[Dralanna]

More quotes

Originally Posted by zuperzip

I have found that responding to the survey stops the login server from sending you the survey packet. The survey shows itself very rarely so when it does come up and asks, "Is this thing on?" you need to select "Yes" and click "Submit". I did this and now that one account is no longer sent the survey packet and so no longer gets the SSSE.

Originally Posted by Vastlee

Any follow up on this?

This exact thing you described, as opposed to the random eqgame.exe crash that others seem to get mixed up with this, has been happening to me for over a year now. I have 6 accounts. 2 of them are as you stated, "Immune" to it.

One night I actually counted 36 retries before it let me through, and retries seem to be the only thing that actually gets you through. Not rebooting, not logging other accounts in, nothing. And the # of retries seems to be 100% random.

This is the first post I've seen on the subject that identifies the problem specifically. The unfortunate part is that there are several things that cause eqgame.exe to crash that when someone asks about it on the boards 10 other people pop up with another "Oh yeah mine too" story... only it isn't the same thing.

I really hope that someone at least takes notice of this. Running the game 20 times really really sucks nuts.

P.S. The error I'm talking about is 100% exactly as described above. I implore anyone who does not have the exact same symptoms to please not post. I agree with the above that it is something that is being sent from the login server that is causing the problem, which means if we can't get those who maintain that to take notice then nothing will ever get done. So PLEASE

P.S.S. Is there some way to force the survey thing to come up? If clicking YES to it is all I have to do I'd be happy to. I just never see it come up.

Originally Posted by Erich

I don't think the "I have been bugged about the survey" flag is client side. If it was then it wouldn't be an account that is immune but rather a entire computer. I'm willing to bet that anyone with an account that is immune will tell you that it's immune on any computer that they use while an account that is not immune will not be immune on any computer.

I'm betting that the "I have been bugged about the survey" flag is server side and if it can be turned on for all accounts this problem will go away.

Originally Posted by Vastlee

Agreed, I have 5 machines. The accounts that are "immune" are so on all machines.

Originally Posted by Darkonig

I was getting on just fine for months and then one of my characters had the survey show up. I responded as suggested above and now periodically have the crashes on several characters. If a character is having the problem on one of my machines and I try to log him in on a different machine the account still has problems even tho other accounts on the same computers work fine. It is definitely something the login server is doing. I have never had the problem from the minilogin server.

I grabbed a couple packet dumps from when the one account was crashing excessively (more than 20 times in a row and on multiple computers), but haven't had a chance to review it yet.

Originally Posted by Darkonig

Ok, just went thru the dumps and found like expressed above. On the ones that crashed, there was a survey packet of size 241 was received, then the server list, then 1 or more additional survey packets of size 233.

Even using quick connect, there was a survey packet size 241 sent, then the server list, then additional servey packets of size 233. They are received regardless of whether the client choses to display them.

On the characters that got in fine, there were no survey packets at all.
So, we either need to get the login code changed to quit sending survey packets, or build a filter to remove them from the stream when sent.

I am going to try the latter approach and see if it resolves the problem. I will have it notify me of any filtered survey packets to verify if it makes a difference. I would assume that altering the data stream to remove those packets would not be any more of a legal issue than using a different login server to begin with.

Originally Posted by zuperzip

There is a work around that a player by the name of Blasticus on PEQ recently discovered and told us about. At one point I thought accessing a webpage while simultanously logging in would prevent an SSSE but couldn't get it to work the majority of the time. Blasticus tried using a speed test and found it worked very well and so have I. Here is what works for me, open the EQ client and type in your username and password in windowed mode so it is ready to go. Now find any speed test website with your webbrowser (I've been using performance.toast.com or infospeed.verizon.net) and get ready to start the speed test. Start the speed test then switch to the EQ client and quickly log in.

What's important is you 1) start the EQEmu authentication process and 2) get past the server select screen _while_ the speed test is downloading its sample.

It also apparently works if you do the speed test on another system that uses the same router as your EQEmu system.

Hair brained? It sure is... but it works so well for me during a meteor shower of SSSEs that it's more than just dumb luck. I suppose if I want to figure out why it works I'll need to put my nose back into packet sniffing.

Originally Posted by Dralanna

I'm guessing that people are having luck with the speed test trick because it uses a lot of bandwidth and is probably delaying the survey packet long enough for you to login.

Did anyone trying this also do a packet capture?

Originally Posted by Dralanna

Not sure if anything has changed recently, but yesterday 3 of my accounts got the "is this thing on?" survey... to which I (obviously) said yes. Now those accounts no longer crash. The remaining accounts continue to crash at the server select screen.

Originally Posted by Darkonig

4 of my accounts yesterday got a successful survey. The survey pack contains the question Is this thing on? and 4 possible answers. With responses of submit and skip. So, when I stated before that you always got a survey packet of one size, then list of servers, then 1 or more additional survey packets I was incorrect. The actual transmission is a survey packet, then the list of servers, then zero or more additional survey packets less an 8 byte custom udp header. If no bogus survey packets follow then you get the survey displayed, if 1 or more bogus ones arrive then you crash.

I answered all 4 the same way, as above. One of them crashed again several hours later when I went to log it back in. So, answering the survey does not guarantee the login server will not ask again.

As to the other poster about cannot packet sniff the login server, all of the survey packets are identified as coming from the login server IP and Port with appropriate sequence numbers to suggest they really did.

Originally Posted by Vastlee

Of all my accounts (9 active now) only 1 got prompted with the survey. (Is this thing on) and I answered "Yes" too. The account still drops though.

I hope that the surveys were sent out as an attempted response by the devs to this thread. I'd be happy just to know someone is aware and looking into it, even if the first attempt didn't work. If the survey pops up again I might try answering something else and see what happens.

Good work to all the non-dev people for providing useful information.

Originally Posted by Vastlee

I had the same thought as you Dralanna, but the 2 accounts I have that never crash have never seen the Survey pop up, and the 1 I got the other day still crashes. I'm still fairly sure it has something to do with the survey but I'm not sure that answering it solves the problem (Or has any effect). I also considered the thought that maybe it is the answer that makes or breaks you. I answered "Yes" to it this time. If it ever comes up again I'll try skipping it and see if that changes anything.

Although, it seems the easiest answer would be for the login server to simply stop sending the packet that causes the crash.

Originally Posted by Dralanna

With all due respect, Angelox.... I am convinced this is a bug with the login server. I have several accounts, when I captured packets every single one got the packet listed in the first post at one time or another. When I got that packet, I crashed. When I didn't get that packet I didn't crash. When the survey finally popped up on 3 of my accounts and I answered correctly those 3 accounts never got that packet again, and subsequently have not once crashed at the server select screen. Now, to rule out the possibility of a client or computer issue, I've logged my accounts (both the bugged and the unbugged) on using multiple machines, OSs, Connection types.... anything I could change and consistently the bugged accounts stayed bugged and the unbugged accounts stayed unbugged.