Multi-boxing System Configuration & Softwares General FAQ

[Shanefpt]

In regard to limited simultaneous connections:

You know guys and gals, it may be your ISP - I know it is mine. I have a CyberPower Fang III with i7, 64GB RAM, Dual SLR Nvidia Titan Black GPUs and a 1250w PSU on Win10... So no performance issues at all - but once my computer hits the 18th character I get a cannot connect to server error for 19th. I noticed that I cannot grab my laptop and log in either.

It is probably an anti-bit torrent/piracy DRM protection system in your country throttling your computer and restricting multiple outbound connections since it may seem you are uploading multiple files to outside recipients.

The only thing I can come up with and I have seen this complaint surfacing everywhere recently. Some have even complained (like at Bleeping Computer) that they have recently been restricted to a number of open Chrome instances on their computers also - like you have 20 open internet browsers and the 21st won't connect.

I suppose the logic is: "Why would one person need so many simultaneous internet connections?"

I don't know for certain but it is an educated assumption.

[Denizen]

Not being able to add another character was one of my problems. Used to box 25 no problem and can still do so in most zones other than VT and Umbral. In Umbral around 23 it just won't work. I use three HP z800s...old workstations with 24 cores each. Their just idling with 25 characters, not even breathing hard.

At any rate I've cut back to 3 groups and things go nicely with those. IDK what's happened...Windows 10, ISP, something... the thing is, the actual amount of load on the internet is tiny compared to say watching a movie, but all those little files going back and forth must be it somehow...

[Shanefpt]

Oh yeah the EQ bandwidth "impact" is minimal. This game came out when AOL offered it's "Blazing fast 56K speeds" with version 4.0 and was still popular and even then it was totally doable on Live (multiboxing I mean). Which is laughable since common US internet offers an average 20mbits or 20,000kbps. LOL! (or over 350x the bandwidth)

[Lillu]

Yeah but back in the days the data sent back and forth between client and server was a lot less I believe. The combat spam is significant nowadays with all the new skills, features and super power you guys get! :p

[Alulien]

If your ISP is actually throttling you based on your EQ traffic then you should be able to get them to stop. EQ operates on TCP 1024 and 7000 and UDP 1024 and 6000 whereas the bittorrent protocol operates on (forgive range errors) TCP 80, 6881-6889,6969 and 8080 and UDP pretty much everything starting from 1024 and up. Ring them up and get to a higher level tech than just the "main" lines and explain the situation and how you think it might be the game and you're wondering if ports... you get the idea.

[Denizen]

Great to have port numbers etc. Most techs I've talked to are oblivious or try to seem oblivious...but I might find a birght one someplace. Worth a shot anyway.

[Lillu]

Additionally, zone servers use TCP port 7000-7200 here.

[Alulien]

Oooh good point Lillu, I hadn't considered the custom-ness of the server. Rafe try and get to a tier 2 tech or something, just say to the first person that you appreciate their help but you had an issue that the repair tech a year or two back told you to send to tier 2 cuz it concerns ports. I've always had no issue with this explanation: they know nothing about this and it's an easy out, "tech said to". Hopefully they don't try to pull a service record and get all customer servicey on you.

[Denizen]

Well I did it....I spent a half hour getting to a tier 2 tech at Century Link...but then he tested and re-set all my ports. He found one line, he said, that had had some errors.

Now whether or not that was the problem or there really was a throttling on port activity (I am a skeptic by nature - why can't that be a religion on EQ?), I was, for the first time since the new code and since Windows 10, able to get all 24 of my characters into Vex Thal and beat a boss.

So, I consider the time spent with Century Link on the phone to have been worth while.

I did find, on my router, that I can also assign low, medium and high priority to ports and kicked all ports used by EQ up to high priority (this prioritization wasn't in place back when things were working smoothly under the old code and Windows 7). Not sure it did anything, but it was nice to find this feature.

So thanks for the pointers on this one...it worked

[Denizen]

Wondering ...

Some zones have been terrible and gotten better...HoH, Drunder etc. could it be that this is, in part due to the ports involved and hence make it miserable for some but just fine for others?

This is beyond my current knowledge but is it possible that some of the more active zones would be assigned more than one possible port and somehow with port forwarding etc. we could choose the port that gives us the best results. So if for example, one is focused on Drunder, they could then choose a port with good bandwidth to access Drunder?