Lord of the Rings Online Forum

I had a issue with a black screen after i added my log and pass in pylotro.
the screen of lotro comes up, after a black screen.

i noticed that the black screen comes up only when im at the office,
when i come back home the game starts normal and pylotro works perfect.

is it related to the wifi/internet connection?
if so, what options do i have to change this black screen issue.?

thanks a lot!

Lunyor.

Lunyor wrote:

I had a issue with a black screen after i added my log and pass in
pylotro.
the screen of lotro comes up, after a black screen.

i noticed that the black screen comes up only when im at the office,

when i come back home the game starts normal and pylotro works
perfect.

is it related to the wifi/internet connection?
if so, what options do i have to change this black screen issue.?

Not likely WIFi/Internet, but probably CrossOver settings themselves. (I'm assuming the save version of CrossOver on both systems)

Check the settings on each respective bottle. Configure/Manage bottles/Control Panel - Wine Configuration.

Launch it and check the Graphics tab in particular.

... unless you are talking about the "pre-game Ad" screen. The normal opening sequence is:
1- PyLotRO login screen -- enter Uid and password
2- A black screen
3- Title screen (Receiving character data)
4- Turbine/WB Logo
5- The Pre-game ad screen (or a grey cross-hatched screen if you don't have the transition screens loaded)
6- The character selection screen.

Thanks again!
well let me be specific i think it can help more...
i uploaded a video showing the black screen process and then a small white window, that says "output" on the top of it.
http://youtu.be/1KHrnry-0Jo

the sequence is:

1- PyLotRO login screen -- enter Uid and password
2- A black screen
3- A small white window saying "output" on top of the black screen.

im using the same computer, so i believe the settings in pylotro and the pc are well.
cause when i go to the office i cant seem to play ( showing on the video, the process of the black screen)
but when i get home it works perfectly.

my only reasonable explanation says its the wife or router settings.
what do you think?

Cheers! and thanks again!

Ok finally know what happend!

its a router problem!
need to establish a specific setting on the router to allow the game to work!
thats why it worked in the office and not at home...

there u go!
if u guys have info on that, it will be greatly appreciated!

Lunyor wrote:

Ok finally know what happend!

its a router problem!
need to establish a specific setting on the router to allow the game
to work!
thats why it worked in the office and not at home...

That's strange. It's hard to believe that your home router would have more restrictive settings than those at the office -- or how they got that way.
Usually "work routers" specifically block ports to prevent gaming on company time.

Maybe your original diagnosis was more correct than you realized

Lunyor wrote:

my only reasonable explanation says its the wife or router settings.

Just making a quick check of the LOTRO/Turbine technical support and forums, the only references I'm finding are to Window's Firewall and to Acheron's call and DDO. Nothing about LOTRO requiring any ports (TCP or UDP) to be opened. Both AC and DDO are significantly older technologies than LOTRO.

setup exceptions for the following ports for DDO: 9000 through 9010,
and 2900 through 2910 as TCP/UDP port connections.

If that doesn't fix your problem... (You might also find more on the LOTRO Forums than I did as I only spent a couple of minutes hunting.)
Rather than your Wife, I would have no trouble blaming your ISP. :) One assumes that you have a different one at home than at work.

The relevant communications questions will be:
1- What is your connection type and ISP? DSL/Cable Verizon/Comcast etc.
2- What is your home "router" -- is it a Modem/Router combination (typical for Cable modems and Verizon DSL?

Example:
I have a DSL Line from Cavalier Telephone (Cavtel).
This connects to a DSL Modem, which in turn connects to an Apple Airport Extreme base station (the router).
My iMac connects via WiFi not direct ethernet.

In my case, I do not have any specific ports opened (Mapped) for either DDO or LOTRO use.

And one final note. I find it hard to believe that you can play the game at home, and get the funny "black screen" issue -- or are you saying that you never get past that black screen?

According to your video, you are at the point where the game client is connecting to the Turbine servers to download your current "state" information. You have successfully communicated with the Login Server, terminated PyLotRO and are running the Turbine Client at that point. The Turbine client actually has a brief dialog at the bottom of the screen about connecting..... then it pop-up the Character selection screen.

Appreciate the response and time dedicated to solving this weird issue...

YES! im saying i can play the game perfectly at home with no problems whatsoever.
when i go to the office (im using a Cisco/Linksys router in the office)
i get the Black Screen issue (like the one u see in the video)

im both places i connect via Wifi....

i did the port ranges changes on the office router but i still need the name of the application.
just dont know what to write on that field.

Thanks again!!!
Cheers!

Lunyor wrote:

Appreciate the response and time dedicated to solving this weird
issue...

YES! im saying i can play the game perfectly at home with no
problems whatsoever.
when i go to the office (im using a Cisco/Linksys router in the
office)
i get the Black Screen issue (like the one u see in the video)

im both places i connect via Wifi....

i did the port ranges changes on the office router but i still need
the name of the application.
just dont know what to write on that field.

Anything, call it LOTRO -- it's nothing but a comment field. Helps you identify(remember) what it is that port range applies to.

TCP pot 80
UDP ports 2900-2910, 9000-9010

Should work for both DDO and LOTRO

so heres what happend.
even when i tried changing the ports and UTPs and everything...
so finally decided to buy a new router and ir worked perfectly

apparently the reason for the black screen was connected to a issue with the router.
and since it was a old router (2004) it was a very high probability that it was because of that.

thanks for all the help!!
appreciated!

Hi,

Just to add my 2 cents to this problem:

I've exeperienced the exact same problem: At work I can log-in to Lotro no problem using CXG but once I get back home I just get the black screen right after entering my credentials in PyLOtRO (the Lotro logo quickly flashes up and the screen goes all black).

My office uses a VPN to access the office LAN and when I then connect VPN to my office and start up Lotro again, everything works fine!

So there's definately something weird networking going on.

The strange thing though is, that if I use BootCamp on the exact same Mac I can play Lotro without having to start up VPN on the Windows partition.
Both MacOS and Win7 uses DHCP and connects through the same wi-fi which is hosted through a Time Capsule.

Very strange..