Sorry about the long-windedness, I'm a teensy bit frustrated. About three weeks ago, I bought the PS2(SCPH-50001 or 50010), HDD(SCPH-20401), Network adapter, and had the cable modem installed at the same time. For about a week and a half I had no problems connecting.
Last Wednesday while trying to connect, I got a POL error message during the PlayOnline connection process. I tried many different connection configurations attempting to alleviate the problem. I got a heap of error messages(POL-0673, POL-0008, POL-0673, POL-1160, POL-0011). I finally managed to connect to FFXI and was playing for about an hour...when...
While zoning the game hung for a few minutes at the black screen where it says Downloading...The error message it eventually gave me was FFXI-4001. Reconnecting was a fruitless endeavor. I gave up playing for the night. The following day, I was able to connect without a problem.
Friday comes and I get one of the POL errors (don't know which) at POL connect screen. Well I thought, "I'll get to the bottom of this" and called POL tech support. It was nearly 6 p.m. and they were about to close, but I manage to talk to this guy for about 15 minutes. He tells me to call Comcast and establish a static DNS # then starts laughing and hangs up. Thanks POL.
After extensive surfing of POL help, and this site, I call Comcast to find out if I can get a static DNS. They say no, only dynamic. I press the issue further to find out that they do NOT block any of the ports necessary for running FFXI. So I proceed to run system utilities on PS2 to verify that no POL, FFXI, or HDD files are corrupt. They all turned out fine, so I deleted and reinstalled POL & FFXI to the HDD.
Saturday morning I get up to check progress and everything is installed. Try to boot up FFXI and ka-blammo; error message POL-1160 greets me. So I did the next logical step (sarcasm) and reformatted the HDD and reinstalled the software all over again. However, I was still not able to connect until later that day (3 hours)...I was able to play for a few hours and I hadn't even done anything different.
Sunday morning I was able to start up POL no problem. When I tried to boot FFXI however, during the connection process it would hang at connecting to Lobby Server and give me error FFXI-3100 (Could not connect to Lobby Server). Sunday evening I connected no prob.
Monday afternoon I come home from work early to fail connection again but yay it was early, I could call POL during normal business hours. After spending 30 minutes on the phone, they say call Comcast and get static DNS. Comcast says call POL or Sony because we don't do their tech support and we only have dynamic DNS.
"?*%&$# &*()%#$@" says I.
2 hours later I was able to connect until I went to bed. One note on this DNS thing: when I connect to the POL navigator, it always displays the same DNS # on connect information even though I have the game set to acquire automatically. Additionally, my friend plays in the same area as I, and when I asked him to check this DNS #, he shows the same one.
Well that brings us up to present (Tuesday, almost a week later). I connected fine upon returning from work. Upon zoning from Windurst to Sarutabaruta my download screen hangs, error message FFXI-4001 Lost Server Connection. After failing reconnect with that character, I tried with another. Funny thing is, I could connect with the other character (my fiancee's on the same POL account). I contact a GM who gives me same old shpeal. So I try to zone Windurst to Sarutabaruta; error message FFXI-4001 Lost Server Connection...now neither one will connect.
My hair is turning grey and clumps are falling out. Short of changing ISP's (I will be sorry I spent money on installation and two months of cable access) or reprogramming my PS2 with a hatchet (this is very, very appealing), does anybody know of any fixes?
P.S. Does anybody have the phone number for the Unabomber?
P.P.S. Sorry, just kidding about the Unabomber.
P.P.S. (Slightly Off Topic) What is the general opinion about satellite television? DirecTV etc...