*fume*

[Valles]

"login server unavailable" my ass.
*sigh* Well, the research I've been doing all day leaves me thinking that this problem is going to be either tied up in how the University handles its T1 or some bizzare gremlin in the bowels of CoH that'll go away on its own in time.
Gragh. If I'm lucky, there'll be other people complaining about this, but otherwise I'm going to have to make the call tomorrow.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Bob Schroeck]

Hm. It's about 80 minutes later for me... I'll be going on in a little while and I'll see if it's working then.
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

[Valles]

Discussion Thread
Response (Mike L.) 08/29/2006 05:55 PM
Hello Nathan,
Okay well if all your security software has been removed or disabled from your system, then it must be something on the campus network causing this. You stated previously that you were told that no one else has reported this problem to the campus IT department. Have you tried connecting from a different location on the campus to see if the issue continues? Also you may want to verify with them they were referring to City of Heroes specifically and not other online games. Please let us know what you find out.
Thanks,
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/29/2006 04:03 PM
ZoneAlarm's tech support office reccomended uninstalling the firewall to establish whether or not it was the source; when this was done, the problem persisted.
Thank you, -n
Response (Hayden) 08/29/2006 11:18 AM
Hello Nathan,
For troubleshooting purposes it is usually best to leave the third party apps disabled in msconfig. Less things to get in the way if we do it that way.
As for Zone alarm my next suggestion would be to contact support for that firewall. Zone alarm has a tendency to hide some of the security settings and their support would know the quickest way to get this resolved for the files involved.
Thank you.
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/28/2006 07:23 PM
[i]The hijackthis log you sent us looked fine. Although it did show quite a few programs running in the background. Did you re-enable them after you disabled them in msconfig?
Yes, is there a reason I shouldn't have?
You may want to go into your Zone Alarm exceptions menu and remove the entries for City of Heroes, this should make the firewall ask you if you want to give them permission again when you try to run the game. Disabling a firewall will not prevent it from blocking programs it may have determined are suspicious. Please let us know how it turns out.
No joy.
Response (Mike L.) 08/28/2006 06:54 PM
Hello Nathan,
The hijackthis log you sent us looked fine. Although it did show quite a few programs running in the background. Did you re-enable them after you disabled them in msconfig? You may want to go into your Zone Alarm exceptions menu and remove the entries for City of Heroes, this should make the firewall ask you if you want to give them permission again when you try to run the game. Disabling a firewall will not prevent it from blocking programs it may have determined are suspicious. Please let us know how it turns out.
Thanks,
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/28/2006 06:44 PM
Program run!
Response (Mike L.) 08/28/2006 06:13 PM
Hello Nathan,
I would like for you to run a program for us. It is called Hijack This and it will give us a list of any programs on the machine that could be causing this issue. You can download it from the following location:
www.spychecker.com/progra...kthis.html
Please run it and click the button that says Save Log. Send us this log file. I'll take a look at the log and send you some suggestions if I find anything.
Thank you,
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/28/2006 04:37 PM
Shutting down the third-party programs had no effect.
Response (Scott) 08/28/2006 11:41 AM
Hello Nathan,
I'd like for you to try disabling all background applications that are running. You will only be disabling 3rd party programs that are running and keep the bare essentials needed for Windows. After going through the following instructions restart your computer and try the game again
Go to Start>Run>type msconfig and click OK. Uncheck Load Startup Items, then go to the Services tab. Click Hide All Microsoft Services then uncheck all the ones you see. Click OK and restart.
Thanks,
PlayNC Tech Support
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/25/2006 07:03 PM
> In order to better understand your issue, please send us a little information about your network setup. We need to know exactly how you connect to the Internet. <
...I knew I forgot something.
Anyway, mulmres01.marshall.edu/cp/home/loginf is all Greek to me, but it looks like it details the information you'll need. To quote the relevant paragraph, "Marshall University Network, known as MUNet, is composed of a Gigabit Ethernet backbone delivered over fiber connecting all of the buildings on Campus. The majority of intra-building connections are switched 10/100 Ethernet. Computing Services also provides support for 802.11x and Free-Space Optical wireless networks. MUNet is linked to the Internet via the state wide ATM Network. Marshall University has an OC3 (155Mbs full-duplex) ATM connection with 30Mbs dedicated to high speed access to the Internet. All remote sites are connected to the University across the statewide ATM Network with the exception of the Medical Education Building."
I'm a resident in a dorm on the University's Huntington, WV campus. I -am- a user of ZoneAlarm antivirus, but it's configured to allow the various CoH programs full rein and caused no conflict when I had the machine set up at my permanent home in Elkins, WV.
If the information the University provides on their website isn't enough, I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than I already have at this point. If need be I can place a call and ask, or you may contact their Help Desk yourself at (877) 689-8638 or helpdesk@marshall.edu
Thank you, -n[/i]
And, of course, now that I've called the Uni help desk a second time, I find out that they actually don't know, and that the Networking people who do go home at 4:30.
I'm about ready to kill something.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Logan Darklighter]

Gah... the suck pressure on that situation is approaching ramjet intake levels.

---

And, of course, now that I've called the Uni help desk a second time, I find out that they actually don't know, and that the Networking people who do go home at 4:30.

---

Just be sure to contact the Networking people first thing in the morning. And then STAY ON THEIR ASS.
No, really. I've worked in tech support. I know how it is. You don't need to be a jerk right off the bat. You can remain polite. But BE PERSISTANT. Do not let them go for more than 30 minutes without hearing your voice on their phone until the problem is fixed. Get to the point where they know you on a first name basis. Stay on them. Because they WILL take the first opportunity to blow you off.
And NEVER accept that "well we can't fix the problem, it's out of our hands." If they can't fix it, then make them transfer you to someone who can.
Can you tell that I LOVE trashing the nice, neat system of tech support and call centers? Because, having worked tech support, I know how to game the system. (evil grin)-Logan
-----------------
"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
-----------------

[Florin]

I've had this problem before. Twice. Does the University block bittorrent? Cause my ISP does, and for some reason they thought that City of Heroes was a bittorrent app. Ironically, the updater, which I'm pretty sure DOES work like bittorrent, was never blocked.--
Instead of playing the role of a super hero, one degenerates into a strange bum luring villains to their doom in a trash dumpster. -Statesman
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[Valles]

Nope, that's not it. BT is currently reading 14 KB/s down, 11 KB/s up - working just fine.
*shakes head* No, whatever this is, it's nothing simple.
Now, I can only wait for the Uni Network guys to call me back - help desk wouldn't give me their number - so I can confirm that it's nothing they're doing and take one step closer to forcing the COH tech support guys to actually admit to the problem and fix it.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Valles]

Well, I'd glad to do that, jackass, if I could, which is what I just finished telling you.
ETA: Response (Scott) 08/30/2006 05:55 PM
Hello Nathan,
This is the reason, we would like you to try a different connection then the campus's connection. If the game connects using a different connection, then the campus connection needs to be configured in order for you to play.
Thanks,
PlayNC Tech Support
Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/30/2006 05:14 PM
As the room phones are cellular types and my permanent address is several hours driving time away, I don't think that that experiment is really practical. OTOH, the game had worked fine when I was at home - I didn't start having problems until I tried to play through the dorm connection.
Thanks, -n

Response (Vincent) 08/30/2006 04:04 PM
Hello Nathan,
Could you try using a dial up connection or temporary taking your PC to another location on a different ISP to see if it resolves the issue? We need to determine whether it is the college network causing the issue.
Regards,

Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/30/2006 03:17 PM
I had tried the DNS flush even before I contacted you; repeating the attempt doesn't solve the problem.

Response (Mike L.) 08/30/2006 02:35 PM
Hello Nathan,
Please perform the following steps- click on Start and go to Run. In the run line, type in cmd and hit enter. In the black window that opens, type
ipconfig/flushdns
Then hit enter. You should see "Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache." Close the command prompt and try the game again. Please let us know if this helps.
Thank you,

Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/30/2006 01:33 PM
Uninstalling Microsoft TCP/IP v6 did not resolve the problem.

Response (Vincent) 08/30/2006 12:44 PM
Hello Nathan,
Please uninstall IPv6, it is unsupported by City of Heroes.
1. Click Start.
2. Either click Control Panel and then double-click Network Connections, or point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
3. Right-click any local area connection, and then click Properties.
4. Click Microsoft TCP/IP version 6 in the list of installed components, and then click Uninstall.
5. Restart the computer.
Please let us know if this helps.
Regards,

Customer (Nathan Baxter) 08/30/2006 08:36 AM
> Okay well if all your security software has been removed or disabled from your system, then it must be something on the campus network causing this. You stated previously that you were told that no one else has reported this problem to the campus IT department. Have you tried connecting from a different location on the campus to see if the issue continues? Also you may want to verify with them they were referring to City of Heroes specifically and not other online games. Please let us know what you find out. <
I haven't checked different physical locations because my computer is a desktop system. Also, all other aspects of my connection seem to be working perfectly - websurfing, email, and file sharing have given me no problems - and I find it unlikely that some problem with my dorm room's link would be this specific about its interference.
Below is included a copy of the email the campus help desk sent to their network people, and the reply received.

[8/29/2006 7:24:45 PM - baldwin28]
When he is trying to play city of heros online it willnot connect while he is on campus. It hasent worked since he moved into his dorm. He is wanting to know if the ports are blocked if it is possible to open them up so that he is able to logon to the game
2104
2106
6994
UDP
7100
[8/29/2006 10:54:24 PM - vance30]
TRANSFER REPS: vance30 => maynar12
[8/30/2006 9:06:45 AM - vance30]
TRANSFER REPS: maynar12 => baldwin28
[8/30/2006 9:06:45 AM - vance30]
The ports described above are not visibly blocked by the switch, pix or packeteer. There is a packet shaper on the packeteer that could possibly block that game so we deleted that policy, dont know if it will work but we will try. If he is still having problems we can investigate further.

I -have- tried to connect to the game since receiving this message, and the problem persists.
Thank you, -n
Gag.

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Valles]

...but at least it's over.
*sigh* Ah, well. Keep an eye out, folks - Seelepanzer on Virtue or Schwartzschild on Infinity - say 'Hi' if you see me.
...huh. I just noticed that they both have German names. Wierd.
Ja, -n


===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"