FFXI / ISP Incompatibility Shuts Users Out

falcon5768 writes "Since Tuesday 9/28, an incompatibility between how Final Fantasy XI addresses a network connection with it's Playonline Viewer and Optimum Online's broadband service has blocked well over 1000 players out of the game. The only thing both companies do agree on is that the problem is a minor one. Numerous players have been told by Optimum Online that it is not a priority. Likewise Square Enix has no notice of the problem on their website, but an option on their call menu tells players they are aware of the problem and it is being worked on before hanging up.

Comments

At least it's only a minor problem . . .

[Goobermunch]

I mean, it's not like these folks are actually paying to use a service or anything like that. Besides, it's only 1000 people. Given that they've sold several hundred thousand units, with nice monthly subscriptions attached, they don't have to worry about a few hundred people.

After all, it's not like it'll affect anything important. You know, like the bottom line.

--AC

Re:At least it's only a minor problem . . .

[Farmer Jimbo]

Note the careful use of sarcasm in the post you replied to. The company only cares about the bottom line, which wouldn't be hurt if they lost all 1000 people with this problem.

Stated another way : corps of the size we're talking about here could not care less about this problem beacause it affects so few people.

Re:I've solved it, Watson

[_xeno_]

1. PlayOnline is thoroughly stupid for using port 25 to connect to the network. Though shalt not retain ports under 1000, and well-known ones at that.

Ah, but it doesn't. I run on Comcast, so I was curious what might be causing the problem so I decided to run a packet sniffer and watch the game connect. It opened something on Port 5000 or so and did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, including a bunch of HTTP transactions on non-standard ports. (I think - I need to recheck those logs and make sure it wasn't redirected to that port.) But it never touched Port 25.

This misunderstanding comes because if you read the "required open ports" you'll see them list Ports 25, 80, 110, and 443. A quick overview will see those listed as SMTP, HTTP, POP3, and HTTPS.

As it turns out, the PlayOnline client does include an e-mail client, to allow you to send and receive e-mail via an e-mail account that comes with the service. If you wish to send e-mail using that account, then port 25 comes into play.

It turns out that PlayOnline uses a bunch of Internet standards to run, including HTTP for downloading the menu pages and XML to describe those pages. HTTPS appears to be used for when you sign up for your account and various other features.

(You can actually view the SSL certificate when you enter a secured portion of the service. A "key" icon gets added to the Navigation mini-menu. Square-Enix also digitally signs all e-mail they send to their customers, and the e-mail client they use supports that, as well.)

My personal guess is that OO created a transparent HTTP proxy, and that's what's messing things up. A lot of the basic functionality in PlayOnline is actually done of HTTP/HTTPS.