If you encounter a dead zone, zone back out to get out of the zone ASAP! You will be d/c however when you come back you should be at the back in a safe zone.

If you are logging into a dead zone, like my case was Bastok Markets, run for another zone or MH. You are still able to transmit data to the server just not receive it. Sucks if you are low level in a high aggro zone because you maybe dead as you run. Once you zone to say MH like I did, you will probably d/c, just log again in and try exiting to another part of the city. Expect to be d/c too. This is a platform independent issue. I play on PC and PS2. I had my WHM (PS2) teleport to Konchstat Highlands only to discover it a was a dead zone and I ran my WHM to Valkrum Dunes, go figure this was a safe zone for me. Anyways, I had to log in like 2 times running to Valkrum Dunes. Sad part was I running to raise a LS mate who died in KH zone line to VD.

As of yesterday's patch on fixing "" icon, I could enter now Bastok Markets. However, now other LS members are having the same issue I had. BTW I did not cold-reset my router (I did power it off/on Saturday like 20 times), I do plan on reprogramming it for the wireless networks I am running.

My conclusion to this issue that SE did something to data packets sent when you zone to certain areas thus causing the dead zone. This change in the packet is what causes the router/switch connection to hiccup and stop receiving packets.

When I reset my router I was able to zone in areas where minutes before I hadn't been able to like Hall of the Gods.

I can confrim that the update did not fix connectivity issues that arent SE's fault, that dont exist and that GM's cant help with and shouldn't be called about.

Last night me and several others from my Linkshell had real difficulty in zoning into hall of the gods, a zone that only hours before i checked that i could enter.

This has never happened before, and only started since the last update, quite how this can be blamed on ISP's is quite beyond me.

If i phone my ISP about it they speak to me like im quite mad, which is understandable, "I cant zone in FFXI" makes very little sense to them, seeing as i can connect to every website in the known world without any issues at all.

Also a number of people are still unable to use the search function and Auction House, thankfully this has not happened to me yet.

But then, i sit here complaining, at least they fixed the "" icon thing, that has really been affecting my gameplay.

SE well done for charging everyone for a full months service when some people havent been able to play for 5 days, sure beats working for a living.

I've been stuck in Heaven's Tower since Friday night. I could still log into my 2 other mules just fine. As of Monday night, I've been completely barred from playing.
/cheer
No I get stuck at "Acquiring Final Fantasy XI Server Data" and get a Protocol Timeout error 3113... or something like that....
/cry

I have downloaded every update for the past 6 months without a timeout of any kind, including this latest one. I d/l'd the update at like 2 pm EST before the servers were back up and experienced no difficulties at all. Sorry I didn't post this as a response to your question, but for some reason whenever I try to respond to someone else for the past hour I have received a 404 error >.<

SE at least is acting fast! Warrior's Mufflers Blah..Summoning Pets Blahblah
Maps BLAH...
Fixing Zone Issues So i can find those Minor issues...... Priceless
I have Faith that this quick Non-emergency, emergency maint. IS addressing it.

For most BST-type NMs, it works like that, as long as he has a pet, he won't charm you, but if his pet's dead when he goes to use Familiar, then he'll still charm you.

Of course, I can't say for sure... There's a few mobs that can have multiple pets (Xolotl, Dynamis Orcs, etc...), but for the most part, actual BST-type mobs won't attempt to charm you unless their pet's already dead.

I'm curious to know if Pallas' ability to summon pets will replace his ability to charm you. I started camping giants for Alkyoneus' spawn item, and I noticed several people would crowd around parties killing Pallas, and wait for someone to get charmed. At that point, the group of people would instantly kill that person, and celebrate said death.

It's one thing to legitimately lose a battle with a NM on your own accord, and lose claim; it's another thing for someone to massacre you while you're helpless, and then steal your mob.

By the wording of the sentence though, it seems like summoning pets will be added alongside Charm.

Although I do agree that it would be harder to fix the dead zone problem. Its also possible that it could be fixed by this update, but they just don't want to say anything as that would be admitting it was something wrong on their end. Honestly though I could care less as long as its fixed. :) I have faith they haven't given up on us yet.

You fix the defects you know how to fix--you can't fix the defects you don't know how to fix.

I suppose SE should save them all until they have the "dead zone" fix, but only because the average fan (see below) doesn't understand software development and that defects can be easy (the "" icon not shoing up after the zone) or complicated (i.e. "dead zone").

Defects are easy to fix when:
-the are 100% reproducible
-there was a change in the area of the code that's now broken
-there are no race conditions that cause it
-when causally one thing is related to the next and it can be deduced
-after you have root cause the fix will not effect other areas of the code

I can't say for certain, but from my perspective (10 years of doing precisely these sorts of things) this does not appear to be an "easy to fix" defect.

...and even if you want to argue that SE DOESN'T care about their customers they do obviously care about money and the sheer amount of money they're having to pay in OT and extra GM time is a lot of motivation for them to get the issue resolved.

Putting more people on the job doesn't help either--you want 2-3 of your experts in the suspected code area working on it. 9 women can't have a baby in one month, and 4 men can't drive a car from LA to Vegas in an hour.

...but, go on whining, SE isn't aware of the issue and I'm sure the extra complaining will help them address the issue faster while making you appear intelligent.

The dead zone issue and these fixes are two completely seperate problems that are handled by two completely different groups of people. You don't stop one group of people from making fixes while the other works on the dead zone issue. It just doesn't work that way, it would be innefficient if it did.