EVE General Discussion

Right,

So ever since the last patch was released, I'm occasionally getting the "Error socket closed" dialog. For some reason it seems to appear twice in the same client.

If i'm running multiple clients at the same time, they both get the error.

I've been searching the forum and by the looks of it many more are affected by this. CCP, what is the deal? Is it a known issue which is going to be fixed?

I Seriously the doubt the statement "it is ISP related" when SO many are affected, and it is only occurring (at least in my case) since the last big batch.

I'm playing EVE for several years now, and have always had the same ISP. There is nothing wrong with my network.

Things I've tried:

- Keeping a bittorrent file on "paused";
- Connecting to EVE over a different port;
- Reset my switches/router;

What I noticed during ping -t is that sometimes a timeout occurs, I'm not yet able to determine whether or not it occurs at the same time as the Socket Closed error.

I Also have the feeling, but I'm not 100% sure on that either that it is influenced by viewing some movies etc on your other monitor. I've seen some _ackward_ errors occurring with EVE on my previous machine, where my entire Windows environment simply hung while viewing a Youtube video and by opening the Map (F10). I would not be surprised if something similar occurs now as well.

Considering the amount of people affected by this, can we get some statement from a GM / ISD ? Really, we pay for this game so it should work properly.

Thanks.

You missed the part in the EULA where you agree to accept the software as is right?

....or something like that.

CCP is in denial mode, and this problem that started affecting many players since quite a few patches ago is being blamed on our local ISPs despite the fact we probably live on different continents. So blame your local ISP, until in a couple years some dev reviews the code/network and goes "oops" and fixes it.

It's been there since the dawn of time, because it's a generic error message for connection hickups. Usually it affect a minor part of the playerbase disportionately, which suggest the cause has something to do with them and their connection. In most cases it's simply something CCP can do nothing about.

ISP's do packetshaping. Packetshaping is a system where a network device looks "into" a data packet, assigns it a priority based on a specific ruleset, then delivers said packet upstream depending on it's importance rank. Real-time things like VOIP, streaming video/audio, stuff like that gets a higher priority than, say, delivering HTML for webpages.

EVE is sensitive to lost/delayed packets. If Retri changed packet contents enough to confuse packetshaping software, then there you go. Realtime required datastrem getting classed into "bulk" and delayed will cause socket errors.

The only way to fix it would be to have your ISP examine it's packetshape system and reconfigure as needed. The amusing fun will be, seeing how many layers of customer service you have to dig through before someone even understands what you are talking about.

You say you unsubbed, and yet you still have a forum account which can post... hmm.

Really it hasn't got anything to do with blaming.

For me, it started occurring since that last patch. I've been in this game for 5 years now and have always had the same ISP. Never had this problem until the last patch landed.

Mostl ikely your bittorrent program. Don't run it at all and see if it helps.

This problem has been happening for years. As more than one person has stated, it almost always ends up being an issue with the local network infrastructure and/or your ISP. A good 2 dozen of my friends have suffered the socket closed error intermittently since last October. Every one of them lives here in the UK, and every one of them uses Virgin Media as an ISP. Dozens of other friends in different countries, and dozens more in this one with different ISP's suffered no issues.

But of course rather than accept it might be the ISP, people still seem to want to blame CCP. Given the above that seems rather unlikely wouldn't you agree? It is much more likely that your ISP needs to relabel EVE traffic as not being P2P, which is quite likely what they have done, and thus as someone else pointed out, they will shape that traffic in such a way as to cause the now famous "Socket Closed" error.

So do yourself a favour; ring your ISP, ask to speak to an admin and tell them to make sure that EVE Online data traffic is not being incorrectly flagged. You are a paying customer, that is your right, I suggest you use it

It's been going on for ages.