Unable to connect to Data Center

[JustcallmeSoul]

alright scratch that. after pinging squeenix's closest data center 50 times (i wanted to be completely sure... dont judge me) my average ping is 84ms, removing a few outliers, which tells me that i am indeed connecting to their servers just fine. right?

[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.

[JustcallmeSoul]

re-downloaded and patched, once again, and no effect, still have the eternal loading screen. i dont understand what in the world is causing it.

[JustcallmeSoul]

well... thats something... when i pull up the resource monitor i dont see a .exe for final fantasy, even with the game open and minimized on the play screen. unless of course what im actually looking for is Steam.exe, since im running through steam.

[Nekodar]

well... thats something... when i pull up the resource monitor i dont see a .exe for final fantasy, even with the game open and minimized on the play screen. unless of course what im actually looking for is Steam.exe, since im running through steam.

The exe you're looking for should be ffxiv.exe or something like that. But, I don't run through Steam, so not sure how that works.

Just to be sure... You start the game, get a window where you have to input username, password and possibly OTP... press play there, then get into the main screen where you have to select datacenter?
Or do you get from steam directly to the main screen?

When you install the game through steam, have you tried to start the game through the start "menu" instead of through steam?

[JustcallmeSoul]

steam>client>login details>play button>intro and title screen (with options play, data center, configuration, etc)>?????????? ive never been past that screen. when i select data center it says "connecting to data center" for a few seconds, then appears to connect and sends me to the limbo screen i described earlier. is there a way (if i installed through steam) to run the content independently from steam?

[JustcallmeSoul]

ok within the resource manager, when i launch FFXIV i see ffxivboot.exe and ffxivlauncher.exe come up and start sending/receiving packets, after i login and launch the game via the play button on the launcher ffxivboot.exe and ffxivlauncher.exe stop sending packets and fall off the list. nothing containing ffxiv in the name replaces them. so it seems that we have found out something is wrong... welcome to three days ago.

[Nekodar]

I'm not at home right now so can't direct you to which executable to run, but steam should not be necessary at all.
See if you can find the Final Fantasy entry on the start screen somewhere, or search for where the ffxiv.exe file is. Not sure which file exactly needs to be run, but if you find it you can try from there.
Based on your latest post, find ffxivlauncher.exe and run that from outside steam. Can also try right-click and "run as administrator", just in case...

Did you uninstall all anti-malware and other such programs or only disabled?

Won't be able to suggest anything more until later today.

[JustcallmeSoul]

completely uninstalled all anti-malware programs that i had installed, but thats not it. i really, honestly do not think it is a communication error, the ports are open and i can ping to their servers with no issues at all. squeenix support is increasingly not helpful, but a friend of mine pointed out something that confuses me, my directory for the game (c:/programfiles(x86)/steam/steamapps/common/FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn does not contain a .cfg file.

[Nekodar]

The main folder should have a game and boot folder
The game folder should have movie and sqpack folders as well as some files, but I see no .cfg either.

The place you should check if you have a cfg should be
C:\Users\<user>\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn

Dunno if it's different for steam, but it shouldn't be...

If you have no cfg there either... Check settings first on the launcher, then on main screen.