Long character load times...

[GreenGurgler]

Hello, I have been have an issue for quite soem time now and was wondering if anyone can offer any help or insight in this matter.

It is not a glitch nor is it lag related and it started right after one of the previous mod's (5 or 6 maybe?). I have a few friends who have not had this or noticed it with their PC's. I have not reported ir or inquired previously becasue other than a minor inconvenience, it doesnt affect my game play. But, I am bored tyhis sunday and doing some routine maintenance to my machine and figured Id throw it up on boards to see if I could get it resolved.

The problem is that once I load the game and select which character I wish to load, the game takes like 5 minutes to load me into the world. It only happens the first time I load that specific alt. If I log out and log back in with the same alt, it loads up super fast (like it used too) but if I log out and load a diff alt, I have the 5 min wait again.

The odd part is that other players in the game see me in waaayyy before I can see the game, and I even have friends send me tells and invites but I cannot see them as I am still in the load screen.

Other than this, the game loads everything else fine and in a resonable time frame. Log out is quick (although loggin in and out in a tavern for me has always been alot quicker than out in the open, but still MUCH slower that first time), load screens between areas is normal and reasonable, same with quest loads, etc...

So, anyone have any ideas for me? Anyone else experience this ? If specific logs would help, let me know and I can post those as well.

Thanks

[Samadhi]

I've noticed it - so u are not alone - I went from 30 sec load times to 2-3min

[Shima-ra]

same here, it wasn't that long before. Maybe my toon has too much gear now : P
But since about 5 months it has been taking a while to load in.
All my friends know it, so they wait a while to invite me, and even then their invites expired 2-3 times

[Kraldor]

That's funny. Ever since Mod 5, my loading times have been super-fast.

[Altumus]

if this specifically happens after an update it can be firewall or security software related, remove and re-add any ddo exceptions you may have in these programs.

[GreenGurgler]

if this specifically happens after an update it can be firewall or security software related, remove and re-add any ddo exceptions you may have in these programs.

This is probably the best place to look.

I use a router with a built in firewall and typically leave windows firewall off. I also us CA Security suite but do not have that firewall enabled.

I did just check and windows firewall is on and shows dnd client (coincidentally it shows it twice; once to the current location on the client and one that shows an old location on a harddrive that does not exist anymore- think I will remove that one). I will try turning off the windows firewall as well and see if I still have the problem with just the router firewall. (the windows firewall did not turn itself on, I had to replace the sytem HDD and reinstall OS a few weeks back and I think I left it on by default by mistake).

For my router firewall, are there any specific ports that I need to open?

Any IT gurus have any advice as to what is the best route to go in regards to firewalls: is router firewall sufficent? If not, is it worth using the windows firewall as well? what about the firewall that comes in CA Security Suite? Is it worht it to have multiple firewalls or is this over kill (if it makes any difference I do not leave my pc on when I am not using it).