Frequent 90002 disconnects ever since May 22 DDoS Attacks (NA)

[Laigerick]

Hello!

Recently, I have been suffering from frequent Error Code 90002 disconnects when playing FFXIV. They have rarely been an issue for me in the past, but ever since the initial recent DDoS Attack (May 22) on the NA Data Centers they have developed into a consistent and frustrating issue, even after the "Recovery" updates (1,2) have been posted on the Lodestone. It does not seem to matter what type of Duty or activity I am currently engaged with in-game when the disconnects happen. They have occurred whenever I've been inside of battle instances, in the open world, and even when I was simply idle in the game. These disconnects don't seem to happen at specific times either, but roughly happen every 1-2 hours of playtime. However, other than the disconnects, I am experiencing no other issues with the game (no in-game lag, stuttering, etc.) and am able to reconnect to the game servers fairly fast. Even still, they are severely hindering my enjoyment of the game.

As far as troubleshooting goes, I have already followed all of the steps listed both on the relevant FFXIV Support Center website topic as well as the ones listed in a post by a GM in a recent similar thread. So far none of these changes seem to have made any improvement to my situation as I am still encountering random, frequent disconnects when in the game.

I just find all of this to be extremely suspicious considering these disconnects only ever became a reoccuring issue for me after the recent DDoS Attacks confirmed by Square Enix. Any and all help would be welcome, even if it is simply an acknowledgement that the issue is not on my end and instead is something outside of my control like my ISP or a problem with a specific node along the route my connection takes to the game servers.

UPDATE (5/26/19 9:53pm ET): Over 24 hours later and the issue is still persisting, even after more trial & error troubleshooting on my end. No other online game or applications are affected. I still only receive the disconnects when playing FFXIV. I've since tried playing the game through a VPN to see if having my connection routed differently would change anything, but when doing so I would instead occasionally receive 90006 error code disconnects in place of the usual 90002 ones.

UPDATE (6/1/19 5:14am ET): The issue is still persisting as it has been for over a week now. I recently called my ISP and had them send a technician to make sure the issue wasn't with my home network. The quality of the signal both coming into, and inside of, my house from was confirmed to be fine. Just to be super thorough, the technician even replaced some old wiring in my home and set me up with an entirely new modem. Since then, the frequency of the disconnects has gone down but they still happen. The persistence of this issue has taken a large toll on both my patience and sanity.

UPDATE (6/5/19 5:46pm ET): It's still happening...

(Included below is a traceroute from my PC to what I assume to be the NA Aether Data Center):

Tracing route to 204.2.229.9 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    22 ms    14 ms    10 ms  cpe-065-188-128-001.triad.res.rr.com [65.188.128.1]
  3    92 ms    31 ms    24 ms  cpe-174-111-101-104.triad.res.rr.com [174.111.101.104]
  4    15 ms    13 ms    11 ms  cpe-024-028-252-032.triad.res.rr.com [24.28.252.32]
  5    22 ms    16 ms    21 ms  be34.drhmncev01r.southeast.rr.com [24.93.64.196]
  6    28 ms    31 ms    30 ms  bu-ether15.asbnva1611w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.80]
  7    26 ms    18 ms    18 ms  66.109.5.117
  8    20 ms    19 ms    18 ms  38.142.221.105
  9    20 ms    22 ms    19 ms  ae-58.r06.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.121]
 10    22 ms    24 ms    23 ms  ae-2.r23.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.132]
 11    85 ms    90 ms    92 ms  ae-10.r22.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.237]
 12    95 ms    94 ms    98 ms  ae-19.r01.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.27]
 13    90 ms    94 ms    98 ms  ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
 14    98 ms    90 ms    91 ms  xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [129.250.195.46]
 15    95 ms    99 ms    94 ms  204.2.229.234
 16    95 ms    89 ms    92 ms  204.2.229.9

Trace complete.

[ShiroRyu]

I have also still been experiencing frequent disconnects and lobby errors.
I have submitted a ticket for this issue.

Network tests to my ISP show steady and stable.
Other apps are running fine.

Have the DDoS attacks started up again? The News posts implied these attacks had been concluded already.

[Laigerick]

I have submitted a ticket for this issue.

Please let me know what (if anything) you hear back in regards to your ticket!

[Misty78]

https://youtu.be/jl17CYYSzUw?t=93

[Kamirri]

I have also been receiving multiple disconnects at seemingly random times throughout the day ever since the DDoS attacks started. Never disconnected from the game prior, with the exception of occasional server instability or internet outage. Hopefully this is resolved soon. Farming dungeons, trials, and raids while you could potentially disconnect at any time is beyond irritating and unacceptable. Hopefully Squenix provides compensation for the played time lost due to this nonsense.

[NumenarMithrandir]

I am also experiencing this. They happen exactly every hour following once they start. It only affects me at or around 2am (mst) until 8am. (mst) After that they cease until later the next night. I checked ISP and other games even another mmo and nothing. Everything Is working properly on this end that I am aware of.

[Einmimiria]

Good afternoon and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

If you have tried all of the troubleshooting suggestions you listed, the issue likely isn't with your home network specifically.

Looking at your trace route, there is some instability with your connection to the server. None of the packets are lost, but there is fluctuation in the response time (30ms to 90 ms for the same node). It seems that any connection problem you experience are brief, but enough to disconnect you from the game. It's hard to tell where these connection problems are coming from, but it seem they are related to the instability noted earlier. As this is outside of your home network, I'd suggest contacting your ISP and making a report with them.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

[Laigerick]

The issue is still persisting with no end in sight. I've updated my original post to reflect recent developments. At this point I don't know what else I could possibly try to do to alleviate the issue. Hopefully it magically disappears before Shadowbringers launches later this month, otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to justify continuing to play the game.

[Misty78]

The issue is still persisting with no end in sight. I've updated my original post to reflect recent developments. At this point I don't know what else I could possibly try to do to alleviate the issue. Hopefully it magically disappears before Shadowbringers launches later this month, otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to justify continuing to play the game.

I'm thinking hard about cancelling my sub, and pre-order as well.

[Laigerick]

After nearly a month of having this issue, I believe I've finally found the root cause and seemingly fixed it. As previously mentioned, I ran through every troubleshooting method I listed in my original post multiple times and had tried many others since. I even had the cable company come out to my house twice to replace both my modem and the cable wiring in my home. Of course, after tearing my hair our for nearly 4 weeks, the cause of my connection woes happened to be something as benign as an issue with the latest version of my anti-virus: Avast. On a whim, I just happened to notice that its latest program update (not the virus definitions, the actual program) was during the night of May 20th, right before I started noticing my connection problems. So as a last-ditch effort, I completely uninstalled Avast using their dedicated Uninstall Tool (instead opting for the basic Windows Defender included with Windows 10 as my new anti-virus program) and made sure to fix the few leftover registry errors with CCleaner.

Since uninstalling Avast, I haven't had a single disconnect for almost 30 straight hours of letting the game run. To be truthful, I find it extremely odd that this was the case. I'd had Avast installed for years alongside Final Fantasy and it had never given me an issue. Like recommended, I had the game listed as an exception within Avast for years as well. During my weeks of troubleshooting, I had even tried force-quitting Avast multiple times to see if its real-time protection was somehow the issue, but doing so still left me with the same connection issues. Apparently the solution was a complete and total uninstallation of the software itself. I'm not going to question it. I'm just happy that it worked and I can go back to playing the game I love without annoying & persistent interruptions.

I suppose the moderators can now close this thread whenever they see fit.