Error [2002] the lobby server connection has encountered an error

[Rolfgar]

DFW/FiOS as well...

Getting 2002 every time, except not just when I try and log into a NA data center...I can just sit at data center select long enough and get the 2002 error and get booted.

[punitenshu]

Yeah, as long as it wants to connect to an NA server it'll boot you at the title screen.

Someone mentioned also having problems with YouTube earlier in the thread as well, and figured I'd point out that I just noticed YouTube is sporadicallybehaving oddly for me as well. Some videos don't load at all (except for advertisements) and I get a general error message after 15 seconds or so in the player. For some reason if I drag the bar though, the video will suddenly buffer for a moment and then actually play, but then it seems to eventually reach the end of the buffered chunk and dies out.

Haven't had much time to mess with it, nor do I care to do so since it's inconsistent, but was wondering if others with the DFW 2002 Error problem were having similar problems at all.

[lonestarfox]

I'm having the same issues with ffxiv and youtube

[Kitheren]

I'm having the same issue. I can connect to JP or EU servers but neither NA ones. DFW (carrollton) with FiOS. Youtube has been poop all day long on my pc and mobile while connected to wifi (haven't tried without though). Websites are loading slow and my speeds are way down according to speedtest.net. Its comforting to see so many other DFW players having issues meaning it looks more and more like it's Verizon..

Sitting on the phone with them at the moment though I doubt they'll give us any real answers other than "oh it's the other guy's fault".

[Tashim]

I'm also suffering from this problem as well (DFW area/fios), but I'm 99% certain that its a routing problem with the Aether and Primal datacenters. I can connect to the chaos datacenter, which is in the same subnet/facility without any trouble. But, when attempting to connect to Aether (199.91.189.74), The connections starts up fine, does the little tcp handshake, but then the server (199.91.189.74) starts sending me tcp packets with the wrong seq. number, even though I have no packetloss with pings or traceroutes. now, the traceroute doesn't look that great, some issues with verizon to level3, and from level3 to SquareEnix, but those look identical to the chaos datacenter, where I have no problems.

I have been able to still get into the game using a vpn service, (WTFast, or private internet access, or any vpn that gets you around the dfw level3 router.

[OfficerCrunk]

Yeah, I just started playing and live in Irving, TX. Verizon FiOS and having the same issue as everyone else.

[lonestarfox]

bump message

[Tashim]

update: looks like it was a the dallas3 level3 routers, not playing nice with icmp.
We should be good to go now *crosses fingers*

If not, this type of issue can sometimes be worked around by lowering the mtu on your system. It'll be less efficient, but it will also force the packets to be smaller.
On windows, this is done with something like:

netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "Local Area Connection 1" mtu=1300 store=persistent

This would make the packets split at 1260 instead of 1460 bytes, but it really shouldn't be necessary. 1460 byte packets should work fine.

[Tashim]

A little more detail on this...
The client fails to receive the character/world list from the datacenter server the moment it attempts to send a packet that gets fragmented.
The first 6 packets are queries and responses to pings, from your game to the server.
The next 17 packets all work fine, and the tcp connections gets established.
However, the 24th packet, is one that gets sent from the server to you, and is the first one that is large enough to be split into two packets.
The first of which, is given the maximum size (1460 bytes) to fit within the standard MTU of 1500. The second one has the rest of the data (796 bytes).
From FIOS in the DFW area, the first packet in that set fails to arrive, and doesn't get retransmitted (or does, but also fails to make its way to the game client)
This happens again, as the 27th packet is split (1460 bytes and 844 bytes), and again, the first one fails to arrive.
Shortly after this, the game client spits out the 2002 error.

The problem with this type of issue, is its uni-directional nature. The packet isn't making its way from the server, to the game client, so traceroutes to the datacenter, while they may show other issues (like with level3 routers), they don't have any real significance with the constant inability to get character/world data from primal and aether.

The only way to really determine which router is failing, is to run a traceroute from the datacenter, to the verizon fios routers in DFW, and then test each hop with a large-value ping that wont fragment. (on windows, this is done with ping 152.63.100.69 -l 1460 -f).

I suspect that one of the last hops in there will reject the large size packet with a 'Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set' error. As this is likely a different route than fios customers take to reach the datacenter IPs, its something that SquareEnix needs to troubleshoot.

And by troubleshoot, I mean, its almost certainly not a problem that SquareEnix can fix, but they are in the best position to quickly identify where the packet drops out, so that whoever does manage that part of the network (Verizon/Level3) can be engaged to fix it.

[Tashim]

Looks like I may have been a little too hasty. seems like traffic for Aether is routing a little differently, and will function, but I wasn't able to connect to Primal successfully.

While you can use a vpn, Fios customers already have an fantastic network, and you shouldn't have to pay a 3rd party for better routing. If you're still having trouble, I recommend using the reduced MTU trick that I posted above until the packet routing gets fixed. (You may need to edit the connection name, if you're not using "Local Area Connection 1". You can get the correct name from the output of ipconfig /all)