_____User tips and tricks - Disc, Lag, etc
by Drunkinhik | 11/11/2009 17:22:56 This post is now closed and moved to the new forums. Go to http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1020824261 for the new version *****UPDATE 10/18/10******** 4.0.1 Patch Hell If you have issues with the latest patch in any way shape or form, ensure you have the most up to date drivers and check the following threads: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2718806 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=271880602 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=271880594 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=189717804 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27291809 FIX FOR Headless Horseman/Cogwheel Crashes http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27300876 http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/cogfix.aspx Then go through my list of stuff and re-do any things the patch may have undone. I KNOW for most people it has required them to re-do firewall rules, re-add program exceptions and reset the "Run As Administrator" options. Any other issues please attach a post & I'll try and help you out. Also REPORT BUGS on the Bug Report Forum and please please USE THE SEARCH function before posting to see if there is a solution for your problem. If I can't help you check with a Blue (or make another post elsewhere on this forum at the same time) I do this stuff for free on my own time and cannot possibly help EVERYONE but I can damn well try. ****END OF UPDATE******* ****MORE 4.0.1 UPDATE***** Low FPS fixes: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=273032231 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=2730 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th General Graphics Issues: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187856 ****END OF UPDATE******* ****UPDATE 7/9/10****** Activision Blizzard has since reversed their announcements made in the earlier linked threads, "at this time". So as the saying goes Activision-Blizzard, at this time I will continue to link to the thread that announced changes endangering my personal privacy (at the bottom of this post) until such time as this potential idea is permanently dead and gone and used in business school as a case study of what to NEVER do to any paying customers. I will continue to update this thread and move it to the new forum system once Cataclysm launches. *****END OF UPDATE***** Honestly Blizzard should use something similar to what I say below instead of telling users to kill their Antivirus and any other system protection by doing selective startup. Most likely the fault lies in your Modem and/or Router. Also blame Microsoft if anyone as they shot out a stream of patches every 2nd Tuesday of each month that if you have Windows Vista/7 set up to automatically install updates (the default setting) it will install them between 11pm-4am local time (depending on your time zone). STANDARD DISCLAIMER: DO NOT DO ANY OF THESE STEPS WHILE RUNNING OR ATTEMPTING TO RUN WOW OR ANY OTHER PROGRAM THAT NEEDS CONSTANT INTERNET ACCESS. I.E. DON'T DO THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF A VIRUS SCAN, AUTOMATIC BACKUP, ETC. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE FAILING TO FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS AND SCREWING UP THEIR COMPUTER, ROUTER, OR INTERNET HARDWARE. Now that the legalese is taken care of here are some other little goodies that will probably help. If you follow my instructions you shouldn't have any problems. *****UPDATE 5/2/10***** Additionally when I can I have provided LINKS to the original location of help posts. If any suggestions are unclear or confusing in any way following the links may help you to understand the particular suggestion and/or complete the step correctly *****END OF UPDATE***** Make sure you aren't running any demanding background programs that require internet access. I.E. turn off LimeWire, BearShare, Kazaa, BitTorrent, uTorrent, or any other file-sharing program. Make sure your virus scanner (or any other scanner such as adware scanners, privacy checkers, what ever it calls itself) is not running. Make sure you aren't streaming media to someone (or somewhere) else via Media Player, iTunes, what-have-you, by ensuring that music sharing/library sharing is OFF. See your specific program's help for how to do this as I really don't feel like writing a novel here. Clear your Game Cache:
%programfiles%\world of warcraft or C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft 2.) From there find your Cache folder and open it. 3.) Delete Everything (files, folders, that cute pic of your g/f's toon, etc) inside that folder 4.) Restart WoW. Prepare for a long long first load after doing this. I highly recommend doing this after EVERY patch just to be safe. Check Your Realm List Settings
(Default Folder: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft or C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft for Vista users, Applications folder for Mac users). 2.) Open the Data, and then the enUS folder. 3.)Open the Realmlist.wtf file using a text editor, like WordPad. Make sure the lines in the file match the following: set realmlist us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com set patchlist enUS.patch.battle.net:1119/patch set realmlistbn "" set portal us If you need to, you can copy and paste these lines over any that are incorrect, save the file and close the file, and try the game once more. Ensure that UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) is enabled and allowed to pass through by your computer, software firewall, router, and modem/gateway device as well as certain ports that are specific to WoW, the new Battle.Net Authentication System, and the Blizzard Downloader (don't worry I'll cover everything later) ***UPDATE***** 3/25/2010
A:UPnP is an acronym for Universal Plug and Play and is a Microsoft service API (Application Programming Interface) implemented with the start of Windows XP in 2001 as part of the Windows core services (kernel). It was originally "optional" at the introduction but as applications have started to incorporate it all versions of Windows since Windows XP Service Pack 2 (XP SP2) have had it enabled by default. The UPnP service automatically opens any ports that the application needs without a person having to individually open ports (or create "rules" to do so) on a computer, router, or modem/gateway device. Example: World of Warcraft needs the following ports for the various parts of the game to work (updater, downloader, authentication, etc): 1119 TCP, 3724 TCP & UDP, 6112-6114 TCP, 6881-6999 TCP, 4000 TCP Many older routers & modem/gateway devices had to be "told" to allow these ports to send & receive traffic (data) and setting them up was time-consuming. Now with UPnP you don't need to create these rules (theoretically). UPnP simply tells the router/modem/gateway device "World of Warcraft needs the following ports [port number] [protocol], etc etc" As long as UPnP traffic is enabled/allowed/supported by your router/modem/gateway device it should require much less in the way of setting up custom rules. ****END OF UPDATE**** Before doing any of these steps go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx and run the Internet Test at that site. This test can ONLY be run using Internet Explorer (sorry folks) so you will have to use it at least this one (or more) time(s) even if it isn't your default browser (mine is FireFox so I fully sympathize). If the UPnP Support Test results in an error keep going down these next steps until you are certain everything is enabled. If at that point you still see a negative result (and you are still experiencing problems with WoW) your Router's built-in firewall is doing its job and protecting your machine....unfortunately its also probably screwing up your WoW experience. This might take a while and can often be frustrating so please bear with me. Part 1-Computer Section
Launcher.exe, BackgroundDownloader.exe, WoWError.exe, and Repair.exe. All of these wonderful programs are in your World of Warcraft folder. Right-click on each hit "Properties" , click on the tab labeled "Compatibility" and check the box near the bottom that says "Run As Administrator" Then hit "Apply" and "OK" It is almost guaranteed that you will need to re-do this step after every major patch.
Launcher.exe, BackgroundDownloader.exe, WoWError.exe, and Repair.exe. All of these wonderful programs are in your World of Warcraft folder. If you don't have a firewall program installed and one isn't included in your "Security Suite Program" you have Windows Firewall. To configure that type "Windows Firewall" in the search bar (Vista/7) and hit "Enter" Click on "Allow a program through Windows Firewall" You should see an "Exceptons" tab and then click on "Add Program" and/or "Add Port" to add the programs listed above, one by one, and/or the ports listed below again one by one. Depending on your firewall/security suite you may need to re-do this step after every major patch. Also make sure that the following ports are OPEN and ALLOWED TO PASS THROUGH BY YOUR FIREWALL: 1119 TCP- for the new Battle.Net Authentication (Effective as of December 2009) 1120 TCP-for the new Streaming Launcher (with 4.0.1) 3724 TCP & UDP-for the Blizzard Downloader (TCP) and in game voice chat (UDP) 6112-6114 TCP -for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data 6881-6999 TCP -for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data 4000 TCP-for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data 2.)To make sure that UPnP is running properly in XP or Vista go to your start menu and click on "Run" then type in "services.msc" in Vista there is no need to look frantically for the "Run" button , just type "services.msc" into the little search box on the bottom of your Start Menu. EDIT AND UPDATE 3/26/2010: The Run box can also be accessed by pressing the Windows Key and R at the same time 3.) You should see a list of services in alphabetical order. Scroll down to "Universal Plug and Play" (XP) or "UPnP Device Host" (Vista/Win7) and double click on it. In the little window that pops up set the startup type to Automatic and hit "start" if it isn't already running. 4.) Re-run the Internet test at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx. 5.) Still have "Not Supported"? Move on to the next section...[/ul] Part-2 Router and Modem Section Make sure that you aren't suffering from some service problems from your ISP. To be really really sure, unplug the power to your Modem/Gateway Device/Router wait about 5 minutes and plug it back in. Many times an ISP (in my case Comcast which has done this REPEATEDLY) will send a "silent update" to your modem for one reason or another. In most cases the modem immediately reboots and update's itself, but sometimes it needs a little help. ;) 1.) Locate your Router's (or Modem's) configuration page and make sure you have the most recent firmware. Firmware is simply the little bit of software on your Router that tells it what it can and can't do. Most major manufacturer's have a standard config page of 192.168.1.1. Test this first by going to your favorite web browser and typing in that string of numbers in the address bar. If you get a lovely Username and Password prompt then that is correct. If you don't get that prompt then do the following:
b.)Vista/Win7 Users type in "cmd" in the little search box on the bottom of your start Menu. When the little list of things that are found pops-up "cmd.exe" should be at the top of the list, right-click on it and choose "Run as Administrator". Take this time to thank Microsoft from trying to protect you from yourself and make you life more frustrating. c.)When the command prompt window appears type "ipconfig" and you should see one or more network adapters and their settings all listed. Scroll around until you find something like the following (or something very similar): Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: (<-----Type of Connection) Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xxx.yy.comcast.net. (<-----Where your modem looks to for DNS (Doman Name Server) translations. This is ISP specific, in my case Comcast and I have redacted the beginning characters which are unique to each account for every ISP) Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::xxxx:yyyy:zzzz:aaaa%bb(<-----The IPv6 address assigned by your router, modem or gateway device. Again I've blanked out certain portions for personal security) IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.xxx.xxx(<----The IPv4 address (commonly called TCP/IP or just IP address) assigned by your router, modem, or gateway device. Almost always starts with 192.168.) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1(<---The IP address of your modem, router, or gateway device. 99.9% of the time this is also the address of the config page.) d.)Write the Default Gateway down and type it in your favorite internet browser and hopefully you will get the prompt I mentioned earlier e.) As for your username and password I really can't help you except suggesting you find the manual that came with your router or checking the website of your router's vendor or your Internet Service Provider (ISP). www.linksys.com/support www.d-link.com/support www.dell.com/su www.belkin.com/support www.microsoft.com/support www.verizon.net/ www.comcast.net/support www.att.com/support www.windstream.com/ www.cox.com/support Those are the major vendors & ISPs as of this writing. Find your router's model number (usually inscribed on the bottom of said device) and get a PDF copy of that little book you chucked out with the packaging because you knew you'd NEVER EVER need it. Also download the most recent firmware if you don't already have it. ***UPDATE 3/31/10**** More ISPs &Vendor's added. If everyone could please add their ISP or Router Support website in a comment if it isn't already in this list and I will add it as they are posted. Thank You. Also anyone with a 2Wire-branded Router/Modem/Gateway Device (known to be provided by AT&T,and Windstream ISPs at this time) Please scroll to the end of this post and read Section 3.3 Before Proceeding any Further ******END OF UPDATE***** 2.)IF YOU NEED TO UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN YOU DO SO FROM A MACHINE CONNECTED TO YOUR ROUTER WITH A WIRE. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER UPDATE FIRMWARE FROM A MACHINE ON A WIRELESS CONNECTION. THIS CAN AND WILL USUALLY KILL YOUR ROUTER If you don't need to update your firmware (i.e you have the latest and greatest version) skip to part b. a.)Once you're done tracking down that info (router config page, default user name and password) and are actually able to get into the config screen look around for awhile and find one of the following sections or tabs: "Administration", "Status". Those are the most common names for where the firmware version number hides and where you can update it as well. AGAIN IF YOU NEED TO UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN YOU DO SO FROM A MACHINE CONNECTED TO YOUR ROUTER WITH A WIRE. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER UPDATE FIRMWARE FROM A MACHINE ON A WIRELESS CONNECTION. THIS CAN AND WILL USUALLY KILL YOUR ROUTER b.) Once you're done tracking down that info (router config page, default user name and password) and are actually able to get into the config screen look around for awhile and find one of the following sections or tabs: "Applications and Gaming", "Port Forwarding", "Port Triggering", "Administration", "Status" "Access Rules/Restrictions", "Firewall Settings". Those are the most common names for where the UPnP setting hides. Simply put after rooting around for a while you should be able to find some sort of setting called "UPnP" or "Universal Plug and Play". Check the box, hit the dial, select the drop-down option (whatever you do to change the settings in your router) to make sure that it is set to On/Enabled/Allowed . If you are really having difficulty with this step I strongly suggest you find that documentation I mentioned earlier and look up "UPnP" in the index. c.)Also make sure that the following ports are OPEN and ALLOWED TO PASS THROUGH BY YOUR ROUTER: 1119 TCP- for the new Battle.Net Authentication (Effective as of December 2009) 1120 TCP-for the new Streaming Launcher (with 4.0.1) 3724 TCP & UDP-for the Blizzard Downloader (TCP) and in game voice chat (UDP) 6112-6114 TCP -for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data 6881-6999 TCP -for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data 4000 TCP-for the Blizzard Downloader and WoW Data d.) Finally look around for a setting that says "Filter Multicasting" and make sure it is set to "off", or "disabled". Disabling this allows your router to pass packets from many different machines onto your local machine at a time. (which WoW does a gigantic amount of). If the "filter" is checked than your router can and will block multiple packets per transmission resulting in a higher latency. 3.) After you are done tearing your hair out looking for that manual again (really makes you wish you'd kept the darn thing in the first place. Maybe there is a lesson here?) make sure you save the settings, commit the changes, and do whatever your particular router requires to get them to go into effect. Most routers will usually initiate a quick reboot to save your settings which will interrupt your internet access for a little while (30 seconds to 5 minutes). It might also ask you to reset your modem or restart your computer. 4.) Re-run the Internet test at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx. 5.) Repeat these steps on your modem separately to ensure that UPnP is enabled there as well. 5.) Still have "Not Supported"? Go to www.portforward.com and pick your router and/or modem model and the game you're running (WoW of course). Follow the directions given there. Finally a little heads up here: if my best friend who is a soldier in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq for 12 months could successfully play WoW including all heroics and instances up to 10 man via the crappy satellite internet connection that he had access to on his base there in-country I strongly suggest you check your own internet setup and/or ISP prior to blaming Blizzard for lag and/or disconnection issues. Part 3-More Tips STANDARD DISCLAIMER #2: If ANY part of the following section that calls for changing the Registry is unclear to you then either get someone who is more experienced to help you or simply SKIP THOSE ITEMS! Improperly tweaking the Registry can render your machine inoperable (in layman's terms: broken & unfix-able) AGAIN I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE FAILING TO FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS AND SCREWING UP THEIR COMPUTER, ROUTER, OR INTERNET HARDWARE. Part 3-More Tips
If Ventrilo causes lag in WoW or you experience some voice lag in vent try this solution. Please bear in mind that THIS FIX (AND ONLY THIS FIX) APPLIES SOLELY TO WINDOWS VISTA AT THIS TIME http://www.ventrilo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=139277&postc Ok, I've finally solved it, and it's not a Ventrilo issue, but rather a Vista-only one. The problem: With the release of Vista, Microsoft added a system service to monitor the multimedia subsystem for streaming audio and video, called the Multimedia Class Scheduler (MMC). When this service detects streaming media (and a lot of applications trigger this), it throttles network traffic to ensure smooth network playback. Unfortunately, this was conceived in the days where single-core CPU's and 100MBit LAN's were common, and their solution drastically affects gigabit speeds. I'll explain why this problem isn't far more widespread in a moment. MMC is nothing more than a packet limiter. When certain applications run, MMC puts a hard-cap on the number of packets which can pass over the network interface per second. At a standard TCP/IP frame size, that's ~1,500 bytes x 10,000 packets (the limit imposed by MMC), which after overhead works out at about 11-12MB/sec. From SP1 in Vista, you can tweak this limit via the registry. Initially I tried setting it to 30 (for 30,000 packets), but only managed half network speed. Upping it to 60 or 70 made no difference. Instead I set it to FFFFFFFF (Hexidecimal) or 4294967295 (Decimal) which effectively sets the cap at such a high limit that you'll never hit it. Network transfer speeds are now the same when either connected, or disconnected on Ventrilo, with no degradation to Ventrilo quality (what's 4-5KB/sec when the interface can do 65-75MB/sec =P ). Jumbo frames: Before I post the how-to for changing the registry, here's the reason why some people haven't noticed it. As the MMC limit is a *packet* limit, those on a gigabit network with jumbo-frames are far less likely to see the issue. Jumbo frames increase the TCP frame size from ~1,500 to a maximum of 9,000 bytes. As you can imagine, 10,000 frames at 9,000 bytes per frame is roughly 80MB/sec after overhead. My machines here don't enable jumbo frames by default, but I'm willing to bet that would also solve the issue. The solution: So, here's how to tweak the limit yourself. Perhaps this should be added to the Ventrilo FAQ? 1) Open Regedit.exe 2) Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile 3) In the right pane, double click NetworkThrottlingIndex 4) Set the value to FFFFFFFF, Hexadecimal 5) Close Regedit 6) Reboot Once the machine is rebooted, the limit will be removed. To undo the change, follow the instructions above, but set the value to: a (Hexadecimal), or 10 (Decimal). Reboot again and the limit will be put back. This issue doesn't exist in Windows XP as the service doesn't exist. Apparently Windows 7 has corrected this particular flaw, so it's a Vista -only- issue. Hopefully this will help someone who has been suffering the same problem. It's nice to finally have it solved. 2.)--------This other one came to me from my guild's forums:------------------ ****UPDATE 5/2/10**** Although this came from my former guild (which is now extinct) I have manged to track down actual discussions of this if you need clarification or would like deeper explanation of this step: http://lifeandcode.net/2009/05/reduce-game-network-latency-in-wi http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3251414#32 http://resurgence-eu.wowstead.com/forums/thread/322 http://www.wo ****END OF UPDATE**** I’ve had a number of people ask me now about how they can reduce their latency in game for better performance during raids. So I decided to go ahead and type up a little guide showing how. I’ll start off by saying that this does NOT speed up your internet connection. What this does is forces your TCP applications (WoW is a TCP application) to send out more ACK requests (short for Acknowledgment) so that you more frequently receive responses from the server. Latency by definition is the time it takes for your machine to communicate with the server that it’s connected to. As a result of receiving more ACK responses your latency will be reduced because it is receiving more communication from the game server. The first thing you need to know is what your machine’s current IP address is. To do this go to your start button and click either Run (if you’re using Windows XP) or in the search bar (for Vista and Windows 7 users) and type CMD. This should pull up a black box on your screen commonly known as the command prompt. On this screen you will type “ipconfig” without the quotes. A bunch of random data should appear on your screen. You are looking for something that most likely looks like 192.168.xxx.xxx where the x’s can be random numbers. For example on my machine it appears as 192.168.1.104. Remember the number that appears on your screen. Next you will go start ->(run) or (search) and type “regedit” without the quotes. You should receive a 2 pane window with folders on the left side. Follow the file path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\ Once you reach this folder there will be 2 or more folders with strange file names. Search though one until you find the one that contains your IP address. It’ll appear as DhcpIPAddress with the data value of 192.168.xx.xxx (whatever your IP is). Anywhere in the white space on the right pane right click and select New –> DWORD Value (appears as DWORD (32bit) Value for Vista and 7 users). Give it the name TcpAckFrequency (make sure you type it exactly as I did or it will not work) When finished right click your newly created file and select modify and give it the value “1” without the quotes. Create another DWORD Value file and name it TCPNoDelay. Again, make sure you spell it exactly as I did or it will not work. When finished do the same as you did for the previous file. Right click, Modify and assign it the value of 1. Once everything is done you can go ahead and close your registry and restart your machine. Log in to WoW and enjoy your new latency. Disclaimer: Be VERY careful when you do anything in the registry. A single wrong entry or bad change can seriously damage your system. If you followed my steps listed above to the letter there should be no problems. Reminder: This does NOT increase your internet speed. Latency will rise during gameplay if you stream music or watch / listen to videos on youtube during raids. For best performance I recommend closing any applications that use or can consume internet bandwidth. A side note I decided to add in here. Latency will be lower but still vary for people depending on where you live. Azshara is a CST server so if you live in a CST time zone mine your latency be lower than say someone who lives on the east [me Drunkinhik] or west coast. Also latency will vary depending on the server load as well. During peak hours it may spike over 200ms.
RECOMMENDED FOR ALL 2Wire Routers: Hi all I spoke with an AT&T rep today and i figured out why 2wire systems have problems with WoW: My previous scenario: after patches or any kind of download, OR even in populated areas like Stormwind or Orgimmar, I would log on, see my character and everyone else around me would be 'Unknown', with level and health. Also the others would be running in place. I couldn't communicate person to person or on any channel, as well as with /say, /guild or anything. I'd disconnect in 10 seconds, with the message saying : "You have been disconnected from the server." (NO WAY!!! thanks for telling me i didn't know :( ) Solution: 1) It is the 2wire device. Go into your network connections, by right clicking on your Wireless Connection Signal picture in the bottom right hand corner of your display, by clock and date. Open properties of the connection, and find the 'Default Gateway Address'. this number should be ###.###.#.###. 2) Open Internet and empty the address bar, and type in that number, followed by /mdc. this will bring you to your 2wire modem and device controller. 3) Scroll down, and find Firewall Settings. Click on Advanced Settings under Firewall Settings. 4) Right at the top you should see an UNCHECKED box near the following: " Strict UDP Session Control". CHECK that box. In short, this allows your internet firewall to help itself identify with activity as a bunch of individuals (i.e. other characters on server) so that it doesn't overload with the immense activity of the server.
Okay I know that "TrustedInstaller" is a hidden User (in the same way that "Administrator" is) but I don't see it anywhere in Services on my Windows Vista Ultimate machine (bear in mind I'm using the 32-bit version). However I see no reason to disable this or the Windows Update Service, instead I suggest setting the Windows Update service to "Download Updates but let me choose whether to install them" under the Control Panel-->Security--->Windows Update--->Change Settings. That way it will download the updates whenever your internet connection is not being used (if you have an always-on connection via a router or High Speed Internet) but will not install them randomly and lag up your game. Again for the safety of your computer I highly DISCOURAGE turning off Automatic Updating entirely
INBOUND & OUTBOUND Rules must be set in Windows 7's Firewall. This is a new Windows 7 Feature that blocks both inbound & outbound....prior to this only inbound was blocked by default. All other firewall products block both inbound and outbound traffic BY DEFAULT and have done so since they started being widely available nearly a decade ago. This is simply Microsoft finally (and belatedly) playing catch-up to the industry with their built in tools. Blizzard's Downloader uses the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) download method in the same way that BitTorrent or uTorrent do (in fact it actually CREATES a .torrent file in a folder), so if you're on a college campus (most of which block P2P traffic by default) you will get that message. Same thing if your ISP uses selective traffic control/packet shaping (which does the same thing essentially-causes the packets it DOESN'T like i.e. P2P traffic to either be blocked or given such low priority that it causes P2P downloads to be slow) If it is the P2P issue (and isn't resolved by setting appropriate outbound rules) then go into the Downloader Preferences (accessible from the Downloader by selecting "View" & then "Preferences" on the menu bar at the top of the program) & UNCHECK "Enable Peer to Peer Transfer" if that makes it go away ....good. If not then re-check your software firewall, router firewall, and/or move out of your college dorm.
From your ISP they pay for it by maintaining & upgrading the underground lines, switching & distribution stations & hubs etc etc. That is very expensive in having to pay for materials & employee salaries and STILL see a profit at the end of the day without raising rates enormously. Your college campus (or apartment landlord, condo owner, etc) pays for it the old fashioned way....with MONEY you PAY THEM in dorm fees, utility fees etc. They are not an UNLIMITED internet source and as such don't want YOU sucking all the internet bandwith and screwing over the rest of the CAMPUS or Apartment complex. If YOU want UNLIMTED internet with few (if any restrictions) by all means save up and pay for a dedicated T1 or T3 line to your house (at the cost of $3-$5k US Dollars per month) other than that live with the restrictions. Also bear in mind that WoW itself does NOT use any sort of P2P communication in game. Having to disable P2P transfer in the Downloader Preferences will in no way, shape, or form interfere with your playing the game itself. 6.) Miscellaneous System Tweaks Author's Note: Thanks for the idea behind this section goes to Roadknight of the Realm Silvermoon. While I am not repeating or quoting his posts verbatim some of the information and ideas contained within can be attempted by users with the proper guidance. I have included a link to a site I have used for such assistance for nearly a decade now that can better explain the main ideas behind Roadknight's post. The other information has been not been added and removed at my request because I felt that attempting those tweaks would do more harm than good to the majority of my readers. To lessen the number of irritating User Account Control (UAC) prompts on Windows Vista see: http://us.norton.com/theme.jsp?themeid=labs_uac&header=0& This is a much better and safe alternative to disabling UAC entirely on Windows Vista, by essentially adding a "Remember My Choice" button to the UAC prompts that come up when anything is "Run as Administrator". For those of you who really want to be geeky and mess around with background services and other goodies to squeeze some more power out of your processors and/or internet connections check out: http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/OSguides.htm For the sake of sanity and the safety of your machines please note that my standard disclaimer applies here as well. If you don't want to or don't feel comfortable messing around with "the guts" of the Windows Services, take the time to read Viper's explanation's of what each service is and/or does. If after having done so you don't feel like this is your ball game then don't do it. Just go on to the next step on my list that you are comfortable with. If you want to do them ensure you have a good working knowledge (provided in great depth by Viper) before you do anything and as always folks, make backups. Neither I, nor Viper, nor any other contributors to this forum are responsible for what may or may not happen due to incorrect or incomplete tweaking of any piece of hardware. Part 4-Common Mistakes/Misconceptions
Per the author of GS himself as of early January 2010 on this page http://www.gearscoreaddon.com/commreduction.html. To make sure your addons are up to date visit www.curse.com/client and download the Curse Client which Automatically keeps your addons up to date. If you don't want to do that please manually update your addons on a regular basis and/or check for updates prior to GRIPING about issues that have usually already been fixed. Also DO NOT USE WoWMatrix. THIS PROGRAM ILLEGALLY SIPHONS BANDWIDTH FROM CURSE.COM AND WOWINTERFACE.COM It also illegally modifies the addons to remove author credentials and other bits of code usually breaking the addon in the process. On top of that it HAS been known to spread viruses rather easily..... ....Which brings me to my next item on the list 2.)
However, if you have Norton Antivirus, Symantec Antivirus, Norton/Symantec Products of ANY kind they can wreak havoc with your internet connection and I STRONGLY suggest you find a different vendor. Same goes for anyone using any sort of McAfee Products. It's nothing personal it is simply years & years of observing these programs cripple online gaming.
http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&s ******UPDATE*****10 c.) McAfee products MUST be uninstalled using the McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) Tool available from McAfee at : http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507 *****END OF UPDATE*****10/15/10 Uninstalling any other way CAN and WILL leave traces behind almost guaranteed to screw up your machine sometimes needing a full reformat of the Hard Drive to fix. In place of Norton/Symantec/McAfee there are MANY MANY FREE alternatives including (but not limited to): Panda Cloud Antivirus (Which I personally use) http://www.cloudantivirus.com AVAST Antivirus http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download ZoneAlarm Firewall http://www.zonelabs.com Microsoft Security Essentials (Again I also personally use this) http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (I have this on my machine but the first two programs usually catch everything so this is only run about once per month) http://www.malwarebytes.org/ Avira AntiVir Personal http://www.free-av.com/ For more security products and tips I strongly urge all readers to please peruse Talrenya's extensive post on Basic Security Guidlines accessible as a sticky in this forum and the following link: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2463084300
--edit-- Changed title, stickying ---EDIT--- 3/24/2010 Combined info from 3rd page of topic into original post -Jonsey aka Drunkinhik --EDIT & UPDATE--- 3/26/2010 Added more info to help with understanding, mostly responses from the 3rd-4th pages. -Jonsey aka Drunkinhik --EDIT & UPDATE--- 3/31/2010 Added more tips provided by other commenters. Keep the extra tips, tricks, and other things I mentioned rolling in in the extra comments. All I ask is that once I respond to your post as having added it that you delete it from wherever it is in the thread (to prevent redundancy) -Jonsey aka Drunkinhik --EDIT & UPDATE--- 6/13/2010 Changed port list to reflect new port usage as given by blizzard on page 5. -EDIT---- 7/15/10 Moved RealID update to bottom of post. --EDIT & UPDATE-- 10/13/10 Added "Run As Admin" tips to Part 1 --EDIT & UPDATE-- 10/16/10 Miscellaneous additions *****UPDATE 7/8/2010**** Due to recently announced changes in the Blizzard Battle.Net Forums http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&am http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041 I will NO LONGER BE UPDATING THIS THREAD AS OF JULY 27, 2010. I have no desire nor inclination to share my full legal name (as it is on my billing information) with the entire WoW Community. It has been an honor and a pleasure to assist so many fellow gamers but I will NOT jeopardize my personal safety by revealing my name for the sole purpose of assisting fellow gamers. Please read the linked threads and heed the warnings there. *****END OF UDPATE****** This post is now closed and moved to the new forums. Go to http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1020824261 for the new version [ Post edited by Drunkinhik ] |
by Datth | 13/06/2010 18:18:03 We changed World of Warcraft's port usage. Any of our older Battle.net ports and the current World of Warcraft and new Battle.net port is fair game, minus 6115-6119. 1119, 3724, 4000, 6112-6114 are fair game. [ Post edited by Datth ] Tech Support/Billing Long live Nom Nom Nom [NYI][NNF] https://www.surveymk.com/s/H2S6NPZÂ |
Recent Blizzard Announcements
