Thread: Connection drops within 90 minutes of play this week

My windows 7/64 machine has been dropping the connection to the game server within 90 minutes of play. My Vista machine, plugged into the same router continues to play fine on another account. When the connection is dropped the connection status icon reports ping time outbound traffic and 0 inbound traffic. Voice chat with my fellowship is still active and I am head clearly. I re-installed the client, no change. The setup we have has worked perfectly for years.

Anyone else see this happening recently?

Still looking into this Turbine support suggested it may be my RVS4000 router. Our Vista machine started dropping with the Win7 staying connected. So I moved the Vista machine on the outside network and have not had a drop from it. I turned off inter-VLAN routing in advanced routing settings and neither machine has dropped after a couple of hours of play.

Still to early to see if the problem is solved but I'll add to this post in a week or so.

ok, this is looking like a Comcast problem. I routed all the turbine connections to my T1:
============================== ============================== ====
Persistent Routes:
Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric
4.53.19.0 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1 1
74.201.102.0 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1 1
207.168.46.0 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1 1

And I am still getting drops. My next step is route the whole machine through the T1. I'll report back later.

I have been working on this problem for two weeks now trying all the combinations I have at my disposal. It appears that the fault is with Comcast San Francisco. I am lucky enough to have dual internet feeds. A Comcast cable connection and a business T1. When I switch my computer to the T1 and disable the Comcast connection I do not get any drops. If I plug a machine directly into Comcast cable modem, it randomly drops. Any machine connecting to Lotro on the RVS4000 side of the Comcast randomly drops connection.

This is a serious issue, Comcast San Francisco is not providing a neutral net connection to their customers and the Turbine servers. The drops are very peculiar. The connection icon in the status bar still reports ping, the voice connections to my fellows still work and every other application that I am running still sports "Comcastic" connection.

This is not a problem with my computer, It happens with three different computers connected to the Comcast connection. Over the next week I'll try testing each one over the T1 and see if I get the same stable connection.

Turbine has replied to my tech support ticket:

Greetings,



Thank you for your reply. One possible cause is that it may be due to their network "seeing" the games connection erroneously as a peer-to-peer (P2P) download or "bittorrent" connection type and lowering its available bandwidth until it times out and loses connection.

The game does not use P2P for its general connection but the methods and ports it does use sometimes can appear (from a networking standpoint) as one and are sometimes affected by these polices.

You may want to follow up with the ISP about the games connection and its connection methods (encrypted UDP packets on ports 9000 through 9010 for general data, as well as 2900 through 2910 for chat/voice chat via "loose" or "asymmetrical" packet routing, e.g. data goes out on port "X" but the server might be communicating back on port "Y").

They may be able to review the games connection method and their network and network hardware and determine if there are any settings or options enabled that might affect these connections.

(Often once they are made aware that it is a game connection typically the ISP can put it on an exceptions/exclusions list for these policies if any are in use.)

Be aware that it has been our experience that you might need to request to speak to a supervisor at your ISP, as the "front line" support are sometimes either not aware of these policies or if they are in effect.



Thank you,

The Turbine Technical Support Team

Turbine, powered by our fans.

I am filing a ticket with Comcast, I'll report results.

I too am having this same issue and recieved the same advice from Turbine customer service. I contacted my "Comcast" customer service and got absolutly nowhere! Because my connection to e-mail and other internet sites were functioning properly there was nothing they could do but refer me to thier advanced IT support team. This would cost an additional $79.00 initiial start up and $19.00 each month (for tech support!!!). I am back to square one and have not been able to play LOTRO for about a month now.

My problem is a bit more severe than 90 minutes though. get booted from the game in less than two minutes.

Originally Posted by Sarrk

My problem is a bit more severe than 90 minutes though. get booted from the game in less than two minutes.

there have been a few reports since update 7 went live with people being kicked from the servers for no apparent reason, the only thing you can do is wait and hope the problem is fixed when 7.1 is released#

*snip*...
This would cost an additional $79.00 initiial start up and $19.00 each month (for tech support!!!). I am back to
square one and have not been able to play LOTRO for about a month now.

you need to change ISP, imho you should not be paying your ISP for support to fix problems with their service, this should be included in your monthly fee... $19.00 is almost as much as i pay in sterling for a months broadband including full support

Sorry I have not given the final follow-up to this thread. My problem turned out to be a subtlety failing RVS-4000 Cisco router. Of course, the box was 2 months out of warranty. I purchased the updated version of the router with the 3 year warranty and have had no problems since.

Sarrk, if your cable modem is not directly plugged into your computer's Ethernet port, I would give that a try.

I also suggest that you make sure that there are no background communications going on, even Bit Torrent will disrupt your LOTRO connection. Check if your DNS has been hijacked by going to this page: http://www.dns-ok.us/

If you have a friend with LOTRO on a laptop, invite them over, plug them directly into the cable modem and see if they drop. If they don't and you can't find a rogue task on your machine I suggest you re-install your windows.

Good Luck!

Also been experiencing this, this past week.

Win7

Be Broadband

UK

Last week was functioning fine for me, its only been a recent occurance

Originally Posted by SolidXState

Also been experiencing this, this past week.

Win7

Be Broadband

UK

Last week was functioning fine for me, its only been a recent occurance

well i can say BE are functioning nornaly, no reported current outages at the mo but that dosent mean theres no problem with your line, check their forums if theres a problem in your area thats the first place itll show up

if this problem only started since update 7 then this sounds like a problem with u7
first try a reboot of your modem\router
if that dosent resolve the problem try a reinstall of lotro, failing that it may be a case of waiting untill u7.1 is released

if the problem persists after u7.1 call BE support, they are excelent but will run through all the basic support stuff first so id suggest checking the BE forums and doing those before calling
ie ping\trace to the logon servers, switching the broadband filter, testing in the master socket and run a "quiet line test" with and without your modem plugged in (google "quite line test" for instructions on how)