Still with the OnLive

Given the fun I've had simply trying to login with OnLive that at least seems to have settled down and is consistently identifying me correctly. Shame then that I still can't get in.

"An Error Has Occurred
Unable to contact the OnLive Game Service. Please check support.onlive.com for details. a512"

Yeah fat lot of good that is. So why can't it connect? Well it would help if I knew exactly what it was trying to connect to. Neatly enough I can find out using the built-in tools that comes with Windows. First of all I run Task Manager (right-click task bar) and under the Processes tab ensure that View|Select Columns PID (Process Identifier) is ticked. Then I run a command prompt (cmd) and type in netstat -p tcp -o When run this will display all the TCP connections and the PID that initiated them. Finally I run the OnLive launcher. When that tries to connect I hit enter on my netstat command. Switch to Task Manager and check the PID for onlive.exe. Match the PID to the connection and I get the dotted quad TCP address that it's trying to connect to. Now to find the blockage.

While in the command prompt I use tracert 74.85.150.207 which is the number I got from netstat. This will try to connect to that address and show me the routers it passes through to get there. In the end I run the same trace with a slightly different number as OnLive seems to try different connections but the result is roughly the same.

I reach onlive-15.border3.ext1.dal.pnap.net or onlive-14.border8.wdc002.pnap.net essentially something with OnLive's name on it and can go no further. It seems OnLive's servers aren't routing traffic onward.

Now they may be down, they may be faulty, or they may simply be swamped. In any case I can't connect.

Oh now I'm connecting and hey the Marketplace is now working. I pick Divinity II as a Free Trial. I get 30 minutes and annoying that includes the the (skippable) cut scene and character creation. Or at least it would if I could read the text. Video quality is atrocious, the mouse jumps about as I try to select things and it's basically unplayable.

Now I am connecting wirelessly and it does throw up a warning box about this; so is this my fault? I'm on a 54Mbit wireless connection and Speedtest gives me a 45ms ping with a 4.7Mbit/sec download so you tell me.

According to the FAQ recommended is a 5Mbit/sec connection so yeah I'm not quite there; but if I check out USwitch's StreetStats and plug in my postcode no-one's getting much above 5Mbits/sec. Beyond those on cable is anyone?