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Error 209 fix - some patch mirrors are not working properly

Saerydoth
Saerydoth
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Zenimax is doing load balancing across a bunch of IP addresses for patching. Several of these are not working properly, and are serving up corrupt data. (If you do a bunch of nslookups in a row for launcher.bethesda.net you can see them all.)

I do not know all the ones that are not working. However, I have confirmed that 54.243.115.56 is a good working patch server. Until they fix this, you can add an entry to your hosts file. In Windows this is in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Add a line that says this

54.243.115.56 launcher.bethesda.net

You can remove that entry once they resolve the issue and get all the patch servers working properly.
Edited by Saerydoth on April 16, 2014 9:16AM
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Update: the DNS actually doesn't HAVE to be 54.243.115.56 (there seem to be a few others in a rotation). It just CAN'T be 54.217.220.134. If it is 54.217.220.134 you will need a host entry until that changes.
  • Moon449
    Moon449
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    When i nslookup i don't get either of those, mine shows as 54.197.250.95.

    I only sometimes get the error when opening the launcher
    Edited by Moon449 on April 16, 2014 9:04AM
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    It appears they did some DNS changes, and old servers are still resolving for some people. This should clear up as ISP's update. Or you can force it with the hosts entry.
  • Rhoric
    Rhoric
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    When I did a nslookup. I did a search for any and these are all the ones I found for launcher.bethesda.net.

    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.197.248.206
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.197.250.95
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.217.220.128
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.217.220.134
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.217.220.144
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.217.220.147
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.217.220.152
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 54.243.115.56
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 174.129.248.207
    Name: launcher.bethesda.net
    Address: 174.129.249.106
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Well...54.243.115.56 is definitely working properly so I'd just say add a hosts entry for that one until this blows over. Maybe it's on their end after all. Perhaps not all of the launcher mirror servers have updated?
    Edited by Saerydoth on April 16, 2014 9:08AM
  • wrlifeboil
    wrlifeboil
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    What happened was, they changed the IP address for launcher.bethesda.net (the place where the launcher looks for updates). BUT, due to the way DNS works, the change hasn't propogated to most of our ISP's yet (this can take several days). So it's still looking on the "old" server for patches, hence the error.

    If you do an nslookup for launcher.bethesda.net, it SHOULD come up with 54.243.115.56. But for those of you that are having the issue, it will show 54.217.220.134.

    If you don't want to wait for your ISP's DNS to update, you can add an entry to your hosts file. In Windows this is in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Add a line that says this

    54.243.115.56 launcher.bethesda.net

    Just don't forget to remove that once the DNS does actually update. You can use nslookup from time to time to check (nslookup queries the DNS server directly and does not use the hosts file).

    I use 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 so you're saying it was slow to propagate to Google's public dns?
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    They are load balancing launcher.bethesda.net across multiple IP addresses.

    Which is fine.

    The problem is some of the IP addresses aren't serving the latest patch data. Try it yourself - point at some of the IPs.

    That is squarely ZOS/Bethesda's fault.
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    They are load balancing launcher.bethesda.net across multiple IP addresses.

    Which is fine.

    The problem is some of the IP addresses aren't serving the latest patch data. Try it yourself - point at some of the IPs.

    That is squarely ZOS/Bethesda's fault.

    That's what some of my further tests have shown. However, I can say without a doubt, that 54.243.115.56 is working 100% properly. So a host entry for that will definitely still fix the issue, until they clean up their mirrors.
  • Moon449
    Moon449
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    wrlifeboil wrote: »
    Saerydoth wrote: »
    What happened was, they changed the IP address for launcher.bethesda.net (the place where the launcher looks for updates). BUT, due to the way DNS works, the change hasn't propogated to most of our ISP's yet (this can take several days). So it's still looking on the "old" server for patches, hence the error.

    If you do an nslookup for launcher.bethesda.net, it SHOULD come up with 54.243.115.56. But for those of you that are having the issue, it will show 54.217.220.134.

    If you don't want to wait for your ISP's DNS to update, you can add an entry to your hosts file. In Windows this is in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Add a line that says this

    54.243.115.56 launcher.bethesda.net

    Just don't forget to remove that once the DNS does actually update. You can use nslookup from time to time to check (nslookup queries the DNS server directly and does not use the hosts file).

    I use 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 so you're saying it was slow to propagate to Google's public dns?

    Any dns server takes time to update, i'm also using google's public dns
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    They are load balancing launcher.bethesda.net across multiple IP addresses.

    Which is fine.

    The problem is some of the IP addresses aren't serving the latest patch data. Try it yourself - point at some of the IPs.

    That is squarely ZOS/Bethesda's fault.

    That's what some of my further tests have shown. However, I can say without a doubt, that 54.243.115.56 is working 100% properly. So a host entry for that will definitely still fix the issue, until they clean up their mirrors.

    Could you edit the topic title to reflect? It's a day later and Zenimax support still think the problem isn't their end.

  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    They are load balancing launcher.bethesda.net across multiple IP addresses.

    Which is fine.

    The problem is some of the IP addresses aren't serving the latest patch data. Try it yourself - point at some of the IPs.

    That is squarely ZOS/Bethesda's fault.

    That's what some of my further tests have shown. However, I can say without a doubt, that 54.243.115.56 is working 100% properly. So a host entry for that will definitely still fix the issue, until they clean up their mirrors.

    Could you edit the topic title to reflect? It's a day later and Zenimax support still think the problem isn't their end.

    Just did.
  • Rhoric
    Rhoric
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    According to the response to my ticket, they do know.
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    Cheers. The latest is they are now aware.

    It's amazing, though. Zenimax Online Studios have some serious issues. This one has just been left overnight unfixed.
  • Noskraldir
    I did a search on Error 209 in the Support page and it said if you couldn't "Repair" it, which I couldn't, to uninstall from the launcher and reinstall it (again from the launcher), which I'm currently in the process of doing.

    Does what OP said mean that, when it's finished reinstalling, that it won't work anyway, and that I'll have to wait until the fix 'comes down the pipe'?
  • Rhoric
    Rhoric
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    What the OP is saying is if the reinstall doesn't work and you still get the error 209 is to do this fix and the error should go away and that you should be able to get the patch to work.
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Noskraldir wrote: »
    I did a search on Error 209 in the Support page and it said if you couldn't "Repair" it, which I couldn't, to uninstall from the launcher and reinstall it (again from the launcher), which I'm currently in the process of doing.

    Does what OP said mean that, when it's finished reinstalling, that it won't work anyway, and that I'll have to wait until the fix 'comes down the pipe'?

    You don't have to reinstall it. But if you've already started the process, let it finish.

    Then after it finishes, add the host entry and you'll be good (no error) until they fix the servers.
  • Darzil
    Darzil
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    Rhoric wrote: »
    What the OP is saying is if the reinstall doesn't work and you still get the error 209 is to do this fix and the error should go away and that you should be able to get the patch to work.

    It depends what the cause is. Most of us who've had patches working fine before, but not now, and who after patching get the 209 error seem to be able to get it working with pointing at a working patch server or getting lucky.

    If you get a 209 error when all patch servers are working the fix would be different.
  • Kanedo
    Kanedo
    Cheers. The latest is they are now aware.

    It's amazing, though. Zenimax Online Studios have some serious issues. This one has just been left overnight unfixed.

    Aware?? i posted right on this very forum 10mins after patch went up that their patch servers were not all online... 12 hours later they acknowledge this? are the *** serious?
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    Note that if you change the hosts file to get in, if Bethesda/Zenimax make further network changes it will break your game until you reverse the hosts file change. Support won't know what a host file is.
  • Tarrax
    Tarrax
    Soul Shriven
    Confirmed. This fix works just fine. Thank you.
  • Rhoric
    Rhoric
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    I had a working game up until this issue cropped up yesterday. I am in the process of doing a second download of the game today as the first got a corrupt file. Prior to early access I had a fresh install of the game and didn't patch up the beta client to live. This issue was the very first problem I had with the game as I never encountered a single bug in game.
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    I've raised it as a critical bug here: https://code.google.com/p/esobugtracker/issues/detail?id=16
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Note that if you change the hosts file to get in, if Bethesda/Zenimax make further network changes it will break your game until you reverse the hosts file change. Support won't know what a host file is.

    Yes, that's why I said that people that do this will need to immediately undo the host file change, once Zenimax fixes the patch servers.
  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Wait, Zenimax has a publicly available bug tracker? EDIT: Nevermind, just saw that it is "unofficial". Still, not a bad idea.
    Edited by Saerydoth on April 16, 2014 9:29AM
  • wrlifeboil
    wrlifeboil
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    Well...54.243.115.56 is definitely working properly so I'd just say add a hosts entry for that one until this blows over. Maybe it's on their end after all. Perhaps not all of the launcher mirror servers have updated?

    Interesting that Google's and Opendns's servers point to the defective mirrors but my isp's dns points to one that actually works (54.243.115.56). Honestly surprised.
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    Wrlifeboil, because they have multiple entries you will get a different IP randomly. It's called DNS load balancing.
  • wrlifeboil
    wrlifeboil
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    Wrlifeboil, because they have multiple entries you will get a different IP randomly. It's called DNS load balancing.

    So it's basically hit-or-miss?
  • GossiTheDog
    GossiTheDog
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    Exactly.
  • elderscrollsb16_ESO109
    This is how round-robin DNS works.

    I wonder, however, if the issue is not related to network rather than at the servers themselves.

    I.E. The servers may work well but clients are not able to reach them due to some routing errors / filtering made in some ISP networks.

    I know for sure for example that in France, many people with a specific modem from the same operator have troubles.
  • jediokie
    jediokie
    Thanks for the tip, worked great.
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