[Ping] Game uplayable?

[Baingoleth]

There is jitter starting at hop 5. That would be the CMTS router at Comcast's hubsite. Otherwise, your pings in that traceroute are reasonable for an online game. You say you are getting up to 220ms pings sometimes. That's a massive amount of delay if your normal ping is around 60ms. If your problem is related to network trouble, it is hard to tell you with certainty where your cause is from that traceroute. A few traceroutes when your ping is spiking badly would be more helpful.

Cable ISPs with coax to the premise are particularly susceptible to upstream RF interference and often that interference is intermittent. It is possible something is causing major interference between your home and your node only part of the time. Again, a traceroute during the severe ping spikes would reveal more. If there is intermittent interference in the upstream stacks, people in your ISP's back office probably already know and have been trying to track down the interference when it happens. Often times it can take days or even weeks to find the source in your neighbourhood if it doesn't last for at least a few hours straight. Among many possibilities for higher than usual pings between your home and your cable ISP is electrical interference getting onto the line. This type of interference is often too weak to trap for the ISP most of the time but can still cause slightly higher pings to your headend. Electrical noise can also get way worse occasionally, even severe enough to cause connection problems. Your ISP will get a warning about it when it is bad but then the electrical interference will suddenly get so weak that it is hard to see again for hours. Similarly, intermittent commonpath interference could be happening from a poor connection somewhere between your home and the node. Like any wire with a poor connection, it will usually appear to be fine but when bumped, the problem shows up. These can be hard to track down also.

Those are just a couple of possibilities that can cause ping spikes and overall worse packet delay assuming that the issue is between your home and your node which that traceroute would suggest. If you are not using Wi-Fi you should see no more than 3ms jitter to the CMTS if your line is clean. Most of the time, if your connection to the node is intermittently poor and a service call technician can't find it at your premise, it is noise leaking in elsewhere in the field and then it is unfortunately a waiting game for the maintenance crew to track it down. In the worst case scenario, Comcast should have some of their maintenance technicians doing periodic sweeps of the plant for physical issues that cause various impairments and they will eventually find the problem that way and correct it.

Do you know anyone who you can go visit and play FFXIV with? If your game performs well at their house then you know your ISP is having trouble in your neighbourhood. It would also eliminate the possibility that it could be something to do with your computer.

Again, all of this is assuming you are not using Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi interference can make online gaming very problematic. Even good Wi-Fi connections have more jitter than wired connections.

[Daniolaut]

. A few traceroutes when your ping is spiking badly would be more helpful.

Its not even busy right now exactly. I just got out of a 8vs8vs8 PvP run, and its spiked right now. I guess a quite a bit of people are on right now, but not as many during peak peak hours? But still?

Anyway, updated a post just before you posted and will repost this tracert

1.......<1ms.........<1ms............<1ms.........Router
2.......104ms...........101ms...........100ms.......Other
3........114ms...........118ms..........111ms........Local
4.......120ms...........117ms..........122ms.......Local
5.......123ms...........123ms..........128ms....GA-comcast
6........114ms...........123ms.........118ms......marietta.ga...comcast.net [68.86.88.178}
7.......128ms...........128ms.........120ms........50.242.151.58
8......136ms.............189ms.........178ms........Atlnha05 [129.250.5.59]
9......125ms.............126ms........140ms........atlnga05 [129.250.5.202]
10....155ms.............174ms.........155ms........dllstx09 [129.250.4.116]
11....168ms..............170ms.........176ms.......snjsca04 [129.250.4.154]
12....218ms..............208ms........188ms.......snjsca04 [129.250.6.119]
13....193ms..............299ms........205ms........scrmca02 [129.250.7.53]
14....204ms..............228ms........239ms.......scrmca02 [129.250.195.46]
15....187ms.............95ms...........92ms........FFXIV 204.2.229.254
16....184ms.............174ms..........178ms......Malboro 204.2.229.101


I find it odd that two of the packets or whatever they are, right before hitting malboro, and i guess the XIV cluster, it gets down to 95 and 92 randomly. Makes 0 sense to me.



My PC is hardwired to my router. Same for my security camera. The rest of my devices are wi-fi. Only "really" have issues with XIV, but I only really play XIV if i'm on the internet. I dont do much else on the internet haha.

[Riko_Futatabi]

Coming up on 2 months now that I've also had severe packet loss / delayed packets. I actually play from Europe on the NA servers. The funny thing is, and I've said this before...I had no issues with this server move until a certain patch almost 2 months ago. The 4.06a patch ruined something with my connection to game somehow and it's not been resolved since.

[BigRed5392]

Coming up on 2 months now that I've also had severe packet loss / delayed packets. I actually play from Europe on the NA servers. The funny thing is, and I've said this before...I had no issues with this server move until a certain patch almost 2 months ago. The 4.06a patch ruined something with my connection to game somehow and it's not been resolved since.

did you report it? you can report it to SE, just give them a call and they can investigate that. If its not something on their end contact you ISP.

[Riko_Futatabi]

did you report it? you can report it to SE, just give them a call and they can investigate that. If its not something on their end contact you ISP.

Yeah, I've done a lot of contacting and troubleshooting. So much so that I actually got burnt out on it. Between my ISP and SE support. I may try again, but I've been active in the technical support forums since this started happening lol.

[Baingoleth]

Yeah, I've done a lot of contacting and troubleshooting. So much so that I actually got burnt out on it. Between my ISP and SE support. I may try again, but I've been active in the technical support forums since this started happening lol.

I took a look at your last 3 posts with WinMTR info. Looks like the packet loss always starts at:
ae-5.r24.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.148) which appears to be a router in New York. Other people's traceroutes on this forum with connections going through this router also appear to have packet loss.

NTT America owns this IP address. Here is some whois info:

129.250.2.148
Englewood, CO, United States
RDNS: ae-5.r25.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
Provider: NTT America

Owner NTT America, Inc.
8300 E Maplewood Ave. Suite 400, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 US
+1-877-688-6625 +1-877-688-6625

Usually it is the ISP on either side's responsibility to contact contact the company with the routing impairment. Looks like SE's IP address 204.2.229.10 is registered to NTT so I'd expect them to contact NTT and get 129.250.2.148 looked at.

[United States] 204.2.229.10
Englewood, CO, United States
Provider: NTT America

[Baingoleth]

Its not even busy right now exactly. I just got out of a 8vs8vs8 PvP run, and its spiked right now. I guess a quite a bit of people are on right now, but not as many during peak peak hours? But still?

Anyway, updated a post just before you posted and will repost this tracert

1.......<1ms.........<1ms............<1ms.........Router
2.......104ms...........101ms...........100ms.......Other
3........114ms...........118ms..........111ms........Local
4.......120ms...........117ms..........122ms.......Local
5.......123ms...........123ms..........128ms....GA-comcast
6........114ms...........123ms.........118ms......marietta.ga...comcast.net [68.86.88.178}
7.......128ms...........128ms.........120ms........50.242.151.58
8......136ms.............189ms.........178ms........Atlnha05 [129.250.5.59]
9......125ms.............126ms........140ms........atlnga05 [129.250.5.202]
10....155ms.............174ms.........155ms........dllstx09 [129.250.4.116]
11....168ms..............170ms.........176ms.......snjsca04 [129.250.4.154]
12....218ms..............208ms........188ms.......snjsca04 [129.250.6.119]
13....193ms..............299ms........205ms........scrmca02 [129.250.7.53]
14....204ms..............228ms........239ms.......scrmca02 [129.250.195.46]
15....187ms.............95ms...........92ms........FFXIV 204.2.229.254
16....184ms.............174ms..........178ms......Malboro 204.2.229.101


I find it odd that two of the packets or whatever they are, right before hitting malboro, and i guess the XIV cluster, it gets down to 95 and 92 randomly. Makes 0 sense to me.



My PC is hardwired to my router. Same for my security camera. The rest of my devices are wi-fi. Only "really" have issues with XIV, but I only really play XIV if i'm on the internet. I dont do much else on the internet haha.

Considering hop #2 is usually ~9ms, I would think that is something out in your neighbourhood. I don't want to say for certain without looking at a return path monitor but I would check if there is some bad ingress getting onto your line somewhere between your modem and whatever Comcast equipment is hop #2. Maybe the device at hop #2 is malfunctioning causing the massive pings. If you need your case escalated, send the first traceroute with hop #2 @ 9ms along with another one with hop #2 @ 100ms to Comcast and ask them to forward it on to whoever investigates node ingress in the back office. Maybe only a supervisor can do this. If you had service calls already, I would hope your home wiring has been swept correctly and the issue is not with your coax wiring. Again, maybe the people who watch for impairments in the back office already know about this but I have seen ingress and equipment issues get resolved quicker if customers start to escalate with good evidence. At least, we'd get a warning at my cable company every time node errors spike but impairments that affect an entire node that start to cause escalations goes out to maintenance usually same day. Can maintenance always find the problem right away? Not always but at least the impairment becomes a priority.

Also, you might see ICMP responses come back with a lower ping from a hop further away sometimes. Sometimes packets arrive out of order and need to be re-ordered. Sometimes hops are further away initiate a response quicker than a hop closer to you.

[Daniolaut]

Considering hop #2 is usually ~9ms, I would think that is something out in your neighbourhood..

I had the last technician say that there was a bad node or something right outside and that he put in a ticket to see if they would let him replace it. He said he couldnt and said someone would be out in about 3 days to repair it possibly. I dont know if that meant someone would come to my door, or just to the whatever the problem was. Either way i didnt see anyone, and no one came to my door. So i dont know if it ever got fixed. First guy just said he straightened a line that was bent.


I honestly dont know what much about it. Most of what i know is basic trouble shooting, and some basic lingo, like what ping means vs say download speed. Very very basic stuff haha. What happened last night is i called, and they said they "provisioned" my router, and that helped for like 30 minutes. So it was over 120, then they provisioned and it went down to 57 very steady, and then in about 1 hour it was back up to 120+. Then this morning it was around 85-95. Then it went up to over 150 when i ran that last tracert. I have no idea what would cause all of that. Its seriously inconsistent. Throw in some packet loss, and random disconnects, up to including my modem turning off. All of these issues were with the previous modem i had so it cant be that.

I have no way to test against my PC though. I assume that it isnt the PC because of the inconsistency? Like i would say if it was my PC i would have other PC issues with other sites at the same time or it would be more consistent? Like when i try to ping wikihow.com it is pretty steady at 35 ping. Speedtest is steady around 10-20ms. Etc. I can try testing wikihow and speedtest.net when its really really bad and will that help?

Yeah, if ytou are hitting 100ms past the router, theres something going on with your ISP or someone in the house is using your bandwidth. Thats incredibly bad. You shouldn't be hitting 100ms until it his like, the scrmca02 node lol.

There isnt anyone else on my internet, and i'm hardwired to my modem/router. I feel confident its comcasts issue also, but they seem to be extremely lazy and would rather just provision the modem and call it good for the next hour until i call back.

they just need put new servers on East Coast or relocated them once again but this time better spot for both IDK if NTT have something for server moving if yes then Chicago would be good spot.

This seems like a good idea. They have a few data centers worldwide so I dont foresee them losing money by adding another east coast or central location for Americans. But i dont work for their financial division so I have no clue. Just seems logical they would make more money. Seems like each server should only be holding about 1,200 players anyway, housing crisis and all that. :P (i jest.)

[Baingoleth]

I had the last technician say that there was a bad node or something right outside and that he put in a ticket to see if they would let him replace it. He said he couldnt and said someone would be out in about 3 days to repair it possibly. I dont know if that meant someone would come to my door, or just to the whatever the problem was. Either way i didnt see anyone, and no one came to my door. So i dont know if it ever got fixed. First guy just said he straightened a line that was bent.


I honestly dont know what much about it. Most of what i know is basic trouble shooting, and some basic lingo, like what ping means vs say download speed. Very very basic stuff haha. What happened last night is i called, and they said they "provisioned" my router, and that helped for like 30 minutes. So it was over 120, then they provisioned and it went down to 57 very steady, and then in about 1 hour it was back up to 120+. Then this morning it was around 85-95. Then it went up to over 150 when i ran that last tracert. I have no idea what would cause all of that. Its seriously inconsistent. Throw in some packet loss, and random disconnects, up to including my modem turning off. All of these issues were with the previous modem i had so it cant be that.

I have no way to test against my PC though. I assume that it isnt the PC because of the inconsistency? Like i would say if it was my PC i would have other PC issues with other sites at the same time or it would be more consistent? Like when i try to ping wikihow.com it is pretty steady at 35 ping. Speedtest is steady around 10-20ms. Etc. I can try testing wikihow and speedtest.net when its really really bad and will that help?




There isnt anyone else on my internet, and i'm hardwired to my modem/router. I feel confident its comcasts issue also, but they seem to be extremely lazy and would rather just provision the modem and call it good for the next hour until i call back.

A node converts the fibre connection coming into your neighbourhood from the ISP into a radio signal that a coax wire can carry to the customers and vice-versa. Service call technicians are not always correct on the exact problem and are often vague with customers deliberately about the exact issue when the impairment is elsewhere in the cable plant. That said, the fact that one service call tech told you that there is a bad node makes me believe that he at least knew your whole area is affected by something and is probably getting service calls for similar issues from other people in your neighbourhood or maybe he discovered something on his meters. Maybe the node really is failing in which case Comcast should replace it right away. Sorry, I don't work for Comcast but if my cable company encounters a bad node, it is replaced immediately. There are always spares and it should take only a few hours to complete the work. Usually service call techs escalate area issues without delay because they have to keep apologizing to customers and can't fix the problem which keeps both them and the customers frustrated so the maintenance people should have been made aware. It is possible that someone forgot in the back office or Comcast is understaffed somewhere. If they need to bring a node in from somewhere else, if shouldn't take more than a few days tops but if you are in a major city, there should be nodes on hand... I sincerely hope that if your impairment was escalated to the maintenance people and they aren't treating it like no big deal and taking their time. If they are, it might be time to call another ISP. I wouldn't tolerate a major area impairment for more than a few days. I'd put up with it for a week tops if the ISP had a good reason for the delay.

[Daniolaut]

I wouldn't tolerate a major area impairment for more than a few days. I'd put up with it for a week tops if the ISP had a good reason for the delay.

I just called them back, and they confirmed they havent replaced the node. Its been nearly a week now since the tech game out or longer. They said they scheduled another appointment for monday, and escalated the issue again.

I have had internet issues the entire time i have lived here (going on 2 years.) I have called countless times and they didnt do much until I replaced my modem and router and removed the option of them saying that my modem was "end of life." So we'll see if this addresses the issue. Thanks for the information. I will use it to keep in contact with comcast.