playonline goes black when launching ffx

[Spre]

Details:
Haven't Played FFXI in over 2 years, So it took 6 hours to update yay, after update, went to launch FFXi and it brings up the rating, then goes to checking version, then goes black and nothing. it'll sit at nothing for hours if I don't force close it via taskman

Steps:

1. Checked drivers -> Latest
2. Checked game files via POL -> Came back No Issues
3. Reinstalled Win 7 version of POL -> Same result


Date & Time: Dec, 19, 2011 3:21
Frequency: Always
Platform: PC
PC Manufacturer & Model Number: Junk HP Pavillion(Junk as in I hate manu pc's but mine is down atm)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT Factory overclocked
ISP: Comcast Internet Extreme50(50Megs down 5 megs up)
Type of Internet Connection: Cable


I am not to happy on this since you have to pay for the month before you even find out there are issues.


On a side note, I hope the character functionon this forums are bugged, or I'll be even more irritated since my monk is not a level 12 galkin or however you spell it, it is a level 39.. mithran MNK39/RDM19 or so with bad buttcandywhoopin gear

[RAIST]

when this has happened to me in the past, it's because inbound traffic from SE's servers in the 124.xxx.xxx.xxx block were getting blocked. Check your local security logs and router config/logs to make sure SE is not getting blocked. Don't have the IP's on hand ATM...but I've posted them in other threads. I'll find one and edit this in a minute.

Check your security settings--particularly firewalls. Think this was what was tripping it up in the past. Either a local one (Windows firewall, comodo, zonealarm, etc.--check your logs for IP's from SE getting blocked) or your router's security may be blocking communication. Here's some IP ranges I've found for SE servers in the past:

202.67.48.0 - 202.67.63.255
(this has various SE servers like DNS, E-mail, etc)

124.150.152.0 - 124.150.159.255
(various game specific servers--found IP's blocked when FFXI would have connection errors)

If you see these getting blocked in any of your security software's logs, then you'll need to set up exceptions to let them through. If the blocks are happening at your router, then you'll need to at least setup the port forwarding for FFXI or disable some of the router's security to let them through. Note that if the options are there to assign the rule for UDP and/or TCP traffic--you want to enable it for both protocols.

[FrankReynolds]

when this has happened to me in the past, it's because inbound traffic from SE's servers in the 124.xxx.xxx.xxx block were getting blocked. Check your local security logs and router config/logs to make sure SE is not getting blocked. Don't have the IP's on hand ATM...but I've posted them in other threads. I'll find one and edit this in a minute.

Don't they also require like a million open ports?

[Spre]

That -shouldn't- be an issue, since I run this PC in DMZ mode with no firewall. at least, theoretically,

[RAIST]

Don't they also require like a million open ports?

It all depends on how you are set up really. And that is only at the routing side of your modem/router. Local security software on the system can get in the way (firewalls, internet security suites, etc.). I've never set up port forwarding or a DMZ on my routers to get FFXI to work (and no, I don't us PnP port mapping either), and I've gone through a Blitzz, Dlink, Ativa (rebranded Belkin), and am currently using a Linksys. Guess I've been lucky and NAT hasn't had any problems for me so far. Anytime I've had anything get blocked--it has been software on the PC getting in the way.

Sometimes you have to set up the forwarding though under certain circumstances, and is one of the first things on the list to try if you can't find anything getting blocked locally on your system.

[Spre]

Apparently it's windows 7, intalled and updated it on my windows xp laptop , with half the resources the desktop has and its running fine. Any ideas?

[Brolic]

be careful, it may not go back

[FrankReynolds]

It all depends on how you are set up really. And that is only at the routing side of your modem/router. Local security software on the system can get in the way (firewalls, internet security suites, etc.). I've never set up port forwarding or a DMZ on my routers to get FFXI to work (and no, I don't us PnP port mapping either), and I've gone through a Blitzz, Dlink, Ativa (rebranded Belkin), and am currently using a Linksys. Guess I've been lucky and NAT hasn't had any problems for me so far. Anytime I've had anything get blocked--it has been software on the PC getting in the way.

Sometimes you have to set up the forwarding though under certain circumstances, and is one of the first things on the list to try if you can't find anything getting blocked locally on your system.

Yeah, I have a Cisco router at work that is locked down. I never bothered trying to get around it, because I read a post by an SE rep saying that you needed to open some huge array of ports that no sane person would ever open on an enterprise network. It's been like 5 years since I read that though, maybe they changed it?

[Spre]

Like i said, I have no issues on my laptop running xp so it has to do with win7, can I uninstall it from the desktop and copy everything except the viewer over from the laptop think that would work?

[Spre]

More InformationI guess Iwasn't paying attention.

It doesn't just do it when it goes to load the game, any time you exit the viewer it "exists" to a blank screen. Once FFXI reupdates I'll get a SS of it, as I uninstalled everything AGAIN and am doing it all over AGAIN, I'll get that in about 10 hours, yay for installing from the original discs I got from 04 when i started playing.