What ports does FFXIV use, for port forwarding & QoS

[LoveIess]

Hey, I'm looking to enable Quality of Service on my router, but I need to know the main port (or ports) this game uses.

Also useful to know for port forwarding purposes. Thank you!

[LoveIess]

Would be nice to have an admin/Gm provide the information.

[Aethrun]

I just logged in twice to three different servers. The game sent to a different port each time. They were all in the 56000-59999 range. Maybe it just chooses a random port from a certain range every time we log in. I got the ports by doing a Capture with MS Network Monitor 3.4.

I'm new to port forwarding. Would you mind explaining how you'd use it for this game?

[LoveIess]

go to start > type in: cmd > type ipconfig > locate your gateway address > type it in your browser > if your modem or router has port forwarding options you can figure it out there.

The rest is pretty self explanatory.

[Aethrun]

Thanks, my question wasn't clear. I was wondering what would be the purpose or benefit of port forwarding with a game?

[Zaero]

Thanks, my question wasn't clear. I was wondering what would be the purpose or benefit of port forwarding with a game?

The only advantage would be if you have two people on your connection connecting to the same server with the same port. Prevents the connections from dropping due to address conflicts. Like if you played TF2 or a game where the server only had one port. FF14 doesn't, so Port Forwarding really won't help ya here.

GENERALIZED EXPLANATION:
Imagine your router is an apartment building. In this building, there are different apartments. Now, imagine two apartments order the same item and only put the address of the building (not what apartment number they need to go to). The mailman gets to the building and gets all lost/confused. Port forwarding works like a mailroom in the apartment building, where it may use your last name to decide what apartment each box needs to go to, since the building's folks know who you are, despite the mailman not knowing.

I know for the tech crowd that's a "not quite how it works" thing, but it's good enough to get the point across.

[LoveIess]

doesn't just apply to multiple people connecting to the same "server" but yea, that's the general idea.

[wicked-one]

Oh, my most beloved Topic

Lets tie up some shoes...

The game sent to a different port each time. They were all in the 56000-59999 range.

That´s how half the way works... TCP Connections like FF-XIV uses always use a set of two IP´s/Ports - like the Phone Company needs numbers of both Customers to connect.


While the IP´s are rather clear, ports arent.

You always have a source port, which is assigned by your side initially... every OS handles this on his way, but most start at a high numbered port and count incremental for every new TCP-Connection (thus, seem quite random and makes this usesless for applying QoS)

Then you have the destination port - like your Browser knows, that a website is on TCP Port 80, so is the Service Port for FF-XIV static programmed into the client. After the Maintenance i could look this up for you.*

* Windows 7/8 has implemented a mighty ressource monitor - easy to handle and in the network tab you can look up all exciting stuff about your connections - i love this, cause I don´t need 3rd Party Software anymore, or have to use netstat which is harder to read...

I'm new to port forwarding. Would you mind explaining how you'd use it for this game?

Forget the minute you read about it, port forwarding is only needed for inbound connections, like if you host a Teamspeak service on your PC.

Every stateful firewall (and that´s how 99% of SOHO Routers work) looks up your outgoing connections, tracks them, and allows the coresponding packets inbound automatically.

So Port Forwarding is not an issue - but not self explanatory, if i believe those Internet-Technicians which always call me for help.

"Help, this customer has port forward, when I replace his router, can you do them for me, i havent done in years"...... a sentence I get 2-3 times a day.

[wicked-one]

So, after some gibberish, now the hot Topic "QoS"

Here it´s dependant on how your Network goes, and what your Router supports** - so there is no simple One-For-All Answer, QoS is always a concept.
** many Router have some kind of micky-mouse QoS so the features are in a wide range...

So you have to find out, what brings your Internet-Link to produce congestion.

Is it your brother, who watches Netflix or get´s some stuff by torrent:
Apply QoS to your host, thus getting your Computer´s stuff done before everyone else -> simple, but not all savior. You could ask him to stop downloading while you play, or - if no social approach - disconnect him while playing ^^

If it´s yourself torrenting while playing, just stop it, or just throtle down your torrent client (which all support) - especially stuffing the Upload significantly decreases performance.

I even had a customer trying to save his 60GB System Drive to his Google Drive which was limited to 5 GB -> so a large file got canceled and reuploaded all the time, ...
this state lasted for 6 Months, producing 400GB of upload/month -> totally blocking his connection and it took several technicians who couldn´t figure that out, until I got this case on the table... so sometimes, it´s even traffic you arent aware of...

That´s just some examples, so for applying QoS properly, you first have to figure not only what you want to speed up but also what kills your performance.

If you are the only Client in your network, and besides of FF-XIV nothing is using bandwidth, forget QoS... it won´t increase performance over physics.

Or in other words - there is no need to travel on the fast lane, when the whole highway is empty

[Enkidoh]

Well, I couldn't really find anythign on the current ARR Lodestone, but I found this info (which seems to clarify what Aethrun said) on the old (now archived) 1.0 Lodestone:

Port (55296-55551)
Designate the peer-to-peer port to be used during version updates.

Bare in mind that was for 1.0 so it's likely that info is now obsolete, and also given the fact that just said that was the port range for downloading patches, but still, it does seem to confirm Aethrun's post.