LAG Making FFXIV Unplayable

Hi,

Right around 7 PM EST I am plagued with lag that makes the game unplayable... this time it got so bad the game won't load... I'm on PC using a Comcast connection. Other players I have talked to have stated they are dealing with the same thing. Just putting it out there;)

Thanks.

Yep It's been happening to me too. Can't even run my dungeons and maps are touchy right now. So annoying!

Same, everyone is stutter stepping their butt's
off right now

Are you expecting SE to fix Comcast's terrible service? They own congressmen, I don't think SE is going to have much luck strong-arming them into fixing their hub routing issues. If it was really on SE's end you'd see more than a few complaint threads, basically the entire first page would be "FIX YOUR SERVERS!!!!!!"

While it totally sucks you'd be better off raising the issue collectively with your ISP, barring that if you are on PC there are workarounds for the terrible hub routing many ISPs toss at us, if you are on console... good luck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wobi

Are you expecting SE to fix Comcast's terrible service? They own congressmen, I don't think SE is going to have much luck strong-arming them into fixing their hub routing issues. If it was really on SE's end you'd see more than a few complaint threads, basically the entire first page would be "FIX YOUR SERVERS!!!!!!"

While it totally sucks you'd be better off raising the issue collectively with your ISP, barring that if you are on PC there are workarounds for the terrible hub routing many ISPs toss at us, if you are on console... good luck.

---

Teach this work around sorcery you speak of please!!!!!

Cox cable had same problems in past. From what I remember, level3.net (which comcast uses too i think) which is how many people in USA route to Canada's data center, is VERY laggy.

I'm not sure if it got better or what happened, but my lag went away months ago. You can always try one of those routing programs to see if it can fix your latency. I think wtfast is a popular one.

Since the way it works is you don't directly connect to the data center, you just hop through all kinds of networks, like all the various streets you might take on a cross country trip, a routing software would make you take a different path to the server. It's something I hate explaining cause it it sounds totally dumb when I explain it.

But yea, if what I said made no sense, find a better nerd to explain it since my explanation sucks. :P But finding a better route to the data center, through your existing ISP would probably fix it for you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by birdy_reene

Same, everyone is stutter stepping their butt's
off right now

---

I thought butts were removed in ARR

A bunch of 90k just now too don't know if its the same thing.

Sounds like I should definitely take a nap now then instead of logging on...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wobi

If it was really on SE's end you'd see more than a few complaint threads, basically the entire first page would be "FIX YOUR SERVERS!!!!!!"

---

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nter%29/page14

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...latency-issues

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...latency-issues

It's alway been the same hours that the game become lag and unplayable. I try other game, test my Internet speed and connection and its more then fine.

I think it's the game server itself. It's very annoying. Imagine when the game get more popular :eek: Upgrade your server SE. You are the 2nd biggest p2p MMO out there right now.

Yeah i don't know but they going to have to do something. They can't let this keep going on. The easiest thing would be to just move the servers out of middle of nowhere canada. Almost everyone in US has comcast internet lol. It's not going to take long before people get tired of dealing with huge lag during primetime and start playing other stuff. I have a 30 day free trial of WTFast going atm and its fixing the issure but I'm not going to want to pay an additional 5 dollars on top of my sub every month just to play the game. So hopefully they fix this in the next 30 days :/

Quote:

---

Ping statistics for 199.91.189.23 (Cactuar):
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 80, Lost = 20 (20% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 49ms, Maximum = 295ms, Average = 87ms

---

There's nothing or not much Square Enix can realistically do. Its a Level 3 issue because they are overloaded and Comcast are using those Level 3 hops to the Montreal servers. I've really given up playing much of this game between the hours of 7 to 10 PM EST because of it.

It starts at 7 PM each day and that's the only consistent thing I've been noticing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tisharu

It's alway been the same hours that the game become lag and unplayable. I try other game, test my Internet speed and connection and its more then fine.

I think it's the game server itself. It's very annoying. Imagine when the game get more popular :eek: Upgrade your server SE. You are the 2nd biggest p2p MMO out there right now.

---

Internet speed tests is not viable for game speeds, they are 2 different things. SE servers are fine. Every game has different ports and connection routes, how your isp handles connecting to servers is the issue. There is little to nothing the devs can do on their side, it's up to you to decide whether you want to change isp's or try a vpn service.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whocareswhatmynameis

So hopefully they fix this in the next 30 days :/

---

Wishful thinking, but that won't happen. Your best bet is to either change your isp or continue using vpn services.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whocareswhatmynameis

Yeah i don't know but they going to have to do something. They can't let this keep going on. The easiest thing would be to just move the servers out of middle of nowhere canada. Almost everyone in US has comcast internet lol. It's not going to take long before people get tired of dealing with huge lag during primetime and start playing other stuff. I have a 30 day free trial of WTFast going atm and its fixing the issure but I'm not going to want to pay an additional 5 dollars on top of my sub every month just to play the game. So hopefully they fix this in the next 30 days :/

---

Exactly where in Canada is the server? I've always wondered this, I can hardly do anything myself currently with the lag spike.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jetstream_Fox

Exactly where in Canada is the server? I've always wondered this, I can hardly do anything myself currently with the lag spike.

---

The servers are located in Montreal, just for Aether and Primal data centers that is.

same can't do anything at prime time

I'm just logging off from 8:00-10:00 pm (Eastern time) anymore. That's prime time for me, but it's just not worth the aggravation from extreme lag and disconnects.

I have Comcast, but the issue starts with Level3.net, with a series of Request Timed Out.

Easy to understand way of putting this.

SE's servers = A racetrack.

Your internet = a ferrari.

Level 3 nodes that a lot of people have to go through = rush hour traffic.

Your ferrari can go 200+ MPH/KPH, but it can only go as fast as traffic allows it, and if theres heavy traffic on the way to the racetrack, you aren't getting there fast.

I just ran a traceroute about 10-15% packet loss on the last 3 hops to the servers. This is causing a huge amount of lag during prime usage times. This isn't going to stop until the servers are moved to a data center that has better routing to it.

SE can you please look at moving the NA servers out of Montreal, Canada. Almost anywhere in the lower US would work better. Due to the poor network infrastructure and routing most ISPs have to Montreal there are going to continue to be times where hops get overloaded and can't handle the traffic.

http://i.imgur.com/8TUN7J6.jpg

I'm so glad I found this thread. I'm experiencing the same thing on a nightly basis from 7:00PM through prime time. No problems whatsoever before hand. It's not my cable service: I'm streaming youtube, netflix, and am on skype simultaneously. The only thing suffering is FFXIV on Jenova. This lag is catastrophic.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zumi

I just ran a traceroute about 10-15% packet loss on the last 3 hops to the servers. This is causing a huge amount of lag during prime usage times. This isn't going to stop until the servers are moved to a data center that has better routing to it.

SE can you please look at moving the NA servers out of Montreal, Canada. Almost anywhere in the lower US would work better. Due to the poor network infrastructure and routing most ISPs have to Montreal there are going to continue to be times where hops get overloaded and can't handle the traffic.

http://i.imgur.com/8TUN7J6.jpg

---

Yes, my Request Time Outs begin with the Baltimore.Level3 to Montreal.Level3 hop. Every night, like clockwork, for 2-3 hours during prime time, extreme lag and disconnects. This is ongoing for me and my Free Company mates along with apparently a great many others. I think this is a sufficiently serious and widespread issue that SE need to address in the very near future.

I really don't understand why people are complaining to Squeenix about this even after it's explained that it's Level3's problem.

Sure, Squeenix could move their server from montreal (which is where their canadian subsidiaries is located) to say, mexico or something, but it's like you're having a restaurant and people complained to you that the road there from their neighborhood is now full of potholes, so you move your whole restaurant somewhere else for that one specific neighborhood.

I mean, it might work on some cases (say, if your restaurant is small and the specific neighborhood is 90% of your consumer), but I don't think it's that easy in this case.

I would just like to encourage people who are having this problem to post in the tech suppprt thread on this forum.

As others have said it is most likely an issue with Level3. Using a VPN you can get around this, but that's not an optimal solution for many people.

Probably the only way this will be dealt with is through corporate dialogue, and SE is only going to reach out to Comcast and/or Level3 when the complaints reach a fever pitch.

More and more people do seem to be experiencing this as time goes on. I know my static raids during the exact time that these problems get really bad, and we can't really go later because we have EU members and we can't go earlier because our NA people have work/school. So, every raid night we end up having to either call it early or repeatedly replace people as the game becomes unplayable for some. It's incredibly frustrating.

But I wonder will Comcast care really? Even the federal government can't really make them listen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fri

But I wonder will Comcast care really? Even the federal government can't really make them listen.

---

http://www.vox.com/business-and-fina...ts-comcast-bad

Going to vote "NO" on that one.

I feel pretty bad for those that Comcast is the only option.

customercare@level3.com

Email your tracerts there. Flood their inbox.

To the people asking Square to move the servers ... seriously? You think they are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to move the servers? During that time none of us would be able to play. I don't see them ever moving the servers. Just not worth the money.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ArcMoon

Yes, my Request Time Outs begin with the Baltimore.Level3 to Montreal.Level3 hop. Every night, like clockwork, for 2-3 hours during prime time, extreme lag and disconnects. This is ongoing for me and my Free Company mates along with apparently a great many others. I think this is a sufficiently serious and widespread issue that SE need to address in the very near future.

---

Yeah, most of my time and packet loss happens in level3's domain.

Having the same issue. Never had lag issues before (since launch), but started getting it bad enough around patch 3.15 that I had to leave my static. This last week I've been 90k'd out of the game by 7:15 EST and can't get back in until after prime time. My trace routes are showing the same as everyone else: massive packet loss at Level 3 hops. All I'm doing these days is cycling Ventures and doing GC turn is around lunch time, then logging. I won't be continuing my subscription after this pay period due to this stuff.

I'm having unrelated connection issues myself (Cox going dumb at primetime nightly). Do you guys have 4g/smartphone plans with tethering/hotspots allowed? Last time I tracked it, I used 7MB in 45 minutes of play. I use way more of my data browsing the internet - daily use it not a strain. I've raided A1S with no lag issues while on 4G. Worth a shot for those with lag.

Yeah just saying I work for Comcast....I feel dirty but its a job and its work from home.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AlphaFox

Yeah just saying I work for Comcast....I feel dirty but its a job and its work from home.

---

My wife does as well. She routinely hides anything branded when we go out for fear of getting grief for it.

The ultra low cost cable and internet helps soothe the pain though.

Edit: And the look on AT&T door to door sales people's faces does too. "No really, I'm sure you can't offer us a lower price"

Only reason I really don't complain, I work for them so they HAVE to make sure my stuff works great and at fair price. Granted I do get the hiccups around 6pm for me but if its cus of comcast or server I really can't say. I mean I never had the issue till just a month or so ago, but I've also since moved from the internet portion of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AlphaFox

Only reason I really don't complain, I work for them so they HAVE to make sure my stuff works great and at fair price. Granted I do get the hiccups around 6pm for me but if its cus of comcast or server I really can't say. I mean I never had the issue till just a month or so ago, but I've also since moved from the internet portion of them.

---

Your mileage may vary, for me the problem child was the hops through level 3's equipment. Which sucks because there isn't much I can do about it.