error message

[Andor]

I keep getting this error message the loading character statistics screen. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and could help me

[Zexoin]

I did multiple times. Usually I just have to try relogging and it works fine

[Steelclaw]

That happens when the client has trouble communicating with the auth server to verify your account and get permission to log in. The auth server going down is an extremely rare occurrence these days, so, the problem probably lies elsewhere.

Other possible causes:
- Poor network performance between you and the HZ servers. (packet loss, high latency)

- Blocked by firewall software.

- Blocked by firewall/antivirus software - some products will block access if the program requesting access has changed since the user granted it. What causes the program to change? A client patch, or swapping between Blight and live.

- The auth server really is down.

Is this a persistent problem? That is, are you unable to log in, even after repeated attempts?

[Andor]

yes it is a persistent problem, although I can get on occassionally

[Andor]

i've tried shutting off my firewall and my antivirus, i'm really not sure what else it could be

[Steelclaw]

The fact that you get on sometimes means its not your firewall or antivirus.

Let's see what your network connectivity to the auth server looks like. There is a program for this; it's called ping. You run it from the windows command line. Hit the start menu, run, and in the run box, type cmd and hit the OK button. That will open up a window with a black background and some gray text. This is the command line.

Now, you need to ping the auth server. The ping program will send out a small request (about 50 bytes) once a second, which the server will send back. Ping keeps track of the delay and whether or not the request got dropped. Use the following invocation of ping (type this at the command line and hit enter):
ping -n 60 www.istaria.com
This instructs ping to send 60 echo requests to www.istaria.com at the default rate of one per second, then exit.

You should see something like the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\wheezort>ping -n 60 www.istaria.com

Pinging istaria.com [68.142.64.210] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 68.142.64.210: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=120
Reply from 68.142.64.210: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=120
Reply from 68.142.64.210: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=120
Reply from 68.142.64.210: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=120
Reply from 68.142.64.210: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=120
...

After about a minute, the program will terminate and print out a summary line that looks like this:

Ping statistics for 68.142.64.210:
Packets: Sent = 60, Received = 60, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 22ms

C:\Documents and Settings\wheezort>

The interesting values here are the ones for "Lost", "Minimum", "Maximum", and "Average". In the example above, those numbers are pretty close to ideal. (0 packets lost, minimum and maximum are well in the 2 digits and close to each other.) Go ahead and run the above test and post the results for Lost, Minimum, Maximum and Average. Don't post the intermediate results (about 60 lines). Do, however, check to see if you are able to log in immediately after the test and note that down as well.

[Andor]

ok so my results were atleast double what yours were

[Steelclaw]

See my above post, please post the numbers requested.

[Andor]

ok i ran this twice

first time:
packets sent:60 recieved: 55 (5% lost) <---- not sure how it came up with that percentage but thats what it said

second time:
packets sent: 60 recieved 51 (15% lost)

both averaged 56ms round trip and were between 45ms and 125ms

[Steelclaw]

Thanks. The round-trip times are okay. 56ms avg is very acceptable and the 125ms peak looks like an outlier.

That packet loss looks interesting and can explain your problem. Are you using a dial-up line or a wifi link? (as opposed to having a network cable)

Oh, the "% loss" calculation is simple: ( packets received / packets sent ) * 100

[Andor]

no i'm on a T1 connection via my school's network, and i get the same problems regardless of whether i'm on the LAN or Wireless

[Steelclaw]

Well, the next step is to figure out where the packet loss is happening.

There is a program for this too. It's called traceroute (tracert, for you Windows people). Traceroute will attempt to identify the routers between you and the destination IP and give you a general idea of where the network trouble is. I can explain how it works later, if anyone is interested. Right now, just know the following:
1) It doesn't put any significant load on any of the hosts or routers involved.
2) It will show your ip address, your internal network's routers, and your isp's routers. Before posting the results here, you should be aware of the following:
- This generally isn't a problem and does not pose a security risk (If your network admin is doing their job
right.)
- The bigger concern is that an interested party can get an idea of where you are in the world (sometimes who you are).
- If playing HZ on your school network is against use policy, identifying yourself by exposing your IP may lead to punishment.

That being said, I can't help you further without a traceroute from your computer to the HZ servers. You may send me the results in a private message, or you can block out the IP addresses before you post. (see my example below) If you block out the IPs, make sure you keep a copy of the original. I'll ask you to do something like "ping the IP address at hop 3 and post the statistics" -- so make sure you are able to tell what IP is at hop 3.

Anyway. Onward.

Once again, this is a command line utility. Go ahead and fire up the command line again.

Use this invocation of tracert:
tracert -d www.istaria.com

This will perform a traceroute from your machine to the host www.istaria.com. The -d means "Don't resolve IP addresses to host names.". I don't care about host names at this point and omitting the -d will only slow the traceroute down.

You should see output that looks like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\splut>tracert -d www.istaria.com

Tracing route to istaria.com [68.142.64.210]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.3.1
2 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms [removed]
3 8 ms 8 ms 9 ms [removed]
4 8 ms 9 ms 8 ms [removed]
5 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms [removed]
6 21 ms 13 ms 14 ms [removed]
7 22 ms 23 ms 23 ms 69.28.171.81
8 23 ms 27 ms 23 ms 69.28.172.94
9 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 68.142.64.210

Trace complete.

[katt31m]

A friend of mine had a similar problem on another game. After much hair pulling we finally narrowed it down . We had to update her network adapter drivers as they were two years out of date. Might help might not


Muslyx

[Andor]

where can i update my network drivers... as this sounds simple enough, before I try the ping tracer

[Steelclaw]

Given that you have the same trouble whether you're using wifi or a wired ethernet connection, I don't think it has to do with your network drivers. Two different interfaces, two different drivers. It's not like they rot after awhile.

Run the traceroute and get the results -- thats not going to break your machine. Borking around with drivers and settings can.

[Sindala]

Don't know if it's relevent, but i know in UK providers like Tiscali have been limiting the connections so you get enough to access the net but not enough to play online games, they call it their 'fair usage policy'

[gopher65]

Don't know if it's relevent, but i know in UK providers like Tiscali have been limiting the connections so you get enough to access the net but not enough to play online games, they call it their 'fair usage policy'

That's not just in the UK. My ISP has been at the forefront of the "battle to limit internet usage while charging through the teeth for it" since the dawn of time (2001 or so).

[Andor]

1 ms 1 ms 1 ms [removed]
4 ms 1 ms 1 ms [removed] <--- all my packet losses are here
5 ms 6 ms * [removed]
5 ms 4 ms 4 ms [removed]
18 ms 14 ms 17 ms [removed]
15 ms 24 ms 24 ms [removed]
52 ms 51 ms 61 ms [removed]
52 ms 52 ms 52 ms 69.28.172.142
80 ms 78 ms 51 ms 69.28.171.253
* 52 ms 51 ms 68.142.64.210


when i pinged istaria.com it matched the packet drops when i pinged the second IP from the top. Thoughts?

[Steelclaw]

Well! You're in luck. There is some problem with connectivity between IP # 1 (the top one) and IP #2 (the one below it). Since they're so close to you, you have a chance at getting it fixed.

Before going further, perform the ping test we did earlier on IP #1 and see if you get any packet loss. If you have no loss, continue on below. If you do, post back here.

So, now you need to figure out what physical pieces of hardware correspond to the first two IP addresses, and determine if they are under your control, or your network admin's.

You can try the traceroute again without the -d option, which will try to resolve the IP addresses into (possibly) useful hostnames. Use this information and your best judgement to figure out who's responsible.

If it's your network admin, your next step is to bring the performance issue to their attention. The traceroutes and pings should be informative enough to give them an idea of where to start looking. In this case, thats all I can do for you, and good luck!

If it's your hardware (like you brought in a D-Link box and stuck it on the network, or you ARE the admin), post back with the two devices and how they're connected to each other.

[Andor]

actually I've already traced it down, that IP is a gateway here on campus, and I have already alerted my network admin