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184.107.107.176 isn't an XIV server either...that is an EIDOS webserver. It hosts sites mostly for IP's from that leg of Square-Enix. You get the same address if you ping things like eidos.com, justcause2.com, etc.---something like a dozen sites point there. That server is actually hosted on i-Web (not Ormuco) and in a different section of Montreal. If I remember right, there is actually a waterway between them.
The world services are actually clusters, and we get directed to a front end that has a bank of IP's to use. So, not everyone on the same world will necessarily be on the same IP address. I've tracked up to 3 different addresses in use at the same time amongst posters here who are also on Midgard. The assignment can change periodically (I've gone from 25 to 31 to 30 back to 31...have to check it periodically). The only addresses that have remained consistent have been the lobby servers, which are registered with DNS names (neolobby01.ffxiv.com through neolobby06.ffxiv.com, currently the odd ones are Japan and even are Canada, and Aether has consistently been neolobby02 on .74 for me).
Best way to know for certain is to look in the network sections of Resource Monitor (resmon.exe from search/run box) after you are fully logged into the game.
As for your friend that lives close to Montreal...proximity doesn't always equate to excellent connections when it comes to the internet. You can get routed to another city and then come back just to get to a server in your same town---or even the same street for that matter. Case in point:
Code:
Tracing route to XXXXXXXXXXX <oops...they might not like someone posting the actual address>
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms LPTSRV [10.10.100.1]
2 46 ms 21 ms 41 ms cpe-75-176-160-1.sc.res.rr.com [75.176.160.1]
3 22 ms 29 ms 30 ms cpe-024-031-198-005.sc.res.rr.com [24.31.198.5]
4 14 ms 15 ms 13 ms clmasoutheastmyr-rtr2.sc.rr.com [24.31.196.210]
5 28 ms 24 ms 25 ms be33.drhmncev01r.southeast.rr.com [24.93.64.180]
6 23 ms 42 ms 24 ms 24.93.67.99
7 26 ms 28 ms 26 ms ten3-0-0.fyvlncr-pe-rtr01.southeast.rr.com [24.93.73.42]
8 27 ms 27 ms 29 ms ten3-0-0.fyvlncr-p-rtr01.southeast.rr.com [24.93.73.81]
9 28 ms 30 ms 28 ms ten4-0-0.chrlncsa-pe-rtr01.southeast.rr.com [24.93.73.65]
10 26 ms 27 ms 26 ms ten2-0-0.clmascmhe-p-rtr1.southeast.rr.com [24.93.73.53]
11 27 ms 28 ms 31 ms lag3.twcc.clmascmhe-a2701.sc.rr.com [24.27.255.251]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 ^C
<hit their firewall...it is only open on specific ports>
That is a trace to a box in our county services department...one I physically delivered during the county's implementation of online tax payment services years ago. I can drive there in 8 minutes...but it is bouncing between South and North Carolina before it comes back to Florence, SC. Geolocation data is all messed up for it (Time Warner really needs to get it's act together)--some records state Myrtle Beach (business class service comes out of there sometimes, others will show up as Columbia), so the routing gets all jumbled up.
We've seen some issues with both alter.net (part of Verizon) and tinet/SPA up there in the past, so if he/she is coming in on one of their lines it could be flaky. Come to think of it...idk if the FiOS users up there ever got any decent relief either. They were lighting up forums last month big time for various things across the north east and a few other regions. Remember specifically the north east though, as the level3 exchanges up there were also in play, which have proven to be a big source of frustration in general for a long time now.
Toronto in general started showing weirdness tonight too. Wasn't any particular ISP though---the big three were all acting up (TATA, Cogent, Level3).
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While I'm a web developer and not a networking expert, I do understand everything you're discussing (although you no doubt know a great deal more about it than I do or ever will).
What you're saying, however, is still not adding up to the fact that literally everyone I have ever played this game with and everyone I currently play this game with, complains about the same thing: the lack of responsiveness from the game servers evidenced by raid environments where every player has to be exceedingly deliberate with every action and plan to play "around" the latency issue. In many respects, the strategies we implement in a raid environment are based around latency. Taking AS3 for example, it should be enough to say that, when the off-tank gets the damage up debuff from Digititis, he and a healer should simply run into each other and thus transfer the debuff. What we've had to do, however, is mark a designated spot and both of them, literally, run to that spot and stand within each other's hitbox for a solid 1-2s until the debuff finally transfers from the off-tank to the healer. Even if this was strictly a latency issue from the two players' PCs to the data center, it still would not account for the majority of this poor responsiveness.
Again, I repeat, I have raided in WoW at 200, 300, even 400ms before. The latency to the game server is listed right in the base UI for you. Even at such terrible latency, the responsiveness and crispness of the gameplay therein was a substantial improvement over what I see on a day to day basis in FFXIV.
If there is something specific and actionable you think I should try, I'm all for it but I have a feeling that, were it this simple, there wouldn't be such a vast collection of players suffering from the exact same issue and it wouldn't be so consistent as to be a 100% certainty every time we all log into the game.
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I don't have much other MMO experience but IMO the responsiveness of FFXIV is pretty lacking.
I play at 30ms just 600 km from the data center. I still have to use a VPN because anything over 10ms makes the input delay almost unbearable for me.
I think the example of having to pass debuffs is great because you are relying on the connection of two players on top of the update speed of the servers which really amplifies where the servers are lacking (update intervals)
I will be really interested how things will be when the EU servers go live. Hopefully SE can crank things up a bit when the subs are spread out over an additional server.