The proxy thing is semi-working here. It was fine about an hour ago and it seems normal in-game, but the launcher seems to be playing up now - it's hanging at connecting.
The proxy thing is semi-working here. It was fine about an hour ago and it seems normal in-game, but the launcher seems to be playing up now - it's hanging at connecting.
Well I got the lag out of the game, now my launchers crashing lol. I am starting to think Cryptic is just telling me they don't want me playing lol.
I'm in North Carolina and last night I could hardly play. It was taking about 7 minutes to zone and I was always getting the Server not responding message then only I did zone I was getting lots of rubber banding. I have AT&T 6Mb DSL and have been playing since the Beta with no problems like this before. All other traffic on my connection was fine. I did some speed tests, downloads, and browsing that was all fine. Attached are my tracert and nettest results. tracert looks fine, but I'm not sure what the nettest should look like.
The strange thing is that a friend of mine lives about a mile away and he has the AT&T U-Verse package and he didn't have any issues at all and we were playing at the same time.
Do to all the different posts I seem to agree that there is a net routing issue somewhere.
I've waited months to play this, and when I finally get my machine built meeting the optimal requirements.... I get "Connecting to Account Server" all f#@king night!?
The least Cryptic could do is explain there progress towards fixing this problem. If I don't see some effort on their part to keep me as a customer, I want my money back!
I've NEVER seen problems like this before... especially from a NON beta, What is this Vista?
Get your act together people! I payed $40+ dollars, and I've had maybe 3 hours of gameplay. AND IF I GET CHARGED a monthly access fee, YOU CAN KISS MY ****.
so what i can do now still cant join stuck at Connecting to the login server timed out.. bought the game 3 days ago never played , should we w8 can some one at least say somthing ...well u should at least put 2 month free with the game ...
I just wanted to add that the last two nights i have been able to stay connected for hours at a time, whereas before i was disconnecting 'Server not responding' and (even worse) crashing at the character selection screen.
I know its no comfort to those still having problems and to be honest theres no guarantee my connection problems won't return, but what helped it for me was changing from the EU proxy to 'none'.
Hope this helps at least one person who is also feeling the frustration as i did, (and no doubtless probably will again).
I know its no comfort to those still having problems and to be honest theres no guarantee my connection problems won't return, but what helped it for me was changing from the EU proxy to 'none'.
Hope this helps at least one person who is also feeling the frustration as i did, (and no doubtless probably will again).
I found the exact opposite worked for me. I connect through the EU server and so far (touch wood) have had very few problems, nothing more than regular lag that can be attributed to connecting at peak time.
A rope consists of three parts: one end, the other end, and the middle part.
You could try the following:
If you manage to log in but before you start the game, there's a drop down box at the top of the loader where you can choose Proxy. If you chose None, you go as directly to Cryptic as your ISPs routes it. If you chose EU or US, you try to connect to those proxies at another location, possibly by another route. If the problem is somewhere in between, choosing any proxy might be a way to bypass it.
You can get Pingplotter, a trialware application that does the same thing as tracert but over time. Point it to nettest.crypticstudios.com and let it run for a while. It could be a pretty good indication of where things are bad. If it is somewhere inside your ISPs net, give them a call.
Pingplotter is not necessarily the answer, though. Your ISP may do packet shaping, and since Pingplotter only makes a tracert, it might not even notice packet shaping. Cryptic has a nettest tool somewhere; I don't know exactly where, but google is our friend. Using that, you can see if any of the ports are blocked.
As I wrote in my original post "Switched Proxy to EU and had no more rubber-banding or SERVER NOT RESPONDING messages every 2 seconds. The game was still laggy as hell though. " So the problem was not on my end or the end of the hundreds of other players that had the exact same problem. The game worked fine at first...but every time they add a new patch there are problems. Their customer service is non-existent....especially on the weekends. We shouldn't have to use the forums to speculate and try to come up with solutions. Customer Service and GM's should be posting and actively helping customers. Telling us it's our problem and disable our anti-virus software is ridiculous. World of Warcraft doesn't have these connection issues. If the servers are up they are up if not they are down and inaccessible...there is no guess work. At least when there is a problem they acknowledge it and at least say they are working on it....not blame their customers computers...but they do blame add-ons for everything when there is a problem.
I tried the proxy thing and it definitely didn't work for me.... the game worked great until like two days ago. It usually runs good for about twenty minutes to a half hour and then server not responding all the time with insane, like 2 minutes worth of rubber banding to follow.
I have been getting Connection to Login server timed out followed by a Connection to Account Server timed out. I was online playing last night fine. Nothing has changed on my end. :mad:
"I have been getting Connection to Login server timed out followed by a Connection to Account Server timed out. I was online playing last night fine. Nothing has changed on my end. "
Ditto....please diagnose and fix whatever is causing this on your end Cryptic!
Add me to the list of unable to log in today. Yesterday I got booted a few times on map changes. But today can't get past account server. Emailed the nettest as requested and it looked fine. This is getting old.
Just started having this problem, the games been working great until tonight. Now I can't even load the launcher, I get a little box that freezes and after two minutes I get an error message saying I timed out.
I've tried disabling firewall, antivirus, restart, reinstall, refreshing ip, anything I could think of. Only thing left to try is forwarding the suggested ports in this thread...hope that fixes it...
***EDIT: Just as a follow up the game is working fine for me now. After powercycling the router on my FIOS and testing it 12 hours later, it now seems to be working fine. W/e the problem was, it corrected itself. Hope that helps other who have FIOS like me and are experiencing the same type of problem.***:o
having this problem at the moment.. I think it coming to a point where going to have to put a complaint in as weekend access seems to be near non-existant currently which means the only time that really can play I am unable to .
Paid good money for a sub-par service that rarely can use
I have traded down to the old drivers and still timed out then I set the game profile in my Nvidia Control Panel and got on for a couple of days but now its timing out again but I can log onto the Europe server with no problems and get into the game.
How can this be Nvidia's fault and not Cryptic's if I can log onto the Europe Server but not the U.S. server. This is not Nvidas fault but Cryptic's and I deserve a week back of my paid time to make up for the time I couldn't log into the game.
All they are doing by saying that it Nvidia's fault instead of Cryptic's is causing people to go back to their old game (CoHaV = City of Heroes and Villains) because they are getting tired of not being able to log into a game they are paying for.
How can this be Nvidia's fault and not Cryptic's if I can log onto the Europe Server but not the U.S. server. This is not Nvidas fault but Cryptic's and I deserve a week back of my paid time to make up for the time I couldn't log into the game.
If it was Cryptic's fault, you would not be able to log in at all.
There is no EU server. There is only a EU proxy, that is a machine placed somewhere in Europe that bounces your traffic to the server in US. The US proxy is the same thing: a machine placed somewhere in the US (presumably at a location where the server isn't) that bounces your traffic to the US server.
If you can't connect to the server directly, but can connect via the EU proxy, it indicates that there is something broken on the backbone of the internet between you and the server, that you can go around by using the EU proxy. The analogy being that the road collapsed between you and your neighbour so you can't drive there directly, but you can still get to him if you take the long way and drive around the block.
You gotta be effing kidding me Devs. This proxy issue is STILL going on? I have the proxy setting to none and have had it as such since the 'free' weekend. However, at times the lag is brutal. I just enabled the US proxy today and STILL get the same problem where it just clocks at 'connecting to account server' before it fails and drops back to the login screen
Really? no REALLY? This issue still exists? When are you going to fix this issue?
And don't tell me it's on my end because I change the setting in your game that determines how I connect to your servers and I can connect.
And don't tell me it's on my end because I change the setting in your game that determines how I connect to your servers and I can connect.
It's worth re-iterating: a rope has three parts: one end, the other end and the middle part. It doesn't need to be a problem at your end or at their end, if it is the middle part that is broken.
The fact that it at least partially works if you choose the proxy means that you can go around the broken part in the middle of the rope between you and them. That's what a proxy does: because the proxy is somewhere else, it is another middle part of another rope between you and the proxy. And hopefully that middle part is not broken.
So what do they need to do to fix these things? Well, they need you to help them. I can guarantee you that they are already working at their end. So first, you have to let them have their tests so that they can rule out your end. And they need you to help with that, because in around 80% of all support tickets, the problem is at the customer's end.
So when your end is ruled out, they will have you do some other tests to try to pin down the problem in the middle part, and why it occurs. When that is pinned down - and believe me, that is a tricky business - and they know it's a problem in the middle part, then comes the next step, to fix the problem.
And that's even more tricky because Cryptic doesn't own those middle parts. Cryptic has to call their uplink providers and tell them that some middle part is broken, and the providers then have to find practical solutions. They may have to re-route all traffic to Cryptic through another provider, and that means negotiating contracts. They may have to talk to the other provider, having them to ease up on packet shaping. If the problem remains unsolvable, Cryptic may be forced to find another uplink provider or even another server farm.
Yes, it might, but I don't see the lag being any better having to bounce overseas then back. Probably be worse than playing with proxy setting to none, as I do now.
Edit: And yes, the proxy might be theirs (or rather rented), but the internet is not.
True, but setting the proxy setting to none kinda rules out it's the 'internet'. Not to say it's not the path to their proxy that's an issue, but it's an issue on their end nonetheless. The customer should not be expected to troubleshoot an issue such as that. The fact that I can connect by bypassing the proxy proves it is nothing on my end up to a certain point where I, the customer, no longer bear any responsibility for. I have done all the tests, checked all the settings, yad, yada, yada, it's now on them to resolve the issue. An issue that's been going on close to a month now I might add.
Yes, it might, but I don't see the lag being any better having to bounce overseas then back. Probably be worse than playing with proxy setting to none, as I do now.
I see it in two ways:
1) Apparently something fishy is happening between you and the server as well as between you and the proxy. It could be packet shaping, it could be bad traffic deals between your ISPs uplink provider and their ISPs uplink provider, it could be smudgy fiber connector. Anyway, by going through Europe, you might be able to go around whatever it is.
1) Apparently something fishy is happening between you and the server as well as between you and the proxy. It could be packet shaping, it could be bad traffic deals between your ISPs uplink provider and their ISPs uplink provider, it could be smudgy fiber connector. Anyway, by going through Europe, you might be able to go around whatever it is.
2) What do you have to lose?
Except I'm not the only one having this issue. This issue hit the Friday of the 'free' weekend and has been present ever since. If multiple users, in multiple different locales, across different ISPs, and across varying networks, all have the same issue..., well it speaks for itself.
Edit: Yeah, tried the EU proxy, and can't even get to the login screen using that (I get "unable to connect to account server (3)" at the bottom of the launcher. At least the US proxy let's me get to the login screen but clocks at 'connecting to login server".
Except I'm not the only one having this issue. This issue hit the Friday of the 'free' weekend and has been present ever since. If multiple users, in multiple different locales, across different ISPs, and across varying networks, all have the same issue..., well it speaks for itself.
If everyone had the same issue, I would agree with you. However, I don't, and a lot others don't either. So at least we can agree that some have issues and some don't.
And problems that affect a lot of users but not a lot of other users usually indicates something on the network, as a lot of users goes through one uplink provider, and a lot of other users goes through another uplink provider. Last night, for instance, a lot of Scandinavian players (I was one of them) had problems as their ISP's uplink's gateway in Amsterdam went kablooie. I bet a can of dog food that you never noticed.
So it kind of speaks for itself, but the other way around.
And, as your stating, your not having the issue and going through EU. Let's be realistic, sure, something could have changed with my ISP that I am not aware of, but did the numerous other users who all of a sudden began having the same issue on the same day all have their ISPs suddenly change something at the same time? Sound like a huge coincidence to me, OR, did a new game, fresh outta beta, still going through growth and game changes, change something on their end that began affecting numerous users? Yeah, that seems way more likely.
And, as your stating, your not having the issue and going through EU. Let's be realistic, sure, something could have changed with my ISP that I am not aware of, but did the numerous other users who all of a sudden began having the same issue on the same day all have their ISPs suddenly change something at the same time? Sound like a huge coincidence to me, OR, did a new game, fresh outta beta, still going through growth and game changes, change something on their end that began affecting numerous users? Yeah, that seems way more likely.
I'm not necessarily talking about your ISP: it could be the step above them; the ISP's uplink provider. Or the intermediary between your ISP's uplink and Cryptic's ISP's uplink. It could be due to one switch manufacturer sending out a new firmware that doesn't like Cryptic's packages. It could be one of those deciding that Cryptic uses typical p2p ports, and starts traffic shaping.
There's a lot of middle part of your average rope.
And speaking of coincidences, here's a cute one: my old router died the day Blood Moon was released. A week earlier, it worked fine on PTS, but the same day it goes live, the router packs up. And it died in a pretty peculiar way - resetting upstream every 30-60 seconds - that took me a week to find.
Again, if they are doing something different, using some new method of communicating, using ports not ordinarily used or considered P2P ports, or using some type of new packeting method that many routers don't like, then where would the fault lie? I have no problems with several other MMOs as well as other multiplayer games and applications, and from what I am seeing, they are using ports that are typical for MMOs, so if it's something in the middle that decided it doesn't like THEIR new methods, then whos at fault? The function in the middle or the function that is using some new method that is not typical of other such similar functions?
Quick, someone get me the fishy rope from the Scandinavian port so I can hang myself by proxy!
Sorry, I'm feeling light headed after all the countless times I've read "login server timed out" and "account server timed out" trying to get in game. On the bright side, at least all my laundry is done.
Woot! Login server timed out again! Gives me time to run out and buy some beer. :rolleyes:
The simple truth is that I was not having any of these problems prior to the last patch. Coinkydink or not, doesn't matter. Just needs to be fixed asap.
The options is at least now available before you log in, top of the window.
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I launch the Game Client from the Live folder, and I see the Exit button, the User Name and Password fields, the Website, Terms of Use, Credits, and Options Buttons at the bottom right. That Options button leads to a dialogue box with three tabs: Basic, Audio, and Video. There's NO PROXY settings anywhere.
How am I supposed to change the settings so I can log on... if I can't log on?
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I launch the Game Client from the Live folder, and I see the Exit button, the User Name and Password fields, the Website, Terms of Use, Credits, and Options Buttons at the bottom right. That Options button leads to a dialogue box with three tabs: Basic, Audio, and Video. There's NO PROXY settings anywhere.
How am I supposed to change the settings so I can log on... if I can't log on?
Please Advise.....
Go back/up two directory levels and run "Champions Online.exe" rather than ...\Champions Online\Live\GameClient.exe
Don't know if this is relevent/related but im having a wierd issue where the launcher will only connect to the server if i force it to verify first. And then not always.
Well that's another session where I spent more time looking at a blue loading screen with the ominous red words 'SERVER NOT RESPONDING' than I actually got to spend playing the game.
It's the same every day around peak times, and broadly all day over Saturday/Sunday.
With no proxy selected I can get through to selecting a character, then it times out (server not responding) while loading the map.
With US proxy selected it logs in through the launcher, the main window opens and then it hangs on 'connecting to account server' before it even brings up the character list.
If I'm logged in before these times, I get disconnected as soon as this time rolls around when I try to change maps, again with server not responding.
Again, if they are doing something different, using some new method of communicating, using ports not ordinarily used or considered P2P ports, or using some type of new packeting method that many routers don't like, then where would the fault lie?
At Congress, that has not made Net Neutrality the law of the land.
No, seriously, packet shaping is bad. It's kind of the nasty ugly tricks an ISP or uplink provider turns to in order to not have a lot of "non-serious" traffic, p2p, online video or gaming, in their nets competing for bandwidth with important things like corporate websites or select traffic partners.
At any rate, we don't know if Cryptic has changed anything in their communications protocol in that infamous patch. They have changed something, yes, but is it the communications protocols?
The point is not to point finger at your end, but to try to persuade you that the net is not as simple as you, your ISP and Cryptic. There's a lot of other things on the net, and if you seriously want this bug tracked down and killed, it is in your best interest to keep an open mind to all eventualities and help the support team doing their tests.
I have no problems with several other MMOs as well as other multiplayer games and applications, and from what I am seeing, they are using ports that are typical for MMOs, so if it's something in the middle that decided it doesn't like THEIR new methods, then whos at fault? The function in the middle or the function that is using some new method that is not typical of other such similar functions?
Unless those several other MMOs are hosted on exactly the same server farm where Champions Online is hosted, you use another rope with another middle part to reach those. They're located somewhere else, so the route there is different.
So it is in fact very likely that you will not be affected if you play them.
You can see this yourself if you make a simple tracert to their servers. Just compare the different routers you're routed through: I bet a can of dog food that only the part of the route that's within your ISPs net is in common in the different routes.
With no proxy selected I can get through to selecting a character, then it times out (server not responding) while loading the map.
With US proxy selected it logs in through the launcher, the main window opens and then it hangs on 'connecting to account server' before it even brings up the character list.
I know it sounds silly, but what happens if you select the EU proxy? It has worked for a lot of other guys on your side of the pool.
I know it sounds silly, but what happens if you select the EU proxy? It has worked for a lot of other guys on your side of the pool.
If I can connect with the proxy set to none then I can sometimes connect with the proxy set to EU, but all it seems to do is bump the latency up by an extra ~300. Not really surprising as it would be difficult for me to get further away from the EU.
There was a period where having the proxy set to US was fairly reliable, but lately with the proxy set to US it gets through the launcher and just sits at 'connecting to account server' unless its late.
It's just all over the place, nothing seems to work consistently, sometimes US proxy suddenly stops working, and I'll have to switch back to none. Or vice-versa.
Like right now for instance, after not being able to connect for the past 10 hours (on any setting) I can now connect with the proxy set to US, but not none (server not responding) or EU (can't connect to the account server), not that it's going to do me much good since I was just randomly checking before sleep, too late to do much with this last gasp of connectivity before patch time.
At Congress, that has not made Net Neutrality the law of the land.
No, seriously, packet shaping is bad. It's kind of the nasty ugly tricks an ISP or uplink provider turns to in order to not have a lot of "non-serious" traffic, p2p, online video or gaming, in their nets competing for bandwidth with important things like corporate websites or select traffic partners.
At any rate, we don't know if Cryptic has changed anything in their communications protocol in that infamous patch. They have changed something, yes, but is it the communications protocols?
The point is not to point finger at your end, but to try to persuade you that the net is not as simple as you, your ISP and Cryptic. There's a lot of other things on the net, and if you seriously want this bug tracked down and killed, it is in your best interest to keep an open mind to all eventualities and help the support team doing their tests.
Unless those several other MMOs are hosted on exactly the same server farm where Champions Online is hosted, you use another rope with another middle part to reach those. They're located somewhere else, so the route there is different.
So it is in fact very likely that you will not be affected if you play them.
You can see this yourself if you make a simple tracert to their servers. Just compare the different routers you're routed through: I bet a can of dog food that only the part of the route that's within your ISPs net is in common in the different routes.
Well looky there, they updated my CS ticket stating they were having proxy issues, and after downloading this latest patch Lo and Behold! I can set the proxy and connect just fine. Looks like it was their end of the rope after all.
Go back/up two directory levels and run "Champions Online.exe" rather than ...\Champions Online\Live\GameClient.exe
I've done that, and Nothing happens. I mean when I launch Task Manager, I can see that an Application called Champions Online is running... but there's no UI. I alt-tab to the app, and nothing... nadda, zip! Do I need to install a patch? I've looked on the site, but I don't see a download link. And if the Champs app is supposed to fetch it... it aint!
I've done that, and Nothing happens. I mean when I launch Task Manager, I can see that an Application called Champions Online is running... but there's no UI. I alt-tab to the app, and nothing... nadda, zip! Do I need to install a patch? I've looked on the site, but I don't see a download link. And if the Champs app is supposed to fetch it... it aint!
A rather drastic proposal might be to
1) Copy (Backup) your whole Champions Online directory somewhere safe.
2) Uninstall the game
3) Go to account page on the CO site and hit the "download" button (you may need to log in, the 'My Account' button is on the top right of the page, the download button is on the 'Dashboard' tab)
4) Run the setup (it's only about 1.6 Mb) which will create the folder, sub-directories and registry entries for the game.
5) Run the new launcher, once it has updated and moved onto "downloading" cancel and quit out.
6) Copy all the old files/folders you backed up earlier (1) except the old Champions Online.exe into the new directory (so you have all your old files + the new Champions Online.exe).
I don't see in your 8 posts you made where you supplied a dxdiag rpt on your system. can you do that? also if you are using vista or win7 try setting the launcher and game exe to run as admin.
Comments
Well I got the lag out of the game, now my launchers crashing lol. I am starting to think Cryptic is just telling me they don't want me playing lol.
The strange thing is that a friend of mine lives about a mile away and he has the AT&T U-Verse package and he didn't have any issues at all and we were playing at the same time.
Do to all the different posts I seem to agree that there is a net routing issue somewhere.
The least Cryptic could do is explain there progress towards fixing this problem. If I don't see some effort on their part to keep me as a customer, I want my money back!
I've NEVER seen problems like this before... especially from a NON beta, What is this Vista?
Get your act together people! I payed $40+ dollars, and I've had maybe 3 hours of gameplay. AND IF I GET CHARGED a monthly access fee, YOU CAN KISS MY ****.
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
I know its no comfort to those still having problems and to be honest theres no guarantee my connection problems won't return, but what helped it for me was changing from the EU proxy to 'none'.
Hope this helps at least one person who is also feeling the frustration as i did, (and no doubtless probably will again).
Good luck.
I found the exact opposite worked for me. I connect through the EU server and so far (touch wood) have had very few problems, nothing more than regular lag that can be attributed to connecting at peak time.
As I wrote in my original post "Switched Proxy to EU and had no more rubber-banding or SERVER NOT RESPONDING messages every 2 seconds. The game was still laggy as hell though. " So the problem was not on my end or the end of the hundreds of other players that had the exact same problem. The game worked fine at first...but every time they add a new patch there are problems. Their customer service is non-existent....especially on the weekends. We shouldn't have to use the forums to speculate and try to come up with solutions. Customer Service and GM's should be posting and actively helping customers. Telling us it's our problem and disable our anti-virus software is ridiculous. World of Warcraft doesn't have these connection issues. If the servers are up they are up if not they are down and inaccessible...there is no guess work. At least when there is a problem they acknowledge it and at least say they are working on it....not blame their customers computers...but they do blame add-ons for everything when there is a problem.
Ditto....please diagnose and fix whatever is causing this on your end Cryptic!
I could play a little this morning, now I can't even log on. I thought the monthly fee I pay is suppose to go towards maintaining these servers?
I wonder what kind of perk I can get for farming "login server timed out" and "account server timed out" screenshots?
I've tried disabling firewall, antivirus, restart, reinstall, refreshing ip, anything I could think of. Only thing left to try is forwarding the suggested ports in this thread...hope that fixes it...
***EDIT: Just as a follow up the game is working fine for me now. After powercycling the router on my FIOS and testing it 12 hours later, it now seems to be working fine. W/e the problem was, it corrected itself. Hope that helps other who have FIOS like me and are experiencing the same type of problem.***:o
Paid good money for a sub-par service that rarely can use
This game beggers belief.
I have traded down to the old drivers and still timed out then I set the game profile in my Nvidia Control Panel and got on for a couple of days but now its timing out again but I can log onto the Europe server with no problems and get into the game.
How can this be Nvidia's fault and not Cryptic's if I can log onto the Europe Server but not the U.S. server. This is not Nvidas fault but Cryptic's and I deserve a week back of my paid time to make up for the time I couldn't log into the game.
All they are doing by saying that it Nvidia's fault instead of Cryptic's is causing people to go back to their old game (CoHaV = City of Heroes and Villains) because they are getting tired of not being able to log into a game they are paying for.
If it was Cryptic's fault, you would not be able to log in at all.
There is no EU server. There is only a EU proxy, that is a machine placed somewhere in Europe that bounces your traffic to the server in US. The US proxy is the same thing: a machine placed somewhere in the US (presumably at a location where the server isn't) that bounces your traffic to the US server.
If you can't connect to the server directly, but can connect via the EU proxy, it indicates that there is something broken on the backbone of the internet between you and the server, that you can go around by using the EU proxy. The analogy being that the road collapsed between you and your neighbour so you can't drive there directly, but you can still get to him if you take the long way and drive around the block.
When you log in (if you actually manage), there's a Options link at the top of the launcher. Click that and a small Options window opens.
Top right of that window is the drop down menu Proxy, with the choices None, EU Proxy and US Proxy.
If I remember correctly, the link Options is not visible until after you've logged in.
Really? no REALLY? This issue still exists? When are you going to fix this issue?
And don't tell me it's on my end because I change the setting in your game that determines how I connect to your servers and I can connect.
It's worth re-iterating: a rope has three parts: one end, the other end and the middle part. It doesn't need to be a problem at your end or at their end, if it is the middle part that is broken.
The fact that it at least partially works if you choose the proxy means that you can go around the broken part in the middle of the rope between you and them. That's what a proxy does: because the proxy is somewhere else, it is another middle part of another rope between you and the proxy. And hopefully that middle part is not broken.
So what do they need to do to fix these things? Well, they need you to help them. I can guarantee you that they are already working at their end. So first, you have to let them have their tests so that they can rule out your end. And they need you to help with that, because in around 80% of all support tickets, the problem is at the customer's end.
So when your end is ruled out, they will have you do some other tests to try to pin down the problem in the middle part, and why it occurs. When that is pinned down - and believe me, that is a tricky business - and they know it's a problem in the middle part, then comes the next step, to fix the problem.
And that's even more tricky because Cryptic doesn't own those middle parts. Cryptic has to call their uplink providers and tell them that some middle part is broken, and the providers then have to find practical solutions. They may have to re-route all traffic to Cryptic through another provider, and that means negotiating contracts. They may have to talk to the other provider, having them to ease up on packet shaping. If the problem remains unsolvable, Cryptic may be forced to find another uplink provider or even another server farm.
It's their proxy, not mine. Nuff said.
You could try the EU one. I know it sounds silly that you have to cross the Atlantic twice, but other over there have reported it works.
Edit: And yes, the proxy might be theirs (or rather rented), but the internet is not.
True, but setting the proxy setting to none kinda rules out it's the 'internet'. Not to say it's not the path to their proxy that's an issue, but it's an issue on their end nonetheless. The customer should not be expected to troubleshoot an issue such as that. The fact that I can connect by bypassing the proxy proves it is nothing on my end up to a certain point where I, the customer, no longer bear any responsibility for. I have done all the tests, checked all the settings, yad, yada, yada, it's now on them to resolve the issue. An issue that's been going on close to a month now I might add.
I see it in two ways:
1) Apparently something fishy is happening between you and the server as well as between you and the proxy. It could be packet shaping, it could be bad traffic deals between your ISPs uplink provider and their ISPs uplink provider, it could be smudgy fiber connector. Anyway, by going through Europe, you might be able to go around whatever it is.
2) What do you have to lose?
Except I'm not the only one having this issue. This issue hit the Friday of the 'free' weekend and has been present ever since. If multiple users, in multiple different locales, across different ISPs, and across varying networks, all have the same issue..., well it speaks for itself.
Edit: Yeah, tried the EU proxy, and can't even get to the login screen using that (I get "unable to connect to account server (3)" at the bottom of the launcher. At least the US proxy let's me get to the login screen but clocks at 'connecting to login server".
If everyone had the same issue, I would agree with you. However, I don't, and a lot others don't either. So at least we can agree that some have issues and some don't.
And problems that affect a lot of users but not a lot of other users usually indicates something on the network, as a lot of users goes through one uplink provider, and a lot of other users goes through another uplink provider. Last night, for instance, a lot of Scandinavian players (I was one of them) had problems as their ISP's uplink's gateway in Amsterdam went kablooie. I bet a can of dog food that you never noticed.
So it kind of speaks for itself, but the other way around.
I'm not necessarily talking about your ISP: it could be the step above them; the ISP's uplink provider. Or the intermediary between your ISP's uplink and Cryptic's ISP's uplink. It could be due to one switch manufacturer sending out a new firmware that doesn't like Cryptic's packages. It could be one of those deciding that Cryptic uses typical p2p ports, and starts traffic shaping.
There's a lot of middle part of your average rope.
And speaking of coincidences, here's a cute one: my old router died the day Blood Moon was released. A week earlier, it worked fine on PTS, but the same day it goes live, the router packs up. And it died in a pretty peculiar way - resetting upstream every 30-60 seconds - that took me a week to find.
Sorry, I'm feeling light headed after all the countless times I've read "login server timed out" and "account server timed out" trying to get in game. On the bright side, at least all my laundry is done.
Woot! Login server timed out again! Gives me time to run out and buy some beer. :rolleyes:
The simple truth is that I was not having any of these problems prior to the last patch. Coinkydink or not, doesn't matter. Just needs to be fixed asap.
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I launch the Game Client from the Live folder, and I see the Exit button, the User Name and Password fields, the Website, Terms of Use, Credits, and Options Buttons at the bottom right. That Options button leads to a dialogue box with three tabs: Basic, Audio, and Video. There's NO PROXY settings anywhere.
How am I supposed to change the settings so I can log on... if I can't log on?
Please Advise.....
Go back/up two directory levels and run "Champions Online.exe" rather than ...\Champions Online\Live\GameClient.exe
It's the same every day around peak times, and broadly all day over Saturday/Sunday.
With no proxy selected I can get through to selecting a character, then it times out (server not responding) while loading the map.
With US proxy selected it logs in through the launcher, the main window opens and then it hangs on 'connecting to account server' before it even brings up the character list.
If I'm logged in before these times, I get disconnected as soon as this time rolls around when I try to change maps, again with server not responding.
At Congress, that has not made Net Neutrality the law of the land.
No, seriously, packet shaping is bad. It's kind of the nasty ugly tricks an ISP or uplink provider turns to in order to not have a lot of "non-serious" traffic, p2p, online video or gaming, in their nets competing for bandwidth with important things like corporate websites or select traffic partners.
At any rate, we don't know if Cryptic has changed anything in their communications protocol in that infamous patch. They have changed something, yes, but is it the communications protocols?
The point is not to point finger at your end, but to try to persuade you that the net is not as simple as you, your ISP and Cryptic. There's a lot of other things on the net, and if you seriously want this bug tracked down and killed, it is in your best interest to keep an open mind to all eventualities and help the support team doing their tests.
Unless those several other MMOs are hosted on exactly the same server farm where Champions Online is hosted, you use another rope with another middle part to reach those. They're located somewhere else, so the route there is different.
So it is in fact very likely that you will not be affected if you play them.
You can see this yourself if you make a simple tracert to their servers. Just compare the different routers you're routed through: I bet a can of dog food that only the part of the route that's within your ISPs net is in common in the different routes.
I know it sounds silly, but what happens if you select the EU proxy? It has worked for a lot of other guys on your side of the pool.
If I can connect with the proxy set to none then I can sometimes connect with the proxy set to EU, but all it seems to do is bump the latency up by an extra ~300. Not really surprising as it would be difficult for me to get further away from the EU.
There was a period where having the proxy set to US was fairly reliable, but lately with the proxy set to US it gets through the launcher and just sits at 'connecting to account server' unless its late.
It's just all over the place, nothing seems to work consistently, sometimes US proxy suddenly stops working, and I'll have to switch back to none. Or vice-versa.
Like right now for instance, after not being able to connect for the past 10 hours (on any setting) I can now connect with the proxy set to US, but not none (server not responding) or EU (can't connect to the account server), not that it's going to do me much good since I was just randomly checking before sleep, too late to do much with this last gasp of connectivity before patch time.
Well looky there, they updated my CS ticket stating they were having proxy issues, and after downloading this latest patch Lo and Behold! I can set the proxy and connect just fine. Looks like it was their end of the rope after all.
I've done that, and Nothing happens. I mean when I launch Task Manager, I can see that an Application called Champions Online is running... but there's no UI. I alt-tab to the app, and nothing... nadda, zip! Do I need to install a patch? I've looked on the site, but I don't see a download link. And if the Champs app is supposed to fetch it... it aint!
A rather drastic proposal might be to
1) Copy (Backup) your whole Champions Online directory somewhere safe.
2) Uninstall the game
3) Go to account page on the CO site and hit the "download" button (you may need to log in, the 'My Account' button is on the top right of the page, the download button is on the 'Dashboard' tab)
4) Run the setup (it's only about 1.6 Mb) which will create the folder, sub-directories and registry entries for the game.
5) Run the new launcher, once it has updated and moved onto "downloading" cancel and quit out.
6) Copy all the old files/folders you backed up earlier (1) except the old Champions Online.exe into the new directory (so you have all your old files + the new Champions Online.exe).
7) Run the new Champions Online.exe.
[Edit; Cleaned up a bit]
I don't see in your 8 posts you made where you supplied a dxdiag rpt on your system. can you do that? also if you are using vista or win7 try setting the launcher and game exe to run as admin.
THANKS!