Post 2.1 Lag spike (Still not resolved)

[Kuo]

having problems as well:

Tracing route to 199.91.189.30 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms 1 ms READYSHARE [192.168.1.1]
2 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms 208.74.222.73
3 5 ms 6 ms 5 ms 208.74.222.41
4 11 ms 13 ms 7 ms 208.74.222.29
5 18 ms 10 ms 85 ms 208.74.222.1
6 12 ms 1778 ms 1787 ms 208.74.223.62
7 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 50.59.64.53
8 62 ms 30 ms 46 ms 10.208.56.145
9 62 ms 62 ms 61 ms atl2-pr2-xe-0-1-0-0.us.twtelecom.net [66.192.249
.222]
10 46 ms 62 ms 62 ms xe-8-2-2.edge1.atlanta4.level3.net [4.53.234.17]

11 93 ms 139 ms 77 ms vlan51.ebr1.atlanta2.level3.net [4.69.150.62]
12 93 ms 108 ms 93 ms ae-6-6.ebr1.washington12.level3.net [4.69.148.10
6]
13 109 ms 93 ms 93 ms ae-1-100.ebr2.washington12.level3.net [4.69.143.
214]
14 109 ms 93 ms 108 ms ae-56-56.ebr1.newyork1.level3.net [4.69.201.61]

15 93 ms 108 ms 93 ms ae-81-81.csw3.newyork1.level3.net [4.69.134.74]

16 109 ms 124 ms 93 ms ae-82-82.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.148.41]

17 93 ms 108 ms 93 ms ae-5-5.car1.montreal2.level3.net [4.69.141.5]
18 * 139 ms 217 ms ae-11-11.car2.montreal2.level3.net [4.69.141.1]

19 108 ms 77 ms 108 ms ormuco-comm.car2.montreal2.level3.net [4.59.178.
74]
20 93 ms 108 ms 108 ms 192.34.76.10
21 140 ms 108 ms 108 ms 199.91.189.242
22 124 ms 108 ms 108 ms 199.91.189.30

Trace complete.

[KilluaSupertramp]

I got the same problem here. The game usually freezes for about 1-2 second(s). What I mean "freeze" is that everything stopped except me. After this moment, everything runs in "fast forward" mode for a second then back to normal.

[Raist]

6 12 ms 1778 ms 1787 ms 208.74.223.62

That is not a good sign right there. Not familiar with Dunklin Communications, but it looks like things are not going well in the Arkansas area. Two responses took over 1.75 seconds to respond right after taking 0.012 seconds. That's enough jitter to combine with latency in Canada to cause a timeout and retransmit request. If it happens enough, you could get flagged by the TCP/IP congestion control to slow your transmission down, and then it's downhill from there until the congestion subsides.

Might want to run a few more traces, possibly some rounds of extended pings to submit to your ISP for review. Will help your case if you can get snapshots also during off-peak times that are clean so there is a baseline and a fouled up state to compare. If you also run a few tests against some normal sites like Google/YouTube or Yahoo as well and see some funkiness there as well, submitting those reports with the XIV data can be a motivator for them to get involved. Hopefully it will peak someone's interest at Tier3 or higher to escalate the issue for further investigation.

Won't lie... your mileage may vary on just how responsive they will be to your request for assistance, but if you are persistent enough you can get them to take action. After all, you are their paying customer... sometimes you may have to remind them of that fact (try to do it nicely though). I finally got someone committed to my issues with my gateway this weekend... third ticket I filed against that one issue (said something about it may be time to look at AT&T's 6Mb special offer if they can't figure this thing out). A lead tech in Tier3 actually called me back after he ran some tests himself and confirmed my findings on his end. They think they've finally pinned down the issue in the upstream and are sending a bucket truck Tuesday to work at the pole to hopefully fix that problem. It's the last link in the chain to a more perfect line to SE.

This can and does work if you are properly prepared and are persistent about getting through to Tier3 or higher support... those guys you call at the help desk are powerless to do anything past your modem. You need to get past them... ask for a supervisor if they can't take you to Tier3. You need someone who can at least escalate you to a higher department. Last fall when I called about these same issues I found with Cogentco, I had to be pretty stern in pushing for them to connect me to Tier3...they wanted me to reboot and have a tech come on-site first. Once I finally got sent to T3 and I told them where to trace to (my server's IP at the time) and they were able to see it themselves, they gave me an email to forward all my trace/ping data showing the good, bad, and the ugly. Took them a few months of moving my route all over the place, but they finally nailed that end down pretty tight. Now I just have my first hop left for them to address:

22:05:25.49 Sat 03/08/14 

Tracing route to 199.91.189.25 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     2 ms    <1 ms     1 ms  LPTSRV [10.10.100.1] 
  2  1805 ms     *        *     cpe-098-025-064-001.sc.res.rr.com [98.25.64.1] 
  3    10 ms    12 ms    13 ms  cpe-024-031-198-005.sc.res.rr.com [24.31.198.5] 
  4    25 ms    23 ms    25 ms  xe-7-0-0.rlghncpop-rtr1.southeast.rr.com [24.93.64.40] 
  5    31 ms    31 ms    33 ms  107.14.19.44 
  6    29 ms    31 ms    38 ms  ae-2-0.pr0.dca10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.169] 
  7    32 ms    31 ms    31 ms  te0-16-0-23.ccr41.iad02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.10.209] 
  8    38 ms    34 ms    41 ms  be2177.ccr22.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.41.206] 
  9    41 ms    40 ms    41 ms  be2149.ccr22.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.31.126] 
 10    44 ms    44 ms    45 ms  be2106.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.50] 
 11    65 ms    65 ms    66 ms  be2088.ccr21.ymq02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.17] 
 12    60 ms    60 ms    64 ms  38.122.42.34 
 13    46 ms    43 ms    49 ms  192.34.76.10 
 14    44 ms    45 ms    45 ms  199.91.189.242 
 15    43 ms    45 ms    44 ms  199.91.189.25

That is from Florence, SC... and yes, when things are good I can consistently have less then a 70ms (0.07 seconds) response time to my Midgard server in Montreal Canada--without using BattlePing or something similar. My problem now is isolated to getting through that gateway at 98.25.64.1--when it goes south, everything I do online gets knackered up. It is a major one that handles traffic for a TON of people in multiple regions, so who knows just how many are affected (the Ralegh/Charlotte circuits we go through have been having problems for some time now, could be related). If they manage to fix this weirdness here in Florence, hopefully it will set a model for them to follow elsewhere for other regions as well, ultimately clearing up a lot of problems in the long run. <crossing fingers>

Never know just how far you may get until you try.

[Kiara1]

The lag issues are getting too annoying. I recently got to level 50 and I want to try out all of the new dungeons. But the dungeons are all so laggy. And it's really hard as a healer.
But my biggest problem is that I can't progress with my relic quest or my serpent adder quest because both of them are in The Aurum Vale(I need to complete The Aurum Vale to get the next dungeon). So I'm stuck until they fix the lag. Is there anyway to freeze my subscription time so that I can take a pause til the lag stops? This is my first month and I thought the game was really great and I was thinking that I might pay for a subscription to play it but I don't get it why we have to put up with lag for a subscription game. I will be really disappointed if we don't get something to make this up, like free game time or something, cause around 6-10 GMT I can't play at all except for crafting or gathering.

[ShadeUK]

I've had this lag delay crap for a month aswell, and not a single f**k seems to be given by SQ. And just to prove its YOUR servers heres my tests to your EU Data Centre and a Tracerout, everything else works perfectly fine but your server during peak most commonly its a unplayable to the max. Think its time you started actually doing something instead of nothing, and what annoys me more its your still going through with the PS4 Release when the current ones arnt even playable. Not to mention the lack of communication, and dont tell me to use a 3rd Party Program for a game i paid full price for (twice) in 2014 which should work out the box without issues. no other game has ever had a problem just yours, i understand occasionally there are issues thats reality, but this is getting beyond a joke now. And dont give me that crap about money either you have plenty.

Ping Test:
http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...a%20Centre.png

Trace Rout:
http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...a%20Centre.png

[Raist]

I've had this lag delay crap for a month aswell, and not a single f**k seems to be given by SQ. And just to prove its YOUR servers heres my tests to your EU Data Centre and a Tracerout, everything else works perfectly fine but your server during peak most commonly its a unplayable to the max. Think its time you started actually doing something instead of nothing, and what annoys me more its your still going through with the PS4 Release when the current ones arnt even playable. Not to mention the lack of communication, and dont tell me to use a 3rd Party Program for a game i paid full price for (twice) in 2014 which should work out the box without issues. no other game has ever had a problem just yours, i understand occasionally there are issues thats reality, but this is getting beyond a joke now. And dont give me that crap about money either you have plenty.

Ping Test:
http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...a%20Centre.png

Trace Rout:
http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...a%20Centre.png

For starters... this forum was intended for users to assist users to find solutions. It isn't a support line to SE. That happens in other forums (like Bug Reports) or through the support portal. Shouldn't really be expecting a response from SE in here (haven't had such activity in here since before Christmas). Go read the guidelines in the sticky welcoming you to the forums for the details.

Second.. idk where you are getting your info from... but that is NOT a game server. It's not even on Ormuco's network... it's level3 (once registered in Colorado too, other digs put it in use from London? Either way... not Canada). Looks like it used to be a webserver hosting the FF7 PC re-release, but now it's hosting the EU SE site for their game library:

http://myip.ms/info/whois/209.130.141.243

So, no... that isn't even remotely the server you are using in game.

Get your actual IP address that you are connecting to in game (netstat or resmon), and then run a SERIES of pings and traces both during good times and bad times so you can narrow down just where your lag and/or packet loss is actually happening, and then move to contact the proper people to get it addressed. You can call ping with the -n switch to tell it how many times to ping ("ping 199.91.189.25 -n 100" will ping the IP I am using for Midgard 100 times).

Chances are pretty good that you may find there are problems between you and SE's ISP that your ISP can work towards resolving. I have followed this exact process and got TWC to investigate issues in their routing and they got it cleaned up quite nicely. Granted, it took a while... they bounced me all over the place for a few months between different routing partners, but it eventually got cleaned up. Now I'm just waiting for someone to come with a bucket truck Tuesday to hopefully track down and resolve an issue upstream from my location that is monkeying up responsiveness to my gateway and it will be nice and clean again. When my route is clean, the game runs near perfect (barring a few issues with instances that SE is hopefully addressing with this week's maintenance). But even then, when instance play is flaky, it has still been manageable when my route is clean. Any time I've had bad enough lag to render events ondoable, I've been able to spot signs of overloads early on with Cogent, Level3, or RR lines---before it even gets to Ormuco, much less SE's network.

Been through this several times with different games over the years... PXO for the Freespace franchise, Blizzard for the Diablo franchise, and SE Japan for FFXI to name a few. Every time it was an issue elsewhere in the TWC/RR network or their partners that was at fault--not the datacenter where the game servers were located. This is an issue currently affecting other games and even streaming content from sites like YouTube and Hulu as well---it isn't JUST XIV, because it's a systemic problem with my ISP and their partners. The TWC forums have had people posting about issues with a myriad of services/games... and it's all been in the same regions where I've had issues with FFXIV. That isn't a coincidence... it's because of overloaded networks in those regions, and the ISP's need to get their routes adjusted to thin it out.

Your ISP has the means to address your routing issues getting to Ormuco... you just may have to push past the Tier1 guys that answer the phone (the ones that reboot your modem, look at your logs and say your signals are OK, so your connection is good). Need to get through to Tier3. Those T1 guys can only address issues localized to your house, at best your neighborhood. You likely need the higher ups to address issues occurring upstream from your location. If you can provide them with the detailed ping/traces showing both good and bad transit indicating potential points of congestion failure, it goes a long way to convincing them they need to get involved.

[ShadeUK]

sigh.... most of that is nothing to me,, im not a networking professional.

Through research would it be true that the EU/NA Game Servers are both in Montreal?

If so are 1 of these the right ip? (Below are my tracerts to both)

199.91.189.36

http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...U%20Server.png

199.91.189.61 (Im under the impression this may be the correct one)

http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...U%20Server.png

This entire situation infuriates me

[redmage]

Posting as well regarding Aurum Vale. I am helping an fcmate of mine to complete their relic quest but we have been unable to do Aurum Vale due to the ridiculous lag issue during Coincounter. I am unable to properly stun his attacks and it is getting the healer killed... this seems to still be a problem for a lot of people, so please SE do something about this particular dungeon. I do not have this issue with other dungeons.

[Tagihi]

i have issue at eavning when most people playing then my ms reaching above 500. Doing extreme battles is basic impossible.
Game kinda freeze for 5 to 6s then suddenly feels like movie played forward there is litterly nothing ican do about it.

Ihave try battleping for now to see if there is any problem. I use as provider Teliasonera Sweden.
Its not very often this happend past few days has been very anoying.

[Raist]

sigh.... most of that is nothing to me,, im not a networking professional.

Through research would it be true that the EU/NA Game Servers are both in Montreal?

If so are 1 of these the right ip? (Below are my tracerts to both)

199.91.189.36

http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...U%20Server.png

199.91.189.61 (Im under the impression this may be the correct one)

http://talktalkmembers.org/eigde7968...U%20Server.png

This entire situation infuriates me

Both those IP's are in the valid subnet for the SE servers. Depending on just what you were doing when you ran the nestat/resmon to find them, they likely represent 2 of the servers you use for lobby, world, and/or instances.

Like many others have found after taking a closer look, you are having issues before you even get to SE's ISP, much less the game servers. You are having stalls from congestion when trying to cut across Level3's lines--who is partnered with your ISP for handling your data outside of your ISP's network. This is something you should have better luck addressing through your ISP, as they have the agreements with Level3 to carry your data through those regions (which is why you are getting handed off to those networks--not because of SE). Your ISP has more influence to get routing through Level3 adjusted, as well as the power to switch you to an alternate partner if necessary to resolve the issue (which can put pressure on Level3, because your ISP compensates Level3 for carrying their data).