Korean Job Discussion Forums

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

Last winter I got fairly hooked on Everquest II. When I came back to Korea after an extended vacation in the States, the service was a bit choppy.. it would drop out every now and again. Now, for the past few months, it is nearly impossible to get online.

The symptoms are thus: Most of the time after I log in, it attempts to make a connection but then cuts out, giving me a black screen and the message that my login and password are incorrect. Other times, it will simply cut out during the zoning process. Sometimes I am able to get 20-30 beautiful minutes of game play before it, again, simply cuts out.

My husband contacted Sony a while ago. EQII is the only thing we are having trouble with. He was able to log into Vanguard without problems. Sony ran him through a "ping test" which showed them that the problem was occurring at a router 3 "stops" away from us. (Quotation marks used to show that I really have no idea what these things are.) That router was dropping information 100% of the time, so said the ping test.

We called up our internet provider, KT, and tried to explain the problem to them. They sent a service person over to our house, figuring that the problem was with our modem. No, no problem. They couldn't quite understand that yes, we could connect to the internet, but we were still having a problem.

My husband has since given up, but I'm still determined. Lacking the technical knowledge to figure it out on my own, I turn to you all for help. How can I explain this problem to KT in a way that they will understand? Is the information that I have from Sony even correct - can a router drop information 100% of the time yet still allow me access to everything BUT EQ2? Could the problem be something bigger? When we've contacted Sony about smaller problems before they have complained to us about Korea's being "funky" and blocking some web pages. Could that have something to do with this?

Thanks for any insight you guys can offer me.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

Well it's "hops" not "stops" but at least you know what the problem seems to be. Unfortunately if you're right there's nothing you can do about it at your end. Here's what I'd try:

1. Get the IP address of the problem spot, and a Korean.
2. Have the Korean explain to KT that you're 100% loss at whatever point.
3. Hope for the best

Even if you can get KT to understand what your problem is they might not be able to fix it. Three hops could be outside Korea already. I actually don't know much about it, but perhaps they could just re-route you if that's the case. Either way, you should find out if the problem is fixable.

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

Thank you, JustJohn... I wonder if re-routing is a possibility.

If KT isn't able to help me at all, do you think switching to another ISP would solve the issue, or are they likely to use the same "hops" that KT does?

FWIW, the PC bang at the end of my street has no trouble connecting to EQ2.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

If the PCbang has no trouble and you're sure it's not your computer then yes, switching would be likely to fix it.

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

All right, good to know. Yeah, we have 3 computers in the house, and none of them can get on. I'll try to find a Korean person to help me with this, using the method you suggested... switching ISPs would be a last resort, I hope.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Sure it is playable outside of your home country?

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

Yes, I played it here in Korea for months with no problem, and also know players in the EU. They play on the US servers. There are Japanese servers, but, well.. that won't help me very much.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Find a proxy (HTTP/CGI?) and register with the game through the proxy...you may be able to skip the bad hop that way.

http://www.iopus.com/iPig/ This is a pay thing, but give the trial version a spin.

FWIW, I have no experience doing this, so if it's an insane idea, whatever...

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

Hmm... I have no experience with that at all, either. I guess I'll try it if nothing else works... thank you, Demophobe.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

At only the 3rd hop I'm not sure if a proxy would do any good, and it might make you laggy.

However, it's still a good idea and definitely worth a try.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

Well the problem is that we don't know where the 3rd hop is.

I don't know a LOT about these things, but unless memory fails you can have more than 1 hop "inside" your ISP so I'm not going to rule out that it's a problem inside KT. In that case, proxy does jack, new ISP fixes it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we've got two more possibilities after that.
1. The hop is still close enough that all or most out of country traffic is routed through it. A proxy does nothing and KT may not be able to do anything either.
2. The hop is already close to the server (unlikely, but it might be far enough) so that you can reach a proxy before the hop. In this case a proxy fixes it and KT can't do anything.

Based on the fact that it works from a PCbang and it's only 3 hops out I don't think it's that close to the destination, which is why I'm not sure a proxy will fix it. But like I said, definitely worth a try.

(And maybe someone who knows more about traffic routing could give us a better idea...)

maeil · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Haebangchon

I should have mentioned this before. According to the ping test, Sony's server, in California, is hop #15 from us. I don't have the sheet in front of me, but I do remember my husband saying that hop #3 had an IP address very similar to the one given to us by KT... not sure if that means anything, though.