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

[Bananarama]

I don't run the game on a VPN
I don't use mods/addons
I reinstalled the game SEVERAL times, and turned off/on my PC/Modem/Router repeatedly
I've tried port forwarding and making exceptions in my firewall and giving the game/pol admin privileges.

I had my ISP open the ports that the support guy suggested, and still I'm locked out by the FFXI-3101 error as soon as I pass the "Accept" button after the opening cutscene

Moving my PC near my router is not an option, nor is trying on a different machine.

Can anybody offer some kind of help? All I've seen is "just wait it out" but that clearly is not going to work. Nothing has changed in my PC that I'm aware of since the las time I played, so I'm at my wit's end here.

[VoiceMemo]

Check in network settings for connection check. Whatever it is currently, swap to the other sand see if that helps. IE connection check disable is recommended, but some people see better results with it enabled.

Also are you on windows 11?

[Bananarama]

I am currently using Windows 10. I will try the connection check.

Edit: Enabling connection check did not work.

[Dragoy]

Does this happen when logging on with PlayOnline, or when selecting a character and connecting to a server?

If it's the latter, does it happen with one or all characters (if it's possible to try more than one)?

(Also if the latter, I imagine it's all characters if possible to try, since it wasn't mentioned, but just making sure sure.)

[Bananarama]

Does this happen when logging on with PlayOnline, or when selecting a character and connecting to a server?

If it's the latter, does it happen with one or all characters (if it's possible to try more than one)?

(Also if the latter, I imagine it's all characters if possible to try, since it wasn't mentioned, but just making sure sure.)

This is after pressing "Accept" at the FFXI is an MMO-blah blah prompt. I can't even get to my characters.

[VoiceMemo]

To me this sounds like something local blocking it, have you tried disabling antivirus or putting an exception for pol folder?

[Dragoy]

This is after pressing "Accept" at the FFXI is an MMO-blah blah prompt. I can't even get to my characters.

D'oh, I noticed you mentioned it already. Too early to read for me, clearly... sorry about that. ^^;

And right, there are connections being made there too. I only remember seeing an issue there when an earlier connection times out, which takes ~4 minutes... which is nice for anyone watching the ~7 minute opening movie, but I doubt you're watching it every time (and it gives a different error code).

Does it fail at the "Connecting to lobby server." stage or after that?

Looking at the connections happening at my end around that time, 202.67.54.126 seems to be connected at the PlayOnline Viewer stage and before hitting 'Accept', then after the hit, there's also 202.67.62.70, 202.67.54.164, and 124.150.154.122.

Not sure you're connecting to the exact same addresses even, but assuming so, it would seem that you can definitely connect to 202.67.48.0 - 202.67.63.255, but I wonder if there's something going wrong with the 124.150.152.0 - 124.150.159.255 range.

As a simple test, could try 'ping' and 'traceroute' (or 'tracert' I think it was on Windows) those IPs (the 124.150 address seems to only respond to an 'icmp' echo).

[Bananarama]

D'oh, I noticed you mentioned it already. Too early to read for me, clearly... sorry about that. ^^;

And right, there are connections being made there too. I only remember seeing an issue there when an earlier connection times out, which takes ~4 minutes... which is nice for anyone watching the ~7 minute opening movie, but I doubt you're watching it every time (and it gives a different error code).

Does it fail at the "Connecting to lobby server." stage or after that?

Looking at the connections happening at my end around that time, 202.67.54.126 seems to be connected at the PlayOnline Viewer stage and before hitting 'Accept', then after the hit, there's also 202.67.62.70, 202.67.54.164, and 124.150.154.122.




Not sure you're connecting to the exact same addresses even, but assuming so, it would seem that you can definitely connect to 202.67.48.0 - 202.67.63.255, but I wonder if there's something going wrong with the 124.150.152.0 - 124.150.159.255 range.

As a simple test, could try 'ping' and 'traceroute' (or 'tracert' I think it was on Windows) those IPs (the 124.150 address seems to only respond to an 'icmp' echo).

pinged 202.67.54.126 all the packets made it through
pinged 202.67.62.70 and it worked
pinged 124.150.154.122 and it worked

I tried 202.67.48.0 and 202.67.63.255 and the requests timed out. all of them. I don't know how to ping an IP range though
tried 24.150.152.0 and 124.150.159.255 and they all timed out

I tried trace route on the 124.150 IPs, and it gave me some IPs and some urls, but at the end it looks like they all time out.

as far as when it kicks me out. It happens too fast for me to see but I THINK it happens the instant it tries connecting to the lobby server after pressing "Accept".

[Dragoy]

Hm, yeah, probably the lobby server. Usually for me it pauses slightly there (the loading bar half full) and then does other things after.

Looks like the Windows 'tracert' does 'icmp' by default, so it should work as is for the 124.150.154.122 one as well (I managed to try on a Windows machine here too, though it takes 20 'hops' instead of the 16 it takes on my Linux machine).

You did mention you can ping it, so at least there is some connectivity. Could try 'tracert' on that one a bit more, in case it sometimes succeeds and sometimes does not (if it reaches the default max 30 hops, that can be changed with the '-h' option). If it times out on the way, that would mean there's something wrong on the route to the server (and should indeed be fixed at some point by the responsible people).

I would not expect them to have many different IPs from those ranges for this, but can't be sure. I'll do some more testing as time permits on my end, and see if they ever change for me.

I imagine the ports are OK too since you get that far, but are these the ones the support guy suggested?

- TCP 25, 80, 110, 443 or 50000 - 65535
- UDP 50000 - 65535

In particular, I noticed that there is also this:

* If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) specifies a DNS server, you may need to configure your settings to allow packets to pass through UDP Port 53 as well.

Did they mention that as well?

Was really hoping that you'd be unable to even ping some of those specific ones that I mentioned, but for now I'm out of ideas (if the firewall rules etc. are indeed OK too). :\

I hope it will just start working (something gets fixed on the path to the servers), but I will keep thinking and post again if I come up with anything new to try.

Also pre-emptive welcome back for when you really get back!

Good luck!

[Bananarama]

Looks like the Windows 'tracert' does 'icmp' by default, so it should work as is for the 124.150.154.122 one as well (I managed to try on a Windows machine here too, though it takes 20 'hops' instead of the 16 it takes on my Linux machine).

You did mention you can ping it, so at least there is some connectivity. Could try 'tracert' on that one a bit more, in case it sometimes succeeds and sometimes does not (if it reaches the default max 30 hops, that can be changed with the '-h' option). If it times out on the way, that would mean there's something wrong on the route to the server (and should indeed be fixed at some point by the responsible people).

I hit tracert on that one again, yo. on Hop 2, it timed out. then it timed out again on Hop 8, then it seemed to make it the rest of the way until it just ends at Hop 21, no timing out, after Hop 8 though.
Like I expected, the error is still there. Maybe I can mash the Play button again and again an pray I get through.

I imagine the ports are OK too since you get that far, but are these the ones the support guy suggested?
- TCP 25, 80, 110, 443 or 50000 - 65535
- UDP 50000 - 65535
In particular, I noticed that there is also this:
* If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) specifies a DNS server, you may need to configure your settings to allow packets to pass through UDP Port 53 as well.
Did they mention that as well?

Yes actually. the SE guy recommended it, and I had the ISP open...
TCP - 25,80,110,443,50000-65535
UDP - 53,50000-65535
I should clarify that they opened these ports after getting my PC's Mac address. Perhaps I could ask them to try and open it up at my Router/Modem, because I have gotten new internet equipment between last year and now. Maybe that's got something to do with it?

I guess I can try getting in touch with my ISP again. the SE support guy said that this is a local issue but for the life of me I cannot figure out what's wrong.

Edit: After looking into my modem/router settings, it looks like they heard my port numbers wrong. I’ll go over it myself this evening and see if I can correct it.

Another Edit: After triple checking that the ports were correct and having my ISP reset the Modem and Router again and again and trying with my antivirus turned off, nothing has worked.

SE did recommend I come to this here forum for help from the devs, but I don't think any of them are around right now.