Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-25071275-20151004201011/@comment-5613590-20151005033049

It may be because of your summoning range. If you and your friend have soul memories that are too far apart from eachother you won't be able to connect. As for summon signs and invasions, I can't think of any reason for that other than 1)  the server is being weird, or 2) there just happens to not be a lot of other people on at the same time and same place as you.