High Latency from Southern California

I figured I'd make this thread because it seems that a lot of the older forum posts that people seem to reply to are originating from a problem that was supposedly fixed on 03/26/2022(via the news/status announcements on lodestone). Which obviously several of us are still experiencing this high latency several weeks later.

Things I've found from personal gameplay/friend's gameplay/forum replies:

1. High latency and disconnects coming from Southern California.
2. Mainly from the ISP Cox Communications, but can vary.
3. VPN usually fixes the problem, but can vary.
4. Other users have reported the same problems coming from other states or even in Europe.

This thread is mainly a way to give a concise understanding to hopefully Square Enix or if they could forward the issue to someone who can fix this problem, because clearly this is not something the users can fix. Try explaining any of this to an ISP customer service rep. Plus honestly, using a VPN to reroute myself from Socal to Socal seems very unreasonable.

Platform? Windows
Have you tried using a wired connection? I do.
Internet Service Provider: Cox Communications
Region/Location: Southern California
Separate Modem and Router or Hybrid? Hybrid
Are you using a Firewall/Anti-virus solution? None
Does the issue only happen with specific characters or all characters? All

I had a tech come out on Friday and they specified on their end there are currently no known issues on any of their nodes.

I'll just place the same information again and link the other thread:

Platform? PC, not Steam
Have you tried using a wired connection? Only wired.
Internet Service Provider: Cox
Region/Location: San Diego, California (Southern California)
Separate Modem and Router or Hybrid? Separate. Also tried only modem.
Are you using a Firewall/Anti-virus solution? If so, which ones? No.
Does the issue only happen with specific characters or all characters? Only one character.

All except less than five posts appear to relate to SoCal Cox: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...content-update

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

If you are experiencing an issue with logging into a specific character and high latency, you may be having transmission or connection issues. Please try these general troubleshooting steps to see if they resolve the issue:

■ Restart communication equipment
Power off your communication equipment for 30 minutes to an hour. Unnecessary data accumulated on the equipment will be initialized, possibly allowing for smoother transmission.

■ Update firmware of communication equipment
Update your firmware, the program running your communication equipment. If the firmware is outdated, your communication equipment may not function properly, so please update your firmware before trying the version update again.

*Consult with the help manual of your hardware when updating firmware. Also, even if your firmware is up to date, rewriting the update may improve the situation.

■ Check settings for security programs and firewalls
There is a possibility that security programs and firewalls are interfering with files related to the game. Please disable these programs before attempting to run FINAL FANTASY XIV. As a last resort, please try uninstalling them for testing purposes.

■ Check security services of your Internet provider
Depending on your Internet provider or service plan, there may be security services included. Please confirm that these security services permit online gaming. If they do not, or if you are unsure, contact your ISP for further details.

■ Close any running applications
Because other applications may interfere with your update, close all other running apps before running the installation file. You can perform a clean boot to ensure no other background programs are interfering with the installation by doing the following:

- Open the Task Manager and select the 'Start Up' Tab. Disable everything here and restart the PC.

■ Remove routers
In order to further diagnose the issue, remove routers and hubs temporarily and connect directly to your modem.

*This may change your connection to a broadband connection. Please consult with your provider for connection settings.

■ Check router settings
Check the settings of security functions (such as SPI) for your router. Also, please forward the ports used for the game. The ports are listed below.

*For details, please consult with the manufacturer of your router.

▼TCP
54992～54994
55006～55007
55021～55040

■ Reinstall FINAL FANTASY XIV
If the installed data has been corrupted, the issue may be resolved by re-installing the program.

Make sure to delete the 'Final Fantasy XIV' folder in the 'My Documents' → 'My Games' folder.

We hope this information is helpful.

Thank you for contacting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

Heads up for everyone in here, my girlfriend contacted the phone support line the other day and had the tech confirm that the NA data center was being blocked by Cox for some reason. It has nothing to do with our own machines or installations.

They said they would elevate the ticket so that way Cox unblocks the traffic from the NA data center, but I highly implore anyone else from Southern Cali to call into the support line and hammer this issue in so they contact Cox to fix it.

Yep! I contacted the Square Enix support team and they confirmed they were unable to get a stable connection when trying to connect to Cox in SoCal. The woman I spoke to was very nice and said she was going to bring the issue up to tech support. Please, if you are having this problem, let their support team know.

It is not an issue with our own computers, it is strictly between FF14's servers and Cox in Southern California. It is very much still an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed.