Cant Get On :(

[little ninja]

i think players are just coming on here to vent there frustrations macht. who better to understand where they are coming from besides other players putting up with these events. you cant go to your brother who has no clue what your talking about.

the attacks started around the 9th. we all were noticing odd game behaviors all of a sudden. i know i was seeing signs of a lagging search feature, a harder time of getting on. an a couple other signs. but sadly S.E didnt release a public statement to us, til the 15 of the month. so here we are 11 days later, after there statement, or 17 days since the first signs something was wrong. an S.E hasnt filled us in on anything. i mean playonline has information on a patch about 75% of the player base could care less about. but no info on recent attacks is going. i think players are upset by the lack of communications.

anyways has anyone noticed that its not until around jp time that the game really goes down, an becomes unstable. i noticed the last couple of days i was playing around na primetime with very little to no trouble, but come later on at night around 3 pm jp time. the game errored more, i lagged out more, with more failed attempts to get back in. an when i was in my macros seem to take forever to pull up.. so far 3 hrs with no game time yet, im wondering in about 2 hrs will it magivally go back up.. :confused:

[Macht]

Originally posted by Grizzlebeard
Tokitoki, pray tell how a post over a week old pertains to the fact that people have been unable to play for the last three days. Customer communication is an ongoing process otherwise you find yourself losing disgruntled customers.

Are you just electing to ignore my posts or are they really THAT confusing to you?

Maybe I should make it simpler. DDoS to fix take 6 days up to 1 month or more. Only 10 days have passed since message released, barely at the minimum of them being able to resolve.

People complaining WAY TO EARLY!

Originally posted by little ninja
i think players are just coming on here to vent there frustrations macht. who better to understand where they are coming from besides other players putting up with these events. you cant go to your brother who has no clue what your talking about.

the attacks started around the 9th. we all were noticing odd game behaviors all of a sudden. i know i was seeing signs of a lagging search feature, a harder time of getting on. an a couple other signs. but sadly S.E didnt release a public statement to us, til the 15 of the month. so here we are 11 days later, after there statement, or 17 days since the first signs something was wrong. an S.E hasnt filled us in on anything. i mean playonline has information on a patch about 75% of the player base could care less about. but no info on recent attacks is going. i think players are upset by the lack of communications.

anyways has anyone noticed that its not until around jp time that the game really goes down, an becomes unstable. i noticed the last couple of days i was playing around na primetime with very little to no trouble, but come later on at night around 3 pm jp time. the game errored more, i lagged out more, with more failed attempts to get back in. an when i was in my macros seem to take forever to pull up.. so far 3 hrs with no game time yet, im wondering in about 2 hrs will it magivally go back up.. :confused:

You have to realize these attacks are specific to POL, if they give to much detail then they are helping the attacker and hurting themselves. It's better to keep silent so the attacker can't guess their moves as easily.

[Jei]

there's another reply on other thread claiming that DDoS can be easily fixed within a week time frame with ISPs. How does it really work Macht??

[little ninja]

Originally posted by Macht
Are you just electing to ignore my posts or are they really THAT confusing to you?

Maybe I should make it simpler. DDoS to fix take 6 days up to 1 month or more. Only 10 days have passed since message released, barely at the minimum of them being able to resolve.

People complaining WAY TO EARLY!

lol 17 days since the first known attack was. hell it could have been earlier then that. who knows with S.E. an honestly its not getting any better. its actually getting far worse..

[Balfree]

still macht, this isnt a free game, sure sure the matter may take some time to deal with, but in business and in life, someone must take responsability, and in this case its square, because after all, these countless hours of inactivity are coming out of our pockets, its not the fact that its a game and people want to play, its a fact that money dont grow on trees, yet were forced to pay for something we cant use, i say square either offer us a refund or just make it cheaper for next month or something, you can in no way disagree with such a simple fact

if you went to a shop, asked for some eggs, and then when you get home you see the eggs arent fresh, you go complain to the storekeeper, he tells you hes sorry and altho its not his fault because he buys the eggs from someone else, he will refund you, this isnt happening and square is making a fool of their customers, but they know were not going anywhere because we love the game so much, so in all truth, were just being made fun of, unless they repay us with palpable apologies, because what we pay them monthly isnt words and vows of simpaty, its cash, mola, money, i dont think its hard to understand... it might be if its your parents paying for it tho.

[ffxiextreme]

/sigh
Same thing again, when will we get on???

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally posted by Macht
Are you just electing to ignore my posts or are they really THAT confusing to you?

I'm annoyed at the fact we're not being updated on current issues. This isn't a 1 day a week game thing this is a living, breathing, world we all take part in. Four hours out of a month isn't an issue, I've even learned to live with every single update being scheduled on EU prime time. The fact that the last three days thousands of people haven't been able to log on for up to seven hours and the AH and Search features are down even if you are able to get in game and as yet the only acknowledgement of these issues is a line or two in the middle of some other message is patently not acceptable.

Does this seem confusing to you?

[Jei]

time to go shopping again~

this server problem is getting really annoying regardless of the cause.

[Macht]

Originally posted by Jei
there's another reply on other thread claiming that DDoS can be easily fixed within a week time frame with ISPs. How does it really work Macht??

If you are talking about DoS attacks they are can be fixed easily, any ISP could trace the source easily and notify authorities of it. A DDoS is not that easy and their methods vary in multiple ways.

A person could do something as simple as IP spoofing, giving the source the IP to a non-existent or incorrect source. That one is easily solvible by having the routers check the IP it came from and the IP it's being told to send back too (This method also kills Full-Duplex Networks, only works on Half-Duplex Networks which the majority are just that and internet is specifically only that).

Then you also have the "Agent-Host Attacks" the "Agent" now tries to get ahold of any router or computer that is not properly protected (Usually using a "Raw Socket"). This unprotected device known as the "Host" is then set with instructions to prepare an attack. Finding hosts to do this is easy, the worms you have going around on the system or even providing a freeware program that some unsuspecting person would download.

However it happens once the host computer is infected it'll send a 'Ribbit' to an area of the hackers choice (usually a newsgroup source) letting him do what he wants with that system. Once he has however many he wants these hosts now monitoring for the command from the agent through a "Raw Socket" (If you check your network connections you'll usually see a port open that shouldn't be). This one is tough because of how many possible sources the agent can get hosts. By worm, by freeware software, or even by directly attacking a systems "Raw Sockets". Linux and Unix use to be the most vulnerable to this but since Windows 2000 and XP release they are extreemly vulnerable and many more that a hacker can use.

Then you also have the "Diffusing Method" this method screws with the path of creating a connection. Usually when a system connects to a source the network routers find the shortest and best path for the best performance and maintains that single path. Diffusing makes it were multiple other routers are taken as being the shortest path and all of them start relaying the data to the source, basically the hacker made the routers create redundant loops.

On the internet fixing these problems is hard because it is not just 1 single ISP being attacked. The routers of any ISP on the internet can be used to do these attacks or cause other problems. It isn't so simple as the person posted, because many of the companies that have a POP can be used to participate in these attacks.

So to fix this you can't just look at 1 ISP or if you tried to trace it you'd get some hundred computers all of which are not the one actually doing the attack but are just hosts. You won't find the agent attacking directly so that means now you have to locate the hosts and check each host to identify the agent.

This gets even harder to source the agent when he backs himself even more behind open sources such as newsgroups and hides his location by use of free proxies. That is why determining a date to fix this is tough, the time it takes depends on that malicious hackers skill and when or if they mess up.

EDIT:

I know the attacks means you can't play and paying for something you can't currently use. But these payments we give are not just to play but for them advance and change this world to keep it growing, these DDoS are directly in line to that. So we are paying for them to try and speed up fixing the problem and not just say "oh well".

I agree if this lasts longer then it should take to stop a DDoS attack then I'd be complaining too, but the simple fact is it hasn't been long enough for them to really resolve such an attack.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally posted by Jei
time to go shopping again~

this server problem is getting really annoying regardless of the cause.

Pizza and a good movie I think. I'm just annoyed because this is the last week of my holidays and I wanted to make a big push to 75 on my Nin, get optical hat, gain Sky access, try hard to get Rank 10 because Bastok is first on Fenrir (gasp), as well as helping friends with their AF and Rank Missions. So far it's Tuesday and no-one can rely on being in-game for longer than a few hours and out of everything so far I'm 20k to 70, on ZM6, and Rank 7 and have still to help the people with their coffers. :sweat:

[Macht]

Originally posted by StarvingArtist
Yup, it sucks when you can't get on when you want to play.

How much information is enough though. Didn't Geraldo Rivera get into trouble for giving too much detailed info about military movements? How about the 24-hour news channels that just keeps repeating the same story for hours on end hoping that some change happens.

Pope's declining health/death - one even reported that he died a day before it actually happened.
Micheal Jackson trial
Martha Stewart trial/verdict
2005 Presidential Election

Anyways, heading outside for a change hehe.

Exactly, don't know what else people are expecting. I guess a mindless message repeating themselves everyday saying "We are working on the DDoS attacks. We are sorry for the inconvenience."?

[Minimee]

i have been playing ffxi since beta, and i can tell you these problems have only started happening just recently. 2 years of near problem free service is nothing to complain about. yes im upset i cant log on today as well. i can also tell you ffxi isnt the only game servers that are being attacked. i was playing nascar 2003 weekend before last when their server crashed. gamespy has had some problems as well as WoW. i also saw a link to a website that had been hacked. here http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22767 seems like people dont have respect for others. too much time on their hands, and no life.

[Teffie]

Originally posted by Balfree
still macht, this isnt a free game

It's 13 Dollars...

I don't know if you paid attention to the amount of access you get to the world of Vana'Diel for a measly 12 dollars. Unlimited access, No time constraints, 24/7 access for the entire month. You free to do as you please during the entire month. You can immerse yourself in the virtual world, meet new people, find new friends, and have an all around good time.

13 dollars for 720 Hours of playing time. I don't know about you, but that seems like a pretty good trade to me. If people go to an internet cafe, they spend what.. 3 dollars for 1-2 hour of Internet Time?

Lets do some math;
Let's say hypothetically, that these DDoS attacks caused 3 days of accumulated hours of downtime this month. (It was drastically shorter than that, I was affected marginally and I play almost 10 hours a day)

(72 Hours x 13 Dollars) / 720 month hours = 1.33$

You lose a whopping 1 dollar and 33 cents due to these malicious intentions from hackers (Keyword: Malicious Intentions). Please, 1.33$ cannot even get you an hour at an internet cafe, or a good meal at a restaurant. Maybe you can go invest that 1.33$ on a chocolate bar or a can of soda. Because you know how much better a chocolate bar is than having 720 hours of online gaming. /end sarcasm

Now I know someone is going to come along and give me that "Money is Money" speech. Well you know what, just save it. Square-Enix is getting maliciously attacked, and the thing your most concerned about is how your worried on losing that 1.33$. You are making it sound like your losing countless thousands of dollars, and recieveing so much grief which is affecting your real lives. It is not S-E's fault that they are being attacked. They are doing the best they can to fix the issue. They even apologized to the fellow players, but I suppose apologies mean jack to some of you.

Now I suggest you all sit tight and wait till the end of this whole ordeal, to see what Square-Enix does for us, the players. They have refunded us Lost Days due to unforseen Downtimes, so its quite possible that they do it again this time.



Macht is completely right. I myself am baffled to how They have not only the hackers to deal with, but also Legit players breathing down their necks.

Sometimes complaining is good and get things resolved, but sometimes you are just adding to the problem which is not helping to resolve it.

I tip my Hat to Macht, I hope he continues to shove some sense into you players.

[Rikus]

lol Teffie

good points

pwn ~.^

[Macht]

Very good teffie, I should be tipping my hat to you.

EDIT:

Don't worry when SE gets it fixed you'll notice a difference. It's nearly instant once the DDoS attacks are stopped, the hard and time consuming part is identifying and fixing it. 17 days since they saw this isn't enough to fix it. Probably the best people can and probably should be doing here is checking their systems to make sure they are not a host attacking POL.