Unable to connect to Data Center

[JustcallmeSoul]

Immediately after logging into the client (on pc) and getting to the blue title screen my game runs into an issue. i click "play" or "data center" and select Aether (home to my characters worlds on Goblin, Moogle, and Gilgamesh) my game says "connecting to Data Center" then a black screen with a loading icon in the lower left and a mouse that is responsive and movable but nothing else opens. this screen never gets advanced, i have tried for hours at a time, leaving the computer and returning later. I cannot advance past this screen. i have updated drivers, updated windows (version 8.0) messed with graphics settings varying from maximum to minimum settings. nothing works. i have disabled pop-up blockers, spyware/malware blockers, and windows firewall. nothing has worked. please assist, i just want to play the game on my beautiful new pc.

EDIT: when the loading screen is open i can alt+tab out of the game and everything else functions, and even more i can right-click on the games icon and select close game. doing so opens up a tab in the game with options "quit game" and "cancel"

i have an intel i5 quad core with an AMD Radeon r9 270x 4gb ddr3 RAM and a 500 gb HDD

[JustcallmeSoul]

4 hours later and still no change. help me find out whats going on please!

[Nekodar]

Depending on how technical you are, you may want to try changing DNS settings to use Google's dns servers.
Might be a problem with your ISP's DNS.
Or your modem/router...

Could try changing your Internet Explorer settings to default. That helped people that had problems with the launcher, but I don't think that should affect anything after the launcher.

If changing dns servers don't help and your ISP refuses to help you, look into testing WTFast or similar just to see if that works. If it does work, it's most likely your ISP that is somehow blocking you.

[JustcallmeSoul]

i already use google's DNS, internet explorer... riiiiiiigt lets just assume ive never touched that and its already default.

my ISP doesnt block any ports and is sure that my internet is functioning fine, so its on my end.

initially i thought it was an issue with port forwarding, but after disconnecting my router and connecting directly to the modem to bypass the router completely i had no change, and it still didnt work. my next thought was windows firewall or a bad update, so i turned off firewall and re-updated my windows, neither of which worked. i guess all thats left is for me to re download and patch the game... if that still doesnt fix it then ill likely be pursuing a refund on my purchase.

[Ibrahim_Moizoos]

Saw a message about those servers yesterday i think there was a connectivity issue.

[Nekodar]

Aether has been working just fine all day.
Should do tracert against the servers to see if traffic actually goes all the way. ISP's are notorious for outright lies regarding their customers connectivity.

[JustcallmeSoul]

the issue is NOT port forwarding. i have now currently done these things: manually opened ports. reinstalled the game. updated windows. turned off all firewalls popup blockers and malware services. updated my drivers. and finally changing my DNS to google's (8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4) public dns. still no change. the same account works perfectly fine on my ps4, so i still feel like its an issue on my system somewhere. i am becoming annoyed, as it is increasingly difficult to contact Sqeenix support

[Nekodar]

Do a traceroute against the servers... PS4 may go through PSN to the servers and therefore not hit the same problem.
This is to determine if there is a routing problem over which you have no control.

You can also try WTFast as I wrote in my first reply. If that works, it is definitely routing problems somewhere.

Traceroute can help you figure out WHERE such a problem is. It's not about checking port forwarding.

I assume you have registered the PC code on the mogstation since you can log in at the launcher already.

Goblin have an IP of 199.91.189.26

If you need to see any other IP, use the Windows Resource Manager to see which IP's the game is trying to use.

[JustcallmeSoul]

im not entirely sure what you're expecting i should see with the traceroute. if i ping against the ip you listed there should i see a full list of whatever number of hops i specify, and is that supposed to tell me that the connection is fine to said ip?

[Nekodar]

1) tracert != ping
2) which IP did you ping?

From Windows Task Manager, Performance tab, you can select Resource Monitor, Network tab, select the ffxiv executable when you're at the start screen before selecting datacenter, see what IP's are listed, then select datacenter and see if any new IP's are listed.
Those are the IP's that are important to check.

If you still have anti-malware or other security software installed, but disabled, try uninstalling them completely as they usually come with filter drivers that are NOT disabled when disabling the software and only removal works to get rid of interference from them.