Constant lag freezes, DCs and bad customer support.

[BluexBird]

I'm using Windows 7 on my PC. Not sure about going to Windows 10 since I have it on my laptop and hate EVERYTHING about it, although at least it's not as bad as Windows 8.

From what ReptaarRawr said, it seems the problem appears to be very common with people who play from South America. I might look into WTFast to see if that gets rid of the problem. If it proves to be a temporary fix, I might just put up with it until they manage to fix whatever the hell seems to be going on. ~__~ What annoys me though is that:

1. In the morning, the freezes don't happen. Then again, in the morning there's barely anyone playing, meaning queues take FOREVERRR!
2. All my other games that host their servers in the US aren't giving me any trouble (tried with BnS, GW2, and D3).

[worldofneil]

if it really was an issue with my ISP, I'd be having this sort of problem with the other games I play.

2. All my other games that host their servers in the US aren't giving me any trouble (tried with BnS, GW2, and D3).

It depends where the servers are for the game you're trying to play. Each location on the Internet has a different "route" to get there from where you are. Your ISP chooses these routes for you.

I did a trace to it and it does go through Level3.net. You think that might be related to the problem?

1. In the morning, the freezes don't happen. Then again, in the morning there's barely anyone playing, meaning queues take FOREVERRR!

Based on the other threads with people having these issues who did traceroutes who all go through Level 3, yes. I've no experience with them personally, but apparently they are notorious for throttling traffic going through their network, especially at peak times.

I started using WTFast to see if a GPN would help, and it does... I still got some lags but the freeze time decreased.

Using WTFast changed your route to the game servers so if that works, it's definitely a routing issue and you'd need to convince your ISP to change your route to the FF XIV game servers (or continue to use a VPN or change ISP or even consider relocating your character to the EU servers in Germany)

I might look into WTFast to see if that gets rid of the problem. If it proves to be a temporary fix, I might just put up with it until they manage to fix whatever the hell seems to be going on.

If WTFast fix it then only your ISP can fix the problem permanently (or change ISP to one who doesn't route you via Level 3). Square Enix unfortunately have no control over how your Internet traffic is routed to them, they only control their servers, not the nodes you use to get to them.

[JudgeCid]

It's definitely their servers.
It started sunday... I didn't get yesterday, but I did today. Number of players online does affect. Playing in Zodiark and Asura didn't get me a single freeze. Tried another ISP in my grandma's house. Same thing. And everything was fine till sunday.

[worldofneil]

Playing in Zodiark and Asura didn't get me a single freeze.

Your avatar suggests you play on Behemoth normally (server being physically located in Canada), Zodiark is physically located in Germany, Europe. Asura is physically located in Tokyo, Japan. They're all in completely different regions, so you have completely different network routes to get to those servers.

Tried another ISP in my grandma's house. Same thing.

You need to do a traceroute to see HOW you get to the NA servers. Trying with a different ISP doesn't mean you won't necessarily take the same (problematic) route to the NA servers, you'd need to check the route to be sure.

It's definitely their servers.

We'd all be having issues if it was and you said yourself already using WTFast pretty much fixes the problem, so that confirms it's a routing issue (SE servers don't change because you use a different route to get to them).

[ReptaarRawr]

With wtfast is the same... I use wtfast and keep the lag xD this happen after maintenance of 1 july and you cant say "this is for the server location", because I'm chilean and happen... I have friend mexicans and happen too... diferents country with the same problems, and I say, all my static have the lag at the same time, we dont live together, we have diferent internet, we are chileans and mexicans and... play the game in ps4 and pc, so you can say "this is for your route, use wfast" because my static use this xD (sorry for my english, I'm chilean and dont know at all english)

[AscendantManes]

Great, so geolocation screws me over yet again.

Puerto Rico may not be a part of South America, but given its convoluted political status, take a wild guess.


Tracert:
1 93 ms 101 ms 98 ms 10.0.0.138
2 31 ms 23 ms 24 ms adsl-207-204-166-128.prtc.net [207.204.166.128]
3 24 ms 33 ms 28 ms 10.210.141.253
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 121 ms 129 ms 131 ms ae-10-10.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.153.86]
6 101 ms 108 ms 101 ms ORMUCO-COMM.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.59.178.74]
7 111 ms 116 ms 272 ms 10.2.0.1
8 112 ms 112 ms 123 ms 192.34.76.2
9 116 ms 114 ms 111 ms 199.91.189.234
10 119 ms 117 ms 111 ms 199.91.189.30

...it's level3. SIGH.

[Fevelle]

...

I'm also in Brazil, having this problem since last week. I contacted my ISP, there is nothing wrong on their side, also nothing wrong with my router (checked and reprogrammed it). Not even VPNs like PingZapper seems to fix my problem.

[BluexBird]

Hi, these are two traces I ran just now, right after I noticed I was STILL getting freezes:



The first one is to NCSOFT servers from Guild Wars 2. They're located in Austin, Texas.

The second one is to what I'm guessing is the Jenova servers since that's the IP my client always seems to connect to. They're located in Montreal, Canada.

I played Guild Wars 2 for like an hour. No freezes. Only 1 packet lost.

Hopped back into FFXIV, 10 minutes later... 6 packets time out, and then the connection reestablishes. In the game, this translates to a 30 seconds or so of freezing, with the game going back to normal after those 30 seconds.

What's more, yesterday I timed the frequency of the freezes to see at which interval they happen. It's every 13 minutes, to the point where I was pretty much able to predict when the next freeze was about to hit with a 30-second margin of error.

You can't seriously tell me this is my ISPs fault, or even Level 3's fault. Especially when this just suddenly started happening. Especially not when it's 6 packets dropping precisely every 13 minutes. Especially not when it's just FFXIV that has this problem.

EDIT - this is what the drops look like:

[Fevelle]

...

Are you using NET Virtua too? Maybe it CAN be our ISP, I use the same...

[BluexBird]

Yes, I am. But I don't see how it could be our ISP since people from other countries are having issues as well.