Persistent Connection Issues since Oct Maintenance

[munglore]

Details:
Seems like other people have posted about this. My wife and I are having ongoing issues with the game disconnecting. It hasn't been tied to any particular instance. Has happened to me during instanced things like Omen or Odyssey and also while I'm afk bazaaring in Jeuno.

Steps:
No particular steps as there is not a consistent pattern to it. I've tried some troubleshooting. We've reset our router and tried to flush dns. When i run a tracert it seems to have issues hopping from to ALTER.NET. I'm not a network person so I don't know much but i kept a copy of my tracert if you would like. here is a snippet of those few hops:

2 8 ms 24 ms 22 ms lo0-100.PHLAPA-VFTTP-312.verizon-gni.net [98.115.177.1]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 68 ms 71 ms 70 ms 0.ae27.GW7.SJC7.ALTER.NET [140.222.5.71]
5 69 ms 71 ms 70 ms customer.alter.net [157.130.200.34]
6 69 ms 71 ms 69 ms 111.87.3.237

We'd just like the people that can fix the issue to fix the issue. I've heard some people have worked around using VPN. I'm not about to pay more to play this game than I already do.


Date & Time:
Happens multiple times a day on two pcs. I'm not really keeping track (EST) Last one was overnight while bazaaring. I'm frustrated and not logging in anymore but I will if you need me to help troubleshoot.

Frequency:
State how frequent the issue occurs. Please select from the following.
Sporadically, sometimes 5 mins, sometimes a few hours.

Platform:
PC not through Steam

PC Manufacturer & Model Number:
Homebuilt Computer

Operating System:
Windows 11

Graphics Card:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

ISP:
Verizon Fios

Type of Internet Connection:
Fiber

[Piplup]

Try testing again. I'm online now, for the past hour, so far no disconnects, and I've purposely been zoning around constantly to force a disconnect. I wonder if Verizon fixed something, cause I doubt SE did anything on their end.

[Piplup]

nvm, as soon as I say that, I get disconnected lol

[Piplup]

Title: Random disconnects on Verizon: packet-capture evidence (server stops replying while pings stay clean), fixed by VPN

I've had random disconnects for a while and wanted to bring actual data instead of "it drops sometimes." I'm on Verizon. Other Verizon users in this forum seem to report the same thing, so I'm posting what I measured in case it helps you or Square Enix narrow it down.

What I already ruled out on my side
- Reproduced with my own router in the loop and again with my PC connected straight to the ISP modem (no router).
- Switching to a VPN stopped the disconnects. That's why I think the cause is on the path or the server, not my PC. It's one observation, not a controlled test, so take it as a clue.

What I measured (Oct 18, 2026, US Eastern time / EDT; all times below are from the same clock)
I captured my client's game traffic with Windows pktmon, and logged pings once a second to my router, the first Verizon hop, and several Square Enix addresses: the 202.67.54.x data servers (from 11:32, about 1h40m) and the 124.150.152.x game servers (from 12:19, about 50 minutes).

1. My client keeps sending UDP and the server stops answering.
- At 11:52:04 I zoned and my client moved to the game server 124.150.152.152:54245. From 11:52:06 it sent about 2 packets per second (136 bytes each) and received **0 replies** in every packet I captured.
- It stayed silent through 11:53:05 and 11:58:03–11:59:13. I then closed the game and logged back in; the new session sent to the same server and also received 0 replies (12:00:55–12:01:24).
- On a separate drop, my last reply from 124.150.152.157:54112 arrived at **12:58:38.1**. The client kept sending and the detector flagged it dead at 12:58:53 (15.9s of silence).
2. The ordinary network checks looked clean during those moments.
- My router and the first Verizon hop: 0% loss the whole time. Latency to the game servers was steady at about 160–168 ms.
- Pings to the 124.150.152.152/.153/.154 game servers: essentially 0% loss (one lost ping each, at 12:31:17 and 13:02:42).
3. One data server, 202.67.54.124, changed behavior at exactly the time of the drop.
- Before 12:58 it answered pings with 0% loss (except 3 lost pings at 11:39:38–42).
- Starting at **12:58:40**, two seconds after my last reply, it stopped answering pings completely, and it was still silent 12 minutes later (283 consecutive lost pings).
- Its neighbors 202.67.54.122, .123 and .125 answered every ping at the same time, and TCP connections to ports 51243 and 51244 on .124 still succeed, so the host is up but no longer answers ICMP.
- The same address had lost 3 pings at 11:39:38–42, within seconds of a 6.7-second gap in replies I saw in my capture then.

What I think this shows, and what it doesn't
- It suggests the drops are not general packet loss on my line: the Verizon hop and the neighbors were clean while the game traffic went silent.- A single server stopping its ping replies the instant my session lost its replies points at a specific server behaving differently, which is what you'd expect if the problem is on the Square Enix side or on a narrow part of the path to that machine. It could also be a coincidence, and I can't see inside either network.
- Honest limits: I haven't proven that I was attached to 202.67.54.124 at 12:58 (I don't have my connection records for that moment), the VPN fix is a small sample, and this is one user's data.

[PandyWHM]

Details: cannot successfully login, POL-1160 and POL-0011 errors
connection to everything else on the Internet is normal, I just can't log into FFXI

Steps: trying to log in as normal, I enter my password and OTP, verification doesn't complete and I receive either a POL-0011 or POL-1160 error

When: trying to log in on October 18, 2026

Platform and PC: PC (not Steam), Windows 10
note: The last time I logged in was Oct 11, before the October update, so I haven't received that yet.

ISP: Verizon Fios, East Coast US
This seems to be the common denominator.

[Zealot]

Am currently seeing the same issue. I am also on Verizon on the East Coast. Random R0s during gameplay, sometimes resulting in completely disconnecting me from the game. Attempting to reconnect yields a POL-4001 error. If I am able to reconnect afterwards, I will get stuck on the Downloading Data screen until I receive a POL-3001 error.

Platform and PC: PC (Not Steam), Windows 11

Has been happening consistently since the last update. Did not happen before.

[PocketAries]

This is happening to a lot of people, they just keep closing the threads unsolved with generic answers and not hearing people out.
It is happening to steam and non steam users as well as all pc builds.
Common denominator is Verizon and between SE and Verizon they need to figure out the hiccup.. Verizon states nothing is down and things are running as should and SE needs to understand things were fine up til the maintenance, last week this was going on with non-verizon folks. Something is going on and the common generic home remedies of restarting and call the isp is not working.
Game has been unplayable since the update and even with folks on windows 10 and 11.
Though I am paying for the extended which they should not be ending windows 10 support since updates will be available until next year october per microsoft (Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...ty-updates?r=1)

I myself Cannot play this game for more than 1 hour at a time at best before disconnects and takes several tries can take hours to reestablish full connection back to the game.
Only to rinse and repeat between 5mins up to an hour of game before disconnecting again.
And yet can go play other games or watch and stream things the entire time.

[Thampbayoyows]

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