I Didn't Want To Play EVE Anyways
My connection issues - which prevented me from participating in the Thukk You, Frill Me events - have gotten so bad that I can barely log on long enough to change skills. Sometimes the client doesn't get past the "Loading .... " bar. Sometimes I get a socket reset after logging in. Sometimes it just plain hangs.
This has been going on for about two weeks now, and it sucks. It's not my local internet connection, as everything runs spiffy, and none of my network hardware or configuration has changed in months.
My best guess is that some hop between me and CCP's data farm is screwed up. Anyone else having problems like this?
16 comments
I have been getting booted with the "socket closed" message every 5-30 minutes pretty consistently for the past week. I partially attribute it to my so-so wifi connection as the Internet is fine, and partially to something going wrong with the client. Makes the game unplayable if you're trying to actually shoot at things. Nothing like getting logged out in the middle of a suicide gank...
I had the same problem and for me if was the ISP I had at the time. I got myself some prepaid cap from a different ISP and all was fine again. I later found out that the two different ISPs use a different route/method/whatever to connect to overseas so that might have been it.
When the Launcher.... erm.... launcher. I had horrific problems. Found out in the end, as Spokie pointed out, Eve can REALLY disagree with your ISP.
Try a different ISP (take PC to mates/family members house or hook up your mobile) or install a VPN. If it works you know it's the ISP.
Mate in corp is having same issues and ISP is less than helpful.
Unfortunately I am not in control of which ISP we use at my location :(
There might be issues between your ISP and one of CCP ISPs (they're on multilink) but it's unlikely.
The most common and probable problem is that your ISP is running some traffic shaping or "we don't want our customers to provide or download stuff that might be illegal and might put us in bad light in the tabloids"-software.
The problem with such softwares is that they consider all traffic that it can't recognize or understand as suspicious and clamps it down.
Contacting your ISP and explaining the problem might get them to tell you _what_ shaping software they're using (or more likely a blank stare since 1:st line support doesn't understand such questions).
If you write a petition to CCP including at least what ISP you are using, but even better what pesky software is messing up, it can help them find the right people to contact and convince that EvE Online protocal is very bad for downloading illegal materials and can be allowed.
// Lors
I've bug reported my problems is the relevant threads on the forums.
traffic shaping is indeed the likely culprit, i had similar issues a few months ago and had to switch my provider to play eve again
don't know why eve in particular is so vulnerable, though (although i've read dev comments that eve can't handle even a single dropped packet, so that may be partly responsible...)
use http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html (free version at bottom of page)
it'll show you that there's a real problem at the source.
Indeed, I did one of these while playing EVE with multiple clients for a while. Other then some minor packet loss - very intermittent - I haven't seen anything.
It's getting worse, too. I'm getting client crashes >:(
I was having similar problems, constant socket resets and disconnects. Turned out Intel had released a driver update for their ethernet port. The problem was with intel power saving features that were installed along with the driver. Try un-installing the intel power features and see if the sockets and connection issues disappear. Goodluck
You might also want to check the properties for your network card in the device manager.
If there is a checkbox for powersaving features there, uncheck it immediately. Such things tend to get turned on by default when the driver is upgraded.
Without trying to troll you at all, having worked ISP helpdesk in a previous life, whenever we hear "nothing in my setup has changed, it's not my modem because everything else is working fine" and similar from technically knowledgeable people that tends to translate in to "I've excluded these possibilities without testing for them".
My point is: trying stuff like borrowing a friend's modem (a hassle I know) / updating NIC drivers / plugging your computer directly in to the modem if you normally use WIFI, removing any switches etc between your PC and modem, disconnecting all your other devices from your modem while you test, etc is such low hanging fruit compared to going in to bat against your ISP and trying to work your way through their support to someone who can even understand what you're saying, let alone help you. Your Time Invested vs Chance of Resolution ratio favours testing all that easy stuff first if you know how, even if it's unlikely and there are no symptoms that suggest it. That's been my personal experience anyway. *shrug*
In your other post (and your post on the EVE forums) you're pinging a different IP to everyone else. Most people in that thread are pinging 87.237.38.200, you're pinging 87.237.38.20. I just checked my EVE client and I'm connecting to 87.237.38.200 and can ping it fine.
Assuming you are able to ping 87.237.38.200 without packet loss, and you've covered your easy bases / aren't on WIFI / etc, my first suspicion would be that it's an MTU issue. If you're not familar with them, they're basically the end result of your PC/modem sending packets across the internet which are larger than a router between you and the destination is prepared to accept (I'm sure Wikipedia/someone else can do more justice to the description than I can). They can arise from changes at any point between you and the destination, and they tend to mean that everything else works fine except for your connections to one particular server.
The easiest way to test is to shrink the MTU on your modem if it supports it, or failing that shrinking the MTU on your PC. If you're on xDSL (and maybe other types of connections? I have no experience there) you can also try swapping between PPPoE and PPPoA, assuming your ISP supports it.
(Google will give you lots of guides for testing MTU issues via ping and different packet sizes. My personal inclincation would be to not exlude MTU issues as a possibility even if the ping tests returned negative until I had personally lowered the MTU on my modem/PC due to ping and EVE using different port numbers. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in and say if that's just crazy superstition or a good idea.)
Good luck. :)
"Without trying to troll you at all, having worked ISP helpdesk in a previous life, whenever we hear “nothing in my setup has changed, it’s not my modem because everything else is working fine” and similar from technically knowledgeable people that tends to translate in to “I’ve excluded these possibilities without testing for them”."
I am a network engineer. Trust me, I've tested for these things.
" Most people in that thread are pinging 87.237.38.200, you’re pinging 87.237.38.20."
Actually, yeah, that was my fault in that one instance, I left the last 0 off. My ping plotter tests are using the correct IP.
Olympics are putting a lot more pressure on the some of the core switching infrastructure in London. I imagine that you'll find the problem will go away on Sunday. :(