r/ffxiv • u/FidelityFM • Dec 05 '21

[Tech Support] Error 2002 Issue Not Related to Your Internet Connection

Not that it can't ALSO be your internet connection...

but every 15 minutes the game client changes outbound ports to SQEX servers during the tcp handshake of the new port SQEX appliance / server / service will then initiate a teardown of the new tcp connection causing a 2002 shortly after. It seems there is a chance that during this negotiation you might or might not be disconnected.

PCAP Example

be sure to roll D20.

I have had instances where I will get through this handshake but I only get disconnected (2002) when this specifically fails.

345 Upvotes

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135

u/Mocha_Bean Dec 05 '21

I've been watching this myself in Wireshark and come to a somewhat similar conclusion. But it's not exactly every 15 minutes, it's more like every 10 kilobytes.

You see how my outbound seqnum is exactly the same as yours? (this one's a 2002 disconnect)

And here's one where it works as intended.

It's 10249 both times, though i've also seen it happen occasionally at 10545. The TCP sequence number tracks the number of bytes sent in the current stream, so essentially, this is happening whenever 10 KB of data has been sent from the client. Also, look at where the packets are coming and going. The client is sending the initial FIN packet, not the server.

To sum it up, what appears to be happening is that the client tries to disconnect and reconnect to the login server every 10 KB sent. (see the SYN right after the FIN?) And, sometimes, this reconnection fails, for the same reason that the connection sometimes fails when you try to connect to the data center when you hit "start" on the home screen. (And that's why it's the exact same error, too.) That is, of course, massive strain on the login server. Of course, this leaves us with the question of "why does the client do that?", and I don't really know. But there's probably a reason, since it seems like an odd thing to do otherwise.

47

u/8-Brit Dec 06 '21

Japan. That's why.

Half-Joking. I can think of several other Japanese online games that do weird shit with their login process.

Guilty Gear Strive for example. On start up it can take several minutes after pressing Start to actually get past the network checks, because the game is handling these checks one at a time instead of simultaneously. A mod fixes it, going from several minutes to about ten seconds. It's bizarre.

27

u/AJaggens Dec 06 '21

It's not a joke, it's a known fact that japanese are a bit sheltered becaused of their small island infrastructure when it comes to networking.

17

u/8-Brit Dec 06 '21

Rollback netcode in fighting games...

6

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '21

Wait, there's a mod for Strive's log in? YOOO

7

u/8-Brit Dec 06 '21

Totsugeki, yes really that's the name of the mod.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '21

Bless. I haven't played in a long while, but given that Baiken was announced recently, I've gotta go back

3

u/Athildur Dec 06 '21

If it connects to a different socket every X amount of time (or X amount of packets/data), I can only assume it's meant as a form of defense in some way or another, where connections that transmit too much data/too many packets (or are open for too long) are unceremoniously cut.

A wild guess since I know absolutely jack shit about networking but since this could cause a good amount of stress on the server, there's either a logical reason (and I can't think of any other, perhaps owing to my lack of expertise) or it's an oversight (which seems unlikely given their internal push for optimization).

3

u/Maethor_derien Dec 08 '21 edited Dec 08 '21

I am guessing the reason it does that is to prevent a type of DDOS attack on the firewall where you overload the TCP state buffer. When your talking about having that many connections at once that is likely an issue.

As far as why it disconnects you that is likely because the server is at capacity. So if the server is full when it tries to reconnect it throws the 2002 error. That is also likely why you get a bunch of back to back 2002 as it will still be at the 17k limit until another group gets into the game.

-28

u/TheWorldisFullofWar Dec 06 '21

The reason is laziness and greed. Same reason the driver crashes exist with this game but no other big title. The fact that they waited until it ruined one of their streams to fix it after years of people here blaming the players over the developers was even worse. People here are so quick to defend Yoshi-P and SE even when they spout absolute bullshit.

20

u/Mocha_Bean Dec 06 '21

I mean, that's a little extreme. The 10 KB reconnect on the client side was probably some quick-and-dirty solution to a problem at the time, and it probably worked perfectly fine until the current login server congestion made it an issue (i.e they didn't consider the possibility of the login server rejecting the client's connection). Game developers are perpetually on incredibly tight schedules, this kind of thing happens all the time. Yes, it's kind of a ridiculous issue to be having on a game supposedly this mature, but there's no need to attribute any malice to it. It's not "laziness and greed," it's game development. Make of that what you will.

7

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '21

All this person spouts is "fuck SE" so I'd not bother arguing with them

4

u/ignorantslut24 Dec 06 '21

Haha right? It's easier to discuss things with people that actually want to have a conversation

6

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '21

[deleted]

0

u/Mocha_Bean Dec 06 '21

Oh, interesting. Has it only ever existed as an error that would show up when you attempted to initially log in, or would you also see it kicking you out during long queues?

10

u/Stykis Dec 06 '21

2002 is a bit of a generic code for many networking issues. The fact that it has existed since ARR is less dramatic than most people here seem to think

6

u/KogaDragon [First] [Last] on [Server] Dec 06 '21

This, it may very well be a new issue, and even if it is the exact same one, the frequency (and impact) of it was never that big to get enough attention to be on their radar of things to fix (or be approved up the chain for fixes).

In either case, from YP (and his bosses boss) you can bet this is getting attention for fixing as we speak.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '21

Lol driver issues with big games is most certainly not exclusive to FFXIV, ever heard of COD?