Can we please have an honest conversation about FFXIV connectivity issues?

[reality_check]

August2013 - August 2014 has been a very nomadic year for me. Since the launch of FFXIV I've had four different residences, each with four different internet connections.

I live in Canada, over the last year I've used both Shaw and Telus ISPs for at least 3 months.

My devices have changed over the last year too. I started playing on the PS3, then I bought a brand new PC. I've purchased a PS4 as well and have been using that as well.

Among 3 different devices and 4 different internet connections my confidence in remaining reliably connected with a low ping to FFXIV servers is poor at best. I haven't experienced one combination in all of these different ISPs/connections/devices where there isn't a 90k looming ominously around the corner or some inexplicable 5 minute period of 2-3 second delay localized only to my FFXIV program.



Here are just some of my general observations about FFXIV: ARR throughout the last year in relation to connectivity:

-Playing on WIFI is atrocious. There was a two week stretch where I was forced to play on WIFI. Despite being on a 802.11n network with a brand new network card and a low traffic channel, I was unable to reliably escape AoEs and stay connected to the servers.

-There are good stretches, sometimes I'll go a few weeks without a 90k only to have them inexplicably return, multiple times a day, often following maintenance or updates.

-Some very strange things cause FFXIV issues. For example, at one of my residences, FFXIV would 90k every time I sent a photo over iMessage while connected to wifi on my phone.

-I've tried contacting SE and my ISPs (multiple ISPs) about this issue. They both shrug and blame the other party for the connectivity issues.

-Some of the strangest disconnects are the "lagless 90k." I've never experienced these in any other online game before. The game is running smoothly without and sign of network issues, and I am then immediately booted with a 90k error.

-These network issues are localized to FFXIV only. When I am on other online games, netflix, or other bandwidth intensive activities I almost never experience network problems.



All in all, I am very discouraged. I definitely know people who have absolutely no connectivity issues what so ever for FFXIV. But, I also know that I am not an exception or a rarity. I'm just not sure what to do from here.

[Codek]

Do you happen to live in apartment buildings often? A friend of mine had to quit playing simply because his building would refuse to deal with lost packets from the data routing to/from his room in the building.

[Sapphic]

Contact your service provider and tell them theres a problem. Do your own tests also ping tests etc see if you can find the issue.

Simple thing is, if it was the servers that was the problem then not just some, but everyone connected to that server would have the same issue. So the issue lies either at your end or somewhere inbetwen you and the server clusters.

[Tiggy]

Sounds to me like you need a better router.

Reasons to believe this.
A) Your complaint about wireless. Doesn't sound like you have a strong signal. (Have you tried changing the wireless channel?)
B) The iMessage error your getting. With better hardware you likely wouldn't have this problem.

Also, "high bandwidth" apps running well doesn't mean anything. Netflix caches tons of data so that you stream smoothly. It cares not for small lost packets since buffering hides those from you. Games like FFXIV are twitch games. They require packets to arrive quickly or you'll immediately notice problems. The fact netflix runs well means absolutely nothing if your trying to prove it's the servers. Same thing with saying other games work fine. OTher games have servers physically located somewhere else in the world than the FFXIV servers. This means the route between you and the server is different for this game than those other games. This MUST be taken into account. Just because other games work does not automatically mean it's the server. Many american Fios users can attest to this fact as well as just about anyone who connects through a level 3 node these days.

[Elim]

I'm with shaw currently and I'm very dissatisfied with them. They've had to come over at least twice a month to fix issues that's cropped up. For three months I was on HALF(and at some point lower than that) the speed I was suppose to be getting because some sort of computer glitch that was assigning the wrong speeds to people in my area. It got worse and worse as the days went by, and shaw kept telling me that nothing was wrong on their end up until it was so slow that google kept timing out because it took too long to load.

After they fixed that issue then another came up and another and...well, it's a constant fight to keep my internet going at a decent speed. If I was just a regular person and not a hardcore gamer I doubt I'd notice some of these connection and speed issues. In fact they told me that I was the first person in my area to call about speed issues. They always come promptly to fix things, but it doesn't mean that their service in general doesn't suck. At least it does in my area. It's been stable for the last week and I'm crossing my fingers that it'll stay that way for the last month before I move. Hopefully they take better care of the hardware in the area I move to...