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Hay guys! You're probably wondering why Armando hasn't posted any new and weird or crazy experiences lately, right? I've been mostly idle for a while, and will remain so for a while longer, so I figured I may as well make it official and post the details. Basically, this is my first year in college. I'm attending a university on the other side of Puerto Rico, so I stay in an apartment which I share with a friend of mine from high school. As for the internet, well, at first we tried getting cable with a company called Choice...the service totally sucked ass, though. Then we heard about this new internet service from a company called Volare, and figured I'd check it out.
It seemed like a sweet deal. All you do is buy a wireless modem from them which connects directly to your computer or router via LAN cable. No fuss, no muss. We signed up for their "academic" package for students (you get a small discount on the modem, and get 256kbps downloading/64kbps uploading for $30 a month, which I split with my roommate) and at first all was good. The connection was working as it should've; FFXI was a little bit laggy, but otherwise worked fine too. Then, one day, I just kept getting disconnected. I thought it might be because my ports weren't forwarded, although that didn't make much sense since I could play just fine before.
In any case, I went about forwarding my ports. The strange thing was that after forwarding them, uTorrent would still say the ports were closed, and I'd still get disconnected. I was certain I did it right; I even tried using DMZ mode, which opens all ports (a security risk, I know, but I wanted to test it.) I ocasionally go home for the weekends, where I used to play these past couple of years. We have DSL over there, and though my ports were never forwarded I never had any problem playing there. As a matter of fact, I can still play just fine when I come back home. I know the problem isn't the router, either, because I've tried two different ones (my dad bought a better one 'cuz he got it at a discount price, and gave it to me. I have a couple of friends over here that also currently use Volare, and when I went over to their places with my laptop, it was exactly the same. They have their ports closed in their own computers, as well.
I called tech support and they told me something along the lines that the Volare network is similar to a big router, and as such connecting the modem to a router may cause some problems, but that if I connected it directly to my PC there should be no problems. Ok, fine, whatever; I was just glad to get a straightforward answer, and that the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. I tried connecting the modem directly, but nothing changed. I called back a couple of days later and asked for that same guy, and he assured me that they don't restrict any of the ports. He said he's asked the higher-ups about it, but they just told him the same thing. It seems there's nothing that can be done on my end or theirs.
Now, the logical thing would be to switch providers, right? Well, the catch to using Volare is that you have to sign up for a one year contract. They do, however, let you return the modem within the first 10 days if you're not satisfied with it, and they'll give you your money back and cancel the contract. I figured that if there was something that didn't sit well with me about the connection, I'd notice it within those 10 days. But, the 10 days passed and everything was fine, so we went ahead with it. The reason my parents didn't get DSL was because they don't want to pay for a phone line I won't use, since I have a cell phone. Basically, it looks like I'm stuck like this for a while.
Since neither of turns on the TV any more except to practice in Super Smash Bros every other day or so, and since we download so much anime, we're planning on upgrading our connection speed to 512kbps. The chances are very slim, and I won't get my hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, my internets will decide to get along with FFXI again. If not, I'll only be able to get some real game time in during the weekends, though even that is limited, since I don't come home every single weekend, and even when I do I get home late and usually hang out with my friends on Friday, and leave again on Sunday afternoon. I will, at the very least, though, be spending plenty of time at home during Christmas break, so worst case scenario I'll get some game time in then.
In any case, once things get moving again, I'm interested in doing Assaults and BCNMs (I have like 400 seals I would very much love to turn into cold, hard gil) and missions. If anyone in Midgardsormr is interested, just hit me up on AIM or send me a PM and whatnot. At the very least I can do stuff on Saturdays if I plan in advance.
Also, I'd like to make use of this opportunity to thank all of you who have given me your support during my silly experiments, even going as far as suppressing your skepticism and giving me the benefit of the doubt before shooting the idea down. My girlfriend left me and quit the game, most of my friends have quit as well, I have no static, and I have no interest in endgame drama. The only things keeping me in-game right now are Lionx, Omecle, a couple of other good in-game friends, you guys, and my love for the game (and doing crazy things in it) in general. I hope to be able to entertain you some more in the near future *cough PLD/BLU cough*!
EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I have an avatar for the first time in...forever. And yes, it's three times as tall as it is wide. I'm just THAT awesome.
It seemed like a sweet deal. All you do is buy a wireless modem from them which connects directly to your computer or router via LAN cable. No fuss, no muss. We signed up for their "academic" package for students (you get a small discount on the modem, and get 256kbps downloading/64kbps uploading for $30 a month, which I split with my roommate) and at first all was good. The connection was working as it should've; FFXI was a little bit laggy, but otherwise worked fine too. Then, one day, I just kept getting disconnected. I thought it might be because my ports weren't forwarded, although that didn't make much sense since I could play just fine before.
In any case, I went about forwarding my ports. The strange thing was that after forwarding them, uTorrent would still say the ports were closed, and I'd still get disconnected. I was certain I did it right; I even tried using DMZ mode, which opens all ports (a security risk, I know, but I wanted to test it.) I ocasionally go home for the weekends, where I used to play these past couple of years. We have DSL over there, and though my ports were never forwarded I never had any problem playing there. As a matter of fact, I can still play just fine when I come back home. I know the problem isn't the router, either, because I've tried two different ones (my dad bought a better one 'cuz he got it at a discount price, and gave it to me. I have a couple of friends over here that also currently use Volare, and when I went over to their places with my laptop, it was exactly the same. They have their ports closed in their own computers, as well.
I called tech support and they told me something along the lines that the Volare network is similar to a big router, and as such connecting the modem to a router may cause some problems, but that if I connected it directly to my PC there should be no problems. Ok, fine, whatever; I was just glad to get a straightforward answer, and that the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. I tried connecting the modem directly, but nothing changed. I called back a couple of days later and asked for that same guy, and he assured me that they don't restrict any of the ports. He said he's asked the higher-ups about it, but they just told him the same thing. It seems there's nothing that can be done on my end or theirs.
Now, the logical thing would be to switch providers, right? Well, the catch to using Volare is that you have to sign up for a one year contract. They do, however, let you return the modem within the first 10 days if you're not satisfied with it, and they'll give you your money back and cancel the contract. I figured that if there was something that didn't sit well with me about the connection, I'd notice it within those 10 days. But, the 10 days passed and everything was fine, so we went ahead with it. The reason my parents didn't get DSL was because they don't want to pay for a phone line I won't use, since I have a cell phone. Basically, it looks like I'm stuck like this for a while.
Since neither of turns on the TV any more except to practice in Super Smash Bros every other day or so, and since we download so much anime, we're planning on upgrading our connection speed to 512kbps. The chances are very slim, and I won't get my hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, my internets will decide to get along with FFXI again. If not, I'll only be able to get some real game time in during the weekends, though even that is limited, since I don't come home every single weekend, and even when I do I get home late and usually hang out with my friends on Friday, and leave again on Sunday afternoon. I will, at the very least, though, be spending plenty of time at home during Christmas break, so worst case scenario I'll get some game time in then.
In any case, once things get moving again, I'm interested in doing Assaults and BCNMs (I have like 400 seals I would very much love to turn into cold, hard gil) and missions. If anyone in Midgardsormr is interested, just hit me up on AIM or send me a PM and whatnot. At the very least I can do stuff on Saturdays if I plan in advance.
Also, I'd like to make use of this opportunity to thank all of you who have given me your support during my silly experiments, even going as far as suppressing your skepticism and giving me the benefit of the doubt before shooting the idea down. My girlfriend left me and quit the game, most of my friends have quit as well, I have no static, and I have no interest in endgame drama. The only things keeping me in-game right now are Lionx, Omecle, a couple of other good in-game friends, you guys, and my love for the game (and doing crazy things in it) in general. I hope to be able to entertain you some more in the near future *cough PLD/BLU cough*!
EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I have an avatar for the first time in...forever. And yes, it's three times as tall as it is wide. I'm just THAT awesome.
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