Node Type: (Blank)

I'm trying to help a guildie get back in the game. Any help is appreciated. He is running a P4 3.0, 1gb ram (functional), ati 9250 256mb, windows xp sp2 home edition.

Just recently, like when they announced the gvg weekend, he has not been able to connect to the game. He gets to the login screen, can log in, and then when he chooses a toon, he gets stuck in the load screen indefinitely. He can hear the sound effects, and we can see his toon standing there, but he never makes it into the actual game himself.

We've tested his ram and it is good.
We've done a complete reinstall, and he still has the same problem.
We've deleted the .dat file and restarted, still no luck.
We've put him on the same drivers other people with the same card are using for GW.

In the initial login screen, there is an option to test your computer. When you view results, under 'Windows IP Configuration', there is a category labelled 'Node Type'. Mine says it's a 'Hybrid'. My other guildie shows up as 'Broadcast'. Our friend having the problem does not have a Node Type. It is blank.

Could this be causing his problem? Is there a way to fix this? Or is it a non-issue.

Thank you all very much.

i can only think of lack of decent graphic card, might be a different problem though, since that card should be able to run GW fine.

it's definately a network problem, not the graphics card.

unfortunately, i know very little about networking... if it's possible, get your friend to set all network settings to default values. how to do that, i'm not really sure... maybe it's a router problem, assuming he's on one?

Thank you both. I will pass along the restoring advice. We're all just kind of baffled by this one. He's done absolutely nothing to his computer to have caused this.

I had exactly the same problem and it turned out to be my ISP's fault. I would suggest that you ask your friend to look at his' ping when he logs into the game and if it is abnormally high he should consult his' ISP.

New info as we continue to test this problem.

He can load into an area if there is a new download for that location. Once in he can move around. However when he tries to map warp somewhere, it just sticks him at the loading screen forever. And if he's loading into an area that has no new file updates, he gets stuck at the load screen. He can hear the game music, and we can see him, but he's stuck loading.

GW has a test option at the log-in screen (where you enter your e-mail and password). Get him to run that test and post the log here. He may want to censor his computer name and IP adress, these are irrelevant. Or you can have him send a ticket to GW support.

He did that in the OP. That's where the "Node type: blank" message comes from

How is his surfing? Slow? Or fast?

Download speed on Guild Wars what is the bit transfer rate. 20 or less and stalls happen which get ugly in PVP. Or pull open his local area connection while running guild wars and see what the packets are doing.

www.speedtest.net is a good self test.

Scan for Malware (never hurts just time consuming) www.Cnet.com offers many free downloads.

One other step is to get on the phone with the ISP

1. Check the modem
2. Check there end for issues
3. Check your connections


I have some of the same loading issues but my system is majorly Fubared by MALWARE.

Agreed with Painbringer.

Is he on a wireless access point?

No, no malware, no spyware, no adware. At least according to the programs he runs to check these things. Virus scan came back negative. And he isn't on a wireless network. He is plugged right into the modem.

We're trying here in addition to GW support. They are trying to help. The wierd thing is he can play bf2 and cod2 online fine.

Had that once before aswel, i had to start using tunneling for a while.

Not sure exactly what was stopping it, all diagnostics came clear and i could sometimes get onto characters in RA but never port anywhere.

Not really much help i know, but its definately a network problem.

It may be the ISP then. If the data transfers are too high, they might be throttling his connection.

Well i know from my own experience that alot of ISP are currently going towards the stance P2P = illegall and if i recall right gw uses p2p to download the updates from their servers (correct me if i'm wrong pls )

So i agree with Katsumi it could be indeed throttling the connection for certain downloads, a friend had that happen and he could play every other game fine.
But updating his linux distro over torrent went awfully slow and he could barely connect to GW and HGL (hellgate london)

You're wrong

Peer-to-peer (P2P) is where you are downloading from and uploading to multiple sources. The gw.dat is downloaded direct from ANet's servers, not from other players. (Hey, maybe they should do that - make -imageing a whole lot quicker!)

Lol I can see it already. 1 week after this idea went live.....

Post what keyloggers virus you found in the .dat file here.

yeah i rephrased it wrongly xd but i still think it's mainly throtling causing major problems atm

Ah you're right, I skim way too much. Anyway the log would still be a big help in determining any network problem. The node type isn't very important though.

I was mainly refering to bandwidth throttling, not just P2P throttling. Like, if they notice you're pulling down a lot of data, they limit the bandwidth allocated to you. They call it "Quality assurance."

There's one major ISP in my area that does it here in the States, Snograt. I know, since I've toured the place, and they told me they do so. Lolol.

OK, problem solved, and it makes little sense to me, but I'll post what he did to rectify his issues.

We noticed his CPU was running at 56 degrees celsius. Everyone else in the guild was around 38-43 degrees. He took the heatsink off his CPU, cleaned it... dust had accumulated in the little ridges pretty tightly. He applied some new thermal paste when reinstalling it, and added a PCI fan to his system, blowing up towards the exhaust. His temperature dropped down to 41 degrees celsius. Now Guild Wars runs flawlessly.

What kind of sense does that make? I know a clean , cool computer is ideal, but how does that cause the initial problems he had that I posted, and how did it only affect 1 game?