College Connection Issues

[Jwise]

I recently moved to Oklahoma City University and I am living in the dorms. We have ethernet. Whenever I try to log on to Playonline Viewer, it always times out whenever it says "Checking version of Playonline Viewer", and I can't go on! Do I need to modify my network settings because I am connecting to a secure college network? How would I do that? Any help would be appreciated

p.s. Since it is Saturday, playonline.com's support team is not at their office. I have sent them an email form, and I plan to call them on Monday.

[Mhurron]

Re: College Connection Issues

Wouldn't it make more sense to ask your Universities technical support people?

[Ameroth]

Re: College Connection Issues

Could be firewall, NAT, blocked ports...

Like Mhurron said:

Wouldn't it make more sense to ask your Universities technical support people?

[Jwise]

Re: College Connection Issues

Yeah, I probably will contact University tech support. But I play on the PS2, so I guess I'll just have to call and see if they can help me. Thanks for the replies!

[Sabaron]

Re: College Connection Issues

A lot of Universities nowadays use packet filters to prioritize packets coming on to the network. Certain types of packets (e.g. UDP and certain ports) are given 0 priority. Therefore, everyone else on the network (who is presumably using it for a more important purpose) gets their packets delivered before you. This effectively prevents certain types of programs from functioning--VOIP Phone systems, Internet Radio and Video feeds, etc. get the axe when the network is busy. University networks are to be used primarily for doing research, using online classrooms and class chatrooms, and communicating with others. Therefore, gaming applications (generic classes or even specific applications) can be targetted. If your University Network Administrator sees a flood of packets from a certain location (e.g. Square-Enix's FFXI Servers), he can configure his packet filter to downgrade them once he figures out you're playing a game.

This isn't because they "hate" gaming or want to stop you from playing--it is primarily because your application (a game) is reducing the efficiency of other people on the network who are working. FFXI Bandwidth is capped for a 56k modem, so if you can't get through the campus network, consider getting an external ISP (preferably cheap) and using that over the university phone line that is in your room--make sure this is ok with your roommate (if you have one); most people have cell phones for calls nowadays anyway so it is unlikely to be a problem.

[Eauijhkuu]

Re: College Connection Issues

OU eh?

UNT here.

If your campus is using resnet (like mine), then you might have plenty of connectivity issues, as dorm ports are only able to assign one machine to a port.
This wasn't necessarily a problem for me tho; I was able to get around the issue by purchasing a cheap router to divvy the connection so that the port recognized both my computer and my PS2.

[Jwise]

Re: College Connection Issues

Hehe, no not OU. OCU. No we're not using Resnet, although I'm transferring to Arkansas next semester, and they do use Resnet. I sent an email to Campus Technology guys, and I hope they can help me. Thanks for all the advice!

[Jwise]

Re: College Connection Issues

Just so yall know, I tried to use a router: it didn't work. I still got the same error message. Returned the router. Stupid college servers. Guess I'll wait for the Campus Tech guys.

[DakAttack]

Re: College Connection Issues

The local community college somehow stops me from using mIRC on their computers, but not AIM. I'm not sure why, though. mIRC isn't exactly a connection hog like peer to peer programs can be.

[bungiefan]

Re: College Connection Issues

Hehe, no not OU. OCU. No we're not using Resnet, although I'm transferring to Arkansas next semester, and they do use Resnet. I sent an email to Campus Technology guys, and I hope they can help me. Thanks for all the advice!

They're probably going to need information from you, including the MAC address of your PS2 Network Adapter and what ports the software you are trying to connect with requires to be open. I know the student connection in the dorms at my school was firewalled so only web browsing and email ports were open, so no IM programs would work, and all game applications were blocked. We had to get our own connection installed in our dorms, paying our own monthly fee to the ISP, if we wanted to do more than basic web surfing and email.

[Jwise]

Re: College Connection Issues

Update: So I got the new Vana'diel Collection for Windows. It works perfectly on my computer. So that's the end of that problem. Lol.

[afranko22]

Re: College Connection Issues

I am at BGSU. I have emailed tech and they said they wont help me. Is there any settings i can change to make my connection work for FF11?

[Omni]

Re: College Connection Issues

The local community college somehow stops me from using mIRC on their computers, but not AIM. I'm not sure why, though. mIRC isn't exactly a connection hog like peer to peer programs can be.

mirc is a lot less prone to trouble than IM. iirc, when you install mirc a lot of features are turned on already, like fserve and etc. mirc servers arent the most innocent and pg either. lots of stuff lurking around in mirc servers.

as far as college connections, theyre probably clamping down a lot more these days. i remember back in college you could have a quake server running 24/7 off the dual-oc3 connection we had. no ports were being blocked and pretty much anything goes. with all the file sharing programs around now, all that extra bandwidth being used adds up a lot im sure. bandwidth isnt free. my guess is that they probably block all ports except the typical ones that people use and special cases for the university.

[afranko22]

Re: College Connection Issues

i keep getting error POL-2059

is there anything i can do?