Curse

Cymbrogi · Mar 22, 2006, 09:03 PM // 21:03

Once more its me:

Tech support emailed me back that everything looked fine in the files I sent them (which I knew was the case by looking at them, all they are are the output of pings, traceroutes and verification of DNS resolution with some extra junk tossed in). They also are not shedding any further light on the problem and clearly consider it closed as far as they are concerned with me.

So, for everyone talking about deleting this, disabling that, I call B.S. I run an active virus scanner and firewall all the time, no exceptions. If the game worked fine before that and you've verified the game is not blocked by either of those apps, then I doubt its your system or configuration. Seems to me if it was a corruptd gw.dat file, there would be a different error message, no? Personally, I think the "uninstall and reinstall" is just to keep you busy in the hopes the error fixes itself.

Its probably an internet connectivity issue that GW doesn't have any control over themselves, except when the traceroute shows a collapse at the auth. servers as some have posted above.

Good luck with your fixes everyone. I know exactly how it feels.

Cymbrogi

Maedhros · Mar 22, 2006, 11:15 PM // 23:15

Still got that problem... ARR!

If it isn't going to be fixed, CRAP! i want so much to see that PFE event and we aren't even able to log in! If we didn't change things at all from that update then its logically in their side right? Anyways, so many systems, ISP, IP addresses and the same problem. IF we didn't changed anything again, our ISP didn't changed our IP range at all of us or something like that. We couldn't have changed all our settings at the same time withthe same update...

~Maedhros

dubruoy · Mar 22, 2006, 11:51 PM // 23:51

Uninstalling my virus checker allowed me to get on, or so my wife says. I can't live with that, but I have contacted Eset (NOD32) to ask them if they have any info on this as the GW tech said he does not know that much about it. So, it seems that there is something wierd going on as I was able to play the game with NOD32 up and running before and then, suddenly, couldn't. When I get home, I think I will re-install NOD32 and see what happens. I called my wife and told her that the tech said to uninstall NOD32 and she did but said that the lag was terrible. I will keep you guys posted as to anything I find out.

mathewthegreat · Mar 23, 2006, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Never used this nod32 program in my life :/ guild wars support ownz.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..........................

corrupted bloodline · Mar 23, 2006, 02:50 AM // 02:50

I wanted to throw in my 2cents along with matthew and say i've never used NOD32.

Furthermore, I have tried every single possible combination of uninstalling/reinstalling Microsoft Antispyware Beta 2.0 (or whatever) and the GW client downloaded from their website, and turning off the firewall.

dub, please keep us posted on your communications with the NCsoft tech support person and ask them, if possible, to share pertinent info with the community via this thread. Would be great to see something like that.........

Endeavor000 · Mar 23, 2006, 05:45 AM // 05:45

While were further giving eachother false hope by stating ideas on how to solve are ever stupid problem.....let reminise on just how long it's been since we played last....for me its.....ahh....umm......ahh.....CRAP!!!! I can't remember....wholly crap........ArenaNET WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON... MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! JUST LET US IN!!!!!! DO-DO-DO-DO-Do-do CHARGE!!!! I'm COMING IN....oh wait theres a CODE=058 ERROR IN MY WAY.....MOOOOOOVE!!!!

mathewthegreat · Mar 23, 2006, 01:56 PM // 13:56

I seem to be getting somewhere, after 4 replies from playNC saying sort your router out and remove firewall/anti-virus, i humoured them and got the admin of my network to email me telling me that the ports needed are not banned (which i already knew they were)

They thern replied saying it was an issue with my ISP (not true) and theat they are loooking into possible routing issues on their side

They also said that they do not suspect anyone else to be having the problem, dispite my having said that there are hundreds of players with the same prioblem, and even linking them to the thread............................................ .............................

They must just pull these guys off the street.

Lycan · Mar 23, 2006, 02:17 PM // 14:17

I have sent them the exact same thing as well matthew. The only replies I keep getting are the same ones they told me to try last week and the week before that

D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E · Mar 23, 2006, 03:14 PM // 15:14

I got this error then 2 seconds later it did a "make sure your connected" error (forgot the code)

ISP restarted (noticed since torrent was 0dl/0up)

then logged in fine...

just now got a new gw.exe and 800+files? maybe a new build while i logged off...

oh boy there goes the lightning bolt; new stuff to get!

dubruoy · Mar 23, 2006, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Ok...for anyone who is interested, I am back up and running. Here is a synopsis of the solution to my particular problem.

I had a virus scanner called NOD32 by Eset on my machine as well as my wife's machine. It is a very good scanner and has a very small footprint compared with Norton and McAfee and scans quicker and my computers run faster so that's what I use.

When GW's new build downloaded, apparently something in it must have appeared suspicious to NOD32. I have no router, disabled windows firewall, and yet could not get on.

NCSoft tech suggested that I remove NOD32 and see if I could get on. I was skeptical as I had tried turning it off and terminating the process in task manager with no success for GW.

I phoned my wife and had her remove NOD32 and she was then able to get on to GW. The NCSoft tech said I would not need a virus scanner while ONLY connected to GW but I am not really comfortable with that so when I got home, I reinstalled NOD32 and GW still worked. I sent Eset (mfgr of NOD32) an email asking for help on this issue and they were quick to respond. There are different modules in NOD32 and I found that I could set an exception in IMON which is the internet monitor module, for gw.exe. Eset's tech support confirmed this was the thing to do and also said to set an exception in the AMON module for gw.exe which I did.

The game is running as good as before I believe. So I think that others on this forum may also be having problems with their virus scanners which may have recognized something in the GW build as being intrusive and invasive and, therefore, blocked it somehow.

It seems to me that either uninstalling and reinstalling NOD32 did the trick OR, that after uninstalling and getting back on GW, something in the downloads from GW corrected the problem. I wish I was more proficient with this crap but I'm not.

So, here is the message from the PlayNC tech:

"You are not able to get past the updater right? The first screen when you launch the game that has a gray striped background and says "Connecting to ArenaNet" correct? This is the screen which it is not connecting to. In the past this is caused by a firewall or router and happened only when the ports required by the game are blocked or the application itself is blocked by a firewall. Since you have neither, this issue is indeed strange. If uninstalling NOD32 does not help then you would want to turn off connection sharing, disable the protocols you do not need, and make certain the connection is a simple connection with no proxies or modifications to it.

Guild Wars uses ports 6112 and Port 80 for the connection screen, login, and gameplay connections. Our network tests show that these are open, but does not show if perhaps they are being filtered somehow. The reason we would like NOD32 off the machine is more of a step to take so we know for certain it is not NOD32. NOD32 is one of the best Antiviruses out there and because it is as strong as it is, I believe it may have background processes running that we cannot see which may be interfering, however in the past, simply ending the NOD32 processes in Task Manager has indeed worked just as good.

Currently this is what I have for you as a suggestion. If our tests were showing problems, this would be easier to identify. We are not receiving many other reports from customers with this issue and the ones we do receive are extremely easy to resolve because they are mostly firewall issues."

Here is the message from the NOD32 tech:

"I haven't heard of any specific issues with this program, but I would try excluding the program's executable file(s) in AMON also. Go to NOD32 Control Center > AMON > Setup > Exclusions tab > Add... and locate the relevant .exe file(s). You could exclude the whole Guild Wars folder but that might be risky in case a virus were to write itself into this location.

IMON scans ports 80, 8080 & 3128 by default for internet (HTTP) traffic."

I hope that this can help at least somebody else who is still having trouble. I just got this from PlayNC tech which seems to confirm the above:

"I do not know of a virus which would purposely write itself to a Guild Wars directory (speaking about the need to run a virus scanner while only playing the game) so the chance is highly unlikely, but being that you heard that from an Antivirus company, I am sure they are expressing every possible problem that "could" happen. If you find that any settings in NOD32 will allow a simple configuration change rather than a reinstall of NOD32 to allow Guild Wars to work with it, please do let us know.

It is likely that after the next patch occurs it will trigger NOD32 to block the game again, and that may be the best chance to pinpoint the blockage."

Sounds like this may be an ongoing problem with GW updates to me so if what I have done works, I may very well have to do it in the future as well which is ok with me, as long as it works.

John

mathewthegreat · Mar 23, 2006, 06:37 PM // 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by dubruoy

Ok...for anyone who is interested, I am back up and running. Here is a synopsis of the solution to my particular problem.

I had a virus scanner called NOD32 by Eset on my machine as well as my wife's machine. It is a very good scanner and has a very small footprint compared with Norton and McAfee and scans quicker and my computers run faster so that's what I use.

When GW's new build downloaded, apparently something in it must have appeared suspicious to NOD32. I have no router, disabled windows firewall, and yet could not get on.

NCSoft tech suggested that I remove NOD32 and see if I could get on. I was skeptical as I had tried turning it off and terminating the process in task manager with no success for GW.

I phoned my wife and had her remove NOD32 and she was then able to get on to GW. The NCSoft tech said I would not need a virus scanner while ONLY connected to GW but I am not really comfortable with that so when I got home, I reinstalled NOD32 and GW still worked. I sent Eset (mfgr of NOD32) an email asking for help on this issue and they were quick to respond. There are different modules in NOD32 and I found that I could set an exception in IMON which is the internet monitor module, for gw.exe. Eset's tech support confirmed this was the thing to do and also said to set an exception in the AMON module for gw.exe which I did.

The game is running as good as before I believe. So I think that others on this forum may also be having problems with their virus scanners which may have recognized something in the GW build as being intrusive and invasive and, therefore, blocked it somehow.

It seems to me that either uninstalling and reinstalling NOD32 did the trick OR, that after uninstalling and getting back on GW, something in the downloads from GW corrected the problem. I wish I was more proficient with this crap but I'm not.

So, here is the message from the PlayNC tech:

"You are not able to get past the updater right? The first screen when you launch the game that has a gray striped background and says "Connecting to ArenaNet" correct? This is the screen which it is not connecting to. In the past this is caused by a firewall or router and happened only when the ports required by the game are blocked or the application itself is blocked by a firewall. Since you have neither, this issue is indeed strange. If uninstalling NOD32 does not help then you would want to turn off connection sharing, disable the protocols you do not need, and make certain the connection is a simple connection with no proxies or modifications to it.

Guild Wars uses ports 6112 and Port 80 for the connection screen, login, and gameplay connections. Our network tests show that these are open, but does not show if perhaps they are being filtered somehow. The reason we would like NOD32 off the machine is more of a step to take so we know for certain it is not NOD32. NOD32 is one of the best Antiviruses out there and because it is as strong as it is, I believe it may have background processes running that we cannot see which may be interfering, however in the past, simply ending the NOD32 processes in Task Manager has indeed worked just as good.

Currently this is what I have for you as a suggestion. If our tests were showing problems, this would be easier to identify. We are not receiving many other reports from customers with this issue and the ones we do receive are extremely easy to resolve because they are mostly firewall issues."

Here is the message from the NOD32 tech:

"I haven't heard of any specific issues with this program, but I would try excluding the program's executable file(s) in AMON also. Go to NOD32 Control Center > AMON > Setup > Exclusions tab > Add... and locate the relevant .exe file(s). You could exclude the whole Guild Wars folder but that might be risky in case a virus were to write itself into this location.

IMON scans ports 80, 8080 & 3128 by default for internet (HTTP) traffic."

I hope that this can help at least somebody else who is still having trouble. I just got this from PlayNC tech which seems to confirm the above:

"I do not know of a virus which would purposely write itself to a Guild Wars directory (speaking about the need to run a virus scanner while only playing the game) so the chance is highly unlikely, but being that you heard that from an Antivirus company, I am sure they are expressing every possible problem that "could" happen. If you find that any settings in NOD32 will allow a simple configuration change rather than a reinstall of NOD32 to allow Guild Wars to work with it, please do let us know.

It is likely that after the next patch occurs it will trigger NOD32 to block the game again, and that may be the best chance to pinpoint the blockage."

Sounds like this may be an ongoing problem with GW updates to me so if what I have done works, I may very well have to do it in the future as well which is ok with me, as long as it works.

John

Get rid of nod32 permanently!

A decent firewall would ask you if you wish to allow the game to send/recieve packets, try sygate personal firewall.

I hoveever have no anti-virus or firewall, no router and still cant connect :/

Endeavor000 · Mar 23, 2006, 06:44 PM // 18:44

Thanks for the update, John. I don't use a virus scan anymore. No router, no firewall (windows firewall turned off), and most importantly....no response from NCsoft. I removed ALL componets of Norton and still can't get on. The only thing I can think of is if I really didn't remove everything from Norton and have a similar problem. Any ideas on how to check this out. I removed everything from the ADD/REMOVE found under control panel so any ideas would be great. Thanks.

EternalTempest · Mar 23, 2006, 07:02 PM // 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathewthegreat

Get rid of nod32 permanently!

A decent firewall would ask you if you wish to allow the game to send/recieve packets, try sygate personal firewall.

I hoveever have no anti-virus or firewall, no router and still cant connect :/

Nod32 is one of the better anti-virus out there for it's very low resource usage, cross platfrom (linux, dos, Windows 64bit) and it's constant updating virus defs.

I can play GW fine with Nod32 actively running on my system. I've had a rare long decompression off and on but not enough to affect ability to play and not all the time.

SIM · Mar 23, 2006, 07:14 PM // 19:14

Yes Nod32 is a very good Anti Virus, I also use it and GW works. The only thing I can say is to reinstall Gw from the internet. But Yes with a modem this is an other problem.......

dubruoy · Mar 23, 2006, 07:19 PM // 19:19

Endeavor000, here is a link for Symantec with tools for removing traces of their program from your computer and registry depending on your program and version:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...05103109480139

Unfortunately, even after running their removal programs, I have still had to remove traces from the registry as well as in Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared.

My troubles with what I deemed to be poor quality tech support as well as problematic program issues and the ardous process involved in removing their products caused me to shy away from Symantec. Just to update to a new version of System Works and/or Norton Antivirus, I have had to spend many hours on the phone to tech support in attempt to remove all traces of the previous version before the new version would install. Even after doing what the tech support person said, I still found traces in the registry and elsewhere which I had to manually remove. This is why I won't deal with them and don't like their products. I don't like troubleshooting programs and I would have abandon GW if it was not such a bitchen game. I was close tho.

Please don't undertake to do any of this if you don't feel comfortable but try to find a friend who is.

dubruoy · Mar 23, 2006, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Endeavor000, also, you can download hijackthis and run it and see if it uncovers some hidden Symantec files as it found on my system. Here is what the PlayNC tech said to me about hijackthis:

"I'd like you to run a program called Hijackthis. It will allow us to see what application may be the cause of this issue.

Download the program Hijackthis from here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155

Once you choose a link to download from be sure to check the top of the next page as the middle of it will be taken up by an add that has nothing to do with Hijackthis.
Run it and send us a copy of the log it produces."

You can view this log and see if there are any Symantec files left that it finds.

Lrdeo · Mar 23, 2006, 10:12 PM // 22:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by dubruoy

"I'd like you to run a program called Hijackthis. It will allow us to see what application may be the cause of this issue.

Download the program Hijackthis from here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155

Once you choose a link to download from be sure to check the top of the next page as the middle of it will be taken up by an add that has nothing to do with Hijackthis.
Run it and send us a copy of the log it produces."
.

This is the exact same message that tech support sent me, word for word. I am starting to suspect that there is no tech support at NCsoft/Anet. I'd be willing to bet that there is nothing there but a mail server that is programmed to provide random suggestions from a list and then generate a fake name to attach to the e-mail. It would explain why they manage to answer me about a half hour after I reply to their "solutions" telling them it did jack, and for some reason don't acknowledge anything I mentioned in any previous e-mails.

Josh · Mar 23, 2006, 10:16 PM // 22:16

Some solutions:

For any of you with Firewalls, even if you know you haven't configured them, allow TCP port 6112 and TCP port 80.

Or, if it doesn't work, delete your Gw.dat file in C:\Program Files\Guild Wars, run Guild Wars so it makes a new Gw.dat file as that update may of corrupted your .dat file, so let it re-make itself.

If it doesn't work, e-mail ArenaNet again, and tell them all the solutions you have tried and that it's not done anything.

And for any of you that complain you don't want to re-download your files, well, it's either that or no Guild Wars. What's it worth? Few/many hours of downloading, or never play again?

You want Guild Wars to work, you'll have to make a minor sacrifice.

OR, what you can do, move your current Gw.dat file to your Desktop or some place safe, and then run Guild Wars again so it makes a new 1 in program files.

Throm · Mar 23, 2006, 10:22 PM // 22:22

OK.. so WHAT are we connected to when we download the updates?????

btw.. Still playing Silk Road Online... Its the best free mmo out there in my opinion.. It helps with the shakes.

Maedhros · Mar 23, 2006, 11:14 PM // 23:14

Hey Josh! Yeah your solutions are of course very logical and useful in most situations... But it seems it isn't a "most situation" problem. For DSL user, it may be easy to download 1,5 gb but for dial-up users with relatively slow connections(like me) it may takes more than hours, days or even weeks to download all the files again. And again, about all of us in this thread already mailed to Technical Support several times describing the problem and saying that it does not work... For ALMOST all answers it says something similar to reset your router change you IP range, open ports 80 6112 or some connection issues like that. But i do not have a router nor a firewall or anti-virus. I didn't changed ANYTHING from the time i was playing fine. Anyways, thats not the point,
all this blabbling i jsut said up there was to keep you reading and killing some minutes... The point is... We tried all things to get GW back on feet but..NOoOoOOoOO!! it doesn,t work. Thats all.

[EDIT]: Hey! by the time im typing it seems GW is going good again! I got 565 files remaining for about 2 minutes and my connection is at 4 Ko/sec it seems... if you see how slow a dial-up internet is... By the time i'm talking to you right now(well writing but oh well...) I got downloaded 4,2 Mo...4,2 Mo in about 20 minutes...WOOOT!! Tellign you if it works again!
(Arr im jealous of all of you who gets 100 Ko/sec and more in downloads!!)[EDIT]

[2ND EDIT] CRAP! It is still at login screen with no news box or connecting ok...And it is still streaming...[2ND EDIT]

~Maedhros