The internet doesn't want me to play this game

Details that could maybe help? I dunno.

I have Spectrum internet. I have the best one they offer. In my area nothing else is feasible so as much as it pains me I can't change my ISP.

I play on PS4.

I'm using WiFi and have for a long time as the Ethernet port on my PlayStation hates every Ethernet cable ever. I haven't had any problems on Wi-Fi for a long time. My Wi-Fi is password protected and I seriously doubt anyone has guessed the password but to be safe I changed it, the issue persists.

I am awful at anything techy but my boyfriend isn't as bad.

The short version is my experience had been absolute trash lately In game because I have had the worst lag that I remember experiencing.

It's bad enough to cause my spells on RDM to start hardcasting because the dualcast proc doesn't make it onto my bar before I press the next spell, causes me to lose my targets because when I click to turn my camera (which I do often) it doesn't register that I held down the mouse button and untargets the thing I'm focused on. I basically can't heal for the time being because I can't reliably target anything.

I do the little 'test connection' thing in the PlayStation menu and get up to 50mbps which isn't awful but isn't what I used to get.

I don't know what else to do. I'm calling spectrum on Thursday to see what they say. This is really just making me lose my will to play as the two things I enjoy most (RDM and healing) are both basically unplayable with any semblance of competence.

Any actual suggestions would be very appreciated. Things like 'change your isp' or 'buy a PC' aren't really helpful. If there is something I can actually do in the short term that could help I am very interested. I dont mind spending some money but I'm not about to drop 1k on a gaming pc right now.

Thanks!

Not exactly a tech wizard myself but I had some internet problems last year that only affected this game that I managed to get fixed.

After 4.1 hit last year I started getting random 90k dc errors. Before 4.1 this rarely happened, and after that patch it was several times a day. Only FFXIV was affected. Literally everything else worked perfectly fine. After finding that changing my router settings yielded no results, I bought a pretty fancy router hoping it might help...and it did. The dcs stopped. My guess is something about 4.1 changed how FFXIV packets are handled and the router my isp gave me was too old to handle it.

I know this isn't the same issue you have but it may be worth looking in to whether your router may need a firmware update, is very old or perhaps is a very basic model that may be ill-equipped to handle whatever way FFXIV sends packets to it.

You may want to go in to some detail as to what you mean by your ps4 hating ethernet cables. This is potentially related to your current issue.

Have you tried changing your DNS settings? I'm not sure if it helps..

From your post, it appears that the lag issue is a recent one. In order to troubleshoot what is the cause of your lag issue, it is important to isolate the possible causes one by one. If your connection was fine before and the lag issue is a recent occurrence, it may suggest that the problem is not at your end (the PS4).

You mentioned that you would call your ISP to investigate the problem. That's a good place to start. Before calling them, you may also wish to take the following steps: turn off your router and modem, unplug any cables (such as fiber optic cables and LAN cables), wait a few minutes, reconnect the cables, then turn the router and modem back on. If the problem persists, you may also try bringing your PS4 to a friend's place and connect to their wifi network. If the FFXIV connection at your friend's wifi network is lag-free, then at least your ISP may be informed the issue is not with your PS4.

[EDIT]

In the event your ISP says that there is no problem on their end, you may consider requesting them to do an on-site connection check at your place. However, they may charge a fee for their technician to come down to your place.

I've been having a number of issues with being hit by several aoe skills I was not in, skills not going off, and general performance problems. I pinged to test my connection to the server and my ping was far over 200ms + 15 hops. I live on the East coast, and I know that SE wanted to move the server a while back, but I feel that they have a responsibility to at least try to maintain the speeds/quality that they had when the servers were on the east coast as much as feasible. As it is the raids are almost unplayable on quite a regular basis.

The game kept starting and stopping endlessly for me. It was at the point that everyone lagged around no matter what I did.

I decided to get an Ethernet cable, and run it straight from the PS4, under the house, and into the modem. It fixed everything, and now I don’t get problems.

yes, ethernet cable is a must - plus check your TV, turn off any game pre-processing, that also adds some considerable lag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

I play on PS4.

I'm using WiFi and have for a long time as the Ethernet port on my PlayStation hates every Ethernet cable ever. I haven't had any problems on Wi-Fi for a long time. My Wi-Fi is password protected and I seriously doubt anyone has guessed the password but to be safe I changed it, the issue persists.
!

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Don't game on WiFi. Desktop, Laptop, PS4, etc, all use these itty-bitty wireless chips and are attached via wires inside the chasis (or in desktop PC's require an external antenna), and are extremely picky about interference.

If you play using bluetooth controllers, or any wireless controllers, they all use the 2.4Ghz spectrum, and if you must insist on playing using WiFi, switch your gaming system to use only the 5Ghz band if your wireless access point has it.

But really, use the Ethernet port, you won't be subjected to neighbors wireless interference, and that's really the only way to narrow down the problem from "could be anything" to "yep it's the wireless."

The next possibility is simply the cable/dsl modem. ISP's tend to fail to push updates to the firmware, or bad provisioning gets set, and remains set (my ISP worked fine for a good solid two years before suddenly the profile went poof and didn't work at all for an entire half day while I talked to the DSL provider.) Call your ISP, but only after being able to place the blame on the modem. Otherwise they may just send you yet-more-broken models of modem. If your ISP has recently rolled out new hardware, ask for the new model. Cable/DSL modems built in wireless access points tend to be several years behind, tech-wise, so this is another reason to either use the ethernet port on the PS4, or turn the WiFi off in the modem and use a separate wireless router (just attach it to the DMZ port on the modem and make sure the modem allows all traffic to that port, otherwise you get the double-NAT problem, and that will severely impair everything as the ports that games and apps request to open won't be opened on the modem, only your non-ISP wireless router.

If you have tried
Ethernet cable
Modem reboot
Password change
An other basic things, there is a good probability that the problem you have is running on the cables that go from the outside poles to the house, I few of my friends suffer from the same, the cables get corrosive after certain years an it causes lot of data transfer problems, your ISP will change them if you can have one of their tech to go there an check it for you.
Also run a PING test from a pc with your datacenter IP an check if you have any hops with high ms.

It's worth contacting your ISP if everything else fails. It happened too many times in the past for me, when I had internet issues and they said nothing was wrong on the line - but whatever they did do, ran a test, refreshed a setting or something, it shook the hamsters awake and things started working again. So sadly this might be up to voodoo, but still worth a shot if you can't work things out until then.
It's also possible they're just trying to scam you as a lot of people won't notice their speeds are reduced, and the company won't go "oopsy!" and fix it until the customers call and ask about it.

The OP can also try bypassing the router: obtain an ethernet cable, connect the PS4 directly to the modem, test the FFXIV connection. If the connection is smooth, that means there is something wrong with the router. If so, the OP may wish to call the ISP for a replacement router. Take note that, as the router protects you when you are on the internet, bypassing the router should only be done for short tests.

I can't really help you but also suggest to try an ethernet cable, it should at least make it a little bit better. Maybe the ethernet ports on your PS4 are broken or so and can be repaired? How many different cables did you try out?

I had similar problems recently as well. I thought it was my router because it fell down just a few days before the problem first occured. After going to my ISP and getting a new one the lags and disconnect were gone for like 2 days but then they were suddenly worse than ever. In the end it was a problem on my ISP's side that affected the whole area for like 3 weeks and they didn't know how to fix it. And I live in Vienna and not some backwater town. I also can't really change my ISP because there are like 2-3 half-decent providers and the one I have is already the one with the least problems. At least they fixed their internet service now. Maybe your connection issues are also because of problems from your ISP?

Maybe someone here who knows about this stuff can help you find out where the problem lies - if it's your router or your PS4, or something else entirely, like your ISP. Do you have a PC or laptop where you can test your connection somehow?

EDIT: I play on PC using an ethernet cable and my boyfriend plays on PS4 using WiFi. Other than slower downloads his connection doesn't seem worse than mine. So when there is no interference and the hardware functions like it should we don't see any difference in playing FFXIV wired or wireless. IF the connection is bad though, it seems a little bit worse on wireless PS4 than on wired PC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

Details that could maybe help? I dunno.

I have Spectrum internet. I have the best one they offer. In my area nothing else is feasible so as much as it pains me I can't change my ISP.

I play on PS4.

I'm using WiFi and have for a long time as the Ethernet port on my PlayStation hates every Ethernet cable ever. I haven't had any problems on Wi-Fi for a long time. My Wi-Fi is password protected and I seriously doubt anyone has guessed the password but to be safe I changed it, the issue persists.

I am awful at anything techy but my boyfriend isn't as bad.

The short version is my experience had been absolute trash lately In game because I have had the worst lag that I remember experiencing.

It's bad enough to cause my spells on RDM to start hardcasting because the dualcast proc doesn't make it onto my bar before I press the next spell, causes me to lose my targets because when I click to turn my camera (which I do often) it doesn't register that I held down the mouse button and untargets the thing I'm focused on. I basically can't heal for the time being because I can't reliably target anything.

I do the little 'test connection' thing in the PlayStation menu and get up to 50mbps which isn't awful but isn't what I used to get.

I don't know what else to do. I'm calling spectrum on Thursday to see what they say. This is really just making me lose my will to play as the two things I enjoy most (RDM and healing) are both basically unplayable with any semblance of competence.

Any actual suggestions would be very appreciated. Things like 'change your isp' or 'buy a PC' aren't really helpful. If there is something I can actually do in the short term that could help I am very interested. I dont mind spending some money but I'm not about to drop 1k on a gaming pc right now.

Thanks!

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Wifi could be your biggest issue. PS4's have some WiFi issues. However I did use to play with a PS4 via wifi. I wonder what exactly is the issue when trying to use an ethernet cable? (sometimes after plugging it in via ethernet you need to reset your router in order for it to recognize it)

Since you are using wifi it is also possible youre getting interference. Whether from your own appliances or a neighbors. Try switching wifi channels in your router settings, see if it makes a difference.

One other thing, if youre using spectrum router/modem, consider buying your own. (I also have spectrum (was time warner)) Most of my issues were solved by buying my own hardware.

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks to everyone. I'm on break at work right now and don't have time to address anything with any level of detail but I do really appreciate it. Hopefully by this weekend I can get some of this fixed up.

First problem: PS4 wifi can only connect to a 2.4Ghz network which for an MMO isn't optimal. They really cheaped out on the wireless card in the base PS4, but they fixed it in the Pro (I think).

Second problem: What is your NAT type when you do the network test? Make sure you have UPnP turned ON on your router and that your PS4 isn't having its traffic restricted.


Both problems are resolved with a cable, which I understand if you can't connect. Don't let anyone tell you that your network isn't "fast" enough. I too am on Spectrum and get far worse speeds than you, but my connection is solid on my PS4 over wifi. I am going to assume its a NAT issue.

There was, at a point, an issue with my internet regarding lag and it was due to Throttling. It is worth while to know that at times, ISPs could throttle your usage if they feel youre sucking down to much bandwidth. VPNs may help with that.