To play, is patcher still required?

[Arley McFarley]

Sorry if this post is answered somewhere else. I couldn't find an answer in the patcher forum.

I have my family up and running on our own server, v4.3, and on Winter's Roar. We patched way back when and have not had to patch since to play.

I'm trying to get a friend online now. He's installed all his EQ CDs and patched at EQLive. I told him he needed to run the EQPatcher, but he gets a "cannot connect" when he runs it.

I checked the FAQs and the How To Play FAQ at

http://www.everquestserver.com/forum...pic.php?t=9649

doesn't mention running the patcher.

To play only, is it still necessary to run the patcher?

I get the impression the patcher is now used for something else.

Thanks, in advance, for clarificaton.

Arley