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Author Topic: Sims disconnect my internet  (Read 3122 times)
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Wednesday17
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« on: October 07, 2007, 12:25:30 pm »

Since Seasons my pc goes offline when I start the game (by default I am online the moment I turn on the pc). So I can't do anything in the background like downloading or looking something up when a problem with the game comes up.

I tried to search for the problem cos I doubt that I'm the only one experiencing this, but I couldn't find anything about this annoyance. Or I am too stupid to use the search.
Is this a known problem and is there a solution for it?
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Charley
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« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2007, 02:08:02 pm »

Personally i would play without being connected to the internet cos it slows the game down otherwise if you are still connected

As for your problem i don't have answer

Char
xxx
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Wednesday17
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« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2007, 03:09:42 pm »

Well, when I want to look up something, I alt-tab out of the game anyway, so it can't possibly slow down gameplay. Also, my pc can handle it and as I said, I am online all the time, I'd have to physically pull a plug to disconnect. [sarcasm start] Or start Sims.  Thank's for a feature I didn't ask for. [sarcasm end]
So thanks for your contribution, but the answer didn't have anything to do with the question. Wink
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LuckyKitten
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« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2007, 06:34:32 pm »

when sims is running, what other processes are running?  maybe something else that kicks on to help with the sims is kicking off the internet, like a program with the videocard or soundcard or something, i dont know.  just something to check out next time you are playing and alt/tab to no connection.  i love how useful notepad can be for writting down all that stuff and saving it like a log so you can share it with others.  make a before and after log of whats running.  see what changes, if anything, other than the sims being on.
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Wednesday17
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« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2007, 08:45:04 pm »

Hm... I didn't notice any changes in the processes for my user - I check every once in a while because there's always some to better kill off that are not useful at the time, but hog memory or cpu.

Also I believe I had many different settings over time and there's been not one where the game AND the internet would work together. Since Seasons, that is. Since this occured first, I built a new pc, so video and audio are different hardware than before. But I'll be sure to take a very close look at the task manager the next time I start the Sims. Thanks for the tip - although, lazy that I am, I prefer to make quick screenshots instead of writing it all down. Cheesy
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BeosBoxBoy
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« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2007, 12:31:06 am »

Wednesday, something you have installed, perhaps even the WIndows Fire-wall is interfering with your internet connectivity.  There are any number of "security" sorts of software available on the market, and any one of them may interfere with internet connection while it is running if you have them installed.  Also, if you connect to the Internet via a dial-up or certain broadband connections that use a special dialing software or rely on virtual private networking then you might also expect issues.

If you have installed Bon Voyage expansion pack, then you can count yourself among the 10s of 1000s of other players "enjoying" this sort of problem.  There is a raging mob of dissatisfied and angry customers just begging for a chance to use a baseball bat on the management at EA.

As for you thinking that alt-tab'ing in and out of the game doesn't result in performance woes, all I can guess is that your game's performance must be pretty miserable to begin with.  Switching in and out of the DirectX control of the hardware will always result in some degree of performance fall-off and it is strongly recommended by EA that if you have the need to do this sort of thing, that you should use windowed mode.
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"There is a certain elegance in wasting time. Any fool can waste money, but when you waste time you waste what is priceless."
-- Maugham, W. Somerset. Ashenden: Or the British Agent.
Wednesday17
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« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2007, 06:11:08 am »

Hi beosboxboy, thanks for further input.
Okay, my internet connection is called DSL, which is basically an open line, the modem only needs to reconnect once or twice a month, IF the company did some maintenance. I don't use the Windows firewall cos I am safe enough with the hardware firewall on the cisco router.

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If you have installed Bon Voyage expansion pack, then you can count yourself among the 10s of 1000s of other players "enjoying" this sort of problem. There is a raging mob of dissatisfied and angry customers just begging for a chance to use a baseball bat on the management at EA.


Lol. Yeah, you're right. They really lost it now. The Sims is the most sold and least copied game there is and yet they think it might be cool to do what all the other kids, um, companies do and spoil it for the honest customers. Ah well...
And I really wouldn't be surprised if that problem would've manifested after Bon Voyage, what with that stupid launcher. But it was there before. Very strange.

Quote
As for you thinking that alt-tab'ing in and out of the game doesn't result in performance woes, all I can guess is that your game's performance must be pretty miserable to begin with. Switching in and out of the DirectX control of the hardware will always result in some degree of performance fall-off and it is strongly recommended by EA that if you have the need to do this sort of thing, that you should use windowed mode.


I meant, when I am currently on the desktop, I can't have a bad performance in game, because I am not playing and wouldn't know. I didn't notice performance fall-off yet and it isn't miserable. I upgraded for seasons, now have a dual core cpu, two gigs of ram and a ATI X1950, that should suffice for now. But you're right of course about the windowed mode. I guess I just didn't think of modifying my link since the new version (BV) and am too comfortable with edge scrolling, which doesn't work in window. But of course it is easier to switch between tasks. And I did run Seasons windowed, but the connection problem was there. Sad

I really wonder why I seem to be the only one to experience that problem, at least since Seasons. Did that phone home, too? Then maybe it tried to keep a line open, so to speak, and the router would inhibit that for as long as the game would be open... mh... got to take a close look at those logs, I suppose. And I've yet to do the logging LuckyKitten suggested, so I'll first do that and then squint at the cisco logs and report back then.
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Wednesday17
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« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2007, 04:08:12 pm »

Gaaaaahhhh!
I really hate that ATI $&%!!
After I took a break from trying to start playing the game again (after a long break), I am trying again. But it's getting only worse.

I intended to heed beosboxboy's advice and start the sims windowed. Not that it would make any difference to the disconnecting problem. But now I can't even use the windowed mode anymore, because the window doesn't seem to use the GPU/driver. You know, like when you've erased an old driver to update to a new one.
The catalyst control center is really of no use, I can't change any settings for overlay/3D that would make ANY sense.
Doesn't anyone want to swap my X1950XT for a proper GeForce card? Something in the 8800's maybe? Wink

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

On the other matter, I still didn't find any cause, let alone a solution. The Taskmanager didn't reveal anything and the stupid game keeps disconnecting me. Sorry, I say stupid game, because it is NOT supposed to do that. I can't have that. I need to be able to look up stuff. Because the game very often makes me want to look up things. And I need to be able to download files without exiting the game every time. That only leads to never starting the game again in the end. Bravo, Maxis!

More ideas, anyone? Sad
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BeosBoxBoy
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« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2007, 12:44:00 am »

Historically speaking, the chaps at ATI have been rather handy with a soldering iron, but been a proper menace to society when it comes to writing drivers for their hardware.  This is a characterisation that could be extended to many hardware vendors.  The vast majority of issues people experienced with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME were a result of poorly coded and conflicting drivers.  ATI just happens to be in the top 10% of offenders here.

Last year, when AMD decided they needed to have a division developing GPUs in order to remain competitive with Intel, they bought ATI for US $5.4 billions - the largest debt ever shouldered by a company of this type.  The long-term fall out is that in order to keep the company solvent while paying off that debt is ATI has to be "cash efficient" -- read as cut every corner possible.  What lays under ths goes far deeper than simply acquiring a GPU manufacturing division.  ATI holds technology patents for a number of technologies that generated a lot of capital through licensures from Intel, but Intel had already started making care measured steps to move away from licensure of these technologies and developing its own competitive technologies.  It's really all tedious boardroom stuff that is largely meaningless to the end user; the only part that matters to us as end users is the fact that ATI quality control, support, and driver development are being done as cheaply as possible, ergo turning to complete crap.

The up-shot is this: Nvidia is setting pretty on the side lines of this gargantuan struggle between Intel and AMD, they simply need to continue doing things as they always have to look good.

Nvidia has a very cordial relationship with software developers and operating system developers, being one of the first to make LINUX platform drivers avalable for its hardware.  Nvidia also plays the technology game conservatively relying on stable reliable drivers and technology to build its reputation.  Yes - there have been issues as we see the PC market switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista, but, in all honesty, far fewer than we saw during the switch from Wndows 98 to Windows XP.

Don't misunderstand me, I have a high regard for both ATI and Nvidia hardware, it is in the region of drivers that I lose faith in ATI; and with the buy-out by AMD in the mix, it looks to me that ATI will be in danger of losing the game-market advantage it historically enjoyed after the bankruptcy of 3DFX and other video card makers of yore.

returning to your woes, I have not been able to get much information from the Cisco techs here at university, they seem to think that if it is related to the Cisco router, then it may be that the game or some related software (e.g., SecuROM) may be ramping the NIC data speed to 100Mbps, a speed that causes many Cisco routers to fail even though they are spec'ed for this speed.  The techs here suggested manually setting your NIC speed to 10Mbps full-duplex (this should not adversely effect your Internet speeds, but may slow down the speed of intra-net data transfers on your home network).

The only thing they offer here is that if it is the game somehow affecting the network, then it may be that the game or SecuROM is using an unknown protocol, irregular method, or performing an illegal operation that temporarily log-jams the NIC interface.  The full Old High Geekish answer I got from them would likely melt your bran in to something unservicable, I am used to such answers and it nearly did me.
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"There is a certain elegance in wasting time. Any fool can waste money, but when you waste time you waste what is priceless."
-- Maugham, W. Somerset. Ashenden: Or the British Agent.
Wednesday17
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« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2007, 07:32:51 am »

Thanks again, Beosboxboy.
Did Seasons already have SecuROM, or BV? On the package it only says it is copyright protected, but it doesn't say how. I really think there should be a law that they HAVE to state which protection they use. Of course they don't, or else many people wouldn't buy their corrupted products anymore. I have a couple of games with StarForce. I really don't want to have that on my computer. So I use illegal copies to play games I legally own, that's really sad.

For the router theory: wouldn't it affect ALL computers behind that router? My flat mate's computer stays connected just fine, it's only my pc. Or does it only affect the one ip in the network that sends it's requests?
Sigh, I'm gonna have to talk to my flat mate. The cisco is his baby. The nice baby that prevents my ip phone to receive calls, because it's protocols are not compatible with our provider's.

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..ATI has to be "cash efficient" -- read as cut every corner possible.


So true! What's left of support is one AMD phone line. English only. For the whole world. I am not a native speaker and it would be a lot easier for me to describe the nature of the graphics corruptions I experience in my own language. Now I am very unhappy with my (quite expensive) GPU and have no means at all to solve this problem. Well, I guess I'm not the only one who will vow to never again buy an ATI card. Did you ever compare the look of bumpmaps on sims clothes on ATI and GeForce? What looked really nice when I made it while using a GeForce, looks totally hideous with the Radeon...

And just the other week they made a big thing of their new driver. So much faster, so much better, blah. It made not only my 3D applications, but my whole system slow down graphically and I had to fall back to the older driver (yes, I thoroughly clean my system of possible remnants of the driver before installing a new one).

What I really don't get, is why a windowed sims game doesn't use the driver. And I can't find any setting in that monster of CCC that might change that. I played Seasons in a window for a while and I think I already had that ATI card, so this may be a BV problem. Maybe I should ask EA about that.

I tell ya, if it weren't for the great custom content from InSim and MTS2 (including the adult sites *g*), I would've quit playing sims long ago. EA/Maxis should be more aware of the fact how important that is to the success of the sims. Instead of throwing bigger stones in the path of the creators with every new EP. Pardon my ranting. Cheesy
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Wednesday17
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« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2007, 07:54:28 am »

I was feeling kind of adventurous today and started bodyshop to have a look at the new pleasantries I read about. And yes, it is crap and what were they thinking when they removed the delete cc function?!?!?!? Are they totally out of their minds? Are they now trying to keep people from buying new EP's? Are they sick of The Sims 2 and want to go on to The Sims 3 that badly or what?

Sorry, that was not what I wanted to say. I wanted to say: Bodyshop does it too! It also kills my connection. But I don't even know what I would tell the support: when I trace my connection, it looks as though it is perfectly fine. But it isn't just the dns server. I had that problem a few times in the past: websites wouldn't work, but downloads in progress wouldn't be affected. That I could cure by simply rebooting my confused modem. But when I start Sims or BS, everything is dead. Except for the tracer that says hi to any site I try to open. Duh!

If I'll ever be brave enough to play sims again or create any custom content, I'll be sure to reinstall the complete game without BV. And without Pets. And maybe even without Uni. I shall be content with Nightlife, OFB and the wonderful Seasons EP. Smiley
But that was where the disconnecting began... *sigh*


Edit: My phone miraculously stays conneced and that's an ip phone that goes over the same line. So I guess that could mean that the router has nothing to do with it? That the reason for my disconnecting is on this very pc?
I even suspected Firefox, but IE wouldn't work, either.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2007, 09:12:27 pm by Wednesday17 » Logged
Wednesday17
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« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2007, 01:29:32 pm »

Guess what!
Today finally my shiny new graphics card arrived. Goodbye ATI, for good this time. Welcome back in my arms NVidia. For good this time *gg*.
Naturally, my first task today was to populate my pc with the new card - it's about only half as thick as the Radeon, so it is actually possible, to put in a second card in SLI mode if I ever want to do that.

And the first thing after installing the drivers was to try out The Sims. Windowed. No problemo. Working on the web while Sims load in the background. No problemo. Seeing bumpmaps (and all the other stuff) how they are supposed to look. No problemo.

In the meantime I already had determined, that I would stay connected, if I disabled my antivirus software. But of course I'm aware that's not recommended and it was only a last resort for "emergency".

So my final conclusion is that the combination of the game and the card somehow were responsilbe for the antivirus to try and protect me from the menace. Wink
However, I am not interesed to pursuit this further, as I am sure, it won't happen to me again. But maybe someone else has similar problems and finds this thread sometime. Smiley

Thanks again to everyone who's tried to help me with this :wave:
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