FFXIV Beta BT Download Killing Your PC?

While I'm not in the beta [jerks...] some friends are, and someone [let's call him 'Wyuli'] mentioned that the BitTorrent download was killing his computer. This sounded familiar, so I confirmed he was on XP and wrote up a little thing on the problem and how to alleviate the effects.

This is due to some crappy TCP/IP defaults in WinXP [I haven't run into a similar issue in Vista since they redid networking] that make your computer keep track of way more dead connection sockets than it needs to.

- open up regedit
- go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
- see if a key named 'TcpTimedWaitDelay' exists [it is not necessarily created by default]
- if it is not there create a new DWORD value with the above name and set it to 30 [decimal]
- if it ~is~ there just change it to 30.
- reboot
- ???
- PROFIT!

This option controls how long a connection sits in the TIME_WAIT state where either you or the other machine has closed the connection, but it stays in the TIME_WAIT state for the above number of seconds. While it is in TIME_WAIT the connection to that particular machine can be re-used a teensy bit faster than starting it from scratch, but the socket it occupies cannot be re-used until the TcpTimedWaitDelay expires.

By default in XP this is 2 minutes, which is a long *** time for something like BitTorrent that creates a squillion connections that might not last more than a few seconds each. This is especially apparent in large, active BT swarms. [ie. a few thousand people downloading a beta client] Setting the timeout to 30 seconds frees up the connections much faster in exchange for a performance hit that is somewhere between 'none' and 'imperceptible'. :P

Also delete system32

anyone interested in shareing thier alpha account Im I have a star scraft II beta account I want to share in return for some play

lol

You realize that we have to use our security token in order to log on to Alpha?

They've also announce that in Alpha we'll only be able to play for 4 hours, 3 days per week.

Actually you didn't have to have a security token to get into the first few waves, at least both the people I know who got in never got the token.

I realize the playtime is short which is why some people would be unable toplay and have a account go unsued and I am just seeing that it won't happen since I have more than enough free time in the next 2 weeks with no work :)

Hoping that this is seeeeriously a bad joke e_e. You're asking a lot for someone to just hand over their Square Enix account details.

Even for those who dont have to use security token, they have to use their SE account or content ID. Who in their right mind would give that info away to some random person? Not only can you get kicked out of Alpha/beta for doing that, but what are they chances of getting "hacked" when you willingly give your FFXI(V) info to someone?

LOL @ asking someone to give you their SE Account info.

and you don't think SE is going to log the IPs of people who log in?

I dont think they will check your IP tbh, since lots of ISP's are using dynamic IP adresses

LOL WUT HAx0RZ OMG TEH SECURITY TOKEN OMGOMG

brb mailing my security token to you <.<

Want my bank account nr with that as well? social security nr?

KAY dur give me a sec to setup IPHAXORZ...I kid

lulz derailed thread is derailed.

LOL are you serious?! I haven't been keeping up since i know that agreement where you aren't allowed to talk/say anything about the beta (lol).

4 hours for 3 days a week? seriously?

There's very likely, it's an alpha build undergoing extensive modification and testing still on the Developer end. How many other games do you know would release the Alpha build to anyone outside of the company?

Just so you know, absolutely nothing you do in the alpha will count towards the beta or commercial release, the game may not even be the same by then, this is simply TESTING. If you're looking for a "Head start" even by knowing the mechanics (Which can change drastically as well) you're going to be incredibly disappointed.

Edit: they may give some promotional item to Alpha-Beta testers commercial release characters, but beyond that, no progression will be imported.

Yeah. I just spent my first 4 hours in alpha. server goes down in 15 minutes now.