Constant Error Code 42:0:9001:4402:101 (game reset?)

I have submitted a ticket (Ticket #6791480) and still waiting for a reply, but is anyone else experiencing this issue? It pops up in-game about 5-10 times an hour with no disconnection, though I do go offline in the game but with no disconnection. Eventually I will get disconnected but can re-log fairly quickly. My internet is not affected at all during this downtime - it has only happened about 10 days ago and only has gotten worse over the days.

What have I tried?

• repaired client
• reinstalled the game from the GW2 website
• restarted my router
• cmd commands ipconfig/flushdns ipconfig/release ipconfig/renew netsh winsock reset
• tried adding ports to the game launcher
• made sure GW2 is accepted on firewall and also tried it with it off

I mean generally speaking I've had a pretty stable connection to their servers for the last year or so, I think this maybe related to the current desync issues? Yesterday I had a character whom was speaking with another of my characters name o_O. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can fix it, if it is on my side apart from sending a ticket which I have.

Below are some screens of the current issue.

https://imgur.com/a/XBueX : one of my characters speaking with another one of my characters names.https://imgur.com/a/MWTvr : when I explained where my game resets in the game but I am still having a stable connection - check out the friends online time stamps all the same time (this is very common to happen).https://imgur.com/a/xn7ST : the error that pops up all the time and eventually I will get a client restart.https://imgur.com/a/KYL1W : error again with game being reset during a live connection.

Edit: 100% confirmed triggers are using the trading post for longer than 45 seconds, going through my friends list and PvP UI. Apart from these triggers the issue will still occur eventually between 5m - 30m of live gameplay.

Hey there! You aren't alone. This has been happening to me for around 10 days also and is getting more and more rapid. Like you, I've been trying for days to troubleshoot the issue but without any luck yet. I also raised a ticket about 4 days ago but haven't made any progress with it yet.

Oh and it causes the weirdest chat issues in-game!! Earlier today I was speaking in my Guild chat... only my name didn't appear at all! It just had my guild tag and a semicolon before my text. They couldn't even tell who it was, who was speaking! Strangest thing ever...

May I ask where you are in the world? I've been toying with PingPlotter today and I noticed some really big packet loss spikes in the Data Centre operating in Dallas. This might not be an issue for US based players (it might be 'laggy' but that's all) but I'm an Oceanic player so I wondered if it's enough to cause the disconnects and Error 42.

In case helpful, I made a list of a few (not all) of the IP addresses for the Guild Wars 2 servers:

North America - IP Address Information: auth1.101.arenanetworks.com

• 34.236.133.94 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 34.235.245.105 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 34.225.225.173 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 34.194.154.37 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 34.237.20.65 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 34.239.57.84 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 35.168.50.178 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States
• 52.5.28.96 - Ashburn, Virginia, United States (see note below)

Europe - IP Address Information: auth2.101.arenanetworks.com

• 52.59.151.62 - Frankfurt, Germany
• 35.158.175.20 - Frankfurt, Germany
• 35.158.82.209 - Frankfurt, Germany
• 35.157.208.241 - Frankfurt, Germany
• 18.194.203.41 - Frankfurt, Germany

Note: I noticed that my character gets assigned IP address 52.5.28.96 when in Lions Arch.

From running several different Trace Routes to the GW2 servers, I noticed that the below data center is constantly failing and losing 70-98% of packet data:

• ae-7-0.ear3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.210.149] - Level 3 Communications Inc, Dallas Texas

I don't know if the Packet Loss issue in Dallas is a new thing, but 10 days ago my hubby and I had a completely stable connection to Guild Wars 2... so naturally I am suspicious of everything that may be causing Error 42. Unfortunately my data passes through the Dallas data centre on the way to the new Guild Wars 2 servers run by Amazon in Virginia. I have updated my support ticket (#6790473) with the information about the Dallas data centre, hoping it's useful in some way. I don't know what pressure Arenanet can put on Level 3 Communications, but I figure they must pay a fee for their routing services?

Like the OP described, this error is literally spamming us now!

@"Bunny.6185" said:Hey there! You aren't alone. This has been happening to me for around 10 days also and is getting more and more rapid. Like you, I've been trying for days to troubleshoot the issue but without any luck yet. I also raised a ticket about 4 days ago but haven't made any progress with it yet.

Oh and it causes the weirdest chat issues in-game!! Earlier today I was speaking in my Guild chat... only my name didn't appear at all! It just had my guild tag and a semicolon before my text. They couldn't even tell who it was, who was speaking! Strangest thing ever...

May I ask where you are in the world? I've been toying with PingPlotter today and I noticed some really big packet loss spikes in the Data Centre operating in Dallas. This might not be an issue for US based players (it might be 'laggy' but that's all) but I'm an Oceanic player so I wondered if it's enough to cause the disconnects and Error 42.

I"m an Oceanic player also, I'm in New Zealand. I've had a reply from a GM but has asked me to attach a game advisor report.

@"Chilli.2976" said:

I"m an Oceanic player also, I'm in New Zealand. I've had a reply from a GM but has asked me to attach a game advisor report.

Chilli we are on to something here! We too are playing from New Zealand so this can't be a coincidence. I think there is an issue with the international routing from NZ through to the servers on the East Coast US. It's not enough to interrupt local players in the US, but it's enough to cause a significant enough lag spike to disconnect players in our part of the world. I have been running PingPlotter on one of my spare screens while logged in to the game and I notice there is a direct correlation between a) my Error 42 spam and b) that failing Dallas server popping into my Trace Route.

Here is what I am seeing:

See the point at step 6? That server in Dallas is basically porked. It's not sending or receiving data correctly. If it drops completely out of the loop, the routing adjusts and works around it for a while and is completely reliable. But for the past week or so I have watched this routing path and I have seen that Dallas server popping back into the route, establishing itself with around 98% packet loss. If I could completely bypass it I would.

I'm no expert but I'm fairly sure that things like this are more than enough to kick an Oceanic player repetitively.

I'm not sure it's just NZ/OCE players. There are some other posts about Level3, and its issues.

In the meantime, you can try a VPN to bypass the problem, if possible.

Good luck.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I'm not sure it's just NZ/OCE players. There are some other posts about Level3, and its issues.

In the meantime, you can try a VPN to bypass the problem, if possible.

Good luck.

Hey thanks! Yes you are totally right. I was going to experiment today with a few different VPN services and see if we can't find one that bypasses that Data Centre. I want to prove my theory more than anything. If I can VPN around that data centre and Error 42 goes away... then we have a definite confirmed source of the issue.

I'll post back later with results.

Quick update...

I've spoken with a few VPN and Tunnel providers today, and tried some out on their free trial. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say the names of them on here, but lets just say I tried three of the most highly recommended tunnel services recommended for Gaming. Unfortunately I now understand that none of these services can force the routing to change. They all rely upon that dodgy Level 3 Communications data centre in Dallas, so it really is up to that company to fix this.

As far as I can tell, if the Level 3 Data Centre operates at 90% packet loss it will still be included in the Route. However, if it drops to 100% packet loss, the route adjusts itself and works around that point with a completely reliable connection. If the Dallas Level 3 Data Centre would just remain at 100% packet loss, it would be fine, but it keeps jumping in and out of the Route every 2 mintues or so.

I just ran another experiment:

1. Logged in to GW2 and used /ip to obtain my in-game IP address (34.237.26.26 in the Silverwastes)
2. Booted up PingPlotter and traced the route to that IP address to "watch" it.
3. To begin with I had a stable connection and no Level 3 Dallas server appearing in the route.
4. After 10 minutes I saw the Level 3 Dallas server start flicking in/out of the route, then remain at 97.4% packet loss.
5. instantly in-game I became unable to talk in Guild chat, then 3 seconds later Error 42 appeared on my screen.

I think I'm satisfied that this is the cause... but unfortunately it seems there is nothing I can do about it. I have tried tweeting Level 3 to point out that they have a dodgy point in their network, but I expect it would take an internet uprising to get any results. Hey now there's a thought... I have 2 days holiday, no reliable gaming and a LOT of time on my hands.... :)

PS: I was curious and did a search on "ae-7-0.ear3.Dallas1.Level3.net" to see what other people were saying. Lets just say I don't need to start any uprising myself... this issue is affecting almost every major game I know of.

Try running the game on port 80 or 443:-clientport 80

It may change the way your traffic is treated.

@Bunny.6185 said:See the point at step 6?

Pings are unreliable, as nodes can choose to ignore or delay them. In this case, hop 6 has a problem with pings directed at itself, but not others. If it was actually a problem, all of the hops after it would also suffer.

@Bunny.6185 said:Unfortunately I now understand that none of these services can force the routing to change. They all rely upon that dodgy Level 3 Communications data centre in Dallas, so it really is up to that company to fix this.

Since you're entering the US on their network, you're more likely to stay on it. If you want to avoid Dallas, you need to leave their network prior to being routed through it. Look for a VPN that is located in the north west US/Canada, or you could try a different overseas route by going through China/Japan.

Hey thanks for the reply Healix!Yes I had tried adding -clientport 80 to the end of my Guild Wars 2 shortcut, but it didn't help at all. I still see an instantaneous correlation between the Dallas packet loss point "appearing" as a bad hop in the route, and the instant Error 42. I'm not an expert on these things but the correlation is too tight (within 3 seconds) to ignore..

I've been playing around looking for VPN's today, thinking I would do just that! I was hoping to find one that would allow me to work around the problem, but I've been at my desk working on the issue for 6 hours straight and found nothing but a bunch of failed VPN connection attempts. They don't seem to like me connecting from so far away, so I think trying to come at it from that angle will be tedious at best... expensive at worst.

In the meantime I have emailed my ISP's network op control team (I'm going to name my ISP, hope that's ok on this forum, but it might help Chilli if they have the same one)... my ISP is called 2 Degrees. 2 Degrees seem to be the ones sending traffic across to Level 3 Communications Inc, so I thought I would raise it with them. I'm only just learning about all this stuff so it's slow going to try to explain it in the words I have.... their first response was "try rebooting your router" so I guess I failed to articulate the problem well enough :(

My next port of call is to look at switching ISP, but before I go through all that pain I have reached out to some competitor ISP's and asked them to send me a full Trace Route to a selection of IP addresses that I want to connect to. I figure it doesn't hurt to find one that isn't using Level 3 Communications as the landing point in Los Angeles, if such a thing exists... the odds might be low but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

If I can avoid Level 3 altogether I might have a chance... but once the data is sent to that iffy network, it's more likely to "stay on it" as you said.

A thought occured to me...

What if the issue with Level 3 Communications data centre has always been there, but Arenanet have changed something about the "Friends server" to make it suddently intolerant to the issue? Is that even possible? The Error 42 spam didn't exist at all 7-10 days ago so something somewhere has happened to cause it. The error we keep receiving is in regards to the GW2 Friends server (i.e. the one that uses LFG, Trade Broker, Login etc) and it blames connectivity.

Is it possible that Arenanet have minced something with their own servers to make them sensitive to an existing routing delay issue?

I suppose it's probably an academic question anyway. If they have, they're hardly going to admit it. If they haven't, it doesn't help us solve the issue...

Do be aware, different Tier 1 providers have had issues, for extended periods of time, over the years. It's often Telia, but could be any of them.

@Bunny.6185 said:In the meantime I have emailed my ISP's network op control team (I'm going to name my ISP, hope that's ok on this forum, but it might help Chilli if they have the same one)... my ISP is called 2 Degrees. 2 Degrees seem to be the ones sending traffic across to Level 3 Communications Inc, so I thought I would raise it with them.

Bunny, I appreciate all the hard work you have been doing to locate the source of the problem. I am also with 2 Degrees, though I have been with them for a very long time and never had this issue in regards to the error 42. Arenanet must of done something with their severs in the past 2 weeks that we are not aware of and has caused this issue.

The problem is still there and does not seem to be going away. I hope they fix this on the 6th of February patch, or at least give us a solution to work around.

@"Chilli.2976" said:

Bunny, I appreciate all the hard work you have been doing to locate the source of the problem. I am also with 2 Degrees, though I have been with them for a very long time and never had this issue in regards to the error 42. Arenanet must of done something with their severs in the past 2 weeks that we are not aware of and has caused this issue.

The problem is still there and does not seem to be going away. I hope they fix this on the 6th of February patch, or at least give us a solution to work around.

No problem Chilli. Me too! I've used 2 Degrees for years and never had any problems at all. It does make me suspicious though that this issue is occuring for two separate households using the same ISP in the same country. Could our ISP have done something 2 weeks ago to block our gaming traffic? We can't rule that out either.

It's clear that something has changed in the past 2 weeks to make Error 42 persistent (for me it's every 20-30 seconds, so completely unplayable). I've done all I can think of to work the problem from 'our' side so it's up to Arenanet to respond with their views on it.

UPDATEI have reduced the occurance of Error 42 disconnects from "once every 20-30 seconds", down to "once every 20-30 minutes":

1. Setting in-game status to offline.
2. Turning off all conversation text in chat box window, including map chat, party chat, squad chat and guild chat.
3. Avoid using Trading Post, Friends List or LFG window.
4. Avoiding Open Map game play and sticking to only small instance gaming (i.e. Fractals).
5. Avoiding populated areas like Lions Arch or big Meta events.
6. Staying out of Raid's and Squads.

PS: Clearly this is no way to play the game. I'm sharing this purely from a testing perspective in case it helps Arenanet GM's look into the issue (assuming I get a reply to my support ticket - if not, I guess my hubby and I will need to seek a refund of our recent HoT and PoF upgrades, 2 copies of each!).

I believe this might be fixed now, I have not had the error pop up today - apart from the friends list issue that happened once.

That's great Chilli! I have yet to test it after the patch today but my husband said he didn't get kicked at all this morning over 1.5 hours, so that sounds promising! Will report back later this evening after giving it a go myself.

Update: After an entire evening (3 hours!) of uninterrupted gaming without Error 42, I'm satisfied that the patch today has resolved the issue. I think this shows that the root cause was a bad GW2 patch on 23 January, which aligns to when the issue started to occur. Though we didn't get a reply on the issue, it seems to have been solved as silently as it was created...

@Bunny.6185 said:That's great Chilli! I have yet to test it after the patch today but my husband said he didn't get kicked at all this morning over 1.5 hours, so that sounds promising! Will report back later this evening after giving it a go myself.

Update: After an entire evening (3 hours!) of uninterrupted gaming without Error 42, I'm satisfied that the patch today has resolved the issue. I think this shows that the root cause was a bad GW2 patch on 23 January, which aligns to when the issue started to occur. Though we didn't get a reply on the issue, it seems to have been solved as silently as it was created...

It was fixed before the new patch was released. I had no interruptions yesterday. Happy gamer now!