Black Hole Routers and the *£$*!%! They Lose

To summarize things somewhat more clearly for those not versed in PMTU protocol or those who lifted an eyebrow at the word datagram, when a sustained connection is made between your computer and a server of some sort, packets of data are regularly sent back and forth. The path between your computer and the server can be comprised of many different routers delivering the information from one part of the digital world to another.

If along the way, one of those routers finds a packet that it decides is too large to pass on, the router should either fragment the packet or at least inform the sender that the packet was not forwarded. Occasionally a router will simply erase or drop that packet leaving the sender and recipient clueless, which causes problems in large data file transmission, encrypted data sending, and login attempts. This is a black hole router instance.

They can be the result of a malfunction, malicious intervention, or improper setup. SP3’s black hole router detection automatically uses, what used to be a complicated process of pinging and adjusting, to identify these problems before sending data and if necessary and possible, redirecting traffic around such routers.

If you’d like the full blown, un-translated, pre SP3 description and solution to this problem, feel free to head over to Microsoft.com and look up this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314825

In terms of Beyond Protocol’s networking issues, the installation of SP3 immediately solved these problems. If you play Beyond Protocol, or any other MMO which is having login troubles, connection interruptions, or other unexplained network irregularities, and you are still running Windows XP, then SP3 is recommended, but not guaranteed, solution.

If you have not already updated, hopefully this article will save you a lot of grief.

The Diplomat of Dark Sky Entertainment