Connection Issues

[Commander Zee]

Every few minutes, the game loses connection to servers. I've uninstalled my mods, reinstalled my game, and disabled my VPN, but unfortunately, now my problem is WORSE. It went from every 5-20 minutes to now almost every minute. This is one of my favorite games, so it really sucks that I can barely play it anymore.

[Sonja]

Internet connection problems Franchise Mode

Hi,

While playing Franchise mode, I am occasionally met with the Error "Could not communicate with Server, please check your internet connection", which locks me in the Pause Menu. The issue usually resolves itself in a minute or so, but it's really starting to get annoying as it seems to be happening quite often. My internet connection works fine, so is there anyway to fix this?

[JustMeEsmy]

Hi,

I have the same problems for a couple of days now.
Do you still have that internet connection problem?
My internet connection works fine.

Is there anyone that knows how to fix it?

[Lula_Sem_Shift]

I have that problem too and my connection is ok =(

[JustMeEsmy]

I have tryed to uninstall the game,restarted the computer and installed the game again.
It didn't work for me :(

[Sonja]

Originally posted by 1ntwin3d:

Hi,

I have the same problems for a couple of days now.
Do you still have that internet connection problem?
My internet connection works fine.

Is there anyone that knows how to fix it?

I think I may still have the problem, but I haven't played the game since Monday as I've been busy these past few days. I will keep you updated on it!
I did however contact Frontier themselves about this and this is their reply, which honestly, isn't really helpful as I have a stable internet connection.

""Hi Sonja,

Thanks for getting in touch, given the circumstances, it sounds like your network is getting temporarily interrupted every now and then which causes the temporary connection drop from our servers.

This is particularly common with wireless connections, if you're using WiFi, switching to a cable ethernet connection may solve the issue.

Alternatively, if you are using the bandwidth heavily outside of the game (large downloads, YouTube, Netflix, Twitch etc.) you may be stretching it thin which causes the connection to drop.

If this only happened on a specific day, it could also be possible that it is a server side issue but we've not had a major outage recently.

Please let us know if issues persist and we'll be happy to advise further.

Kind regards,

Zookeeper Vulcan
Planet Zoo customer support team""

[JustMeEsmy]

Thank you for your answer.
That is not a very helpful respons from the support team.
I also have a stable cable internet connection.(Ziggo)

I hope you don't have that problem anymore.
This afternoon i send a ticket to Frontier and i hope that they send a reply soon.
But i'm afraid that i wil get the same answer that you had.

If i hear more a will let you know.

[Exbeer]

Originally posted by 1ntwin3d:

Thank you for your answer.
That is not a very helpful respons from the support team.
I also have a stable cable internet connection.(Ziggo)

I hope you don't have that problem anymore.
This afternoon i send a ticket to Frontier and i hope that they send a reply soon.
But i'm afraid that i wil get the same answer that you had.

If i hear more a will let you know.

now i live in another part of the world, but other then wen steam went down a little earlyer i have had no issjues of this, so just letting you know

[kgkong]

It's not a matter of the internet connection, but the network that was being suggested to be the root of the problem. If you are connected to your network via WiFi, try connecting via cable instead, or move your PC closer to the wireless access point. Doing this will either fix the problem, indicating that it is a signal strength issue with your connection, or if it doesn't, determines that the problem is actually internet related. In which case, power cycle your modem to reset it connections to your ISP to potentially fix any problems between you and the ISP.

If the issue continues, you might just have a routing issue between your network and the online server for the game/Steam. Changing your DNS often fixes this issue if that's the problem.

[BitCaps]

I get disconnected from the server every 10-15 minutes while playing and it takes 30 - 60 seconds to recover. I am not using wireless. I have multiple computers on my internet and only Planet Zoo has a problem. My internet is 100% reliable 24x7.

It is unlikely a problem with your internet, since it happens regularly and not just once.

Frontier should change the message to: "our server stopped responding, please wait while we restore your connection"

[Caduryn]

Since Planet Zoo runs over Steam, try changing the Steam-Server.
Steam settings, downloads - downloadregion

[kgkong]

Originally posted by Caduryn:

Since Planet Zoo runs over Steam, try changing the Steam-Server.
Steam settings, downloads - downloadregion

This.
Or make sure the network activity on your home network isn't congesting your device's internet connection.
If you get a throttled connection, even just brief but enough to trigger the "disconnection" response from the server and it's happening on your network, you will want to rule out any possible issues, as this issue will persist with your connection to every server you attempt to connect to.

So far, nobody has indicated they tried any troubleshooting yet, other than just saying you got a solid internet connection. Everybody has a solid internet connection these days. What is generally the problem in 99 out of 100 network/internet problems is a network or modem issue.

Try power cycling your modem.

[BitCaps]

KGKONG wrote "Try power cycling your modem."

So if I can play 15 different games for hours a day with no problems. And if I stream videos for hours on end with no problems. But Planet Zoo keeps disconnecting, then your analysis is that the problem must be the router.

Wow, unbelievable. I sure; hope you aren't working in customer support. The would be sad.

[kgkong]

Originally posted by BitCaps:

KGKONG wrote "Try power cycling your modem."

So if I can play 15 different games for hours a day with no problems. And if I stream videos for hours on end with no problems. But Planet Zoo keeps disconnecting, then your analysis is that the problem must be the router.

Wow, unbelievable. I sure; hope you aren't working in customer support. The would be sad.

If it's not your network, then it could be a routing issue. Power cycling your modem will reset your modem to your ISP and fix any bad cache and outdated DNS settings that your modem hasn't replaced yet.
Even if you don't seem to have any connectivity issues with any other game, server, or streaming service, etc, you can still have a bad hiccup on a hop anywhere between your house and the destination server.

What have you tried for troubleshooting? Everything I've seen is just to troubleshoot if the problem is game specific and so far those steps have been indicated to be not useful. Have you power cycled your modem yet? If not, do it. What's the worse that it will do? Not fix the problem and determine that the issue is not network, or specific to your connection to your ISP. At this point, you can try changing your DNS server you use on your PC to force a new route from your device to the destination server, in which case, would rule out whether or not if it is or is not a routing problem.

Having done technical support for internet and computers for 25 years, I've gotten pretty familiar with the quickest troubleshooting methods. You start at your PC, and move outwards. Since everybody's checked everything PC specific, let's start moving outwards. I'm trying to help get you guys back into playing and I have no affiliation with Frontier. I actually do technical support for other games, and if you actually seen how many connection problems get resolved by power cycling a modem, you'd totally understand why it gets suggested.

[malcmall]

I have had this problem since the first update and I have a lot of games. This is the only one I have server disconnect problems. Tried changing servers that does not work, it is not my internet
it is their server. This week I have played three games with no problems including today, tried PZ internet connection issue within 10 minutes. There are several threads with this issue so why should it be our computers/ internet at fault??? It has to be the other side.

[kgkong]

Minor hiccups impacting your own network, slight moments where your latency leaving your network at a high delay, extend with your connection to the destination server. If the delay meets the minimum delay time for the server / game before it kicks you, you'll get a kicked or internet connection error. This is common in a lot of games. I'm just trying to rule out that despite the internet being good a solid speed and that such, that there is no local issues that you guys would be able to do something about.

Still have no idea if any of you have power cycled your modem to make sure it isn't your own network or any issues happening in/around your modem. There's a few things that need to be checked before we just go it's a server issue. Yes, there's a decent number of people having problems like this. However, something that strongly indicates that this is likely a problem that can be fixed by power cycling the modem, is the fact that the issue resolves itself after about a minute for these people.

A common problem behind what can cause very short intermittent disruptions on a network, and not impact everything you do, is static in the actual modem or wiring. The good news is, if this is the cause of the problem, power cycling the modem can fix this.

There were a number of similar issues reported today, but there was a massive Steam outage that caused the connection issues to the game server. However unlike the issue in this thread, the issues from earlier weren't resolved after a minute or so.

I'm just trying to rule out everything possible. The vast massive majority of internet problems are resolved from power cycling. Again, what's the harm in at least trying? It only takes 2 minutes. If it fixes the problem then great. Wouldn't it be better to at least try something to fix the problem if it really doesn't take very long at all, instead of complaining about it and not doing any troubleshooting what-so-ever, and claiming the problem can't be at your end, when nobody's tried power cycling yet. If you contact any technical support division for any company, or game developer, this will be one of the things that they would ask you. It would very likely be the next thing the Frontier team would suggest to Sanjo if they continued communication with them attempting to find further solution suggestions.