual game files. This is a routing issue. The suspects for this are your local security/routing, your ISP's security/routing, SE's security/routing, or some additional party in between. The only way to resolve it is to trace the communication path from each endpoint to resolve it.

If you are using a router, verify if port forwarding is setup, and if set--make sure it is setup properly for FFXI. In some cases, you don't need the port forwarding (routers have gotten a lot better in recent years)--so you can even try not using port forwarding at all as well. If you don't have it setup, try setting it up to test if it is needed. Also note that some routers have security options that could be causing issues: SPI firewall settings like responding to ping (or simply firewall enabled/disabled), NAT features for open or closed/secure routing and/or SIP ALG filtering etc. Double check settings in the LAN/WAN sections of your router config to see what options are available and enabled. You may need to turn some features off or otherwise configure them differently to resolve a routing issue with the game traffic. Also note that sometimes it is an issue that can be generated by the routing path initiated as early as your DNS lookup. If you are using the DNS from your ISP, sometimes you can get a different result by simply changing the DNS used on your PC. You can get a list of DNS servers to try from the OpenDNS group (http://www.dnsserverlist.org/) and plug them in as static DNS servers in your TCP/IP settings.

Note also that SE has made some significant changes to their network structure over the years, and continually tweak it. I've seen new IP's pop up here and there the last couple years, as it has caused issues with some SPI security options and their whitelists have needed updating a few times--which is something to consider as well if you are managing whitelists somewhere. Which brungs us to the next section.

Check all your logs that you can locally: Firewall and/or internet security suite, Anti-Virus (it can be blocking a server in a webshield, or otherwise trapping a pol.exe hook, etc.), and your Router. If you are using a router/switch/hub between your system and your modem--bypass it and connect directly to your modem and try again. Again, in this config--double check all your logs. If during this process, you find communications/file(s) being blocked--verify the blocked item is a valid FFXI resource and add it to that device/software's exception/ignore/allow/trusted list. Obviously, if it is a file in the FFXI folder it should be safe to whitelist--if it is an IP address, simply google the IP. You should get some hits for ARIN info, a WhoIs lookup, etc. so you can verify that it belongs to SE. One easy thing to look for is the admin contact for the IP--ie: if it is peering @ square-enix.com, then it's managed by SE.

If, after you've confirmed it is nothing locally blocking communication, then it needs to be traced in real time as you are trying to connect to try to pinpoint the point of failure. The old-school way is to run netstat in the background as you are connecting to try to find the IP/FQDN of the connections being made and then trying to trace them individually to test for connectivity issues. There is a handy tool you can use to trace your connections in real time that is a litttle easier to read. Download Sysinternals TCPView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437). note, this link is from Micrsoft's TechNet pages, so it is safe. Read that page, as it tells you how to use it. It's pretty straight forward, just run it and watch your connections as they happen.

Close all programs and disconnect any devices that would connect to the internet in the background (iPod, etc) for updates (I wouldn't advise shutting down security software, though), go ahead and run all updates for programs/devices that you need to have connected (like security software, windows updates, Java, flash, etc.) or disable their auto-update features so they don't try to update while testing. Configure FFXI so it is windowable. you want to either be able to run it in a small window so you can watch TCPView as you are connecting, or have the option to alt-tab between them during each step of logging in to note what is going on in TCPView during each stage. Basically, launch TCPView, and after each step of your logging in/zoning in game, verify the state of your connections in TCPView. What you are mostly looking for are connections that are going into TIME_WAIT states WHILE your are connecting/zoning. Established connections are typically good--handshakes are taking place and data is flowing. Some of these IP's will show up with ESTABLISHED state, and then go into TIME_WAIT. This is not necessarily an indication of a problem--but it is an indication that there is not a flow of data keeping them active, and thus could be more prone to interruption. Still, make a note of the connections that are coming up as ESTABLISHED and maintaining that status though, as you may want to test reliability of them as well for good measuer. As you go through this process, you will get a feel for which ones are valid connections specifically for FFXI (sometimes you may get some weird connections from security software like local host port 12080 redirection, sometimes this happens for blocking pop-ups and bad sites). Once you have a list of IP's isolated to your FFXI use, you have some numbers for tracing to see if there are any stalls taking place.

Google the IP's to verify they are from SE. I have a short list you can use for some known numbers that may help save some time:

square-enix.com 202.67.53.202
SE DNS servers (dns1-dns4): 202.67.53.31, 202.67.53.95, 202.67.53.32, 202.67.53.96)
***note the 202.67.53.xxx subnet may be entirely owned by SE, I have not verified this though)

ffxi00.pol.com 124.150.154.122
c000.pol.com 202.67.54.52

IP's in the following ranges are confirmed to be leased to SE:

124.150.152.1 through 124.150.159.255
(note, I have seen a lot of UDP traffic on some of these)

202.67.54.1 through 202.67.54.255
202.67.62.1 through 202.67.62.255

So, if you see anything in this range, pretty much...it's SE.

Now, to trace them to confirm reliable routing. There are some windows tool that can be used, but many don't show the path taken. A more consistent and common tool is the old DOS pased tracert command. Open a command prompt window by going to start/run or start/search (will vary by XP/Vista/Win7 interfaces) and enter cmd. This should pull up a black box terminal style screen shoing a file path with a blinking cursor, something like this:

c:\Documents and Settings\Username>_

What you will do is simply type the word tracert, a space, followed by the IP number, hit the <Enter> key, and watch the results. Note, you can use the FQDN name of the connection as well, as I did for the next quote. When it's done, you should see something like this:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert ffxi00.pol.com

Tracing route to ffxi00.pol.com [124.150.154.122]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 edited
2 pathing
3 for security
4 reasons
5 the first few lines will show your local and initial ISP routes
6 44 ms 37 ms 37 ms ae-3-0.cr0.hou30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.36]
7 86 ms 87 ms 87 ms ae-0-0.cr0.dfw10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.39]
8 85 ms 87 ms 87 ms ae-3-0.cr0.lax30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.0]
9 80 ms 81 ms * ae-1-0.pr0.lax00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.129]
10 80 ms 80 ms 81 ms pacnet.com.any2ix.coresite.com [206.223.143.138]

11 186 ms 199 ms 186 ms gi8-0-0.cr1.nrt1.asianetcom.net [202.147.0.121]

12 179 ms 176 ms 178 ms gi1-0-0.gw1.nrt5.asianetcom.net [202.147.0.178]

13 186 ms 190 ms 189 ms squareco.asianetcom.net [203.192.149.210]
14 178 ms 178 ms 176 ms 61.195.56.129
15 177 ms 179 ms 177 ms 219.117.144.2
16 187 ms 189 ms 187 ms 219.117.146.149
17 194 ms 197 ms 184 ms 219.117.146.129
18 188 ms 189 ms 186 ms 219.117.146.182
19 177 ms 177 ms 178 ms 124.150.154.122

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

That is a fairly clean connection. You want to run it a couple times, to see if you wind up with a consistent string of stalls along the way. This will show up with a * in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th column, as noted at line 9 of that trace:

9 80 ms 81 ms * ae-1-0.pr0.lax00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.129]

This leg had 1 stall in 3 attempts during the trace. While this is not a serious issue, it is something that can potentially get problematic during times of heavy load or foul weather, etc. What you DON'T want to see is a string of * * *'s on a connection. If tracert finds this, it will retry that several times and you'll see a run of failed connection attempts and it might eventually time out, like this:

Tracing route to www.exchange.gmail.com [204.232.137.207]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 edited
2 pathing
3 for security
4 reasons
5 the first few lines will show your local and initial ISP routes
6 29 ms 29 ms 27 ms 107.14.19.133
7 32 ms 30 ms 29 ms xe-0-1-1.er2.iad10.us.above.net [64.125.12.61]
8 30 ms 30 ms 29 ms xe-0-0-0.er1.iad10.us.above.net [64.125.26.233]

9 29 ms 35 ms 29 ms 209.249.11.37.available.above.net [209.249.11.3
]
10 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms vlan905.core5.iad2.rackspace.net [72.4.122.10]
11 32 ms 30 ms 29 ms aggr301a-1-core5.iad2.rackspace.net [72.4.122.1
1]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

This is an indication of a stalling/blocked path. This can be for any number of reasons--could be a firewall at that last point, or downed servier/router/etc. THIS is your potential point of failure that needs to be investigated. Initially, I would contact your ISP and forward the problematic trace log to your ISP to see if they can investigate it. If it is too far down the line, it will be a device out of their control, but they may be able to contact the admin's in charge to advance recovery--or they may be able to work out a way to redirect to get the routing going again. You could also forward it to SE (through the support portal, don't post it on the forums, for security reasons) in the event it is near their endpoint--as in it is failing close to their end they should investigate, or forward it to their JP ISP to investigate.

To get the data from the DOS prompt to clipboard, you can click/drag the text to highlight just that selection, then go to the command menu and select Copy, or you can choose to select all text from the command menu and then go back and select Copy from the command menu. To open this menu, click the black and white "C:\" icon in the upper-left corner of the window to get the menu to open up. Go down to the "Edit" submenu and you will see the options for Copy, Past, and Selec All. Once you have it on your clip board, you can then use the normal pasting operation of notepad, word, email client, etc to paste it (usually the short cut combo of <CTRL>-V works, or pull it down from an Edit menu).

[Hyzenthlay]

I noticed your thread before and directed the O2 person to it, he (also a WoW player) didn't seem to think port forwarding was needed, i guess it is kinda odd as i've been playing for years and never had this issue before. Have tried to log in on 2 different computers and getting the same message. If still not fixed tomorrow I'm willing to try anything...

[Maydot]

0011 error now gone but still getting 3100 error. There is a post on the O2 user/support forums which I think may be relevant - http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Home-Broadband-Home-Phone/Problems-connection-to-another-server/td-p/223693

The last link on that page points to - http://beusergroup.co.uk/

which mentions something about routing issues. I have absolutely no idea what all that means @.@ but hoping someone might.

I give up trying now but if can't log in tomorrow will look more closely at Raist's post and try what he suggests.

[CPBismarck]

http://www.melbournestatus.co.uk/events/intermitent-connectivity-to-users-on-be-there-orange-o2-broadband

[Maydot]

/sigh...so at 16.18 the connection was stable and only one minute later it was shut down. Thank you for posting this CPBismark - it's a shame that O2 couldn't have made an announcement though - there doesn't appear to be anything on their own support pages about this (unless it's been posted in last 15 minutes when I last checked).

[Kaliasin]

I'm getting this issue too. I'm with O2 for broadband.

Getting multiple POL errors and when I do finally try to log into my character I get the black screen with "downloading data.." until it finally times out with FFXI-3001 error. I managed to log into it once but as soon as I tried to zone it crashed again.

Getting really frustrated and fed up with this. It needs to be fixed!

[RAIST]

I'm getting this issue too. I'm with O2 for broadband.

Getting multiple POL errors and when I do finally try to log into my character I get the black screen with "downloading data.." until it finally times out with FFXI-3001 error. I managed to log into it once but as soon as I tried to zone it crashed again.

Getting really frustrated and fed up with this. It needs to be fixed!

Need to send that sentiment to your ISP....the're your best advocate to the 3rd/4th/5th/etc. party network segment that is causing the problem, or implementing a work around to avoid that downed segment. SE really has no power to solve this issue.

[Kaliasin]

I have just had a chat with a very nice guy in O2 customer support. He sent some kind of game fix to my router and then told me how to open the ports for FFXI. Neither idea worked though and although he said he would flag up the problem as he'd had several people ring about it today it wasn't anything he could fix over the phone. He simply said that it could take a while to sort out :/

[CPBismarck]

Just to update you guys a with something to those like me kept in the dark for the most of the time, Speaking with BE, there currently is no further updates on the matter, the matter is being looked into and that there is currently no ETA on a fix :/


But as someone said, and i was privy to this also and appologise to SE staff members for being somewhat rude and frustrated about the whole situation. The problem doesnt rely on SE at all (though someone still could have comeout and said something at the very least :/) but in fact solely relies upon your ISP. O2 rents their servers from BE so its really not a problem O2 can fix at all. Once BE has resolved the issue both BE and O2 will be up and running.

In the mean time you have 2 choices, 1) wait it out, or 2) switch ISP (which at this very present time im seriously considering now).

Hope this helps somewhat towards lowering peoples frustrations and agitations.

Chaos

[Maydot]

Thanks for the update! Now have to decide between the 2 choices :D Unfortunately its not east deciding on an alternative ISP - reviews are mixed and there is no way I'd ever go back to Virgin Media. Just wish O2 would stop wasting peoples time with silly fixes (that don't work) and just be honest about what's going on...or at least speak to BE who seem to know more about the problem. Seems its been down to the customer base to find out what they don't seem to know >.<

[Kaliasin]

You can see here http://status.bememberservices.com/ that O2 are actually aware of it and have been since the 14th however they don't seem to like admitting it openly on their forums/public website nor do their phone support people seem to have a clue about it. It also shows there that there is no ETA for it being fixed. Frustrating :(

[kierie]

I have just been told by an o2 guy that i need the ip address of the server i am trying to connect to before they can help any further. They are trying to tell me its a fault with the game even though i told them there's multiple people with O2 who cant connect and he said that there hasn't been any issues raised with them, looks like its a new isp for me if they cant fix it :(

[Kaliasin]

It's not just playonline.. there's loads of websites that I can't access at the moment and some that load very slowly :/

It obviously has been raised with them because it's on that site I linked but the cust service guy I spoke to last night said that it was above the level of help they could give over the phone.. I guess the only thing we can hope for is if enough people contact them and tell them they'll eventually have to stop denying it and get onto it :(

[kierie]

Hopefully they will I'm gonna have to go to my friends house tonight with my laptop I'm getting withdrawals lol :)

[Kaliasin]

I just spoke to an O2 Guru online.

Danny: Hi I'm Danny. How can I help?
Rachel: Hi there. I'm having trouble accessing some websites and online games. There appears to be a large issue because lots of people are commenting on it on the O2 support forums. Do you know when this will be fixed as it has been going on for a week now?
Danny: Our technical team is working on it and they'll get this sorted as soon as possible.
Rachel: So there is no ETA on it?
Danny: Yes, they'll get this sorted within 24 to 48 hours.
Rachel: Ok, thank you. It would be helpful if O2 could post something to say they are aware of it. A lot of people seem to have spoken to tech support at O2 and have been told the advisor is not aware of a problem.
Danny: I'll take this chat as a feedback and forward this to my Manager.

Unfortunately I feel like this is a bit of an empty promise on both accounts! :( Fingers crossed!

[CPBismarck]

they said 48 hours ago 2-3 days ago. The fact is they have no idea but cant say that to the consumer. O2 cant do anything as they rent the servers from BE so its down to BE to get it sorted and they are not updating at all

[Hyzenthlay]

Not to dampen your spirits an all but i spoke to 2 O2 Gurus over the web on friday, both were overly confident, the first one sending me instructions saying "This will definitely fix your problem" and "don't worry this will work". Needless to say it didn't.

[RAIST]

I have just been told by an o2 guy that i need the ip address of the server i am trying to connect to before they can help any further. They are trying to tell me its a fault with the game even though i told them there's multiple people with O2 who cant connect and he said that there hasn't been any issues raised with them, looks like its a new isp for me if they cant fix it :(

You could download TCPView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437) (link from Microsoft) and monitor your connections as you log on to see what IP's you are hitting and forward them to your ISP. You probably are hitting different lobby servers than me, but to give you some idea what you may see, these are some of the IP's I've tracked over the years:

202.67.62.70
202.67.62.102

202.67.54.104
202.67.54.55

202.67.54.52
124.150.154.122

If I remember right, those last two are IP's resolved from server names embedded in the game files themselves. You could try a quick ping or tracert to them to see if your able to contact them. If not, there's some IP's you can pass on.

[CPBismarck]

I did a tracert i did gave me the following results

Not Working (Didnt reach end destination)

202.67.62.70
202.67.54.52



Working (reached end destination)

202.67.54.55
202.67.54.104
124.150.154.122
202.67.62.102


And you guessed it my game uses the 2 not working lol

[Kaliasin]

Just chatted with someone at BE. Got more info out of him in 5mins than I have out of O2 all weekend. Their homepage (BE's) talks about a work around (http://www.beusergroup.co.uk/) and there is a YouTube video of how to do it for all the people that aren't very techy like myself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=fk3ta2mrh5c).

I'm doing it now, I'll let update as to whether it works or whether it makes my router explode (though I've been assured that if it does explode I just have to hit the reset button on it)! Fingers crossed......

[Kaliasin]

Doesn't seem to have made any difference.. *sigh*.. Guess I'll keep an eye out for some other suggestions.

[RAIST]

yeha.. this tactic has worked for me in the past, but I did it with Tier3 support aware of the problem and working with them to switch me to a different DHCP/Gateway server for another region (switched me from Columbia to Charlotte, then eventually Atlanta and I started getting through). Likely what happened, is you stayed on the same failing network segment and just got a new IP, or you are to close to the problem and were having trouble making that first hop to the other segment. For it to stand a chance of working, they need to be sort of changing your "home" for the router. The theory being that you start on a different segment and you wind up take a slightly different route, avoiding the problem segment completely. But, problems can still crop up if you have trouble passing packets through to that new segment if you are too close to the problem. In my case, with the failing segment being at least two states away, I stood a half decent chance of finding an alternate route..

[Kaliasin]

For the record, doing that fix does seem to have SOME effect. I can now access websites that previously wouldn't load (like the EU Square Enix Support Page) but it hasn't had any effect on the actual game log in.

Thanks for the info Raist, that explains the suggested work around to someone non-technical like myself :)

[kierie]

Omg i'm back on i may never log off again thank you for this workaround :)

[kierie]

I spoke too soon zoned twice then d/c :(

[Kaliasin]

Aww you made the fatal mistake of jinxing yourself Kierie!! :( Did the workaround allow you to log in?

[Exodias]

I have just spoken to 02 again, and after 45 minutes of discussing, and explaining (with a somewhat stressed voice) that it isnt just me facing these login issues, they have finally acknowledged that they do indeed have a problem with accessing certain services, however they have noted that this problem only started on the 23rd of April not the 14th of April like the BE websites lists. The reason they are listing the 23rd of April as the problem start date is becuase they had to wait until a certain number of people called in with the same issue before they could refer the problems to the second line tech team.

So as of now, the second line team are compiling all the information from people who have phoned in lisiting what services they are unable to access, and that they are trying to find the reasons for this problem. The agent told me that at present this problem could take anywhere from 1 day, with a start date of the 23rd of April, to 1 week to be fixed.

I have exhausted myself with explaining this to numerous 02 agents from when this issue began for me which was on the 20th of April. 02 appear to have such little concern for its customers and they are so fast to blame the persons hardware or the company of the service you are trying to access, how they can be voted best ISP is beyond me.

I guess there is a slight glimmer of hope because i can manage to log in to the game, however zoning is a different matter entirely lol.

[Kaliasin]

Unfortunately I was told something very similar when I called O2 customer service on Sunday night having had issues since Friday. I was told then that O2 were alerted to the problem and it would be fixed shortly. I think they tell you that to shut you up and get you off the line. It's infuriating. I only moved to O2 a month ago so once I've had a decent cup of coffee I'm going to get on the phone to them and give them a piece of my mind about their service :/

[CPBismarck]

Exodias, i dont mean to sound horrible and please take what im about to say with good will to you and any one on O2 broadband.

O2 are lying to you. They have zero idea how to repair this issue. This issue has NOTHING to do with them. Any ifo they give you they get from BE Broadband and thats usually nothing, cause BE wont even admit to the issue up hand. O2 rent their servers from BE broadband. This issue can only be sorted by the parent server company and thats BE and from what im seeing on their support forums (I'm a BE Broadband customer) all they are are asking for is 100 ping reports to sites you cant access or sites your losing packets on and tracerts to areas you cant access. You have like 20+ pages of nothing but ping and tracerts provided.

O2 can tell you all the eta they want, the simple fact is and this is the harsh reality, this is fix is completely out of their hands. They can do nothing to fix it till BE give them direction as to what the fix is. This issue started about a month ago on BE nd gradually escalated to where it is now affecting many more people. BE didnt see it as a problem at the start and now are blaming it on routing issues. Theres even reports stating that BE doesnt have the bandwidth no more to accomodate the customer base, how true that is im not sure but BE on their official forums are not even denying it.

The point im trying to get across to every O2 customer is calling O2 to vent wont get you anywhere as it really isnt in their hands, however asking the right question to annoy them and force a answer might be more beneficial.. "since you rent your servers from BE and this issue started with BE, its a fault on their end. Has BE updated you with a fix of some sort, or have they left you in the dark as every other customer?"

Thats when the O2 rep will most likely turn and tell you "we are sorry but we currently have no information untill updated by BE" All O2 are doing right now is playing every delay tactic they have on their hands and trying to retain their customer base which like BE has already started leaving. As for me im looking to switch to SKY Broadband in the near future. Im just tired of the poor CS im getting from BE, not a single update they provide just requests after request after requests........

Good luck to all

[Kaliasin]

I'm aware venting won't actually get me anywhere but as I've only just changed to them and still have another 11 months on my contract it will make me feel better, lol!

[Kaliasin]

==== SOLUTION ====

A lovely, lovely man called drsox on the BE help forums told me to try this as a fix and it WORKED. I am online and zoning happily!!!

Download and install this: http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/dd-wrt_privacy

It works like a free VPN on your computer, apparently, and bounces the traffic elsewhere. It sends data over a good route to ddwrt - vpn and then goes out to the internet from there.

Before downloading this I did the force change on the MAC address linked previously (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk3ta2mrh5c) and changed the DNS on my computer to a more stable one (https://store.opendns.com/setup/computer/) but neither worked.

The VPN is just a work around but until O2/BE sort themselves out I'll settle for it - downloading this software is so simple. Let me know how it goes everyone - good luck!! :D

[Maydot]

I've just tried this and i can't get it to work - it searches, I hit "connect" and then it goes back to searching before disconnecting again. Am I doing something wrong in set up? I did untick all the boxes and chose not to have the toolbar installed, I also have NoScript running but I allowed permissions for this site. Any help appreciated :)

[CPBismarck]

Kali you beat me to it, i was just about to post the same thing, seeing as i reinstalled the game im now logged in and updating so for all those having issues, try it as it does work, Did take me a few to log in and i had to disconnect and reconnect the VPN server but it just flew in and am updating now so if it doesnt work, disconnect VPN and reconect a few times you will see it works like a charm!

[Kaliasin]

Hmm it was very simple to install and run for me. I unticked also all the boxes about the toolbar and search engine etc. I literally downloaded, unticked everything, installed, allowed permissions and ran.

Could your firewall be blocking it?

[Maydot]

Not sure, I'm wondering if it is NoScript though as even turned off I was unable to register my payment options on the SE account management pages a few months ago - had to use my husbands pc in the end (he doesn't have NoScript as he isn't as paranoid as me!! :D). Going to try again using IE and see if that works. :)

[Kaliasin]

Let us know how it goes! :)

[Maydot]

Tried everything, couldn't get it to work, thanks for posting link though - it was worth a try :)


EDIT TO UPDATE!!

OMG I just logged in :D I uninstalled programme you suggested and logged straight in without a problem. Maybe it "did something" idk lol. Going to try a zonega now to see if I survive!

[Exodias]

CPBismarck, i have no doubt that 02 arent telling the whole truth with this situation, and i did also mention to one of the agents i spoke to how they use the BE servers/network, and the agent simply chose not to reply to what i said to him. I suppose my biggest gripe with 02 at the moment is the severe lack of keeping its customers updated. It has taken four days for a response from an 02 rep on the 02 official forums, and i have just noticed that they have finally flagged this issue on the 02 status page, the phrase "too little, too late" springs to mind since the majority of us have been using the BE status pages.

On the positive side of things, i shall be trying the temp fix that Kaliasin was kind enough to mention and link to in a previous post so hopefully i'll be playing without problems very soon

[Maydot]

Just to let you know someone from O2 has posted on the user forums saying they have been "trying a few tweaks" and wanting to know how everyones connection is now. Mine seems fine all round so fingers crossed they tried the right tweak....eventually!

[Hyzenthlay]

Just got home from work and seems the issue has been fixed! Can log back into the game now. According to Guildwork O2 made it a priority fix and have sorted it, yay!

[CPBismarck]

just a update

From BE Staff earlier today
Hello everyone,
As many of you know, some customers are still unable to access certain websites. This has been caused by a problem at one of the third party peering platforms we use to route traffic across the internet. Although our partner is working to fix the problem, to enable customers to reach these websites we are putting in place a temporary solution which we hope will fix most, if not all of the problems. We’re sorry for the time it has taken us to get on top of these problems, and for the lack of communication since they began. We really hope to have service back to normal shortly.


And magically O2 say they have "tweaked" it? yeah right lol well happy your all online again :D

Just know it wasnot the doing of O2 at all but the doing of BE.

[Foxx]

Well now I am being hit with the log in problem. Seems its only when I try to access SE related stuff though. This website took awhile to get into and the game takes forever to get into. When I actually get to the game part it freezes on the first screen. Suggestions?