abepatch.station.sony.com and laepatch.station.sony.com

[eohprod]

<p>Hello;</p><p>I'm wondering if anyone can explain something for me.</p><p>On my computer, even when I am not playing EverQuest 2, when it's closed and not running, a svchost process is connecting to abepatch1.station.sony.com, abepatch2.station.sony.com, abepatch3.station.sony.com, abepatch4.station.sony.com, laepatch1.station.sony.com, laepatch2.station.sony.com, laepatch3.station.sony.com, or laepatch4.station.sony.com.</p><p>It continuously uses between 500Kbit/s and 1.5mbit/s of my bandwidth, and appears to be downstream traffic.</p><p>I'd like to know:</p><p>1: What is it dowloading- I've fully patched the game from the launcher and have background download DISABLED.</p><p>2: Why does it continue to run in the background even after I've left the game and closed the client?</p><p>3. Why does it not stop- the only way I can stop it is to close the connection via TCP View about 16 times until it stops trying to reconnect, or reboot (even after which, it will sometimes reconnect WITHOUT ME LAUNCHING THE CLIENT anyway.</p><p>4: Why does it sometimes run in the background, after a reboot, when I have never even launched the EverQuest 2 client in that windows session?</p><p>5: Why, even when NOT PLAYING THE GAME, when I close the connection, does it CONTINUE to respawn these connections?</p><p>Please see the attached screenshots:</p><p>1: Here, you can see the TCPView- be assured the EQ2 client is CLOSED and has been CLOSED for many hours.</p><p><img src="http://www.eohonline.com/download/eq1.JPG" width="767" height="496" /></p><p>2: Here, you can see a network graph showing utilization- be assured there are NO other applications using the connection at this time:</p><p><img src="http://www.eohonline.com/download/eq2.JPG" width="113" height="102" /></p><p>3: Here, you can see what happens when I use TCPView to close the connection to abepatch4.station.sony.com- it closes, and reopens under a new thread:</p><p><img src="http://www.eohonline.com/download/eq4.JPG" width="771" height="498" /></p><p>4: When I CAN actually get the thing to stay disconnected, see what happens?</p><p><img src="http://www.eohonline.com/download/eq5.JPG" width="118" height="101" /></p><p>My usages drops to idle levels and STAYS that way.</p><p>So, I'd really like a response from the devs/support personnel as to why this has been happening, what it's downloading, and why.</p><p>Oh, and just out of idle curiosity, I'd like to know why this process bypasses Windows HOSTS resolution to make this connection?  I've added all of those hosts (ie. abepatch1.station.sony.com, abepatch2.station.sony.com, abepatch3.station.sony.com, abepatch4.station.sony.com, laepatch1.station.sony.com, laepatch2.station.sony.com, laepatch3.station.sony.com, or laepatch4.station.sony.com) to my Windows HOSTS file in order to resolve them to 127.0.0.1 and avoid this constant bandwidth usage, but the connection appears to be made anyway, which tells me that there is some kind of internal resolution happening that bypasses Windows.</p><p>I'd like some explanations, please!</p><p>Jason</p>

[Wingrider01]

<p>Sounds like you have the option set to patch the game even when you are offline, it will establish a connection to the patch servers and check for updates, believe it uses the microsoft  BITS transfer service which automagicly restarts teh transfer if there is an error or loss of connection</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>It isn't unusual for the game to download updates in the background while playing.  It shouldn't be connecting to our servers if the station launcher is closed, though.  We usually don't see that sort of thing unless an antivirus is doing something strange to the launcher.  I have seen several cases where an antivirus tries to quarantine the game and causes erratic behaviour of the kind you are reporting.</p><p>Finally, it might be a good idea to power cycle your modem/router/computer as well.  It's possible that one of those is maintaining a connection for some reason.</p>