2 players on same network only one has issues

Hi,

This is my first post on the forums and i had to resort to this because i am at wits end trying to figure out why this problem happens.

A quick background: I have been playing the game since launch pretty much (taken short breaks for a few months a couple of times) and i have not had any persistent issues connecting to the game so far. My wife, however, recently started playing the game (around a month ago) and she experiences 2002/90002/90006 errors quite frequently and they seem random. I am still able to play the game on the same wifi connection without any issues whatsoever (i know, i know, we should switch to cable). I would appreciate any pointers to help us sort out this problem to allow us to continue playing on wifi.

What I tried so far:

1. First i suspected that since our wifi network cards differ (mine is Killer and she has Intel) i should try to purge network settings and update her drivers to latest version which had no effect. Resetting them to the factory defaults didnt do anything either nor did installing recommended drivers from the MSi website.

2. I tried multiple scenarios like me not playing, nothing else running in the house, etc. but always the problem is only on her laptop.

3. Resetting router didnt do anything nor did switching her laptop to using the 5GHz band (instead of auto choosing). Tried turning off all services like antivirus/windows defender etc. to no avail either.

4. Now for the fun part... as a last resort we reset her laptop to factory defaults and re-downloaded the game and voila, the game worked like a charm for the entire day without any issues whatsoever. This was with no changes done to antivirus/firewall etc. Only running the game as Administrator. So as you can imagine, i was finally ready to put this issue to rest but lo and behold, today she has the same problems again. 2002 failures on pressing Start on the main screen and 90002 if she does manage to get into the game. I cannot for the life of me understand what could have changed overnight. The only thing that happened was a shutdown of the laptop at night and a start in the morning.

5. Now what is even more amazing is that if we switched from our house wifi to my own mobile hotspot she was able to login and play uninterrupted without any problems (both before and after this laptop reset)

I would like to additionally add that we do not experience issues while doing anything else on the laptop. Even playing some other MMOs had no noticeable lag spikes and definitely no disconnects. So it seems to be somehow related to how ffxiv interacts with my house wifi connection.

I am sufficiently technical to troubleshoot most things on my own but in this case i am afraid i am starting to sense strange powers working behind the scenes :D

If you got this far in my post, thank you for spending time reading through that wall of text. Please feel free to ask for more details if necessary and any help/suggestions in helping us sort this out would be greatly appreciated.

I have of course tried what was suggested on other forums posts which report similar issues viz. SSL, cookies, run as admin, turning off background processes, etc.

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as a last resort we reset her laptop to factory defaults and re-downloaded the game and voila, the game worked like a charm for the entire day without any issues whatsoever. This was with no changes done to antivirus/firewall etc. Only running the game as Administrator. So as you can imagine, i was finally ready to put this issue to rest but lo and behold, today she has the same problems again. 2002 failures on pressing Start on the main screen and 90002 if she does manage to get into the game. I cannot for the life of me understand what could have changed overnight. The only thing that happened was a shutdown of the laptop at night and a start in the morning.

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So, this is my only educated guess on the matter. I would suggest looking into what Windows Update installed that night and come back with a list of what downloaded. It could be a potential issue with a security update or other programs being installed in the update. If anything, I suggest to uninstall each one until you could identify and isolate which update or program is causing the problem. I had this problem on older laptops with other MMOs where a Windows Update would cause stability or connection issues.

It could also be a problem with firewall exceptions (after the Update) and maybe need to add FFXIV as an exception.

Yeah, a Windows update screwed me over for about a week until it just fixed itself. Woke up one day to a forced update and FFXIV suddenly couldn't stay connected, especially whenever loading into a new area. Windows will often reset settings to their default during an update, so there's probably something it changed in the background that's causing it. I wish I could tell you what I did to fix it, but none of the troubleshooting worked and I just sort of lived with it for about a week until it just stopped happening one day. The steps I tried are in the basic troubleshooting SE always gives first thing every time someone has this issue:

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Hello Thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Here are some troubleshooting steps that should resolve your connection issues. Please take all the steps.

The issue you are describing is most associated with interference with the game data. Most of the time, it results from certain security/privacy changes on Internet Explorer. Other times it occurs when an application that is running in the background is causing interference, such as Anti-virus software, firewalls, media players, web browsers, etc.

Please make sure all background applications (including anti-virus programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, Windows Defender, etc.) have been disabled and/or closed to minimize game interference.

Ensure that the latest version of Internet Explorer is installed on your PC (even if you don't use Internet Explorer), please do not use Edge as that is a different internet platform. Once Internet Explorer is up-to-date, please open the IE browser, open the "Tools", go to "Internet Options" and adjust the following settings:
Under the "General" tab, please delete ALL browser history.
Under the "Security" tab, please move the slider to the lowest possible settings or no higher than "Medium"
Under the "Privacy" tab, please move the slider to the lowest possible settings or to "Allow All Cookies"
Under the "Advanced" tab, please make sure that "Allow software to run or install even if signature is invalid" is CHECKED.
Make sure that all SSL and TLS (EXCEPT SSL 3.0) are CHECKED.
[SSL 3.0 should be UNCHECKED]
Hit "Apply" to save the settings, and then "OK, to close the Internet Options menu.
Right-Click on the FFXIV launcher icon and select "Properties"
Go to the "Compatibility" tab, and change the compatibility mode to "Windows 7"
Hit "Apply", then "OK" to save the changes.
Please RESTART your PC now.


Once your PC has been restarted, Right-Click the FFXIV launcher icon once more and select "Run as Administrator"

If the suggestions provided above do not resolve the issue, then there is a communication error.
Check the following Port Ranges on your router/modem to ensure that the following Port Ranges have been opened/forwarded/triggered:
▼TCP
54992 through 54994,
55006 through 55007,
55021 through 55040

*You may learn how to do this by visiting http://www.portforward.com/
Find your specific router's brand and model number from the 'List of Routers' and you will be provided a step-by-step guide on how to access these port settings.
Otherwise, your ISP may forward these ports for you.*

If you have properly configured your router, and you are still experiencing these issues, our next suggestion is to bypass the router, and connect your computer directly to your modem. Please ensure that you power down both the modem and the computer for at least five minutes before attempting to connect to FINAL FANTASY XIV.

If you continue to receive these same errors when you are connected directly to the modem, then the problem lies with your ISP. We would recommend contacting them and advising them that one or more of the ports previously provided to you are being blocked or filtered, and that you do need access on these ports.

Please let us know if this works.

Thank you for playing Final Fantasy XIV!

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Good morning and thank you for posting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

How long have you been experiencing the connection issue? Have any updates or changes been made to the network?


Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums

Back in Hw came out i had the same problem, i would dc and not be able to connect to the game, i weeks of problem dc all the time and i was really angry because i did not have any trouble in arr.
What i found out from this site that the DX11 version of the game was not allowed through windows firewall, i let it trough and i had no more dc.
Why did it work in arr and not hw, well that was because that dx11 version of the game came out with hw, so i enabled that.

Hope that fixes it

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies:)

@iGyro: There were unfortunately no windows updates in the meantime.

@Mhaeric: Yup i had read those steps on other posts reporting similar issues.

@meTYE: I re-checked and the dx11 client exe is in the firewall exceptions. Thanks for your suggestion though!

@Dynratygus: This problem started with lag spikes and 90006 disconnects and later escalated to 2002/90002 errors. As i had mentioned in the post i did make several changes and the result is as mentioned.

I do also have some new findings on this topic. Yesterday i reconfigured our router to announce 5GHz on a separate SSID in case that makes any difference. To my surprise, my wife's client works like a charm when connected to this new SSID. Once again, i was happy and thought maybe its just her card not dealing with 2.4GHz and its interference properly. But today once again she has started to get lags on it and now cannot connect with it anymore. She gets 2002 while waiting for her character screen to load.
When i switch her to mobile hotspot, everything works fine again.

Do you have a lan cable at all? Even a short one for a temporary test might help.

The fact you can play uninterrupted and she can't on the same network makes me think it's her nic. Or your router is forwarding ports to your computers ip and thus she isn't receiving them.

If you have a lan cable try that even if its impractical as a long term solution it would at least eliminate some of the possibilities and point to the Intel wireless nic

Good afternoon and thank you for the reply.

When your wife plays, is the PC connected directly to the router? Like Dzian said, could you try connecting directly to it through a cable?

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

I am having this exact issue. My husband is wireless and I'm wired, but we are on the same wifi network and my connection is not working/constant 90k errors, and he hasn't disconnected once.

Hi all,

Thanks again for your replies.
I am going to set her laptop up to use a LAN cable for today and see how it plays throughout the day.
Meanwhile, i have ordered a USB 3.0 wifi adapter which should arrive later this evening so i will post results from both fronts sometime tomorrow hopefully.

Cheers!

Hi all,

for anyone following this thread, quick updates from our side.

LAN cable from the same router worked out just fine.
Ordered an ASUS USB 3.0 wifi adapter and playing with that also seems to work fine since yesterday evening.

So i believe there must be something specific with her wifi chipset that does not seem to work in a stable enough fashion for the game to work fine.
I could post some more updates in about a week or so in case anything changes.

Cheers!

ooo nice, hope it works out ;) fingers crossed

It seems to be working great for the past 2 days as long as my wife stays on her new wifi adapter, so i guess in the end we can chalk it out to the interaction between her on-board network card and ffxiv in conjunction with our shared wifi.
I am still slightly dissatisfied as i could not narrow it down to the exact cause of the issue but i will take the fact that it at least runs flawlessly now as a win and roll with it :)

Thanks everyone for your responses and hope to see you in game!

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Originally Posted by LithiumMorningstar

It seems to be working great for the past 2 days as long as my wife stays on her new wifi adapter, so i guess in the end we can chalk it out to the interaction between her on-board network card and ffxiv in conjunction with our shared wifi.
I am still slightly dissatisfied as i could not narrow it down to the exact cause of the issue but i will take the fact that it at least runs flawlessly now as a win and roll with it :)

Thanks everyone for your responses and hope to see you in game!

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I could be purely environmental. I install and troubleshoot WiFi for an ISP and it’s really a crap shoot. You can have two identical devices side by side and each can work a little different. Even moving a few inches can change what may be interfering. I’ve even seen LED light bulbs be the cause of WiFi issues.

The onboard wireless NIC may have been faulty or the USB adapter may just have a better antenna.

Moral of the story is that you found a fix. Which you should consider a win.

Oh, and this game also does a lot more service side checks than most. So the fact that FFXIV is the only game having trouble does make sense.