'Creating entities' and disconnecting

[Aeromaniac]

Every time I try to play EQ2, my wireless connection suddenly disappears. Now I'm not talking about lag, during the 'creating entities' stage of loading the char select screen (which takes a lot longer than any stage, something which makes me suspicious) my wireless card just ceases to detect any networks, hence disconnecting and hence the char select screen just tells me it can't find the servers. I've tried reconnecting the wireless network while EQ2 is open, but it never finds any networks until the 'creating entities' stage is over, by which point it's normally already telling me it can't find the servers. Any help would be appreciated. PS: I'm not firewalled, and Belkin's site doesn't seem to want to tell me where their drivers are hiding.

[sfarugger]

<p>Probably something very simple Aero,</p><p>Do this please, and report your findings:</p><p>Go into Program Files/Sony/everquest2   and look for a folder called "cache".  Just delete the folder... Yup, just delete the entire cache folder and then rerun the launchpad, and then see if that happens.</p><p> That is most likely your issue.</p>

[Aeromaniac]

Well, in C:Program FilesSonyEverQuest II there actually isn't a folder called 'cache', maybe that's my problem? =P

[Aeromaniac]

So yeah, it still isn't working. Can anyone at all help with this?

[Tebos]

The purpose of this guide is to assist in troubleshooting connectivity loss(being Disconnected) from SOE's EverQuest II game servers. The first thing you want to check is if another program running is causing the disconnection. Please try disabling background programs: 1. Select the START button. 2. Select RUN. 3. Type in "msconfig" (without the &quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> 4. Press OK 5. Select the STARTUP tab. 6. In the list, uncheck all boxes EXCEPT for SCANREGISTRY and SYSTEM TRAY. (If you use Windows XP, please note that SCANREGISTRY and SYSTEM TRAY will not be listed - just uncheck the entire list. If you are using Win2k msconfig will not be an option so you will not need to perform this.) 7. Hit apply and then OK. Restart the computer. Start the Game and see if the issue persists, if it does continue with the steps below. Let's start with getting some of your <b>network</b> information, run some tests and then interpret the test results. First open the Start menu, choose Run... Command, type "cmd" (no quotes) in the space provided, then hit Enter. The MS-DOS Prompt window should appear with a prompt. If you get a bad command <b>error</b>, please type "command" instead of "cmd". Now type each command below and then hit enter. Once the command finishes and returns to the prompt, type in the next one and hit enter. You want to complete at least 2 trace route's (tracert) and 2 pathping's, if on a Windows 2000 or XP machine. Start with this command: ipconfig /all > c:eq2info.txt Now run some pathpings if you have Windows 2000 or XP, Win 98 user please skip these 3 commands, it may take a few minutes for the command to execute and return to the prompt. It is vital you let the test finish and return to the prompt on its own: pathping unrest.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt pathping najena.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt pathping befallen.everquest2.com >> c:eqinfo.txt Now you want to run some tracert's: tracert unrest.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt tracert najena.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt tracert storms.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt tracert valor.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt You have now finished running the tests. We now want to interpret the test results by opening the file eq2info.txt and viewing the contents. Start by Double-clicking on My Computer on the Desktop, or in the Start menu. Double-click on Local Disk C:, Click "Show Contents of this folder" if you cannot see any files. Now find and double click on eq2info.txt to open the file. First line you want to look for will be under Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection, and will be similar to: IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 64.37.155.97 This is your IP address, if this number starts 192.168.* or 172.* then you have an internal IP address for your <b>network</b>. If this is the case, you can visit the link below to get your external IP address to see the difference: <a href="http://www.whatismyip.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.whatismyip.com/</a>/ The 192.168.* IP's are usually assigned when you have a router, wireless access point or a combined modem/router. You will want to either A) Bypass the device and get your external IP address assigned to your computer or B) configure the device's firewall to allow our game to connect. The necessary port information can be found at this link: <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/support_article.vm?label=FirewallProxyInfo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2players.station.sony.com/...rewallProxyInfo</a> Let's continue our dissection of the eq2info file. The next part of the file will show the pathping results, we will be coming back to this section later if you ran the pathping command. The tracert will have this format: Tracing route to www.google.akadns.net [216.239.63.104] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms vl25.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.66] 2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ge-1-0-861.hsa1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [63.215.251.129] 3 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms so-4-0-0.mp1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [4.68.112.129] 4 15 ms 13 ms 15 ms 4.68.128.157 5 13 ms 11 ms 13 ms ge-11-0.ipcolo2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.123.42] 6 11 ms 11 ms 13 ms unknown.Level3.net [209.247.202.218] 7 11 ms 13 ms 13 ms 216.239.47.194 8 * * * Request timed out. 9 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms 216.239.63.104 Trace complete. The first column is the numbered "hop", which means you went through another server(computer) on your way to SOE's server's. The next three columns display the response time in milliseconds(ms) this is how long it took your computer to send a packet from your machine to the server and back. The lower the number the better, if you start reaching response times greater than 800ms then there could be some connectivity issues. The clear evidence that necessary ports are blocked are when you get a set of 3 asterisk(*) instead of a number. The asterisk indicate either the port's are blocked or the trace was ignored. You can see this from hop 8 in the example above. If you see asterisk on hop 1 and have trouble connecting most likely you have a firewall blocking the ports or Internet Connection Sharing(ICS) misconfigured. For information on ICS and configuring it please visit Microsoft's Knowledge Base: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/Share_conn_overvw.asp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...conn_overvw.asp</a>. If you get : transmit failed, <b>error</b> code 65 Then you probably have either a Zone Alarm firewall and ICS or eTrust from Computer Associates. Please uninstall the software and try to connect again. You will need to contact Zone Alarm or eTrust for assistance configuring their software. Zone Alarm users with ICS can also try this Microsoft solution: <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316414" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;en-us;316414</a> If you do not have Windows XP or 2000 and still cannot connect you may need to contact Technical Support. We provide phone, e-mail, forums and live chat as support options: <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/support.vm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/support.vm</a> Now for Windows XP and 2000 user's we will look at the pathping results. Look in the file for: Computing statistics for XXX seconds. The X's represent number's which will vary. This is where the pathping evaluation begins. Prior to this is the basic tracert information Tracing route to www.google.akadns.net [216.239.63.104] over a maximum of 30 hops: 0 xp-chartmann.ad.soe.sony.com [64.37.155.97] 1 vl25.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.66] 2 ge-1-0-861.hsa1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [63.215.251.129] 3 so-4-0-0.mp1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [4.68.112.129] 4 4.68.128.157 5 ge-10-1.ipcolo2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.123.74] 6 unknown.Level3.net [209.247.202.218] 7 216.239.47.194 8 * * * Computing statistics for 200 seconds... Source to Here This Node/Link Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address 0 xp-chartmann.ad.soe.sony.com [64.37.155.97] 0/ 100 = 0% | 1 5ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% vl25.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.66] 0/ 100 = 0% | 2 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% ge-1-0-861.hsa1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [63.215.251.129] 0/ 100 = 0% | 3 5ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% so-4-0-0.mp1.SanDiego1.Level3.net [4.68.112.129] 0/ 100 = 0% | 4 17ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 4.68.128.157 0/ 100 = 0% | 5 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% ge-10-1.ipcolo2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.123.74] 1/ 100 = 1% | 6 12ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% unknown.Level3.net [209.247.202.218] 99/ 100 = 99% | 7 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% 216.239.47.194 0/ 100 = 0% | 8 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% xp-chartmann.ad.soe.sony.com [0.0.0.0] Trace complete. What you want to look for is anything that is not 0/100 = 0%, the 0% means all internet traffic (packets) made it through. Anything else means some of the packets were blocked or not returned, in the example hop 6 has 1% packet loss, this wouldn't be a concern necessarily. However hops 7 and 8 show 100% packet loss, meaning none of the information is making it to the final destination and back. If this is the case you probably have a firewall or security software blocking the ports. Alternatively your ISP may restrict some ports for security purposes, you would need to contact the ISP and inquire whether or not they block any ports.

[Aeromaniac]

Like I said in the first post, this isn't a connection/lag issue, it's either an issue with the EQ2 .exe or my wireless card/drivers not liking EQ2 (which oddly never happened a year ago when I last used EQ2 with the same card). I've tried the first step and it definitely isn't an issue with any other background programs. I do have a spare wireless card lying around so I'll have a go at swapping that one in and seeing if I get the same result.