I just started getting them as well. Just this last week. Before that I would get a disconnect only once per maybe 30 hours of game play time. But this last week once every hour or so. All socket closed errors.

Another point not sure if it makes any difference or not. But every single socket closed disconnect happens when I have a session change. ALWAYS during a session change. I never had a disconnect associated with anything else ever.
That makes me think it is something in the CCP server that causes it.

In fact let me go one step further and suggest it is because of the recent changes CCP made to local.
When ever I do a session change the computer has to load a new local. I think something CCP did to local is causing it to hang and or the socket closed error is mis diagnosing the problem.

Further I never had a disconnect when I undock. While that is a session change it does not involve loading a new local.
Only Session changes that involve a new local cause my socket closed errors.

OK, to be honest, I have not read any of the other post in depth.

To my point for this "the socket is closed" error message.
First, we must understand what is a socket. It is a 2 part number that consists of your IP address and a port number.
EX: 192.168.*.*:65490 (the two are seperated by a colon and the port number used here I made up)

Now, if a socket is being closed that means something is closing it , obviously. This could be anything from a router, firewall and or ISP.

The fact that it works on a VPN flawlessly leads me to believe it is something to do with a combination firewall and the router.

A VPN sets up whats similar to a LAN but over the internet. It is dedicated and nothing can interfere with it on a normal bases. It bypasses firewalls and router firewalls(port forwarding and triggering).

The fact that everything else is working on the internet leads me to believe it has to be the firewall and/or the router.

Simple fix is to manually add the port number or the program to be allowed access no matter what through both the firewall and the router. I am not sure if EVE uses a static port number or if it is constantly changing upon restart.

Also, if you use programs like peerblock *cough, cough* it can block CCPs IP addresses and ports.

As another note, I have not seen this message as of yet. The first thing I did was added a port triggering to my router to allow access no matter what and added an exception to my firewall... no, wait, scratch that. I don't run a firewall or anti-virus currently. Yea, I'm pretty ballsy... Shaddap!

...but why all of a sudden with no changes on my end? Any idea's?

-Six

Any type of antivirus program that uses driver based filtering has the potential to start doing something like this out of the blue. The first one that comes to mind is Norton, next is Kaspersky. I have seen AVG do something like this with other programs but I can't remember if they use driver based filtering or not. For this, you need to completely remove by using removal tools for the antivirus and then reinstall from scratch or use a different AV software.

I have not seen any issues with Microsoft Security Essentials as of yet with symptoms such as this.

Seriously people can you stop pointing towards our ISP when people from all over the world with different ISP are facing the same problem , right now my hometown adn my house near my college are using thte same ISP and in my college house I keep getting this same problem whereas in ym hometown hosue it is fine. And they are both from he same ISP . Yes it could be something with location but then explain why other games or internet browsing are not affected? CCP fix this problem at 4th of December

It's not CCP.

A) It works through a VPN which is a virtual network connected directly to CCPs servers with no outside interference.
B) It's is not affecting everyone including myself.
C)I have seen my roommate get this same message on 2 of the 4 multibox clients running on the same computer off the same router as I am.

Based on these 3 pieces of data that everyone seems to ignore, it is not CCP. My earlier post was for diagnostics purposes. I am noticing clients with ISPs that use fiber optic lines in there infrastructures regardless if they are cable, DSL or what not are having this issue the most. Or, at least that is where the data is leading me. We need more information on what exactly is causing this issue and a way to reproduce the issue to determine a fix.

I've also noticed another valid point brought up earlier as I am typing this... The test servers work fine and they are running various test versions of Retribution. Maybe CCP realized what the issue is and fixed it. It doesn't mean it was on CCPs side, it just means they figured out where the problem is and took initiative to work around it since the actual fix was going to take forever and completely out of their control maybe? Not stating facts, Just brainstorming aloud and looking for positive feedback and thoughts.

I say wait until after December 4th to see if that resolves it. I just wish CCP would be able to shed more light on this issue.

Location: Ontario Canada
ISP rogers

Getting socket issue about every 1 or 2 min tonight.

Not a tech or IT type person but from the numerous posts I've read tonight on the forums regarding this socket issue....
VPN is not working for everyone
I have not changed my ISP or anything on my computer since yesterday.... also I don't think my ISP made sudden changes.

My internet works fine until I try and play EVE tonight....
Sometimes when I get socket error it's also doing something to cause me to lose internet connection for a minute....
Then internet connectivity comes back on it's own and stays stable until I try and play eve and get another socket error.

All of this is why I suggested CCP's own article on pingplotter above as it will regularly check the route and you can see where the issue is. Had a couple of "socket closed" tonight and already pingplotter is showing heavy packet losses (upwards of 30%) at an item of equipment assigned to above.net one hop out from CCP's servers.

Until my ISP hands off to the above.net equipment I'm getting a ping time of less than 20ms.

Everyone have already tried ping plotter and submitted to CCP and all they do is tell us what the technical problem is and does'nt tell us if they are gonna fix it or not and this has been going way too long

Everyone have already tried ping plotter and submitted to CCP and all they do is tell us what the technical problem is and does'nt tell us if they are gonna fix it or not and this has been going way too long

If it's not their equipment that's all they CAN tell you and take it up with the equipment owner. It then depends on that equipment owner's SLAs to CCP and others who may came off the connection in the same data centre. If they can't take it down as it's a single point of failure (which shouldn't normally be the case) without breaching an SLA then they will weigh it up against any penalty clauses.

Just got the nefarious "socket closed" issue again. I could be online and playing for roughly 2.5 minutes to 5 mins. before getting "kicked", and eventually itll just give me the message at character selection. Doesn't seem like there's any real solution. I see people arguing even on the forums here, as to what may the cause may be, let alone, the solution.

not quite sure how I can help the situation but i'd love a simple answer, especially if its something i can do on my end. does VPN help? Im hearing Port Triggering/ Forwarding.... and now it seems to be caused by fiber optic lines.

This happens way too often. At least once a week for a few days at a time.

Problem is fixed for me easily!
That's how you could fix it, too:

Just disconnect from your Home Network on Windows 7 if you've connected your Computer to another.

This worked perfectly for me.
Problem solved.
Also it fixes some crash-problems in other games I've found out but I don't want to advertise ;D

Greets,

Shinni.

Hello fellow EVE'es,
I think I've found out another solution for the "socket closed error" in EvE,

That's how I hopefully "fixed" this Problem:
I've resetted my Nvidia Graphic card to an older Update after I've seen a "bug" caused by an Update of my GC.
By left-clicking on a free space (dunno how to describe it, my English is not perfect *geez*) in EvE, all of the texts and my whole UI blinked.
So I decided to "downdate" my Graphic Card in the Hope, that this and other issues of this update has caused this error.

Now, after I've did it, the socket-error issue didn't came to me for one or two days ;o

Hopefully it helped,

greets,

Shinni.