Error 3101 is keeping me out of the game. I just came back after a year.

[Bananarama]

Only other thing I can think of is resetting your network settings.
Search for command prompt, run as administrator.

Then at command prompt type: netsh winsock reset and press enter
then restart your computer.

didn't work haha...

[VoiceMemo]

Well then only other option is the one I suggested before, that let someone you trust remote into your computer with teamviewer or another program and watch you try to login and see the error. That a fresh set of eyes may see something on your computer that you have missed.

[Bananarama]

Well then only other option is the one I suggested before, that let someone you trust remote into your computer with teamviewer or another program and watch you try to login and see the error. That a fresh set of eyes may see something on your computer that you have missed.

I don't see that helping. I'll try connecting with wired connection and see what changes.

[Bananarama]

Well then only other option is the one I suggested before, that let someone you trust remote into your computer with teamviewer or another program and watch you try to login and see the error. That a fresh set of eyes may see something on your computer that you have missed.

I carried my whole setup into the living room where my modem is, and still no dice, even with a hard wired connection.

[Bananarama]

Greetings Bananarama,

We apologize for the inconvenience this issue you've been experiencing has caused while trying to connect to the Final Fantasy XI servers. We do thank all your fellow Adventurers who have chimed in to assist.

To help shed some light on the error code, the error code you're receiving is specifically an issue with connecting to the lobby servers. We would like to double check if this issue has still been persisting even after the most recent patch update that happened on Aug. 8, 2023 22:00 to 23:30 (PDT)? If it still persists, we'd like to verify the following:

- Is the Windows OS fully updated? (Including optional settings)
- Is the system connected to the internet via WiFi or hardwired?
- ISP:
- Type of Internet Connection:

I think I've exhausted everything short of just getting a completely different computer. Is there anything more you can tell me or suggest? Is there anything wrong with my account?

[VoiceMemo]

That's a good idea, if you know someone that can already login to game to try to login with your account with their comp. If that fails too, that would eliminate computer, network, and directly point to some issue with your account.

[Bananarama]

I managed to log in on a friend's machine, and my characters were there, and I got to properly log in... Could the issue be with my PC or my ISP's hardware?

[Dragoy]

It is good to know that it at least shouldn't be anything account related. Now we just need to get the friend's machine to your place. :]

Mostly just speculating/thinking out-loud, so to speak. Really can't make sense of it, considering everything you've tried by now.

Considering that the connection is terminated immediately, instead of via a timeout for example, when it tries to get to the lobby server, it does feel like some kind of a port or similar issue, like an application preventing the connection... though all that should be good. I believe the process ID doesn't change either, so that Windows would think it's a different application now trying to connect somewhere for example, though I guess there might be some "hooking" or so from an executable to another still, since FFXI is its separate thing from PlayOnline...

I don't know if the game would run in the Windows safe-mode (with networking enabled), but I guess it could be something to try.

As a sidey-note, I checked what IPs I see now, and the 202.67 ones did indeed change, but the 124.150.154.122 remains. That does much look like the lobby server, as it only appears after I hit the button before connecting (or when returning to the character select/title screen from the game), and it goes away after selecting a character or when going back to PlayOnline Viewer. The remote port was 54001 for this test, so in the advertised range, and the local port was 34180, though these are of course likely to change as well (within their ranges).

Still finding it really odd that it doesn't let you proceed from there, considering you get to PlayOnline just fine... unless there's something special with that 124 IP (though you were able to trace route to it, so it should be OK too). Ports /should/ be OK since similar ones are used for the PlayOnline part.

Meh, gotta at least sleep on it. Will keep thinking of them possibilities, and perhaps do some more testing, but will also say good luck while hoping this will be solved before I come up with anything. ^^;

[VoiceMemo]

So it is something specific to your computer. This is kindof why I suggested having someone teamviewer to watch you login or look at your pc. My friend had an issue like this where he couldn't login. When I looked at his computer there was a firewall bundled into his antivirus that was blocking ffxi connection. I'm now even more convinced it is something like that on your machine since after you hit accept it immediately disconnects you. For something to do it that fast, it has to be a program doing it.

[Sirmarki]

I managed to log in on a friend's machine, and my characters were there, and I got to properly log in... Could the issue be with my PC or my ISP's hardware?

Have you tried logging in again on your current setup?

You could try reinstalling your network drivers and any USB networking/wifi devices?

But it could well be an ISP issue.