Category: Tech

Sometimes when I play I wont be able to talk or interact with NPC characters but it appears that the other players around me are still connected as they move around. If I walk around some more, no other players will load and I eventually get a message that I have been disconnected.

The first time I logged on with my new pc it would happen all the time, though a few nights ago I was able to stay connected the entire time I was on (a few hours). Though today I was disconnected a few minutes into the game twice.

What I have tried:
1. Turning my software firewall off.

2. These steps here:
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww01686p3
(though I have set them back to their origional settings after those steps didnt work)

3. Forwarding TCP port 3724 to my pc on my linksys router (though I never had to do this with my other pc, I decided to give it a try) (this is still on)

4. Testing your Connection and Performing a Trace Route. It gets to:
14 80 ms 82 ms 81 ms mdf1-bi8k-1-eth-2-4.lax1.attens.net [12.129.192.62]
before a timeout.

Specific PC SPECS:
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 AMD Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
BFG Tech Geforce 7800GT OC 256MB 256-bitPCI Express x16
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3160812AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

If you are having trouble with high latency or simply staying connected to the World of Warcraft game servers, the steps below are good for troubleshooting this. You may have already tried some of these steps, but please confirm you have tried them all since they will usually address common connection-related issues.

Step 1. Configure your Firewall and/or Router

Firewalls and routers are designed specifically to control your computer’s incoming and outgoing connections. You may need to set up these security features to allow access to the game servers. If these are not set up correctly, the firewall or router may prevent you from connecting to World of Warcraft.

Please see this page for port information and advice on setting up your firewall/router for World of Warcraft:
(“http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww0790p”)

Step 2. Third party program conflicts.

Some third party programs can interfere with your connection. Programs such as Xfire, Teamspeak, and Port Magic have been reported as causing some issues. Please try closing all background applications as explained on our support site: (“http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=agi0558p”)

Step 3. Network card issues.

There are several drivers that, if out-of-date, could cause issues for broadband users. If you need more help in locating drivers for your hardware or finding the settings listed, please contact the hardware manufacturer or a qualified technician.

* If you access the internet through an external broadband modem, be sure you have the latest firmware and drivers available for your modem.
* If your computer connects to the modem via USB, be sure you have the latest drivers for your motherboard or your USB PCI card.
* If your computer connects to the modem via Ethernet, be sure that your network card has the latest drivers installed.
* Some network cards also have settings that when changed have corrected these types of issues. First, you need to navigate to your network card properties.

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Control Panel.
3. Double click on the System icon (in Windows XP, you may need to click ‘Switch to Classic View’ on the left hand side of the screen).
4. Select the Hardware tab.
5. Click on Device Manager.
6. Expand the section labeled Network Adapters.
7. Right click on your network card and select properties.

* If you have a Power Management tab in your network card properties, click it and unselect the “allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” if selected.
* On the Advanced tab, You can also try changing the Speed/Duplex to Force 100 Full Duplex. This has shown to fix these types of issues as well. To do this, go into your computer properties, and then into your device manager. Locate your network card, and go into the properties for it. click on the advanced tab, and you should see a list of items. One of them should be Speed/duplex settings. Change this to Force base 100 Full duplex. If you have an older router or hub you may need to use base 10 full duplex.
* You may also have a Checksum Offload property on the Advanced tab, if so you can try choosing to disable that option.

Step 4. Testing your Connection and Performing a Trace Route

Running a Trace Route will track each step of your internet connection to World of Warcraft, and can help identify if and where connection problems may be occurring. Please see this page for instructions on doing a Trace Route test:
(“http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww0827p5”)

If none of these steps helped, please let us know exactly what error message you are seeing, and where in the connection process it occurs.

If you email our support team, please attach the tracert.txt file from step 4, or have it handy if you call in. In addition, please attach the “connection.log” file, which you will find in the “Logs” folder within your World of Warcraft install directory. These files can often allow us to identify the source of the problem.

Regards,

James K.
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.blizzard.com/support