1,000,000 UO Gold Reward

[a slave girl]

Ahh, A commonality! That should make it easier to troubleshoot. If you don't mind, I'd be much obliged if you can answer a couple of questions:

1) When you see this error, have you already gotten past the logon page?
2) If so, does it appear before or after the shard selection page?
3) Does any of your other networked computers have this same problem?
4) What AV/firewall are you using?

I must be the most unobservant person on the planet because I really don't know any of the answers 'cept firewall is windows XP and we use our internet provided virus protection and we live in the USA so it's not going to be the same company the OP uses I am guessing.

I get the message occassionally which makes me think it probably occurs after a new patch, but not 100% sure. I'll pay attention next patch and see if it happens again.

What I DO know is that opening a page on the internet FIRST and keeping it open while UO loads up works for me AND seems to fix the issue for awhile (probably until the next new patch).


Pretty sure I never made it very far into the login process, again, will watch that next patch.

I have to guess that for some reason UO after a new patch can't recognize that I have an internet connection due to my being networked through a router until I prove it by opening another webpage first.

 

[Harlequin]

I must be the most unobservant person on the planet because I really don't know any of the answers 'cept firewall is windows XP and we use our internet provided virus protection and we live in the USA so it's not going to be the same company the OP uses I am guessing.

I get the message occassionally which makes me think it probably occurs after a new patch, but not 100% sure. I'll pay attention next patch and see if it happens again.

What I DO know is that opening a page on the internet FIRST and keeping it open while UO loads up works for me AND seems to fix the issue for awhile (probably until the next new patch).


Pretty sure I never made it very far into the login process, again, will watch that next patch.

I have to guess that for some reason UO after a new patch can't recognize that I have an internet connection due to my being networked through a router until I prove it by opening another webpage first.

No worries, was just hoping for some extra info that may help unravel this mystery. Just to check, does this still happen now even if you don't open IE first? Or does it only happen after you've just patched?



Regarding UO not recognizing your internet connection until you start IE -
some routers are smart enough to disconnect you when there's no activity for a few minutes, and will only connect when you have a request. IE may have also been configured to "dial" an internet connection when you load a page.

However, if that's the case, and if my suspicions are correct, it would have said "Error communicating with Origin" when you tried to logon. If you made it to the shard selection screen, that means the internet connection has already been established.

What it does look like is that you are using a smart firewall program that detected the file size and signature has been changed. It's set up to auto-add rules if it's not a known trojan/spyware etc. Sometimes it will block the very first attempt while it creates the new rule. But this doesn't explain why opening IE will fix it.

If you are happy with the workaround your found, that's fine. If it's bothering you, let us know, and we'll see if we can put our heads together to work it out.

 

[Skylark SP]

There are a lot of responses in this thread, so I apologize in advance if I am being redundant.

The UO client connects to the EA servers in this order:

Patch server: compassion.owo.com
Login server: login.owo.com
Shard server: <shard_name>.owo.com

It sounds like your problem is with the 3rd stage of the connection. It could be a gazillion things, but the easiest thing to check and rule out is connectivity problems.

This is what I would do.

1.) Turn off PC

2.) Connect PC with UO installed directly to your ISP provided cable modem Ethernet port, bypassing any personal equipment such as router.

3.) Turn on PC, do not open any applications

4.) For Windows, click Start, and in the Run box type cmd and press Enter

5.) In the command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter

6.) Close command prompt window

7.) Disable any personal firewall & antivirus programs

8.) Start UO client and attempt to log in

If you are able to log in successfully in the "test" setup, great...it is time to start restoring your previous setup one item at a time to trace the problem.

If you are unable to log in successfully in the "test" setup, the problem is likely outside your direct control, and some diagnostic information will be needed.

While still in this "test" setup mode, open command prompt again (Start --> Run, type cmd, press Enter). In the command prompt window type ping lakesuperior.owo.com and press Enter. You should get 4 replies with no loss. Next type tracert lakesuperior.owo.com and press Enter. You can post your results here. To copy the results, right click at the start of the trace results in the command window, and select Mark. Drag your mouse all the way to the right of the screen, and down to select the complete trace results. Press Ctrl+C to copy to the clipboard. You can then paste the results in a text document or directly into a compose post window by pressing Ctrl+V. You might want to delete the first hop listed in your trace for privacy reasons.

Make sure you re-enable your anti-virus/firewall programs after you finish testing.

-Skylark

 

[Lady Michelle]

Ok I have done a couple of things so far. Here is the breakdown:



I first did what Lady Michelle said as it was very easy. Then I tried to log in. I still got the same message as before but after 3 tries for the first time I was successful in logging into my shard. I immediately logged out and tryed to log in and was not able and got the same message as before.



I then tried what Harlequin mentioned and again I was able to log in to my shard but after logging out I was not able to log in again without the error messages.

It seems now I can get in from time to time as it was for me in the past but the problem is still there.



Could you please explain what you mean and possibly provide a step by step? And what do you mean by posting a hijackthis log?

I am not sure but at the moment I personally believe that what Lady Michelle said to do has helped the most, but the problem still remains. I am still waiting on a step by step by Lord Kynd.

Looks like something happened to your uo files that your firewall is automaticly blocking it for some reason. Redo the first thing I told you then go back to your firewall hit the tab that says exceptions go to add program find your uo mondain kr and uoa add those to the list. also put a check in that box where it says display notifation when windows firewall blocks a program this way you have more control over what your firewall blocks. also when was the last time you had your cable modem replaced I always make sure every 6 months to a year take my cable modem in and get it replaced with a new one.

 

[dragongunner]

Ahh, A commonality! That should make it easier to troubleshoot. If you don't mind, I'd be much obliged if you can answer a couple of questions:

1) When you see this error, have you already gotten past the logon page?
2) If so, does it appear before or after the shard selection page?
3) Does any of your other networked computers have this same problem?
4) What AV/firewall are you using?

1. Yes I have already gotten past the logon page
2. It only appears after shard selection
3. I have no other networked computers
4. I use Kapersky Anti-virus and use the normal windows firewall.

 

[dragongunner]

Again I want to thank you all for your replies. I am still working on a few of your suggestions. Thanks for being patient with me. I will update you as soon as I can.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

"
I have a teenage son who uses this computer so goodness knows it's probably loaded with spyware, hijackers, and all kinds of other nasty things (it does load pages way slower than it used to.)

ya if you look at porn sites in IE6 your computer will get loaded with crap. get firefox 3 and tell him to stop looking at porno on your computer.

 

[Evilminion]

Hmmmm, give up naughty websites, or give up UO...

For some folks here, I imagine that would be a difficult decision.

*ducks and runs*

 

[a slave girl]

"
I have a teenage son who uses this computer so goodness knows it's probably loaded with spyware, hijackers, and all kinds of other nasty things (it does load pages way slower than it used to.)

ya if you look at porn sites in IE6 your computer will get loaded with crap. get firefox 3 and tell him to stop looking at porno on your computer.

Hurricane Gustav left us with no power for 7 days and after we had power restored four extra teen boys who still didnt have power at their houses came to stay with us for a few days.

My daughter and I went shopping for something to feed them and came home to find all five boys gathered around my computer...

Two of the boys are my nephews and one turned and said "We're not looking at racist stuff I swear!"

I had already had a meltdown once because he was showing my son a video on my computer that I found to be racially offensive and he was laughing like it was the funniest thing.

(White guy in a truck was telling some Hispanic guys on the street that he had some work for them but he was really hauling them to Immigration instead of a work site.)

My son watching porn on my computer is not the only thing I worry about him doing online.

He likes to download and play free games without asking me first.

One army type game has given me punkbuster a that doesn't seem to be uninstallable even though I uninstalled the game it came with.

I'm not against punkbuster I just don't need any unused programs running on my harddrive.

 

[ultima online]

One army type game has given me punkbuster a that doesn't seem to be uninstallable even though I uninstalled the game it came with.

I'm not against punkbuster I just don't need any unused programs running on my harddrive.

get ccleaner here(its free, its a RAM cleaner, registry fixer/cleaner and program uninstaller), that will get rid of any program you want thats installed on your comp that you dont want being there, and i also would suggest maybe investing in net nanny or some other content advisor, possibly even windows own (which can be a bit finicky since you have to constantly set it to what you want it to allow)


*edit* also you definitely want to do an spyware scan too, since those 'free' games come loaded with it.

 

[dragongunner]

Here is a pic of the network message that I am getting;

 

[drinkbeerallday]

(White guy in a truck was telling some Hispanic guys on the street that he had some work for them but he was really hauling them to Immigration instead of a work site.)

My son watching porn on my computer is not the only thing I worry about him doing online.

you shouldn't try to censor political issues though. that is wrong. and that's really what that video is. granted he may be a little too young for it depending on his age but how else will he learn?

He likes to download and play free games without asking me first.

i doubt he enjoys not asking you first. i think he probably just likes downloading and playing free games and it's more convenient not to ask. just level with him and say there are hackers out there and that he has to be careful and that's the real reason why you want to know what he's doing.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

its a RAM cleaner

RAM is "cleaned" every time you restart the computer.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

Here is a pic of the network message that I am getting;

try 2D client (not a solution, a troubleshooting method, just see if it works or not)

 

[Harlequin]

you shouldn't try to censor political issues though. that is wrong. and that's really what that video is. granted he may be a little too young for it depending on his age but how else will he learn?



i doubt he enjoys not asking you first. i think he probably just likes downloading and playing free games and it's more convenient not to ask. just level with him and say there are hackers out there and that he has to be careful and that's the real reason why you want to know what he's doing.

Holy beercans! Ok, who are you and what have you done to the real beerdude that's always cranky? J/K and WB.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

You very well could have *smeared* (corrupted) your security footprint leaving your PC unable to perform normally basic tasks...such as connecting to your characters file once logged into your game account. If this is the case you can either backtrack the error and replace the registry files and any other files corrupted or else my favorite...which is save your data from your HDD that you wish to save over to another drive...reformat and begin again.

EDIT: after seeing the connection image...I am 95% sure your issue lies in software errors thanks to your conflicting security programs. reinstalling the UO client isnt going to solve this issue. at this point it is a system error and not an issue with UO. (IE: your firewalls had a conflict and now as a result your system cannot properly allow permission for your UO file...regardless of what you do to UO...registry corruption)

 

[Harlequin]

1. Yes I have already gotten past the logon page
2. It only appears after shard selection
3. I have no other networked computers
4. I use Kapersky Anti-virus and use the normal windows firewall.

Oh, this part was meant for slave girl. I have gathered similar info regarding your config from your other posts

1) Try Littleblue's suggestion to disable Windows firewall.

2) If you like simplicity and want to keep Windows firewall, simplest way is to uninstall Kaspersky and reinstall only the AV portion. (Also, do this if 1 doesn't work, but reactivate Windows firewall first)

Btw, any luck with my last suggestion on uninstalling Kaspersky entirely? Test with just the 2D client first. As beerdude says, it's a troubleshooting step.

Once the problem is isolated, you can install just the AV component back if you want to continue using windows firewall.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

get ccleaner here(its free, its a RAM cleaner, registry fixer/cleaner and program uninstaller), that will get rid of any program you want thats installed on your comp that you dont want being there, and i also would suggest maybe investing in net nanny or some other content advisor, possibly even windows own (which can be a bit finicky since you have to constantly set it to what you want it to allow)


*edit* also you definitely want to do an spyware scan too, since those 'free' games come loaded with it.

I highly recommend that if you do not have experience with these *cleaners* that you do not use them without proper guidance or instruction. You can easily wipe out files that you shouldnt.

Of course I loved customers who liked using these, it kept me busy during many an evening performing *maintenance*.

 

[wee papa smurf]

[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cKKHSAE1gIs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cKKHSAE1gIs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

I shall call him "mini-me"

 

[Littleblue]

How goes the computer trouble OP?

If you used my Windows Firewall instructions, I hope you found them easy to understand. If you're nervous about trying it, I wrote that while doing the same steps myself on my own machine, so no worries.

I hope you have gotten a little farther along with isolating the problem!

 

[dragongunner]

You very well could have *smeared* (corrupted) your security footprint leaving your PC unable to perform normally basic tasks...such as connecting to your characters file once logged into your game account. If this is the case you can either backtrack the error and replace the registry files and any other files corrupted or else my favorite...which is save your data from your HDD that you wish to save over to another drive...reformat and begin again.

EDIT: after seeing the connection image...I am 95% sure your issue lies in software errors thanks to your conflicting security programs. reinstalling the UO client isnt going to solve this issue. at this point it is a system error and not an issue with UO. (IE: your firewalls had a conflict and now as a result your system cannot properly allow permission for your UO file...regardless of what you do to UO...registry corruption)

You are probably correct...I also believe deep down that this is probably what has happened. I think at this point if I want it all to work properly again I will have to perform a clean install of windows. UGH...

 

[dragongunner]

How goes the computer trouble OP?

If you used my Windows Firewall instructions, I hope you found them easy to understand. If you're nervous about trying it, I wrote that while doing the same steps myself on my own machine, so no worries.

I hope you have gotten a little farther along with isolating the problem!

Thanks and yes I have done what you suggested. I am able to get into the game, however I still get the error messages. I guess all I can do at this time is to perform a clean install of windows. After such I will let you know. Again thanks for the information.

 

[dragongunner]

Oh, this part was meant for slave girl. I have gathered similar info regarding your config from your other posts



Btw, any luck with my last suggestion on uninstalling Kaspersky entirely? Test with just the 2D client first. As beerdude says, it's a troubleshooting step.

Once the problem is isolated, you can install just the AV component back if you want to continue using windows firewall.

I have not attempted to uninstall Kapersky yet. I have to find my install information as I downloaded the AV from their website. UGH...Cant find it. At least I can log on after several attempts.

 

[dragongunner]

To All,

I want to thank you for all for your support during this difficult time (sorta sounds like someone died and you were all offering condolences)..lol (Its just a game I keep telling myself)

I can now log into my server, however only after numerous failed attempts, but at least I can get on.

In my final attempt I will perform a clean install of windows. I hope that this last resort will finally take care of the problem.

I am now at a juxtaposition. I dont know who to give the reward. I feel that I should give it to someone as I at least can log in (I just have to be very patient).

The first attempt at a fix was with Lady Michelle's suggestion to mess with my firewall. After doing this I was able to log in (after numerous attempts).

I will let you all know of the outcome after performing a clean install of windows (Restroom Cowboy's suggestion).

If this works Restroom Cowboy will get the reward. If not then the reward will most likely go to Lady Michelle.

I dont want to keep dragging this post on forever. I feel that many suggestions are worthy of the reward money even though the problem still exists. As I said in an earlier post I am just pleased that I can get in again.

There are many technical solutions to login problems in this post. In my opinion this is invaluable. I would love to see this post get stickied so if there are others with similar problems, now or in the future that they could refer to this post for technical assistance. I would really hate to see such technical experience offered in this post go to waste as EA does not offer *#@$ for technical support.

Again thank you all for your replies. I will let you all know the outcome shortly. The reward will go to someone. I look forward to posting that soon.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Okay, one more thing that WILL help UO run better, may or may not solve your problem.

Clean the Windows Registry and then defrag it. Your computer will run faster, start up faster, and this may also fix your program errors with UO. The registry cleaner deletes moved/obsolete entries in the Registry. It made a huge difference in the lag effects I was getting... I still get lag, just not rubberbanding as much. This may also fix your program errors with UO, deleting moved/obsolete entries in the Registry.

There are many free registry tools available... I am using "Free Registry Defrag - v2.35" and "TweakNow RegCleaner" that I found at download dot com.

 

[Orvago]

There are many technical solutions to login problems in this post. In my opinion this is invaluable. I would love to see this post get stickied so if there are others with similar problems, now or in the future that they could refer to this post for technical assistance.

I cannot justify room to sticky this thread uptop. However, I can see the amount of valuable information in his thread, so I have added a link to this thread in the "Welcome to U.Hall! (FAQ|Forum Guides|Links|More|A must read)" thread as part of a goal to highlight Community related and informational threads. Specifically, this reply.

Best of luck with your re-install of Windows. However, before you do that, I must ask, did you try my suggestion to do the LSP Fix to fix any Winsock errors?

apparently some of us got a currupt patch that mess up winsoc

If this is the case, go here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/lspfix.php

Download and run LSP Fix.

For a manual on how to use it (read it step by step and do not deter from the guide!), go here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial59.html

If other people use your PC, remove this program after you use it, for it can cause serious damage if someone does something they shouldn't do with it.


I've had to do this on several occasions for non-gaming related internet wackyness. Once for EVE Online too.

 

[Skylark SP]

In the way of general preventive measures for PC users, especially those without a technical background...I am adding this post I made on another forum. I highly recommend using an external hard drive and a software utility that can create images of your PC for backup and disaster recovery purposes. These options have become VERY affordable, and are no longer limited to corporate environments. Making an image of your PC when it is in a new or "good" state can save you a lot of frustration later.

A few months ago I bought a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini external USB hard drive. It is compact, lightweight, and what I really like about it is that it came with a complete PC imaging solution called SafetyDrill, and unlike many "included" software packages & utilities, this one is both user friendly AND it works!

We are probably all familiar with backing up personal & application data, but in the event of system failure, when you only have data backup, you must reinstall the operating system, patch it, reinstall and configure all your applications, then finally restore your data. That can take hours, and what you end up with is never "exactly" the way your system was before. What imaging does is make a "snapshot" of your entire PC volume, and stores it on the external drive. When you restore the image, the PC hard drive is wiped, and the image is loaded back on it, making it exactly the way it was when the image was created.

The great advantage of this is that if something very bad happens on your system, such as a really invasive virus/spyware, corrupted operating system files or an application/OS patch that caused havoc and is not able to be rolled back, you can simply put the special boot CD in, restart your PC with the external drive that is holding your image files connected, pick an image stored on the drive to "roll back" to when prompted, and walk away for a while. When the process is finished, your PC will be restored to exactly the way it was when the image was taken.

The software also lets you do an automatic scheduled backup of your "My Documents" folder. Once you have defined the backup, it runs according to the schedule if your computer is on and the drive is connected. You can also just press the button on the front of the drive to force a backup you have defined to run any time. While it is a very simplistic backup system and greatly limits where and what you can back up, this spot backup is a handy thing. For data that you want to save in between image snapshots that is stored outside of the My Documents folder, you would need to do manual backups by copying the data directly to the external drive using the file system (example: I usually do a manual weekly backup of my email message store to a folder on the external drive). The main feature in the disaster recovery aspect though, is the imaging utility.

This utility has saved me a great deal of hassle, and has also allowed me to try many new configuration options on my home PC that I never would have done before I bought the backup for fear of messing something up seriously enough to have to start from scratch.

My laptop has an 80GB drive, which is typically 30% - 60% full depending on what I am doing to it any given week. It takes about an hour to create an image and about the same amount of time to restore one.

So far I have reimaged my laptop using the Maxtor system 3 times, and it went without a hiccup each time, and saved me hours of reinstalling and configuring.

I have the backup software set to remind me to make a new image every 14 days, and I have it scheduled to do a daily backup of "my documents" every evening.

Some additional notes:
The drive takes 2 USB slots due to extra power draw requirements. While this can be problematic, especially on a laptop PC where ports are limited, it has the benefit of freeing you from having to use an external AC adaptor and plug it into a wall outlet for power, which many external drives require.

I have noticed that it can have issues where it loses communication when connected to a USB hub, but I have seen no problems at all when it is connected to USB ports directly on the PC, so resign yourself to giving up 2 primary USB slots on your computer for the drive to save headaches.

A 250 GB drive currently costs about $90, weighs about 6 oz. (167 g) and is just a bit larger than a deck of cards. The drive has a 5-year limited warranty.

I have used mine as extra storage space too, for files I don't want to keep stored on my PC all the time due to space constraints but that I don't want to burn to CD/DVD either.

The drive also offers you the option of data encryption to prevent your data from being accessed, in the event the drive is lost or stolen. I have not tried any of the encryption as I do not take the drive from my home and encryption can add a whole extra level of complication which is not necessary in my application.

This is what it looks like:

Linky to description on manufacturer's website.

-Skylark

 

[Tuferon]

I just went through much of the same including the useless responses from EA. However I remedied the problem by holding down the control key which temporarily seemed to overide whatever blocking my puter was doing that I couldn't manually disable. Have not had a problem since.

Maybe this will work for you as it seems so simple no techie would suggest it.
If it works...great and I do not need any gold.

 

[Littleblue]

Glad to hear you've gotten to log onto your home server finally!

Computer problems can be so frustrating, even if you're fairly comfortable dealing with them. I hope your fresh install of Windows goes smoothly! You might want to backup your character's macros and such, so you won't have to redo them all manually on the new install. Skylark's post had some great info about system backups, and I like to keep a USB thumb drive handy for keeping copies of smaller amounts of data, like the macros for example.

I am curious if Orvago's WinSock fix was tried. I am going to file that info gem away for another troubleshooting rainy day!

 

[Pawl]

Ok after looking at what you got running

Quote
Here is a list of my running processes:

alg.exe
ati2evxxx.exe 2 of the same things running
ati2evxxx.exe
avp.exe also here!
avp.exe
csrss.exe
ctfmon.exe
explorer.exe
iexplore.exe
lsass.exe
LSSrvc.exe
mdm.exe
realsched.exe
SDTrayApp.exe
services.exe
slserv.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe "
svchost.exe
svchost.exe from " to " your connected to the internet 6 times
svchost.exe go to command prompt and type in NETSTAT -a -b
svchost.exe this will tell all out and in bound ips connected to your system
svchost.exe "
svcntaux.exe
SynTPEnh.exe
SynTPLpr.exe
System
System Idle Process
taskmngr.exe
UOKR.exe
winlogon.exe

Also after you installed the game again, you said your account name was still there? (Other post) well you didn't unistall it all, So Problem could be in UO/Desktop/account/shard folder it can't sync up your stored char info with info on your system.

IF you got Teamspeak, PM me and i can walk you thru this problem easy..

I had this once before after the server crashed while online and playing long ago few simple things you need to do and look at to fix it...has to do with the CFG files..

From what i read in both post, you were online and server went down on you and you are unable to get back on. this is because the server has your last working cfg and your system has a newer one modifyed from when game closesed out..