VOICE CHAT NOT WORKING

[SilkenKidden]

Cabel wrote:

My issue:

I cannot join voice channels, custom or group, with my Shadowknight.  I can create them all day long, but not join them.

My Troubador can both join and create any channel and I can speak and hear anybody just fine.

Two different characters, two different voice chat outcomes.

My settings:

Windows Vista and no firewall.

Firewall on McCafee has full access granted to EQ2 and all related files, including the voice chat file.

I have a Lynksis router.

What do I do?

Wolffe

Now that is strange.  Are you running the same account on the same computer? 

[JadeNova]

Voice chat for me shows a green talk button but when I press to talk it says I am not in channel. It has worked fine for ages but the patch several days ago broke it.

It says this is a support forum what I would like to know is at what point do we get SOME SUPPORT!!!!

Seriously people knock WOW a lot but blizzard would have fixed this on the day and their support would be giving constant feedback to those that are struggling. Customer support here is severely lacking.

There are even reports in game of customer support telling people voice is fine and it is their pc's that are broke! I'm sorry but that is so wrong. YOU BROKE IT SOE, don't blame us, get it fixed and for goodness sake give us some feed back about what you did wrong and when you are gonna fix it.

[Toryn]

Ooh, ooh, me too, me too!

I'd RATHER not be included, but jot me down as another disabled EQ2 voice user.  It will work for a little while (2 minutes or so), and then I can't hear anyone.  If I leave the channel and come back...don't see anyone in the channel and I can't hear them or talk to them.  On an interesting side note, if I stop the voice chat and restart it will work...sometimes.

HOWEVER!!!  If you do this, you'll pick up another "EQ2VoiceService.exe" process...that you can NOT stop.  Oh Windows says you can stop it, but guess what...you can't.  And it happily chews up resources.

I first figured this out when EQ2 crashed nicely to desktop after logging in with the new voice chat...and I could hear my guildies still talking from my Windows Desktop...WITHOUT being in the game.  I checked my Processes and low and behold, the "EQ2VoiceService.exe" was still going.  Of course I tried to end it and found I couldn't without a restart of the system.

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!

[Pusska]

Still no change in voice chat at my end, every channel I join states 0 users and that is that.

When I go into my voice settings, I have the green writing saying 'Windows shows your mic to be properly configured' but hitting the record button, or the test mic button do nothing. I don't know if this is the ONLY problem, it might only be part of the problem, but obviously EQ2 is having issues with the mic setup itself.

I run windows xp pro if that helps any.

[Taliskyr]

Voice Chat still not working for me either. Empty channels. No users. Can't get invited to private channels. Not a firewall issue.

[hmfr]

Voice chat has worked fine for me since the begining. After the MM update I had to change my firewall settings to allow the new eq2service in order for vchat to work.

After the last hotfix I can not connect to the voice chat any more. I rechecked all my settings, tried turning off firewall etc., will not work at all no one else in the my guild seems to have the problem. I even tried a full file scan.

Whatever was done please undo it so it will work again.

Running winxp

[Sehk]

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

[woolco]

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?

[Jgok]

I'm having some issues with VC, but nothing as serious as some of the other posters here.

My Setup: 2 computers running 2 accounts,connected through a cheapo "Network Everywhere" router (with port forwarding set up correctly), and running WinXP Home. Windows Firewall is disabled. The primary computer has VC turned on, secondary computer has VC turned off. I get the same result if I switch VC to my secondary computer.

I can log in to VC fine, and I actually stay in VC for a couple of hours at least. After 2-3 hours, though, the VC session drops me to channel "None." I'm usually able to reconnect to group or guild VC after 10-20 seconds, but the drops start coming progressively more often, until I get the "(VC Filename) has encountered an error" popup. After that, no VC at all unless I close the game out and restart from the launcher.

I get the same result if I disable the firewall on the router. I've turned off my antivirus, Spybot's TeaTimer program, and anything else running in the background. I even disconnected the computers from the router and ran one comp directly through the modem, same problem, even with everything disabled there too.

I'm able to work around it by restarting the game after I get booted the first time, but that's not always practical. If, for example, I'm tanking an instance and it starts to happen, the group is limited to slower, inefficient communication from that point forward. Additionally, the "has encountered an error" screen always seems to decide to pop up right when I've just pulled something big and nasty, freezing my comp for a few seconds while it switches to windowed mode to tell me something I already knew.

Hopefully it'll be fixed soon, but until then, I'll work with what I have.

[Rothgar]

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.

[SilkenKidden]

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.

Now I'm confused.  How can I find out if the problem is with Vivox.  Can we send feedback to them?  What can I do to fix the problem? 

 I cannot enter my guild's voice channel. If I press my "talk" key (L ctrl) I get message that I'm not in a channel. I can't enter voice and I can't enter any custom channel.  I have clicked accept on invitations to join custom channels but can't enter them.  Sometimes I see a message that I have left a channel that I didn't know I was ever in since none show.

I am running Norton 2009.  I checked the firewall program list.    I changed EQ2VoiceServices from auto to allow.  That didn't help.  Control panel shows that the Norton firewall is up, not the Windows firewall. 

In Windows Task Manager under Processes I see EQ2VoiceServices with 0 CPU and 7508 K memory.   Everquest2 itself is using CPU.  Is there anything unders Task Manager Services that I can check? 

Can I look for anything specific in Event Viewer?  What?

I see in the next post that someone said he disconnected his router (plugged ethernet directly into the modem).  Will that make VC work in game again?  I really don't want to disable my router just to test this and then find out it didn't help.

[woolco]

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.

you guys clearly fail to see the problem here, vc was a reliable system for guilds that did not have access to vent servers etc, you were informed well ahead of time that more then half the games community that did test on the test server were not able to use voice any more, but the update was pushed through anyways, now guilds that relied on ingame voice as a source of communication are screwed.

im quite sure also that a few guilds actually canned vent/ts servers in favor of the ingame voice chat, since it was pretty similar to ventrilo, sound quality was good, you never got dropped, and if you did get dropped it was because you lost connection to the game server.

since this update went out, ingame voice is no longer a reliable communication tool.

this update should not have been pushed through, you should have held it back till both sides vivox and sony, had resolved the issues, instead of forcing the update to live servers, knowing that half of the community would not be able to use the system any more. and im pretty sure its more then half, since more then half of people in the guild i am in can not use the system either, those that can actually get into a channel to chat, eventually get kicked out, and sound quality is extremely choppy.

this also has nothing to do with any part of the software crashing(client or serverside), i unplug my ethernet from  the router and directly into my modem and it works fine, but i should not have to do this since it was working fine a week ago, if i leave my connection going through the router, i get nothing, cant even join a channel.

[Te'ana]

There is a sticky post up above made about a year ago that acknowledges VC will not work if someone is dual-boxing on the same machine. VC would only allow one account per machine to be active.

It appears that many of the people posting here have routers, which would imply they have multiple computers running.  Perhaps that is the heart of the issue. VC was not happy when multiple accounts ran on the same computer and now that VC is sitting outside EQ2 it is not happy with multiple computers logged onto the internet. That could be why VC works for some people when they play directly from their modem which would imply no conflict with multiple computers.

It may be time to relook at the dual-boxing issue which has apparently been ignored for the last year.

[Mikkahl]

I bypassed my router by plugging directly into my "modem equivalent"  (a high-speed wireless transceiver).  This means that only one computer could have have access to the internet (hard-coded IP address).  This did NOT help the voice chat problem.  Still 0 users and "You are not in a channel" on talk.  So please don't divert this into "only a 2-boxing problem" or "only a router problem".

[Rijacki]

I have EQ2voiceservice.exe as one of my explicit exceptions.

To get voice chat working last night: I had to disable my firewall completely (AVG), change channel to the one I want, confirm it works (just key-press and not getting the 'you're not in channel' was enough), re-enable my firewall, and then return to the game. This leads me to wonder if the channel joining is being done with a different, and thus far unnamed, application.

I was the only one in the house playing EQ2 last night (my boyfriend was doing computer repair work for a client and then playing SIMS3), so it had nothing to do with any conflict on the router.

Oh.. and eq2voiceservice.exe crashed this morning right after I launched the game. *shrug*

[Toryn]

Well...last I checked 60% is a majority over 40% so, it's all good if 60% can use it, right?

 

Okay, that was a cheap shot...on to more useful data since my last anguished laced post.

 

 

Routers!  In my most humblest opinion...no.  Why do I say no?  Well...take my case for example.  I'm behind a router.  "Eureka!" you say, that's the problem!!!

 

 

No....

 

 

My wife's system is behind the same router and on her system it's 100% fine with the in-game voice chat.  She doesn't experience the lock ups, the weird "EQ2voice" process that dies and I'm not able to stop (I've taken to calling it the newest virus, but I digress).

 

So if it's not the router, something MUST be wrong with my hardware right?

 

No....

 

I've not changed any hardware for 2 years, and the only software changes I've done are Windows updates and general driver updates of which on the video card has been most recent.  And all of those changes have taken place place way before the problem had surfaced.  The only change that has taken place that coincides with the issues with Voice Chat (at least for me!) is the update that SoE just rolled out.

 

So let's look at the difference between my system and my wife's system.  We both run Vista and pretty much the same hardware except the chassis, power supply, I have a 8800GTX, she has a 8800GTS, and I have a sound card.

 

A sound card...a Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer sound card.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most folks don't use a sound card...and thus a "majority" of folks don't have an issue with the voice chat.  Say only 40% of people have a sound card?  Okay, sorry, another cheap shot.

 

So what I did was log into EQ2, crash with a lock up, restart my computer, log back into EQ2, and disable the in-game voice chat.  This was followed by ANOTHER restart as the stupid EQ2voice process decided not to end upon exiting EQ2...and wouldn't let me end it.  I logged back into the game (a few hours later from the start of my evening) were able to help our friends (new to EQ2 btw) get through some dungeony type fun.  Thank goodness we kept our vent server from before.

 

So yes, basically my fix is to disable the voice system and use vent.  Which is sad because before this "upgrade" the voice system was hands down the BEST in game chat system I've seen.  Oh, and my friends that we just got to start playing...they had trouble with the voice system too.  Don't expect them to post in the forums though, even though they play EQ2, they're not much for tinkering with forums, fiddling with PC settings, and the like.  They did exit EQ2 and restart it to get the voice to work for a while...and then complained about a loss in performance.  I tried to explain the whole hung process (EQ2voice) to them, but...it was easier to just have them kill it in the game and restart their computers.

 

I will religiously watch the note updates to see if/when this gets fixed, but alas and alack, the in game voice system is no longer something I can use when I try and endorse EQ2 to my friends and co-workers.  Now if you excuse me I have about 8 or so people to help set up vent so we can talk in-game.  Oh, and out of those 8 people exactly 3 people have sound cards....

[Mikkahl]

Rijacki wrote:

Oh.. and eq2voiceservice.exe crashed this morning right after I launched the game. *shrug

I also have EQ2VoiceService.exe crashing, with an Unhandled exception (WDMAUD.DRV - 0xC0000005), but only on my desktop (not my laptop).

[Dethdlr]

I don't really know how to ask this question without the potential of it being taken the wrong way.  I mean this in a constructive, "lets do what we can to help" sort of way, if that helps at all.

What kind of priority does fixing the voice chat problem currently have?  I'm hearing from plenty in game that can't get voice to work AT ALL after GU52 but not seeing a huge amount of posts about it.  I believe the majority of the people have taken the approach that if so many people are having problems, SOE must know that this is a widespread issue and are working hard to fix it as their #1 priority.  If this is not the case, please advise. 

Normally when problem hit you, you either /petition or /bug them.  If they are widespread, you assume that you would just be annoying the SOE folks by doing a /petition or /bug since they obviously already know about it.  In this case, however, I'm not sure which they should do. 

So I guess I really have two questions:

1) Is fixing the "not able to get into any voice channels problem" the current top priority?

2) Should people who have the problem /petition, /bug, /feedback, or /WeKnowIt'sBrokeAndAreWorkingOnItPleaseBePatient?

On a side note to add to the data, Both my wife and I play on laptops connected to a wireless router and have both been in voice at the same time with minimal problems since GU52.  I've got guildmates however who are asking if we can re-activate our old teamspeak server since they can't get into voice.  Please do what you can to get this fixed.  Brenlo, if you're reading this, authorize overtime and let them work on it through the weekend.    This has become a vital means of communication and is really disrupting gameplay.  People have come to rely on this service and it's really causing problems not having it available.  I know you guys are doing what you can and I know that once the kinks are worked out, it will be better than ever with the station launcher integration.  Need to get the old features back up and running first though.

Thanks

[SilkenKidden]

Decimatr@Kithicor wrote:

I don't really know how to ask this question without the potential of it being taken the wrong way.  I mean this in a constructive, "lets do what we can to help" sort of way, if that helps at all.

What kind of priority does fixing the voice chat problem currently have?  I'm hearing from plenty in game that can't get voice to work AT ALL after GU52 but not seeing a huge amount of posts about it.  I believe the majority of the people have taken the approach that if so many people are having problems, SOE must know that this is a widespread issue and are working hard to fix it as their #1 priority.  If this is not the case, please advise. 

Normally when problem hit you, you either /petition or /bug them.  If they are widespread, you assume that you would just be annoying the SOE folks by doing a /petition or /bug since they obviously already know about it.  In this case, however, I'm not sure which they should do. 

So I guess I really have two questions:

1) Is fixing the "not able to get into any voice channels problem" the current top priority?

2) Should people who have the problem /petition, /bug, /feedback, or /WeKnowIt'sBrokeAndAreWorkingOnItPleaseBePatient?

On a side note to add to the data, Both my wife and I play on laptops connected to a wireless router and have both been in voice at the same time with minimal problems since GU52.  I've got guildmates however who are asking if we can re-activate our old teamspeak server since they can't get into voice.  Please do what you can to get this fixed.  Brenlo, if you're reading this, authorize overtime and let them work on it through the weekend.    This has become a vital means of communication and is really disrupting gameplay.  People have come to rely on this service and it's really causing problems not having it available.  I know you guys are doing what you can and I know that once the kinks are worked out, it will be better than ever with the station launcher integration.  Need to get the old features back up and running first though.

Thanks

I too would like to know the priority of this problem so that my friends and I know whether to go back to Ventrilo or look for an EQ2 patch.

[raydenwins]

Since update, voice chat is not allowing me to join a channel, exactly as mentioned in this thread.  I uninstalled firewall, still nothing, reinstalled a new firewall app, still nothing.  I've used voice chat perfectly since ingame voice chat became an option fyi.  Please correct asap SOE.  No voice is making it pointless to play at this point.

[Mikkahl]

I need more information about what to open up in my firewall (or the neighbor's firewall that sits behind mine).  Is this sticky information from last July still correct after the GU52 update? :

By default, Voice Chat uses ports 5062 and 3478.

Why can't I hear the voice prompt and/or myself while running the echo test? Try the following troubleshooting tips:• Check that your microphone and speakers are plugged in properly.• Make sure that external volume control on the headset is turned up and is not muted. If this doesn't fix the problem, check Windows audio controls on your computer. Go to the Windows Start menu and select Control Panel, then select Sounds, and then Audio Devices to ensure that the audio is not muted and the audio level is turned up.• Try turning off your firewall. If that fixes the problem, then open the following ports on the firewall:• Incoming UDP ports 3478, 5060,5062• Outgoing TCP port 80 and 443• All destination UDP ports 12000-16000

What other information might I need to enter into a hardware firewall to help fix this problem?   Like what IP addresses might I allow to send/receive packets from? 

For example, whenever I run the game, my router is constantly blocking my game computer from talking to/from this address: 70.42.62.15.   But it was doing that even before GU52, and it didn't seem to cause any problems.  Is that IP address related to EQ2 in some way?

[Sehk]

Brenlo posted this to another thread (in the Combat & General Gameplay forum; pg2, 7th post down, @ 06/19/2009 11:25:34; http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=453062):

Brenlo wrote:

Yeah we know there are some firewall issues, which we are working with Vivox to overcome.  We are trying to slay this beast and get voice working as it should be. 

This was actually a pretty extensive backend change to the voice service to allow for new functionality going forward.  Unfortunately our test cases internally and on the test server cannot account for every possible hardware variation out there.

Sorry folks.

So while they are obviously aware of the issue, they just haven't felt the need to post recently in the Voice Support forums about it.

The fact that both Brenlo and Rothgar mention and lament the impossibility of accounting for every hardware configuration (perfectly reasonably I might add), but then neither asks any of us to provide our particulars in this area, leads me to hope they have all the information they need without requiring our input. Surely if our individual hardware configurations were the crux of the matter, they'd be asking for details in the hunt for common denominators?

In short, SOE say they are aware of the issue and working hard to fix it. It seems there's nothing we can do, or need to do, except wait for them to make their repairs. If there is in fact anything any of us can do to help things along, I sure hope someone from SOE lets us know.

Decimatr@Kithicor wrote:

I don't really know how to ask this question without the potential of it being taken the wrong way.  I mean this in a constructive, "lets do what we can to help" sort of way, if that helps at all.

What kind of priority does fixing the voice chat problem currently have?  I'm hearing from plenty in game that can't get voice to work AT ALL after GU52 but not seeing a huge amount of posts about it.  I believe the majority of the people have taken the approach that if so many people are having problems, SOE must know that this is a widespread issue and are working hard to fix it as their #1 priority.  If this is not the case, please advise. 

Normally when problem hit you, you either /petition or /bug them.  If they are widespread, you assume that you would just be annoying the SOE folks by doing a /petition or /bug since they obviously already know about it.  In this case, however, I'm not sure which they should do. 

So I guess I really have two questions:

1) Is fixing the "not able to get into any voice channels problem" the current top priority?

2) Should people who have the problem /petition, /bug, /feedback, or /WeKnowIt'sBrokeAndAreWorkingOnItPleaseBePatient?

On a side note to add to the data, Both my wife and I play on laptops connected to a wireless router and have both been in voice at the same time with minimal problems since GU52.  I've got guildmates however who are asking if we can re-activate our old teamspeak server since they can't get into voice.  Please do what you can to get this fixed.  Brenlo, if you're reading this, authorize overtime and let them work on it through the weekend.    This has become a vital means of communication and is really disrupting gameplay.  People have come to rely on this service and it's really causing problems not having it available.  I know you guys are doing what you can and I know that once the kinks are worked out, it will be better than ever with the station launcher integration.  Need to get the old features back up and running first though.

Thanks

[Jarnhand]

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.

[Cabel]

Silken@Butcherblock wrote:

Cabel wrote:

My issue:

I cannot join voice channels, custom or group, with my Shadowknight.  I can create them all day long, but not join them.

My Troubador can both join and create any channel and I can speak and hear anybody just fine.

Two different characters, two different voice chat outcomes.

My settings:

Windows Vista and no firewall.

Firewall on McCafee has full access granted to EQ2 and all related files, including the voice chat file.

I have a Lynksis router.

What do I do?

Wolffe

Now that is strange.  Are you running the same account on the same computer? 

Yeah.  Same account, same comp.

[Jarnhand]

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.

[woolco]

Mikkahl wrote:

I bypassed my router by plugging directly into my "modem equivalent"  (a high-speed wireless transceiver).  This means that only one computer could have have access to the internet (hard-coded IP address).  This did NOT help the voice chat problem.  Still 0 users and "You are not in a channel" on talk.  So please don't divert this into "only a 2-boxing problem" or "only a router problem".

you got a software firewall?

[Dethdlr]

Sehk wrote:

Brenlo posted this to another thread (in the Combat & General Gameplay forum; pg2, 7th post down, @ 06/19/2009 11:25:34; http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=453062):

Brenlo wrote:

Yeah we know there are some firewall issues, which we are working with Vivox to overcome.  We are trying to slay this beast and get voice working as it should be. 

This was actually a pretty extensive backend change to the voice service to allow for new functionality going forward.  Unfortunately our test cases internally and on the test server cannot account for every possible hardware variation out there.

Sorry folks.

So while they are obviously aware of the issue, they just haven't felt the need to post recently in the Voice Support forums about it.

The fact that both Brenlo and Rothgar mention and lament the impossibility of accounting for every hardware configuration (perfectly reasonably I might add), but then neither asks any of us to provide our particulars in this area, leads me to hope they have all the information they need without requiring our input. Surely if our individual hardware configurations were the crux of the matter, they'd be asking for details in the hunt for common denominators?

In short, SOE say they are aware of the issue and working hard to fix it. It seems there's nothing we can do, or need to do, except wait for them to make their repairs. If there is in fact anything any of us can do to help things along, I sure hope someone from SOE lets us know.

Decimatr@Kithicor wrote:

I don't really know how to ask this question without the potential of it being taken the wrong way.  I mean this in a constructive, "lets do what we can to help" sort of way, if that helps at all.

What kind of priority does fixing the voice chat problem currently have?  I'm hearing from plenty in game that can't get voice to work AT ALL after GU52 but not seeing a huge amount of posts about it.  I believe the majority of the people have taken the approach that if so many people are having problems, SOE must know that this is a widespread issue and are working hard to fix it as their #1 priority.  If this is not the case, please advise. 

Normally when problem hit you, you either /petition or /bug them.  If they are widespread, you assume that you would just be annoying the SOE folks by doing a /petition or /bug since they obviously already know about it.  In this case, however, I'm not sure which they should do. 

So I guess I really have two questions:

1) Is fixing the "not able to get into any voice channels problem" the current top priority?

2) Should people who have the problem /petition, /bug, /feedback, or /WeKnowIt'sBrokeAndAreWorkingOnItPleaseBePatient?

On a side note to add to the data, Both my wife and I play on laptops connected to a wireless router and have both been in voice at the same time with minimal problems since GU52.  I've got guildmates however who are asking if we can re-activate our old teamspeak server since they can't get into voice.  Please do what you can to get this fixed.  Brenlo, if you're reading this, authorize overtime and let them work on it through the weekend.    This has become a vital means of communication and is really disrupting gameplay.  People have come to rely on this service and it's really causing problems not having it available.  I know you guys are doing what you can and I know that once the kinks are worked out, it will be better than ever with the station launcher integration.  Need to get the old features back up and running first though.

Thanks

First, let me say sorry for quoting this entire message. 

The reason I quoted the whole thing is because it's representative of the posts from the devs (in this case producer) and our extrapilation from what they say.

From Brenlo: "Yeah we know there are some firewall issues, which we are working with Vivox to overcome."  

Does this mean that Brenlo recognizes that a lot of people can't log into voice chat at all?  Maybe, maybe not.  He could be referring to another voice problem altogether.  The message wasn't all that clear.

I just bought a month of a Teamspeak server for my guild today because of this problem.  I know it's a problem.  You know it's a problem.  I just haven't seen this specific problem acknowledged yet from SOE as a problem.  I did however see this:

Autenil wrote:

Hi guys,

If you're having trouble with getting your headset to work (or don't see it in the dropdown) and it worked previously, please post the following information:

Headset maker/modelOperating SystemLocale/Language

So, there is a Dev working on fixing a voice problem, the headset problem and asking for info.  Meanwhile, we have plenty that can't connect at all.  My guess would be that it's not Autenil's lane to fix the not being able to log in problem so he's working on issues he may be able to fix instead.  However, I don't know that for certain.  That's why I posted in the first place.  To see if we can get a dev to tell us that they know there are people who can't connect at all and are working hard to fix it.  Hopefully that's what's going on.  We just won't know for sure until someone from SOE states one way or another.

[Kordran]

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.

[Rothgar]

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.

[Rothgar]

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.