Square can you please contact UK ISP BT/EE

[Stoy]

I now have to pay an extra £6 a month to use a VPN service to play this game. I connected to a VPN server in Kent using ZEN Internet and played the game FLAWLESSLY all last night. SE and BT need to sort this shit out.
In the mean time; I'm working on getting myself re-contracted on the post Feb 2013 BT Infinity contract that doesn't have the traffic shaping included.

p.s. When speaking to a member of the pre-sales or after-sales team (sometimes even tech support!) please use the term "PEER-TO-PEER" not "p2p" as they don't seem to understand the Acronym definition and they put you on hold for 5 minutes whilst they contact a tech who does. - laughable.
Also make sure you ask for the "truly unlimited package" and fully re-inforce the point you don't want to be "throttled" and do not want "traffic shaping" applied. - Hope this helps.

[mrwuss]

Well I was actually able to play last night using spotflux but there is no way on earth I should have to be resorting to using software like this:/

You are right, traffic shaping is a piss poor move by your isp. Stop paying money for poor service from your isp.

[Kitsunami]

As i already posted earlier, EE acknowledge that the gamei s being throttled now. Customer support apologised and said we need to get in contact with square.

So again, contact EE and feel free to quote my email :P

Sigh. So much fail here. I am hoping square gets to us..eventually.

[Stoy]

As i already posted earlier, EE acknowledge that the gamei s being throttled now. Customer support apologised and said we need to get in contact with square.

So again, contact EE and feel free to quote my email :P

Sigh. So much fail here. I am hoping square gets to us..eventually.

I got a reply off square via the telephone conversation I just had and they said I needed to contact my ISP!! FFS

[Valaria]

With reference to this thread
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...o-attacks-work
BT and EE who use BT's line are currently classing ARR as p2p software which is making the game unplayable for UK customers between 7pm and midnight due to traffic management shaping. Bt's answer is they need someone from Square to contact them with relevant info. Please can this be passed to the relevant team, and the issue be resolved as soon as possible, thank you.

Undrentide...

Have you contacted Square Enix's London office directly regarding this matter? It seems to me that they would be in a better position to contact British Telecom than anyone else.

Give it a try.

You'll have to do a search for the phone number, but I found it within a few seconds (and no I'm not posting it, sorry).

Good luck.

[Kaim-Argonar]

Bumping for annoyance

[Undrentide]

Again its coming up to that time of evening one hour before the game becomes unplayable!!! bump again so tech support might see!

[Vherus]

Bump, although my issue is resolved.

BT Tech Support are absolute pants. I'm a Software Developer and worked in IT before moving to my current field, so believe me when I say they obviously believe IP means loaf of bread, computers are made of dog and Perl is a real programming language.

Anyway, I signed a new contract with them for the exact same package, but it meant the terms were updated to disallow traffic shaping at any time. Same broadband deal, no traffic shaping, got £6 a month off my bill (how the hell does that work?). It did take them 3 days to sort out the new package, but at least it's fine for me now. I'd really recommend you renew your contract, unless you are nearing the end of your current one; in which case you should go with someone else.

[worldofneil]

Sorry if I'm missing the obvious here, but how is this SE's fault?

From what has been said in this thread already, the problems are only applying to older BT contracts and (all?) EE customers because those ISPs use traffic shaping on P2P traffic.

This game is being detected as P2P traffic (which may/may not be true) so how is that up to SE to fix it? They're not going to change the protocols they use and BT's answer is simply fobbing off the customer with a standard "Not our problem" thing. BT wants customers to upgrade to the newer contracts, they're not going to do anything to "fix" this unless they really have to. As far as they're concerned it's not even broken.

So if you don't like traffic shaping on your account... move to a different ISP or change contract with BT to tariff that doesn't include the P2P traffic shaping!

And to whoever posted a few pages back saying that BT and EE were the only options in his area, sorry, but without even knowing your area I can tell you that's not the case. If you can get a BT phoneline (and you obviously have), then you're able to use *ANY* UK ISP for your ADSL connection. It might use a BT line, but it doesn't have to use BT as an ISP. BT (the ISP) is the one doing the traffic shaping, another ISP will have different policies (and tariffs/pricing).

[Velo_Vandore]

I called EE (Orange) Broadband support today and was told there was nothing they could do as it wasn't a known issue. Of course when I asked how it would become a known issue, he said he could take my details and the title of the game and make a note. What's annoying is that if I hadn't asked this note wouldn't have been made, meaning any number of customers could have called about the issue with no record made by the customer support.

I explained that it would really mean I would need to switch provider if not resolved and how long did he suggest I wait for a resolution. He advised that Call of Duty had issues and once acknowledged took a couple of months to resolve. The question is how long will it take to get acknowledged (if ever)? I would rather not switch provider if possible as it's always a gamble how well their router will perform with wireless stability and uPNP. The EE Bright Box router has been fantastic in terms of stable speeds with many devices connected at once (besides throttling in peak hours of course).

I hope Square-Enix are able to help resolve this for BT and EE customers, as like many have pointed out, it's TRULY unplayable during peak hours on an EU server (around 30 - 60 second delay for enemies to respond (you watch the fight happen when you've long walked away), and up to a couple of minutes waiting for NPC's to respond. JPN servers are better somehow, but still with bothersome delays of 5 seconds or more.

Just got off work and have will have the kids fed and in bed by 7-8pm. Would love to sit down and play after that but unfortunately I'm dreading the lag. So frustrating

I can say without exaggerating that this issue makes the queues and server locks utterly insignificant!

Please heed our call Square-Enix! You needs must!!! QQ

Edit: a couple more questions:

1. Is it OK to post video footage at this stage, to demonstrate the severity of the throttling?
2. I'm very reluctant to use a VPN service. Is there any way to determine they are trustworthy and will not sell on your passwords, browsing activity etc? Particularly if free, I'm very suspicious about this as their servers must have high costs to run? Furthermore if the VPN service did a cause fraud attacks against you, would there be any way to determine the VPN service as a participant in the crime when they encrypt everything? TLDR; I'm paranoid so will probably avoid using a VPN as a workaround Traffic shaping is designed for the purpose of prioritizing time sensitive activities, such as gaming, so of course this isn't acceptable and needs to be sorted. Unfortunately we are powerless as individuals, so please - every BT / EE user affected, don't accept a VPN workaround. Contribute a post here or contact your ISP / SE support.