Morgan Reed

When you bought your phone, you were given the right to take your phone to any carrier you wanted. At any time. If this isn't allowed, then you were only renting/leasing your phone.

((I am going to assume that you mean modem. I'm not trying to nitpick terminology, but a router has nothing to do with internet access so your point would be moot otherwise.))

If you are like most ISP customers, you are actually renting your modem. If you cancelled your internet service, you would be required to give that modem back.
On the other hand, if you did purchase the modem through your ISP, you have the right to take that modem to an other provider (not that you are likely to have any in your area - that is another can o' worms).

I do not know about the satellite part, as I do not use, nor ever used, satellite for anything. But with the rest, you are allowed to take your purchased items to other provides. Software, and CoH in particular, do not follow that model. A customer can not take there purchased boxed items to another provider. Not without breaking laws. And I have predicted that many of the MMO customers would jump on that service without even considering the legality, because they don't really understand the situation.

Then you might be unique. But in the end, I'm sorry to say, it really doesn't matter how you see it. You can't, and aren't, speaking for those that see it as I have laid out. That they purchase content when buying the game, and are renting server time with their subscription fee.

And those are the people that need to be understood. I'm not saying they need to be agreed with, or even catered to. Just understood.

Because if I am right, and they are as numerous as I believe, they are the people that are supporting this (and other) games. Alienating them could cause this game, if not the business, to come crashing down.

Or not. Like I said, on that scale it is very hard to predict what the species will do. But with what we have seen in other examples, a fight will be in order.

Well, isn't that particularly condescending and utter crap.

Here is an exercise to try:

Aside from anyone even remotely connected to software development, not even fairly close friends of people in the software development business, how is the remaining common consumer supposed to be aware of this?

Let me re-word that in case it isn't clear. In what other, everyday consumer transaction, does purchase not imply ownership?

I'll help you out be naming a few. Not to steal your thunder, but to point out how it doesn't work from a common consumer point of view.

• Music.
  
  True, purchase of music does not grant ownership rights of the songs themselves. But from a common consumer point of view, they can do what ever they want with that music on a personal level. If they want to rip it off for their own amusement, or education, they can. If they want to play it on other devices they can (assuming the technology still exists to play it). With the current state of Fair Use, they can even rip digital copies for their own use. And as long as it stays in their possession, everything is fine. For common consumers, this is pretty much ownership.
• Books.
  
  Again, purchase of a book does not give the purchaser ownership of the content of the book. But for all other measures of ownership (from a common consumer) they own that book. They can burn it if they want (assuming it is a physical copy... Hell, even if it is digital they still can). Tear it up. Take it wherever they want. Read it whenever they want, as long as there is enough light. Once purchased, it can not be removed from the consumers possession (unless it was on the Kindle... :-P)
• Just about any other media.
  
  Still falls under the same "measures of ownership." Personal copies, right to take to any device, at any time as long as the technology matches, etc. Right to destroy if the owner so chooses. Etc.

Software is the only business that actually breaks this mold. Software is the only thing that customers never buy. They simply buy the license to use.

And every time that particular curtain has been pulled back, consumers fought against the idea. iTunes DRM. Fair Use. Etc..

So how is a common consumer supposed to be aware of this in such a fashion that they will no longer be compared to the ignorant sods that believe the Earth is flat? (Ignorant sods is my term, the Earth is flat comparison is Arcanavilles - intentionally or accidentally.)

EDITed to add: I forgot one point. The real noodle baking question is: Should the common consumer be educated they don't actually own anything when they purchase software? Actually training them of this might just cause a revolt against the current business model. Of course, nothing may change. The species is hard to predict on such a large scale. But it is certainly in the business best interest to keep that "little secret" as long as they can.

That is no where near blatantly obvious, nor true.

As I posted before, there is a portion (I predict a large portion) of MMO players that hold the perception (I'm not even touching on if it is a correct perception) that they purchase the content, and the subscription price is renting time on the servers.

I think this is so engrained, that should someone find a way to mirror a CoX server and offer subscriptions for $7.99 a month, people would flock to it - never even considering anything illegal might be happening.

Right or wrong, consumers have had centuries to develop the belief that they own what they purchase (so much so, I've known people who believe they have the right to do anything they want with things they rent because they are "paying money for it").

Well, Jawbreaker did try uninstalling and reinstalling the Launcher 4 months ago:

As well as recently tried installing and updating the client through the Launcher on a different computer within the last week:

So, unless there is another location to get the Launcher - it is unlikely another uninstall and re-install is going to make a difference.

Unless his/her cable modem is the culprit, it isn't a network issue:

S/he bypassed the whole network aside from the cable modem.
(This is not to say the modem is not the culprit.)

This was the earliest thread I found of Jawbreaker's fight with the NCSoft Launcher. The third post is the earliest mention of the Int32 error I know of.

If the Launcher has difficulty working with AE disk installs, then the Launcher should be worked on. Forcing customers to download - with the way ISPs are going with data caps - any more than is necessary to update isn't a very good move.

Have you tried uninstalling the previous drivers first?

Texas Justice has a post detailing the best way to uninstall drivers and re-install. It is right here. (Ignore the link for the drivers to download, as that was for another person.)

I do not have access to the launcher code, so I have to ask:

Could these two problems be interrelated? Could the launcher be having trouble identifying the version of the game because of the Int32 error?

I mean, based on Jawbreaker's posts, he/she:

• Opened port 80
• Gave NCLauncher.exe and NCAccess.exe firewall permissions
• Uninstalled and installed the .NET 3 framework and MSXML 6 libraries
• Various other tweaks and checks

In short, everything on this page, and still can't get the launcher to work properly.


Well booger.

I've done some research, and the following might work with a recovery disk (although very unlikely). There are ways of making it work, but they usually involve registry editing - and I'm not even going to start you down that potentially dangerous and painful path.

1. Insert your recovery disk into your drive.
2. If any windows pop up (autoplay, recovery, etc.) just close, or cancel out. You do not want the computer keeping the drive active.
3. Open a command prompt, and type (without quotes) "sfc /scannow" (notice the space between "sfc" and "/scannow") and press Enter.
4. At this point, you will likely be asked to insert the correct disk, or just to insert your install disk.
   
   1. If you have multiple optical drives, you can try using a different drive.
   2. If sfc will simply not accept your recovery disk as correct, and won't quit for any other reason, you can hold down the "Ctrl" key and press "c" to quit the program
5. If it works, proceed immediately to Windows Update and search for new updates to CYA.

I should warn you, if it works this could take a very long time (hours).

What sfc (System File Checker) does is compare your current protected files (almost 4000 files as of XP SP3) against what they should be to make sure they aren't compromised at all. And if they aren't as they should be, it replaces them.



I hope the new install will work for you, and you won't need to work with sfc.

Jawbreaker's ISP is CoX cable, in Phoenix Arizona.

Jawbreaker, you never did answer if you have your OS install disks (XP). I don't mean "restore disks" that most places give people when they buy a computer with Windows preinstalled. But an actual XP install disk.

No, it wasn't. And that error has nothing to do with connection. :-(

And because of that, it no longer really fits with this thread. So, I'm going to move back to one of your old threads. (Sorry to make you keep jumping threads.)

As an attempt at an alternative, you could try OS X in Virtualbox.

It ends up being much cheaper.

I admit, it is few more hoops to jump through than I would like for a game... But it is an option.

EDIT to add:
Given how long it took Microsoft to get to that point, the only surprise is that anyone even gives them the chance by testing their latest browsers.

Wow. Thanks for the screenshot. It beats, hands down, anything I could find on the internet. (I'll edit my previous post to be more clear once we work out everything.)

Now, as Texas Justice said, use the Service Name drop down and see if HTTP is listed. That will be the quickest and easiest way.
If you need to know your computers IP address, you can do just as you did to find the router IP address, and the address is the IPv4 address.

If HTTP isn't listed, you could add your own with the "Add Custom Service" button.

If you are concerned about your network security (you shouldn't be since we know your ISP blocks all incoming port 80 traffic), after you test the NCSoft Launcher with port 80 open, you can delete the service you added in your router. You would select it, and press the "Delete Service" button.

I noticed that trend. (I happen to have a Radeon HD 5750.) Although it isn't limited to the 5XXX series.

But I am pretty certain that is just a matter of "playing the odds." For many, many, months several cards in the Radeon HD 5XXX series have held the "sweet spot" for price versus performance. I don't think it would be an unsafe bet to wager that the largest percentage of cards in gaming computers is a Radeon HD 5XXX series card. Of course, to hedge that bet, it is almost certainly true among ATI cards.

That is likely because there isn't any common denominator aside from the act of zoning itself.

For example, me with a Lambda (before I started dismissing pets before entering and leaving):

• "Clean" Log in. First log in of the day, at least 8 hours since last activity.
• Travel to RWZ. It isn't limited to RWZ, that is just where I queue up for trials.
• Join league/summon pets/fully improve pets. Aside from not being able to improve pets without summoning them first, that order doesn't matter. Joining first then summoning, summoning then joining, both lead to a pet lock.
• Wait to enter Lambda.
• Watch pets lock up at entrance.
• /releasepets and resummon and improve
• Play through Lamda. Success or failure doesn't matter. Both lead to lock.
• Have pets summoned and improved on exit
• Watch pets lock up in RWZ.

With a bug that pure, the chances of a player stumbling upon the cause are nearly non existent.

I believe the bug is in the zoning code itself. I know, that is kind of a "well, duh!" statement. But I meant the code itself is the problem. If a developer ever has the time to comb through that code (preferable not the initial author[s] to allow a fresh perspective) looking for typos, grammatical errors, procedural errors, and such I would think the bug could be solved.

I have noticed, possibly unrelated, that if you zone with pets and have the "show pet buff" option on (the little arrow next to the pet window that when clicked on displays all the powers affecting each pet) at least one of the powers - it has been too long, I think it is just Supremacy - get repeatedly stacked upon itself. So, that is a clue that the pet zoning code is a bit "cloodgy." Oh, and this is not directly related to the zone lock. The stacking happens with, and without pet lock.

It never hurts to check, and to learn. But since this thread isn't quite the right place to discuss the details, I started a thread about it. If you need further help, post in that thread.



I agree completely. Problem is, I am in no position to claim the Launcher does not, and never will, need to listen to incoming port 80 traffic.

Besides, we are talking about a computer issue here. Sometimes the solution doesn't make sense. I recently had an audio card that started to get stuttering sound and the only way to fix it (besides replace it at the first opportunity) was to defrag my hard drive AND reboot my computer. Neither one individually worked. There is no reason defragging the drive should affect audio performance (the drive was well over 80% free for those who might be curious).

I personally believe the port 80 setting is more of a "catch all" response (like ISPs suggesting rebooting your modem first no matter what your internet problem is), but I could be mistaken.

Unless your local network is weird (in which case you are likely more advanced than this thread, or know who set up your network to ask) your router IP address is the “Default Gateway” address.

If you need to know your computer IP address, it can be found the same way. It is the IPv4 Address:

I wouldn't go so far as to say every player in Phoenix (or using CoX Internet) won't be able to play... But it will likely put a damper on some players ability to play.

As the CanYouSeeMe page (below) states, port 80 is a common port for ISPs to block incoming traffic on.

I'm afraid that CanYouSeeMe probably won't see Jawbreaker on port 80 as s/he already listed that CoX blocks incoming port 80 traffic. :-(

EDIT to add: I tried looking for a guide site on how to check router ports (every manufacturer has different ways to go about it), but the one I knew of years ago has turned into a HEAVILY add supported / guerrilla downloader site that I won't link to.

I would suggest trying "open ports <insert name brand/model of your router here>" in your favorite search engine. Or, if you would like to inform me/us of your router we can look into it for you.