Bad lag again with NTT's NA server network

At this point, I just need to convince everyone to raid after 1am, wonder how that will go.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0160/image.png

If this isn't fixed by the time the 6.4 patch comes out then I'll be filing a complain with the Better Business Bureau. Paying a monthly fee for a service that isn't usable due to technical problem on the companies end is unacceptable. Also their massive lack in keeping the customers updated couldn't be worse.

This is a problem that ANY competent NOC admin should have been able to fix within a few hours of it first happening.

I escalated my ticket again this morning asking if since they acknowledged there’s a problem if they have an ETA for it being fixed. If/when I hear back i’ll share it here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ntt_routing_is_an_issue

At this point, I just need to convince everyone to raid after 1am, wonder how that will go.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0160/image.png

---

I tried that with mine. Answer was "haha no".

It's beyond time to do something about this. Square Enix needs to turn the screws on NTT to get these issues with AT&T fixed. This issue is threatening to break up statics and friend groups who cannot even enjoy the game together.

Also the Sacramento servers are already starting to take a nosedive at 11:00 AM.

https://i.imgur.com/xLq14KV.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aerimisia

I received this as a reply to escalating my ticket:

Greetings,

Thanks for staying in contact with SQUARE ENIX Customer Support regarding a connectivity issue and we're glad you reached out to us.

We apologize for the inconvenience so far however, we do ask for your patience as we are doing the best we can to alleviate these recent connection issues, and are constantly working on optimizing registration and game servers to be the best they can be for our valued players and we will be taking this as a feedback to be forwarded to the appropriate party for review.


They say they’re working on it, I just don’t understand why they won’t be transparent about it and that I had to escalate a ticket four times and threaten unsubbing just to get this response from them…

---

Aye, they really need to refocus on being more open and communicative here in the forums and especially on social media.

Communication is essential to keeping people engaged and subscribed, and they are failing miserably in this regard, NDAs be damned.

Seems to have started today.

Day 6 of being unable to play the game.

Code:

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6    5 ms    7 ms    8 ms  ae-5.a00.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.237]
7    6 ms    8 ms    7 ms  ae-2.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.9]
8    85 ms    82 ms    89 ms  ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
9  112 ms    86 ms    93 ms  ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
10    97 ms    79 ms    82 ms  ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
11    93 ms    89 ms    93 ms  xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
12    91 ms    *      80 ms  204.2.29.241
13    92 ms    90 ms    92 ms  204.2.29.6

---

Also been have the issue for almost a week now. AT&T in Ky here.

We're on day 6 of this problem now. From a customers point of view, this seems to be the new normal for AT&T Internet users if they wish to play FF14 on the NA servers. Unless you play the game between 2am and 10am EST, you will get on average 15-20% packet loss.

https://i.imgur.com/WrxShAP.png

Since someone mentioned my graphs weren't helpful, heres raw MTR output for a 30 min sample

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7764/image.png

Nearly a 40 page thread. Nearly a week of this issue. One vague tweet about it.
This game is amazing and I have loved it to death for 10 years but the support and communication are F tier.

If you aren't held hostage by a house, cancel your sub. Don't recommend the game to anyone. Not until this is fixed.
I'm the biggest, most biased fanboy I know in regards to this game, but this is beyond the pale.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aerimisia

I escalated my ticket again this morning asking if since they acknowledged there’s a problem if they have an ETA for it being fixed. If/when I hear back i’ll share it here.

---

You're going to get a boilerplate, canned "Thank you for your patience, unfortunately we cannot give you an estimate but we are totally working on it, for real" response.

I wish I could vpn, but I'm on console

Quote:

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Unfortunately NTT does not have an ETA for the US peering congestion with AT&T. This issue has been escalated to the highest
technical levels within NTT to try to alleviate the congestion as much as possible, however the root of the issue cannot be fixed
without additional capacity. Our peering team is still in communications with AT&T with the hopes of increasing capacity, however,
due to NDA we are unable to disclose specifics.

---

This makes me wonder... they need additional capacity and it's protected under NDA. Someone took the lowest cost option and needs to shell out some more cash to resolve, but is it AT&T or NTT.

BF and I (same house) have tried several things:
- me running usb tether hotspot from my phone (unfortunately i use ATT wireless for my phone) and had same issue, same tracert drops
- BF bought a wireless adapter for his desktop PC so he can tether his verizon wireless hotspot to his computer. Logged in at 3:30 PM EST today with VERIZON WIRELESS HOTSPOT from his phone and there were no issues in LIMSA. Going to try again later tonight during primetime EST.
Our tracerts still look like this from my ATT FIBER side:
8 12 ms 11 ms 12 ms ae-8.r25.atlnga05.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.66]
9 27 ms 27 ms 33 ms ae-6.r21.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.116]
10 26 ms 26 ms * ae-1.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.54]
11 107 ms 118 ms * ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
12 116 ms 123 ms 116 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
13 116 ms 116 ms 116 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
14 117 ms 117 ms * xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
15 * * 116 ms 204.2.29.241
16 117 ms 116 ms 116 ms 204.2.29.122

Seventh day for me, as I had noticeable lag in Orthos on Saturday. It's gotten worse since then and the game is completely unplayable unless i sit alone in a room and look pretty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ntt_routing_is_an_issue

This makes me wonder... they need additional capacity and it's protected under NDA. Someone took the lowest cost option and needs to shell out some more cash to resolve, but is it AT&T or NTT.

---

Where's that snippet from? I don't see a lodestone post unless I'm missing it.

Day 6.
Adding my traces to the hat... I've provided the full trace on the SQEX support form.
AT&T Fiber in OKC, being routed through DFW, with latency/packet drops once it gets in to NTT's network.
I love this game, but SQEX's lack of response toward something that is making the game unplayable is unacceptable.

6 10 ms 7 ms 7 ms 32.130.25.65
7 8 ms 8 ms 19 ms ae-5.a00.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.237]
8 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms ae-2.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.9]
9 86 ms 85 ms 85 ms ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
10 * 98 ms 94 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
11 94 ms 94 ms 94 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
12 95 ms 95 ms 95 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * 94 ms 94 ms 204.2.29.122


6 11 ms 7 ms 7 ms 32.130.25.65
7 25 ms 27 ms 33 ms ae-5.a00.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.237]
8 14 ms 14 ms 15 ms ae-2.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.9]
9 * * 89 ms ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
10 97 ms 109 ms 98 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
11 98 ms * 105 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
12 99 ms 99 ms 99 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
13 * 97 ms * 204.2.29.241
14 97 ms 97 ms 97 ms 204.2.29.6 ((Aether DC))

Wish I knew the game was unplayable before subbing a couple days ago. Hopefully things get sorted out for the 6.4 raid tier.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

Where's that snippet from? I don't see a lodestone post unless I'm missing it.

---

It's an email reply from NTT that somebody received and posted on the FFXIV subeddit about 6 hours ago.

The subreddit is awful. I tried to make a post about this and basically got told 'It's AT&T's fault, why are you posting this here? SE doesn't owe you anything, nothing they can do'

I've been having this issue since the evening of 5/15. I tried using the AVG Secure VPN that comes with AVG Ultimate, and it seems to work to reduce my tracert pings. What I don't understand is why. It seems to use different nodes, but why does it do that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by n_n

It's an email reply from NTT that somebody received and posted on the FFXIV subeddit about 6 hours ago.

---

It's actually an email reply I received from NTT when I emailed them, but if someone from reddit got the same, at least they know it's an issue.

At least they do. But NDAs or not, still unacceptable that they have to rely on a capacity enhancement to fix it.

They need to get it done ASAP. No excuses, no BS. Just... do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uno_Amaretto

You're going to get a boilerplate, canned "Thank you for your patience, unfortunately we cannot give you an estimate but we are totally working on it, for real" response.

---

I'm not even holding my breath for a real answer honestly. I'm just doing it to try and help keep pressure on them to do something. It's definitely wishful thinking that it'll make any kind of difference but at least I feel like I'm doing something

In short, using a VPN does use different routing to different nodes, yes.

A VPN has been proven to be a workaround for this issue, but of course, your mileage may vary depending on both the VPN and your location.

The fact that AVG Ultimate has a VPN as part of that package is a good alternative, so keep using that if it works for now.

EDIT: According to page 1 of this thread, PIA VPN as well as Cloudflare WARP have been proven to work, as well.
I've tested both, and I can confirm both are the case, but I've had a smoother experience with the paid PIA VPN compared to the free Cloudflare WARP. Had a couple of disconnects yesterday using WARP, and have had no issues with PIA at any of the Midwest/Mountain locations mentioned there. If you can spare at least 1 to 2 months of a VPN sub, I'd recommend shopping around for the time being. Don't forget to cancel or turn off auto-renew whenever that's no longer needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uno_Amaretto

The subreddit is awful. I tried to make a post about this and basically got told 'It's AT&T's fault, why are you posting this here? SE doesn't owe you anything, nothing they can do'

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When I was talking about it in my FC, someone there also tries to say that as well. These people don't understand that ATT doesn't just sell residential internet services but also to businesses and VERY LARGE datacenters. In fact, ATT is one of the larges Internet backbones in America. They could literally flip a few switches and turn off half the Internet for America and hell, the world.

SE pays NTT for hosting. NTT buys large network links from providers like AT&T. SE is the ones that need to be riding the backs of NTT 24/7 demanding this gets fixed and fixed now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jenna_Leowulf

I've been having this issue since the evening of 5/15. I tried using the AVG Secure VPN that comes with AVG Ultimate, and it seems to work to reduce my tracert pings. What I don't understand is why. It seems to use different nodes, but why does it do that?

---

That's just what VPNs do. They take your connection and make a sort of "shortcut" tunnel through the internet that's secured to some other place. Then your connection spits you out of the tunnel at that physical location to make it appear as if that's where you're using the internet from. So in my case all my connections are being routed through the DFW nodes of NTT, but when I use my VPN, the internet thinks I'm browsing from Chicago. Thus it takes a different path to the SE servers in California and doesn't get caught up in the traffic from DFW to LA that's causing all the lag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jerkhov

I wish I could vpn, but I'm on console

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Technically you can, but it's a pain in the butt since you'll have to set up the VPN on your router. There are links online on how to do this, and most VPN providers that support it should have a tutorial somewhere. Just make sure to use a trustworthy VPN and not some "free" VPN service.

Another option which you might wanna try is changing up your DNS settings on your console. In your connection settings, you should be able to change your primary DNS to cloudflare's warp which might help alleviate the problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLSeNvKqy2U

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jerkhov

I wish I could vpn, but I'm on console

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Same. I've tried all the work arounds I've found on google, and all of them fail if you have the AT&T router because they don't allow you to add a VPN to it. None of the DNS servers i've come across have worked either. As a last effort I tried also connecting my ps5 to my laptop via ethernet to use my laptop's vpn but it also keeps failing. Maybe someone smarter than me could help me figure that one out but every time I create a bridge it fails. It feels hopeless for console </3

I bit the bullet and got a VPN. I'm so sorry for everyone on console. This sucks :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

I bit the bullet and got a VPN. I'm so sorry for everyone on console. This sucks :(

---

Aye, us PC players should be lucky that VPNs are easy to purchase and install on our rigs.

PS4/PS5 players, my heart goes out to you. But, if you can find a way to install a VPN on your router or gateway, by all means. Just be sure you know what you're doing.

After talking with a friend about this situation, we both agree that NTT's been more communicative via emails about it than both AT&T and SE. That's... not exactly great.

Hi day 7 prime time update: it's 7 PM EST here so not even 8 PM EST yet and we're getting the bad tracerts again.
As with the past few days, ATT Fiber

8 12 ms 11 ms 12 ms ae-8.r25.atlnga05.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.66]
9 27 ms 30 ms 28 ms ae-6.r21.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.116]
10 30 ms 28 ms 31 ms ae-1.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.54]
11 108 ms 108 ms * ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
12 117 ms 116 ms 116 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
13 116 ms 116 ms 116 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
14 * 117 ms * xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 116 ms 117 ms 116 ms 204.2.29.122

ATT refuses to help me any further until I give them 100$ (have a tech come out and shrug).
I'm beyond upset, at my wits end with this. I can't do *anything* in the game at all besides stand around and watch people hang in the air when they jump, or rush at me suddenly because of lag. It's horrible. This is awful and I cry every night honestly as childish as that sounds. SE needs to fix this NTT needs to fix this ATT needs to fix this. I'm tired of putting on a network engineer hat to fix this issue for them and then they just don't listen, communicate, or actively fix it in a timely manner. It's been over 7 days for some, 7 days solid for me where I can't play this game unless I just use it as "look at my character standing here".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CosmicDare

This is awful and I cry every night honestly as childish as that sounds.

---

/hug

I feel you, and it's not childish at all. This game is very important to a lot of people. Playing this game with my friends is a very fulfilling part of my life and the reality of them not being able to play at 6.4 launch with me hurts.

Everything about this sucks, and it feels like a slap in the face that all we've gotten is a dismissive tweet. Not important enough for Lodestone, I guess.

Saturday May 20, 2023 - South FL - Dish (ATT Fiber) 5:50 am
Tracing route to 204.2.229.116 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 * 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 10 ms 11 ms 7 ms 10.40.159.1
3 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms 12.244.143.181
4 13 ms 15 ms 23 ms 12.123.6.38
5 11 ms 15 ms 15 ms fldfl401igs.ip.att.net [12.122.155.169]
6 31 ms 18 ms 19 ms 192.205.35.118
7 29 ms 23 ms 18 ms ae-0.r22.miamfl02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.5]
8 45 ms 42 ms 41 ms ae-8.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.219]
9 76 ms 68 ms 68 ms ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
10 79 ms 76 ms 80 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
11 111 ms 82 ms 79 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
12 78 ms 79 ms 85 ms xe-1-0-4-2.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
13 80 ms 79 ms 77 ms 204.2.229.230

Every node after 13 times out - playable

Saturday May 20, 2023 - South FL - Dish (ATT Fiber) 7:56 pm
Tracing route to 204.2.229.116 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 * 2 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 10 ms 10 ms 6 ms 10.40.159.1
3 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms 12.244.143.181
4 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms 12.123.6.38
5 18 ms 15 ms 15 ms fldfl401igs.ip.att.net [12.122.155.169]
6 33 ms 38 ms 40 ms 192.205.35.118
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 40 ms 44 ms 40 ms ae-8.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.219]
9 133 ms 143 ms 161 ms ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
10 130 ms 127 ms 127 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
11 131 ms 137 ms 134 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
12 143 ms 131 ms * xe-1-0-4-2.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
13 139 ms * 134 ms 204.2.229.230

Every node after 13 times out - all "battle" activities unplayable

My opinion; SE has moved on...acceptable losses. Diablo IV comes out shortly, meantime looks like Last Epoch for me. Sub cancel likely pending.

I am so frustrated because of course this happens as I am trying to get my friend into the game. Even more frustrated that I can't enjoy the game. I feel for everyone upset by this ridiculous situation. :( I really don't want to pay for a VPN or bother with free trials that I will have to remember to cancel. We should just be able to play the game. Technical issues happen, but silence from SE is what is making this even worse. I don't think enough people will cancel their subscriptions to make them care, though. I hope I'm wrong.

I am cynical here and believe they have calculated the potential lost revenue and deemed it acceptable. RONA on time investment to see this through deemed marginal. I personally will NOT pay a sub to a VPN so I can pay a Sub to play the game.

Nah, take that cynicism out of here.

Fight. Quitters go the way of 1.0.

Not quitting "yet" just saying what I feel. It is an opinion and I hope I'm wrong. I'll be paying attention right up to 6.4. Already spent the $$ anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Janyd

Nah, take that cynicism out of here.

Fight. Quitters go the way of 1.0.

---

Look, I appreciate the optimism, but there is a difference between cynicism and realism.
What do you mean by 'Fight'? Dozens of people have submitted reports. The companies involved have been contacted. They won't acknowledge the issue on the Lodestone, even.
What else do you expect us to do other than hope for the best but be prepared to cancel payment for a service we are not receiving?

These are billion dollar companies that don't care about us. The only power we have is to not give them money.

I've been paying attention to this thread in hopes of another response from Square but apparently that isn't happening. Does anyone know a way to contact ATT so I can send them something? I'm aware that the issue is stemming from most likely NTT, but I'd rather tell ATT to stop being bad and work.

Regarding VPN's. If you don't want to subscribe to really bad price models or something, please use Mudfish. I am personally using Mudfish and I paid $3 for 30 GB of data. As it stands, that 30 GB of data is like several months of playtime. Probably half a year if I'm being honest.

If you use a VPN, you can also see how, even if you connect to an east coast server like Chicago or New York, NTT plays kindly with your traffic. But if you turn off your VPN, NTT is, in my opinion, quite obviously routing it through specific nodes forcing bad network quality.

I also agree that Square needs to light a fire under NTT for being so terribad that this node related issue has apparently been a thing for an entire decade.