Q: How is the data on this site collected?
A: I took the approach of gathering data from multiple sources.
  • Collect the server status that FFXIV reports for its own servers.
  • Ping all game servers (lobby and game servers).
  • Check open ports on game servers (aka: I portscan the game servers).
Q: Why have separate "Server Status" and "IP Status" pages?
A: Knowing which game server is running on a given IP/port is extremely time-consuming to figure out (and the IPs change regularly). So instead I split up the 2 pages to present you the information gathered to let you figure out if there is a possible problem with your server. Though, a datacenter (Aether, Choas, etc...) tend to all go down at once from what I'm able to measure. I rarely see a single server having problems.
Q: Can you explain how status is reported on the "Server Status" page?
A: This is a 3 part answer:

Realms: It's the best guess about the status of a given realm within a region. If the ping results are too high for 1 or more hosts, or I have problems connecting to the game ports for multiple servers, I mark all realms within a group as having problems. The only time an individual realm is marked as degraded or offline is when FFXIV reports it as offline.

Datacenter: each datacenter has a single server that handles login (once you're in the game client), realm selection, displaying your characters on a realm, and creating new characters. I highlight the name of the datacenter with the guessed status of that lobby server.

Global Services: I display status for the Login and Gate servers. Login is where you type in your username and password. I report if this page loads successfully. The gate server isn't actually a server in the flow of logging in, rather it shows general status that FFXIV reports to the game client. If the "gate server" is down, the FFXIV client prevents people from logging in.

Q: Can you explain how status is reported on the "IP Status" page?
A: Global and Datacenter status is similar to the Server Status described previously. The difference on this page is that I list all the possible server IPs for a given datacenter/region. Not all of these IPs will be used at a given time, but when a realm reboots (like for patches) it can move to any of the IP addresses in this list. I report the status of all IPs to help you know if any server in the group may be having issues.

Ping times shown here are the round-trip time from is.xivup.com to each of the FFXIV game servers. If any of the pings are over 200ms, it's likely there are issues with the internet between this server and the game servers. This can help show potential problems with the game servers.

Q: Who are you?
A: Back before Final Fantasy XIV launched, I ran a fansite called ff14news.com (archive.org snapshot of the site), which had a server status tracker for it. After being heavily disappointed in the original release of the game, I disappeared.
Q: How can I contact this site's owner?
A: Email me at kyrra@xivup.com.