Random disconnects to login screen - possible solution found

mfcostacampos · January 2020

Hi everyone

I was having a very frustrating time with ESO kicking me to the login screen every 30 minutes.
The game would become unresponsive, allowing me to do nothing but move around, eventually kicking me to the login screen a few seconds later.

After a gruelling experience trying to get help from support - and doing everything from port forwarding, port triggering, firewall permissions... (list goes on) - nothing worked.
I actually asked Steam for a refund because of how frustrated I was with the game, but didn't get one because of excessive play time (Steam counts the time the launcher is open and downloading the game as playtime...

).
So, I decided to try to fix the issues again...

I'm playing in the UK and I have Virgin Media broadband.
After quite a bit of searching, I realised that Virgin Media customers suffer a lot with this specific kind of disconnect on ESO (not any other MMOs as far as I saw) - the problem seems to be related to the router Virgin Media give their customers as part of their internet service.
So, with this in mind, I tried to buy a new router, set the Virgin Media one to modem mode and use the new router for WiFi.
Since I did this I haven't had one single disconnect to login screen.

The above seems to be the solution to the problem. However, even though your ISPs might also be giving you *** routers, I would still argue Zenimax needs to work on this as well. I play a lot of MMOs and ESO is the only one I had this problem with, so it can't all be on the ISP's side.

I hope this helps other players as well as the Zenimax team in fixing the issue.

I'll edit this post if I start disconnecting again.

Thanks

DBZVelena · January 2020

Interesting, might be useful to know for other players of ESO who also have that Virgin crap.

mfcostacampos · January 2020

DBZVelena wrote: »

Interesting, might be useful to know for other players of ESO who also have that Virgin crap.

Yep. It seems to be a global issue though, as people from a number of different countries experience it. Their ISPs probably all use the same or similar routers though.

Nestor · January 2020

I would always suspect an ISP provided router when troubleshooting a connection problem.

I also would never try to game on WIFI. Your signal may be good today, but if you get issues in the future, try wired to see if goes away. Someone may have installed a new Wireless Router that is stepping on your router.

ChunkyCat · January 2020

Try not logging in. Can’t disconnect if you’re not connected.

randomkeyhits · January 2020

A lot of the problems with the Virgin Home Hub are down to their really poor software but the hardware is also problematic as well. Runs the Puma 6 chipset which has a well recorded history of being seriously pants.

I put mine into modem mode on day 1. Its mostly fine but occasionally it well..... spasms...... it drops/raises then rinse&repeat the ethernet connection to my server, sometimes for up to half an hour. Looks to be a layer 2 issue with the damned thing and not something I can resolve myself

mfcostacampos · January 2020

Nestor wrote: »

I would always suspect an ISP provided router when troubleshooting a connection problem.

I also would never try to game on WIFI. Your signal may be good today, but if you get issues in the future, try wired to see if goes away. Someone may have installed a new Wireless Router that is stepping on your router.

Never have any WIFI issues to be honest - only issue I ever had was with ESO and that's now gone with the new router.

Tandor · January 2020

I'm also in the UK with VM, and have had their Hub 3 for coming up to 2 years without any significant issues. I have always had it set to modem mode and connected to my two desktops via a Linksys router. I know that a more modern router (and newer cables) would maximise my speed but that has never been an issue for me. I never use WiFi for any device and certainly wouldn't consider it for gaming.

The only problems I get with the Hub 3 are very occasional disconnects/reconnects of the signal without any change in the light on the Hub and usually without any change in the internet icon on my taskbar. Although the reconnection is pretty much instant it's enough of a signal break to kick me from any game while being barely noticeable if only browsing. That said, it's not happened more than a handful of times in almost 2 years.

nafensoriel · January 2020

mfcostacampos wrote: »

Hi everyone

I was having a very frustrating time with ESO kicking me to the login screen every 30 minutes.
The game would become unresponsive, allowing me to do nothing but move around, eventually kicking me to the login screen a few seconds later.

After a gruelling experience trying to get help from support - and doing everything from port forwarding, port triggering, firewall permissions... (list goes on) - nothing worked.
I actually asked Steam for a refund because of how frustrated I was with the game, but didn't get one because of excessive play time (Steam counts the time the launcher is open and downloading the game as playtime... ).
So, I decided to try to fix the issues again...

I'm playing in the UK and I have Virgin Media broadband.
After quite a bit of searching, I realised that Virgin Media customers suffer a lot with this specific kind of disconnect on ESO (not any other MMOs as far as I saw) - the problem seems to be related to the router Virgin Media give their customers as part of their internet service.
So, with this in mind, I tried to buy a new router, set the Virgin Media one to modem mode and use the new router for WiFi.
Since I did this I haven't had one single disconnect to login screen.

The above seems to be the solution to the problem. However, even though your ISPs might also be giving you *** routers, I would still argue Zenimax needs to work on this as well. I play a lot of MMOs and ESO is the only one I had this problem with, so it can't all be on the ISP's side.

I hope this helps other players as well as the Zenimax team in fixing the issue.

I'll edit this post if I start disconnecting again.

Thanks

The free "router"(modem) you get with any ISP is generally hot garbage set up in a manner that makes it easier for the ISP and not always good for the end-user.

The issue is many ISPs will not authorize a privately purchased modem on their network and setting a POS to bridge doesn't actually remove the terrible completely from a home network.

If you want a quick gander down Hillarious lane look up the "puma6" issue and realize that most of North America had to deal with this crap for almost two years before replacement modems no longer had the problem.

Dusk_Coven · January 2020

mfcostacampos wrote: »

I play a lot of MMOs and ESO is the only one I had this problem with, so it can't all be on the ISP's side.

^ This.
I had a huge problem with disconnects last year. We're talking 10-20 in ONE HOUR. No problem with any other game or internet service.
Then suddenly, it disappeared. No hardware changes. ISP said they didn't touch anything at their end. We were still investigating it with ping reports and my ISP even had me install software to capture data.

My guess is ZOS is fooling around with things at their end and doesn't want to say one way or the other.