200+ Ping every night around 10PM EST.

Like the title says, almost every night at roughly 10PM EST, my ping to the Aether servers jumps to approx. 200+ ping when I normally get about 80+. Visual tracerouts show my traffic going from the East coast, straight to the west coast, and for some reason, goes to either Illinois or the UK! for no reason except to give me 200+ ping. It's not my ISP because I have been talking with them for the past few months with nothing that they can do fixing it, and it is literally only FFXIV that is effected when it happens. The image is a sample of the high ping traffic, and I will try to secure more examples when I can.

https://imgur.com/a/VmpPsC4

Looks to me like you're suffering from the same issue most people, myself included, suffer from in the pinned NA data center thread since your tracert only shows issues once it crosses into their network. There isn't anything you can do about it really other than use a VPN because in my case this started being a thing only a few weeks into Stormblood.

It's just their ISP, NTT, having severe congestion or routing problems which is usually accompanied by packet loss. I'm not sure when or if they'll ever actually address this problem.

At one point one VPN I used reported up to a 60% connection improvement to FFXIV. That effectively makes this data center location laggier for me than when it was in its old location in Canada. That is wrong in so many ways.

I thankfully have a VPN that I have to turn on every night when the latency starts, only for FF mind you, and I figured it was a routing issue closer to their end. I had a smoother connection going to their old servers when I was located in Hawaii than I do now going from East Coast to West Coast.

Hello Ixon, Thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Can you elaborate on the kind of issue you are having?

Please provide:

- Platform (PC, PS4, Mac)
- the nature of the latency
- Type of connection (wired or wireless)
- Other programs running while the game is playing (if any)
- Everything you have tried to resolve the issue

Please be aware that Final Fantasy XIV requires a more demanding connection than many other websites and applications. Additionally, your ISP may take you through a certain route to get you to the XIV server and a different route to other websites, meaning you might run into problems with one service but not another simply because of the path your internet chooses to get there.

Thank you for playing Final Fantasy XIV! Hope to see you online.

- Platform: PC
- Nature(?): Sporadic 200+ ping jumps around 10PM EST only seeming to afect FFXIV
- Connection: Wired
- Other Programs: Usually Discord and Chrome, though I have had closed all programs minus FFXIV in the past as a test, but the issue remained
- Everything Else: Restart PC, restart router, clear internet history, caches, and cookies, ipconfig /iprelease, ipconfig /iprenew, multiple sessions with my ISP where they would tell me to do all of the aforementioned. When all else fails, I use a VPN service to a node in California.

Thank you for the update Ixon.

Can you provide a trace route while using the VPN?

Do you ever get disconnected from the game during these times, or is it simply the unusually high ping?

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

At work now so will try to provide the traceroute route later, but I use VPN Unlimited with a node located in Los Angeles.

I don't get disconnected during those times, just 200+ ping spikes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ixon

At work now so will try to provide the traceroute route later, but I use VPN Unlimited with a node located in Los Angeles.

I don't get disconnected during those times, just 200+ ping spikes.

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Thank you for your response. Look forward to assisting you when requested information is provided.

Thank you for playing Final Fantasy XIV! Hope to see you online.

I have some more information for you with screenshots as requested. First images are traceroutes from my IP to the Aether server and bonus picture map of me going to the UK with no VPN:

https://imgur.com/a/cDGhkpI
https://imgur.com/a/RjILJH9
https://imgur.com/a/pCJ6FLL

Next is a couple images of traceroutes within the VPN, though I am getting 100ping tonight and I usually get aroud 80+ with the VPN:

https://imgur.com/a/3rxo9Fv
https://imgur.com/a/NCX2zWk

As you can see from the images above the high latency starts at 129.250.5.193 and gets worse at 129.250.6.237, IP's that I circumvent by utilizing the VPN.

Edit:
Weirdly enough, I ran another non-VPN traceroute 15 min later, and even though I go through the same path as the above two images, my ping is closer to 90's, showing how spontaneous and sporadic it is. However, just like the other two images, the latency kicks up a notch hitting the aforementioned IP's. Image below:

https://imgur.com/a/TqqdNiL

Thank you for the information Ixon.

You are definitely getting mixed results here. Does this only happen at the times your specified (10PM EST)? Before we continue, I'd like to suggest a few things that may improve the situation.

Make sure your anti-virus/firewall has the appropriate exceptions for FFXIV.

Disable any programs running in the background.

Perform a clean boot. Simply open the task manager and select the 'Start up' Tab. Disable everything here and restart the PC.

Check the following Port Ranges on your router/modem to ensure that the following Port Ranges have been opened/forwarded/triggered:
▼TCP
54992 through 54994,
55006 through 55007,
55021 through 55040

Your ISP may forward these ports for you.*

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!