VOICE CHAT NOT WORKING

[Sehk]

Rothgar, I, and I'm sure many others with broken VC appreciate your recent responses here.

Despite still being frustrated at the unavailability of VC, it's good to finally get a very clear picture of your awareness of, and intentions to repair this issue.

So again, I wish you speed in finding the solutions, and hope that you can spare a moment here and there to update us as time wears on. Thanks.

[Pusska]

Rothgar wrote:

Yes, I understand and we were having discussions today about how to better improve our processes for hearing these issues and reacting to them faster.  When I said not all issues were found during "QA or Testing", I was referring to our internal testing, not the Test Server.  Getting the feedback from players on the test server and into the hands of the dev team is something we can improve on.  Each issue needs to be confirmed by QA before the dev team starts chasing their tails and when the issue is very specific to a hardware of software configuration, its very difficult to get a solid repro case in the hands of a developer.

A bit OT but YES! I hope that this means the feedback from players on test will finally be heard as it has letting us down for quite some time. In fact I very rarely log onto test these days because even when everyone screams something is not working, it is not often recognised or acted upon. I also know some people who would like to help on test but that is the key reason they will not do it. Big thumbs up to looking into that process.

Another thumbs up for telling us what is going on too Rothgar. I know you guys are copping some heat over this issue but it is really nice to a) have someone recognise the problem and b) tell us what is happening and what we need to do.

It would be nice to see this posted somewhere in the game notes, welcome screen or motd though. Not all people read the forums.

And yes ... the exact problem that people are having in voice seems to vary. I can't get in at all. I occasionally get an error but not all the time. Gus can log in occasionally but usually gets booted and it is very variable. Another player can hear others but not talk ... it's truly bizarre. I hope you guys get it sorted soon though because I miss my guildies

[Cabel]

Rothgar, Thanks for responding to this post. What do you think the issue is if my Troubador can use voice chat, but not my Shadowknight? I even opened the UI of my SK in wordpad, deleted the text, and copied my Troubador's UI into it.

[Kordran]

Rothgar wrote:

Kordran wrote:

Rothgar wrote:

Sorry, the devs are all busy fixing bugs instead of reading the forums. 

We are aware of the problems and working on them.  Its an unfortunate side of software that not everything gets found in QA or Testing.

The problem, of course, is that people on Test were telling you that voice chat was broken, just as they were telling you that instances were screwed up and locking people out of them. And yet, out went GU52 with these issues.

So, I'm sorry, but the argument that this problem wasn't found in QA or player testing simply is not accurate. Now, maybe it wasn't something you weren't able to reproduce reliably, I don't know. But you guys had to know that there were problems, heck people were posting about it on the testing forums for quite a while.

Yes, I understand and we were having discussions today about how to better improve our processes for hearing these issues and reacting to them faster.  When I said not all issues were found during "QA or Testing", I was referring to our internal testing, not the Test Server.  Getting the feedback from players on the test server and into the hands of the dev team is something we can improve on.  Each issue needs to be confirmed by QA before the dev team starts chasing their tails and when the issue is very specific to a hardware of software configuration, its very difficult to get a solid repro case in the hands of a developer.

If the end result of all this is a better flow of information from player testers (on Test and Test Copy) to the development team, then I guess the inconvenience is worth it in the balance of things. I just hope that you're actually going to take some solid steps in this direction -- I know a lot of people who test copy and/or play on the test server feel like they're /bugging and /feedbacking into a blackhole. That goes on long enough, and you just stop bothering. And when that happens, we're all negatively affected by it.

[Mikkahl]

OK, I have made some progress.  Removing my software wirefall and anti-virus, and bypassing my hardware router/firewall, did not help.  Still no ability to connect to any voice channel.

All that was left was some firewall on my neighbor's side (my neighbor is my ISP - splitting a T1 line with 20+ customers).  I forwarded to him the port instructions from last years sticky (since I never got an answer here on whether these ports are still valid after GU52):

> . Incoming UDP ports 3478, 5060,5062

> . Outgoing TCP port 80 and 443

> . All destination UDP ports 12000-16000

He says he did that on his firewall, and now I am able to connect to voice chat on one computer.  But the other computer and trying to connect with Group or Raid chat from either was still problematic.  Or I might get in a channel then get kicked out some time later.

Now I have found that I have to disable and re-enable voice chat (from the VC Options) and then try to connect to a new channel, and that usually works.   This is true for both computers (the one that has anti-virus software, and the one that does not).   I keep a copy of Windows Task Manager open all the time, so that I can make sure I don't get multiple copies of the EQ2VoiceService.exe process running at the same time.

Still hoping for some help from SoE / Vivox on making voice chat more reliable and stable.

[Zorastiz]

Mikkahl wrote:

OK, I have made some progress.  Removing my software wirefall and anti-virus, and bypassing my hardware router/firewall, did not help.  Still no ability to connect to any voice channel.

All that was left was some firewall on my neighbor's side (my neighbor is my ISP - splitting a T1 line with 20+ customers).  I forwarded to him the port instructions from last years sticky (since I never got an answer here on whether these ports are still valid after GU52):

> . Incoming UDP ports 3478, 5060,5062

> . Outgoing TCP port 80 and 443

> . All destination UDP ports 12000-16000

He says he did that on his firewall, and now I am able to connect to voice chat on one computer.  But the other computer and trying to connect with Group or Raid chat from either was still problematic.  Or I might get in a channel then get kicked out some time later.

Now I have found that I have to disable and re-enable voice chat (from the VC Options) and then try to connect to a new channel, and that usually works.   This is true for both computers (the one that has anti-virus software, and the one that does not).   I keep a copy of Windows Task Manager open all the time, so that I can make sure I don't get multiple copies of the EQ2VoiceService.exe process running at the same time.

Still hoping for some help from SoE / Vivox on making voice chat more reliable and stable.

As am I, and sorry to ask but is it possible for a detailed explanation as to how to do this in my router? I can get in etc just not sure how to set these ports up and or where exactly for that matter.

[Dethdlr]

Rothgar wrote:

Yes, we do know there are people that cannot connect.  I play almost every evening and I'm in a guild with 40+ members.  Of those members I'm seeing almost every permutation of voice issue out there.  We have a couple of people who cannot connect at all.  We have some that occasionally get booted out of the channel.  We have some whose devices keep getting reset and can either hear and can't speak or vice versa.  I'm also aware that some people are seeing crashes of the voice service.

Personally, I started having issues on my home computer this evening where I was getting booted from the guild channel in the middle of the raid.  Sort of makes it difficult to MT and communicate with the raid so I certainly understand.

I tweaked with some of my own firewall and client settings until I found a combination that seemed to fix my problem.  But when I tried to work with several of our members who weren't able to get into the channel at all, my fixes didn't help them.

Is this a top priority for us?  Yes, it certainly is.  However, there are some issues we have control over and some that we don't.  As I stated before, we are working with Vivox on all of these issues to get them resolved ASAP.  While combinations of software and hardware can cause different problems for different people, it doesn't mean we need everyone to send us their hardware info.  Fortunately we have a lot of logging on our end and on the voice server side that helps us to see what is going on.  The fix for the problem will almost certainly be a software change on our end, and not something that you have to change on your computer to make it work.  So unfortunately that means there isn't much you can do until we have the fixes completed and rolled out.

We are all very sorry for the inconveniences because we understand how important voice communication is to gameplay.  We also know that you guys took a leap of faith by using our voice chat over the other third-party apps out there.  We are trying our best to fix these issues as fast as we can and in the end we hope to meet our goal of having a better voice service through the improvements we've been making over the past few months.

Thank you so much for the info Rothgar.  This is exactly what we needed to know.  Although some tweaks to network configurations "might" get some people working, it's not the ultimate fix.  The ultimate fix is going to be something on the server end that is outside of our control.  Now that we know that, we can simply sit back and wait for the patch, rather than scurrying around trying to figure out what we can do on our end.

Thanks again!

[Mikkahl]

Zorastiz@Antonia Bayle wrote:

As am I, and sorry to ask but is it possible for a detailed explanation as to how to do this in my router? I can get in etc just not sure how to set these ports up and or where exactly for that matter.

Sorry, I just handed the information off as stated to my ISP guy, and he did whatever he did on his firewall.  I have no idea what kind of firewall he has, or how it was done.

I too would like detailed instructions about how to set this up on a DLink router, although it doesn't seem to be necessary for me.

[Jarnhand]

Jarnhand wrote:

Jarnhand wrote:

Voice chat not working here either.  I get into the channel and no one is home.  Then it boots me from the channel.  Firewall settings seem fine.  The EQ voice program has permission to pass the firewall. 

Windows XP SP3.  Linksys Model No BEFSX41 V2.1.

Update.  I updated the router firmware to version 1.52.15.  No help there.

Another update.  Nothing new here.  I still cannot connect to voice channels.   I am on a broadband connection and my ISP is Charter of Tennessee.

[direflyazure]

I tried all the port fixes and firewall fixes to no avail.

What worked for me was upgrading the firmware on my Netgear router.

[Yerma]

Like many others my VC stopped working last update. I traced the problem to my Comodo firewall detecting and blocking fragmented and malformed data packets:

UDP packet length and size on the wire (1557 bytes) do not match

plus

Fragmented IP packets are not allowed.

The problem is likely down to most firewalls, routers etc have a max MTU of 1500 and VC is using larger packets (1557). The messages are being broken up and somewhere getting blocked. In my case I went into Comodo's Advanced Detection and PreventionMiscellaneous Tab and unchecked:

Block fragmented IP datagrams

Do protocol analysis

VC works fine now. I guess people need to check their MTU settings and fragmented packet blocking in their firewalls ans routers.

[Eldooberino]

I have NEVER had to open any ports on my router in order for voice to work. Also, as of last night in raid I had zero problem with voice. Of course I don't try to listen to music or download torrents while I am playing, and I definitely don't have any spyware or latent viruses/worms on my system, and I defrag and clean my registry every week or so. Just my experience here...my only problem is my Mic is really cheap so I sound like I'm in a hole in the ground 

Have Fun!

Barz

[Jaylah]

Well I don't try to listen to music or download torrents while I am playing, and I definitely don't have any spyware or latent viruses/worms on my system, and I defrag and clean my registry every week or so.  And I still can't get in at all. 

[Yerma]

HELLO GUYS!

WAKE UP A LITTLE! When I posted the problem - packet size on the VC was > 1500. I was saying that the VC app had a HUGE BUG. VC shouldnt be sending packets > 1500. Most of the internet isnt built to handle this.

Having ppl say it's your routers, firewall, etc wont help. Bottom line - VC needs to be fixed. And needs to operate with packets < 1500 bytes in size and not the 1557 it seems to operate.

[Tiegar]

Well, this certainly is a HOT topic   For those who haven't done so, I would suggest reading Rothgars posts where in he indicates they are aware of the problem and are working on it.  He also indicates that the solution will be something they do rather than something each player will have to do, that is to say, you don't need to restructure your system to make it work like it use to, SoE will fix it, so I suggest being patient, and enjoy the silence for a little while longer. 

Complaining, or repeatedly telling them what they already know, isn't going to make it get fixed faster, only going to irriate you and them more than you and they (SoE) already are.

I know, I was looking for a solution that I could do, but the proplem isn't on my side (to use a sports analogy,) of the playing field, it is on theirs, so since the ball is on their side of the field, we have to wait for them to hit it back.

Consider, 10 years from now, or even 1 year from now, if you are still talking about how they took so long to fix this, etc. you may want to consider putting your focus somewhere else that is more productive.  More likely, in 10 years you will have completely forgotten about this, and found something else to be concerned about.

Rawl

[Rothgar]

Yerma wrote:

Like many others my VC stopped working last update. I traced the problem to my Comodo firewall detecting and blocking fragmented and malformed data packets:

UDP packet length and size on the wire (1557 bytes) do not match

plus

Fragmented IP packets are not allowed.

The problem is likely down to most firewalls, routers etc have a max MTU of 1500 and VC is using larger packets (1557). The messages are being broken up and somewhere getting blocked. In my case I went into Comodo's Advanced Detection and PreventionMiscellaneous Tab and unchecked:

Block fragmented IP datagrams

Do protocol analysis

VC works fine now. I guess people need to check their MTU settings and fragmented packet blocking in their firewalls ans routers.

Thats very interesting information.  I can see where this would certainly cause problems for some people.  I'll pass this data along first thing Monday morning.

[SilentlyHe]

I am not 100% convinced its just the routers or firewalls that are causing the problem, I have lost most access to VC aswell but I can still get it to work by making some minor changes to the VC option screen in game.

I have a USB headset and mic.

In the VC options screen I change the setting to the onboard settings run the test mic tool (i dont have onboard mic) then change them back to my headset run the check mic again,  it sates its unable to find my head set or its not working.

After making these changes I am able to use VC. 

This has only happend after the update.

[bacu]

Rothgar wrote:

Yerma wrote:

Like many others my VC stopped working last update. I traced the problem to my Comodo firewall detecting and blocking fragmented and malformed data packets:

UDP packet length and size on the wire (1557 bytes) do not match

plus

Fragmented IP packets are not allowed.

The problem is likely down to most firewalls, routers etc have a max MTU of 1500 and VC is using larger packets (1557). The messages are being broken up and somewhere getting blocked. In my case I went into Comodo's Advanced Detection and PreventionMiscellaneous Tab and unchecked:

Block fragmented IP datagrams

Do protocol analysis

VC works fine now. I guess people need to check their MTU settings and fragmented packet blocking in their firewalls ans routers.

Thats very interesting information.  I can see where this would certainly cause problems for some people.  I'll pass this data along first thing Monday morning.

I also run Commodo and tried this setting change and Voice Chat now works fine.

[Babayaaga]

My Netgear Router will not allow you to make the size of the MTU larger than 1500. Nice find... but no fix in my case.

[Pusska]

Ok well as of yesterday - I have managed to get into voice TWICE which was a minor miracle as I have not been able to get on at all since the GU. So whatever you guys are doing ... keep it up.

Both of those times though it took a really long time to actually get in. The first time it happened I had been on that character for hours just sitting in the channel. I had gone afk and made dinner, put my boy into bed, came back and then BAM all the users in voice chat appeared and I could hear/talk just fine.

Today I was sitting in the chan again with 0 users and BAM happened again. Everyone just 'appeared'. It probably took 10-15 minutes for it to kick in today. But the minute I switch characters it is gone again and I haven't had it come back yet

Still ... I just wanted to report that some progress has been made. With me at least.

*EDIT ... I switched characters, no voice, and then only a few minutes later the people in chan appeared. It really does seem to be getting better.

[bumford007]

Are they still looking into this. I still cant connect to any channels and when I send a /petition the GM bassically sounds like they pointing everything to my side saying i need to Open up ports and such on my router. I tell them i did that and now im waiting on a response from them. Sounds like they're washing their hands of it, just want to know if that is where they are heading or still looking into things..

[Pusska]

The GMs never seem to know what is going on ... with this particular issue I would ignore them if they carry on with that nonsense and wait for SOE to fix

[Hakeem]

The MTU idea may be a fix but unfortunately like above I cannot change my routers mtu above 1500

/bump same issue the mic works fine can do in game tests and everything but cant join voice chat channels (even in my own groups and guild) 

Problem didnt arise till the patch.

**Specs

Windows Vista Ultimate x64 *up to date patches*

Dlink Router WBR-2310

Core I7 920

12gb RAM

8800GTS

X-fi Xtreme Music

-Mal

[hoppopo]

Rothgar wrote:

Gorlothe@Guk wrote:

Sehk wrote:

Toryn wrote:

I know SOE is apparently "aware" of this, but c'mon...this is shoddy QA.  The whole "we can't find everything" is great...but when it's this crummy I'm sorry, they knew.  This was most likely signed off on as an "acceptable" fallout percentage.  Just roll it back to the old voice chat and call it good please!

You're absolutely correct about SOE being aware of this issue pre-GU52, but rolling it out anyway. This thread in the In Testing forum demonstrates: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=452712

i have come to the conclusion that they hit compile and if they get no errors, its good to ship, sad it has come to this, but its starting to look true.

no testing needed since it compiled with no errors right?

Despite the problems, voice chat is working for the majority of people.  I imagine that during our QA they just didn't encounter any of the issues that some of the players are having.  Its very dificult for us to replicate every possible hardware and software configuration out there.  And this isn't to say that the problem is your fault, but sometimes bugs only manifest themselves on certain configurations.

Also keep in mind that the voice service is made up of two parts, the client software that is under our control, and the voice servers that are not under our control.  In addition to the changes we are making, Vivox is also making (and doing their own QA) on their voice servers.

We are aware that there are still issues and we are working with Vivox to get them resolved as soon as possible. I can assure you that we want them fixed as bad as you do.

Just curious if there can be an eta provided.  Is this a weeks issue or days issue.

[Mikkahl]

Mikkahl wrote:

OK, I have made some progress.  Removing my software wirefall and anti-virus, and bypassing my hardware router/firewall, did not help.  Still no ability to connect to any voice channel.

All that was left was some firewall on my neighbor's side (my neighbor is my ISP - splitting a T1 line with 20+ customers).  I forwarded to him the port instructions from last years sticky (since I never got an answer here on whether these ports are still valid after GU52):

> . Incoming UDP ports 3478, 5060,5062

> . Outgoing TCP port 80 and 443

> . All destination UDP ports 12000-16000

He says he did that on his firewall, and now I am able to connect to voice chat on one computer.  But the other computer and trying to connect with Group or Raid chat from either was still problematic.  Or I might get in a channel then get kicked out some time later.

Now I have found that I have to disable and re-enable voice chat (from the VC Options) and then try to connect to a new channel, and that usually works.   This is true for both computers (the one that has anti-virus software, and the one that does not).   I keep a copy of Windows Task Manager open all the time, so that I can make sure I don't get multiple copies of the EQ2VoiceService.exe process running at the same time.

Still hoping for some help from SoE / Vivox on making voice chat more reliable and stable.

I just got a correction from my ISP (neighbor): "I made you a DMZ zone. No protection at all."  So apparently he didn't mess with implementing the individual port numbers above.   (I still have a firewall on my DLink 825, but we have set nothing special there.  Still pretty much at factory default).

I still have to disable/re-enable Voice Chat, (and sometimes delete an extra EQ2VoiceService.exe process or it crashes). to get connected to a channel.  I have to do it again if I try to change channels or characters.  Or maybe it's just waiting awhile (like another posted noted).

[SilkenKidden]

Rothgar wrote:

Yerma wrote:

Like many others my VC stopped working last update. I traced the problem to my Comodo firewall detecting and blocking fragmented and malformed data packets:

UDP packet length and size on the wire (1557 bytes) do not match

plus

Fragmented IP packets are not allowed.

The problem is likely down to most firewalls, routers etc have a max MTU of 1500 and VC is using larger packets (1557). The messages are being broken up and somewhere getting blocked. In my case I went into Comodo's Advanced Detection and PreventionMiscellaneous Tab and unchecked:

Block fragmented IP datagrams

Do protocol analysis

VC works fine now. I guess people need to check their MTU settings and fragmented packet blocking in their firewalls ans routers.

Thats very interesting information.  I can see where this would certainly cause problems for some people.  I'll pass this data along first thing Monday morning.

Will we get a progress report?  Can we expect this to be resolved this week?  Do you think disconnecting the router will solve the problem.  Or should we leave the router set up but disable the firewall (i.e. Norton 2009 or Windows)?  Or both? 

I've read a lot of notes here with people suggesting we do something with router ports.  I am vaguely familiar with that but it would be a real headache to get into.  And I'm afraid I'd just make things worse by trying.  Should I be trying to solve this?  Please tell me that much better qualified people at SOE and Vivox will come up with all the answers we need (soon?).

Is there anything we, the silent users, can do to give you more information about the problem? (Sheesh, I knew there was a lot of pre-GU ranting about the RAs, but I didn't think you'd have the Research Assistants actually stifle us.      )

[steoff]

My router will not allow me to change the settings mentioned above.  In order to lead a raid this weekend, i simply hooked my pc directly to the dsl modem and VC worked fine.  So if you have to get VC working for something, this might work for you.  I do have my PC set as a DMZ, but that does not seem to help.

[Tobann]

I dont know if it helps, but I can join my guild VC when not grouped. If Im in a group or raid I cant enter any VC channels at all. If it were a router wouldnt that be a problem whether I was solo or grouped?

Buaf

[Jarnhand]

Wow, it's coming up on the one week mark.  One week... and  I am still deaf and dumb in voice chat.  Can a company rep share some news?

[Mikkahl]

Now that I have the ISP firewall at "DMZ" (whatever that means), and my voice chat is somewhat working (even though I have to disable/re-enable vc every time I change channels or toons), I am seeing even more blocked incoming and outgoing packets in my DLink 825 firewall log.  In fact, while I am playing the game, my log is getting full every 10-15 minutes with all these log messages.  I used whois to determing the domain name for these IP addresses, and the most frequent ones stand out:

64.34.14.30  - mpx4a.vivox.com70.42.62.15  - ser5sb.vivox.com70.42.62.102 - ast5a.vivox.com70.42.62.154 - lb5-www-e2p.vivox.com74.201.99.118 - no domain name (Vivox)

As you can see, they all relate to Vivox in some way.  Does anybody (preferably anyone from SoE) think I should explicitly allow these IP address in my firewall, and perhaps see some improvement in my voice chat reliability?