Server Maintenance?

[Duotang]

<p>I'm just curious if the IT department at Sony Online is planning on fixing the current logon, and PvP servers; specifically Nagafen?</p><p>For at least a couple of months now, I have seen consistant game crashing, "Receiving Zone Info", "Unloading Current Zone", Broker Sessions that can last well over 15 minutes for one transaction (or change of zone), latency topping the 2K range, etc. It's appauling that you are charging the common gamers monthly rates, but are treating this business as though it is a free MMO.</p><p>I'm fairly confident I speak on behalf of everyone involved, and we demand better service. It's at the point of being ridiculous now.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I haven't noticed any increased lag over the last few months like you are reporting.  It sounds like you might be experiencing some sort of connection issue.  You might want to consider posting your net info so we can see what happens when you try to connect.  I have included that procedure below:</p><p>Please open up the Start menu, choose the Run command, type "command" in the space provided, then hit Enter. If you're using Win2k type "cmd" instead of command. For Vista, "type command" at the search bar on the bottom of the Start Menu. The MS-DOS Prompt window should appear with the prompt, "C:windowsdesktop". For Win98/ME or Win2K/XP/Vista, type the following three DOS commands, one at a time, hitting Enter between each command, and waiting for the prompt to reappear:    ipconfig /all > c:eq2info.txt    tracert unrest.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt   tracert nagafen.everquest2.com >> c:eq2info.txt </p>

[Duotang]

<p>Ahhh yes, I'm the dummy here. Isn't that always the case.</p><p>Go look at my recent ticket, and look at the academic responses I received from your "Technicians". I had to ask for a tier 3 tech, just so he could comprehend the problem.</p><p>First response from "Customer Service" was: "You need to update your video driver and/or check your port forwards." That was funny. And it just went on and on at a computer lesson level 101.</p><p>Look, my connections are fine, my router is fine, my OS is fine, everything is fine.</p><p>What you need to do is actually play on the server from a non-local address and see for yourself. OR, just poll the audience.</p>

[Duotang]

<p>That was fun. I just spent 14:37 "Receiving Zone Info" from Qeynos Harbor to Antonica. Ping was 85-110. But it must be a local problem, right?</p>

[CovetableSquid]

<p>I will say you are not a dummy.  Our whole guild is having trouble zoning.  Everyone but a few get stuck recieving zone info.  If you log out and back in you find that the server is offline then that message under your toons disappears but only 4 characters are there.  Then if you try to log on a toon - its not found.  The only way yuou can then get into the game is by logging directly into character.</p><p>This is a real problem.  SOE do not dismiss this as everything looks fine on this end.  Please fix it.</p>

[Mikai]

<p>Having the same issue.  First, had exceedingly long "Receiving zone info" so relogged.  Then, upon loggin in, still long "recieving zone info" but got in only to discover apparetnly the game doesn't recognize /gu commands anymore.  couldn't /guildsay or /shout nothing.</p><p>Restarted the game hoping to fix THAT problem and now I've attempted to log in multipple times only to come to the character select screen (even when logging directly to a character) and be told Nagafen is down.  When it's back up, I try to log to a character and it says I can't be found.</p><p>Try going directly to CS, and same problem.  Servers down and then my characters can't be found.  Gotta love it on a raid night.</p>

[CovetableSquid]

<p>Also Broker lag is horrible too.</p>

[Kkolbe]

<p><cite>CovetableSquid wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I will say you are not a dummy.  Our whole guild is having trouble zoning.  Everyone but a few get stuck recieving zone info.  If you log out and back in you find that the server is offline then that message under your toons disappears but only 4 characters are there.  Then if you try to log on a toon - its not found.  The only way yuou can then get into the game is by logging directly into character.</p><p>This is a real problem.  SOE do not dismiss this as everything looks fine on this end.  Please fix it.</p></blockquote><p>It seemed like half the people on the Nagafen server were talking about these exact problems tonight(plus the broker lag problems too, general lag, and some other wierd stuff).</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>trace42 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Ahhh yes, I'm the dummy here. Isn't that always the case.</p><p>Go look at my recent ticket, and look at the academic responses I received from your "Technicians". I had to ask for a tier 3 tech, just so he could comprehend the problem.</p><p>First response from "Customer Service" was: "You need to update your video driver and/or check your port forwards." That was funny. And it just went on and on at a computer lesson level 101.</p><p>Look, my connections are fine, my router is fine, my OS is fine, everything is fine.</p><p>What you need to do is actually play on the server from a non-local address and see for yourself. OR, just poll the audience.</p></blockquote><p>Greetings,</p><p>I will certainly get a better connection than most since I only live about 5 miles from the server but I haven't had any issues with my connection.  Keep in mind that this is the technical support area of the forums and we are only here to help people troubleshoot problems with their computers.  I don't mean to insult your computer or connection, but if you are posting here then it is assumed you need connection help.</p><p>Also, I'm not sure what you mean when you say you spoke with a tier 3 technician since we only have 2 tiers.  Either way, if you would like any help with your connection then I will need you to post some of the information I have requested.  If you are not interested in technical support then you would be better served using the /bug or /feedback commands from within the game.</p>

[Duotang]

<p>Is it still a client based issue?  LOL.</p>

[Wingrider01]

<p><cite>trace42 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Is it still a client based issue?  LOL.</p></blockquote><p>Connection issues that affect a very small percentage of end users are normally 80 percent end user issues. 10 percent isp providers, 7 percent backbone issues and 3 percent target server issues. So primarily, yes, you are correct it is a problem in either the CPE equipment or the ISP/Backbone.</p><p>Have not seen any details of the internet connection in question, so it is kind of hard to attempt any help. Tracerts to the various servers in question would be a good first step in trying to resolve you issue. Played for 8 hours yesterday with little issue in the way of network connectivity and latency.  </p>

[Terreciel]

<p>There are multiple threads in the Support Forums documenting these problems complete with stack dumps. This is happening to hundreds if not thousands of people, so I doubt that we are ALL simultaneously having connections issues at the same time, considering that people run eq from all over the world using different ISPs, computer configurations, etc. Here are the current major problems, which seem to be affecting primarily the Nagafen server (I also play on Unrest and haven't run into the same problems there):</p><p>1. Extreme loading times, from logging in to zoning. Extreme = 5 or more minutes, up to 90 minutes to zone (as mentioned in another thread). Often this causes crashing out of the game.</p><p>2. Extremely long NPC transaction times. Not only broker taking up to 15 minutes to complete a single transaction, but now including all Guild Hall amenities such as harvesters, crafting worktables, and banker. This can cause crashing to the loading screen.</p><p>3. Upon changing characters, a bug that causes not all of the characters to show on the character select screen. Nagafen characters say that the server is down. Clicking on one of those characters causes the game to crash out immediately. This has been well documenter (pages and pages) in another thread in the support forum.</p><p>I suggest that you support folk get together and read all the forums. Or try logging on to the Nagafen server (which seems to be having the worst problem) and listen to Level 1-9 chat for half an hour. This is a very real problem that has been ongoing for weeks with no resolution from Sony.</p><p>Furthermore, many of your players have significant experience in software development, testing, IT configuration and maintenance, and so on. It's insulting that you assume that we don't know what we're talking about and/or haven't tried numerous ways to fix this ourselves before turning to you.</p>