Network and Game Connection Troubleshooting - Updated 1/19/2016

[Altumus]

These are the combined "Network Troubleshooting" and "Connection Issue Troubleshooting" stickies, use those links for quick navigation.

This post is meant as a helpful guide to trouble shoot network issues.


Network problems can manifest themselves in many ways:

• Unable to connect to the login servers
• Getting stuck at steps on the launcher
• Getting a “quit” button on a black screen
• The game hanging with the loading bar filled
• Chat channels dropping out and coming back randomly
• Disconnects from the game
• Getting stuck ingame (character cannot move but still able to talk to others)
• Data centers unavailable...
• and many more -

Things like SSL errors, specific code errors with .dll's listed and crashing are usually not network related.

First things to check:

The first and easiest thing to check is your firewall...


A firewall protects you from various internet threats. However if not configured correctly can keep you from doing many things you actually want to do. Think of it as an internet cop - and if you are experiencing issues connecting with any of the symptoms listed above, it might be that cop saying stop! So double check your firewall settings and ensure that it has exceptions for the game (even if it is window's firewall):

• turbinelauncher.exe
• lotroclient.exe
• turbineinvoker.exe (on vista)

If there has been an update to the game you will need to Remove then Re-add them, the file dates and sizes change and the firewall may block them because it will not recognize them.

The second thing to check is your router settings....


If you use a router and you start experiencing issues you may need to configure the outbound ports to allow the game to connect correctly. The following ports need outbound forwarding:

• Port 80
• Ports 9000-9100 UDP
• Ports 2900-2910UDP

If that does not help you can also try simply bypassing the router and connecting the computer directly to the modem. *note* in some cases the dsl/cable modem may also be a router if this is the case you will not be able to bypass it if the port forwarding does not work.

Additional information on how to configure many various brands of routers can be found at www.portforward.com (not affiliated with Turbine.) You simply click on "routers" then choose your model and then in the "games" list choose Lord of the Rings Online.

If you have a wireless router try moving the computer closer to it or using a "hardwired" connection (e.g. connecting via networking cable)

*Note for Campus/Office network users- If you are playing on an educational or business network (such as a office, dorm, classroom, wireless school network or some wi-fi access points) the network admins may have firewall or routing set up which can interfere with your connection - this is a very common practice and you may not be able to get them to change the system settings but using the information above (for ports and exceptions) you can ask them.

The next step:


If the router and firewall check out ok and you are still experiencing issues and the servers are not down and there is no announcement about network issues you may have to try some advanced troubleshooting. Here are a list of the various things you can do.

• Tracert (trace route) to gls.lotro.com - a simple “is it reaching turbine” test.
• What programs/devices are running? - many programs (like bit torrents/file sharing and VOIP adapters can cause network issues)
• Ping Plotter Trace - a more advanced trace method that can show “trends” or.... how your connection is performing over time.
• Do you have a proxy - how do you find out?
• Asking your ISP the tough questions: Is there any Traffic Shaping or other network limiting protocols active.

Tracert:

A Tracert is a quick command prompt line you can use to run a “trace” to our servers to see if there is any interruption in the connection. Just because you can connect to the website, forums, other games does not mean you use the same “route” to connect to the servers. In-fact most destinations on the web are reached via various routes with between 10 and 30 (even sometimes more!) jumps - all which pass through “routers” of sorts. If one of these is having a problem or high traffic that can mean network problems for you.

To run a tracert to our servers you click on start and then choose run or click in the search box (for Vista/7) and type cmd then hit enter*. Then type in tracert gls.lotro.com and hit enter. (* For Win8 and 10 hold the Windows key and press "X" and select command prompt)

Once it completes you will see something like this:

Tracing route to gls.lotro.com [74.201.102.12]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
 
  1     2 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  10.32.160.1
  3     8 ms     7 ms     9 ms  gig14-1-4.austtxrdcsc-rtr2.austin.rr.com [24.27.
12.186]
  4     6 ms     7 ms     7 ms  gig2-0-0.austtxrdcsc-rtr4.texas.rr.com [24.93.33
.150]
  5    16 ms    20 ms    14 ms  gig5-3-0.hstntxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [72.179.205.
37]
  6    27 ms    27 ms    20 ms  te-7-4.car1.Houston1.Level3.net [4.79.88.25]
  7    16 ms    15 ms    18 ms  ae-5-5.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.132.230]
  8    21 ms    20 ms    16 ms  ae-81-81.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.130]
 
  9   228 ms   151 ms   243 ms  ae-33-89.car3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.68.19.133]
 10    17 ms    17 ms    20 ms  level3-gw.dlstx.ip.att.net [192.205.34.137]
 11    64 ms    62 ms    63 ms  tbr2.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.86.210]
 12    60 ms    65 ms    65 ms  tbr1.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.89]
 13    62 ms    62 ms    61 ms  tbr1.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.29]
 14    60 ms    59 ms    59 ms  cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.16.29]
 15    63 ms    59 ms    60 ms  cr2.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.3.37]
 16    61 ms    62 ms    60 ms  tbr2.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.16.222]
 17    61 ms    60 ms    61 ms  tbr1.cb1ma.ip.att.net [12.122.10.21]
 18    60 ms    64 ms    61 ms  12.127.5.109
 19    61 ms    65 ms    62 ms  12-122-254-14.attens.net [12.122.254.14]
 20    62 ms    62 ms    62 ms  mdf001c7613r0004-gig-12-1.bos1.attens.net [12.13
0.0.174]
 21    64 ms    60 ms    61 ms  12.130.10.69
 22    62 ms    63 ms    60 ms  74.201.102.12
 
Trace complete.

Number 1 is the jump from your computer to either your network or your ISP (in my case its my computer to my network) and jump 2 is my ISP - you see the various numbers and anything between 1-300 is typically ok and should allow you to play just fine (non-broadband connections can range up to 600 and still be ok.) But if you start seeing 1000's or more you know that you are going to experience lag, and possible other issues with your game connection.

If you see lines that look like this:

21 * * * 74.201.102.12

it may or may not be an issue. If you see one but it is followed by hops that show no errors, or you have just one asterisk and 2 ms values it is probably ok (but this could mean packet-loss which we will examine further down). If all the jumps after a certain point are * * * then you are not getting through and will most likely want to contact your ISP and have them check out the connection. Sometimes there will be multiple lines between the start and end that are showing three *'s but that could just be the hop blocking the ping information.

So Tracert - while not definitive, can you help isolate an obvious network error.

What programs/devices are running?

Programs: Many times people will experience issues connecting with various applications running. Sometimes an anti-virus program may be overzealous and causing a problem. Or you could have a “bit-torrent” client or other file-sharing network program running - Many ISP's are adding policies that will really inhibit a connection while those types of programs are being used, so you should always turn these off if you are experiencing connectivity issues. Also “web accelerators” do not play well with LOTRO and should not be run while playing.

If you are not sure if you have any other programs running or not you can do what is called a “clean boot“ to start up (temporarily for testing) without additional tasks/programs running and then try playing the game.

VOIP: Another common thing that is popping up lately are VOIP adapters (cable phone/web phone). Often times when these are in-line with the modem/computer they can cause short intermittent network disconnects.


Many people using VOIP phones have been setting up their connection so the flow is as follows:

• Wall Jack -> Cable Modem -> VOIP Adapter -> Router
• or Wall Jack -> Cable Modem/VOIP Adapter Combo -> Router

Many VOIP adapters will have router like functions that can cause issues with your connection. You can resolve this by either turning off the router features in the VOIP adapter, or configuring your flow like this:

• Wall Jack -> Cable Modem -> Router -> VOIP adapter and/or Computer and/or Other (all connected to the router separately)

Please keep in mind that if you have any questions on this configuration, you can always contact your ISP for assistance.

Ping Plotter Trace

Pingplotter is basically an “advanced” tracert. The advantage of it is, it can allow you to see more clearly packet loss percentages because it shows the activity of your connection over a period of time. This gives us a better opportunity to see if there are spikes in the performance. You can get the program from www.pingplotter.com (not a Turbine Affiliate) and install it. Then run it and choose gls.lotro.com as the trace url.

When you enter this it will trace to the servers and by default will run a new trace every 15 seconds (unless you changed it) an unlimited amount of times. You would run this, start the game and play... and the moment you experience a network issue (as outline in the first part of this post) you would alt tab back to ping plotter and stop the trace.

When you do that if you look in the left column that says PL% see if it has any values in that column. If it does that is packet loss and will show you where the error is happening. If you have packetloss throughout the route you will again need to contact your ISP and explain what is happening. Also you can copy this information window and paste it into a post or email for us to help you diagnose it as well.

Do you have a proxy

Another important thing to check is whether or not your ISP uses a proxy. Several do (one of the most popular that we are aware of is Singtel/Singnet) and this can cause issues connecting if you do not have it set up right. Here's how you do it:

1. Open Internet Explorer (even if it is not your default browser)
2. Click on Tools > Internet Options > Connections (tab) > LAN Settings (button)

In there see if “Use a Proxy Server” is selected. If it is confirm with your ISP that these settings are required for you to be able to connect to the internet and that they are correctly configured.

(Also make sure that I.E itself can connect to the internet, the game shares the global internet connection settings used by I.E and if it can't connect neither can the game)

Asking your ISP the tough questions:

Many ISP's have been instituting Traffic Shaping (Packet sharing is also another term used) which unfortunately can cause short disconnects that effect gameplay. For more information on what Traffic Shaping is you can check out this article. So if you have checked all of the above information and cant seem to find a resolution ask your ISP if they are doing this as it could explain the problem. The reason in short that many ISP's choose to use this technique is to maximize network and sometimes to discourage the use of filesharing programs (such as bittorrent). “Fair Usage Policies” that limit bandwidth during peak transmission times or after so much information has been transferred may also effect your connection to the game.

Unfortunately, if your ISP has instituted one of these policies, you may experience connectivity issues while playing some or all games.