(SE's ISP) NTT Network is unstable and causing major rubberbanding/lag/disconnects

[Zephanoa]

snip

It is good that the Data Center was looked at and determined to not be the issue; which is fine, expected and even great. The problem is that it looks like they just dropped it as soon as it wasn't the data center. Which if you follow my deduction below I can see where it isn't the data center. Unfortunately when it comes to hosting servers your "up-time" doesn't just extend to your data center but also the circuits it uses to get out and back in to said DC.


Basically if your internet gateway is mismanaging traffic, you can say that SE's servers and the gateway have 99.9% uptime but that doesn't mean that your gateway is directing traffic to you appropriately.


I also have a resume to submit if anyone is interested.

[Mesarthim]

however, there is a limit to what we can do to assist.

I'm continually inching closer and closer to just qutting the game altogether but I've stuck it out this long hoping for a change (because if I did quit I'd never come back due to poor service and losing a house), a change that apparently is never coming. So you're telling me that you will not lift a finger because "It's difficult" to determine the problem? Have you guys not once contacted the people that give you service to determine the problem?

It really feels like you guys aren't being transparent at all with the effort you're putting in.

[Athoen]

Hello everyone and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

The investigation that was conducted in the thread you are referring to came to the conclusion that the Data Center was not the cause of the issue you are describing. The issue stems from the route which your connection takes to reach the Data Center. This is something we unfortunately cannot control.

In regards to the nodes you are referring to, the lost packets represent information that is not returned to your computer. It's difficult to come to the conclusion that any one node is at fault based on a trace route alone.

It's an unfortunate situation and we wish there was an easy way to solve it, however, there is a limit to what we can do to assist.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Einmimiria, the problem is we are all seeing the issues in hops on NTT's network which IS the ISP that SE has chosen to go with. These things are never that simple. Maybe Comcast and others are in a price disagreement. Maybe NTT doesn't recognize the issue. I completely agree that the issue is not with your datacenter. But as a direct customer of NTT your company has far more power than any of us. Tickets opened to Comcast are either closed outright because internet is working or if you do get a good enough tech they explain that NTT controls those routes and that its not on Comcast at all. As a customer we are stuck in the middle.

If SE has more information from NTT that we can use to start opening tickets en mass to our personal ISP's we would gladly do it. Without that knowledge though we have no ground to stand on.

[Zephanoa]

SNIP

Essentially this, very well put (better than I could word). Once our ISP reaches NTT's network it is completely out of the control of our ISP. This is why I frequently mention San Jose's routers being the issue. Once we reach our first NTT router it is up to that router configuration to determine where to go next and not the ISP.

Using Kerwin's and my hops: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...T-Router-Issue here is what I believe is going on in steps:

1. You to ISP
2. ISP to NTT
3. NTT Routes to nearest NTT WAN Router Junction to Data Center (San Jose Routers Labeled *.SNJSCA04.*)
4. Lag or flooded connectivity occurs at the NTT WAN Routers/Load-balancers at SNJSCA04 junction causing connections to drop or be delayed.
-> Could be a bad configuration of load balancing (Config issue).
-> Could be that the total allotted broadband spectrum at NTT is at full capacity via Hardware/Soft config. This is usually indicative of not enough hardware or licensing to handle the data load.
-> Could be a DOS attack, or a DOS issue caused by heavy activity at specific times.
5. San Jose routes to physical DC that SE's NA servers reside. (Sacramento routers labeled *.SCRMCA02.*)
6. Sacramento routers route to SE's physical/virtual hardware at 204.2.229.X

Using the above deduction. We can surmise that SE is indeed right, its not the data center; but it is a choke point at the routers (that NTT owns) short ways up stream.

[Kerwin]

The reason why I am so upset is that this problem continues to plague this game for me everynight.

Do I continue to post new threads in regards to the issue or is the mod team expecting me to just deal with it and tell me "Oh well!"

I pay a sub for service. And I know in the user agreement that the service may go down, but in this case the service is still available, but at such poor quality.

What am I supposed to do about this? My ISP has no power over NTT's network. NTT will not deal with people who are not their customers and Square Enix Mods tell me to contact my ISP! It's a circle of passing blame!

I will condense my reports and tracerts to this thread if I must. Since the Mod team will now be dealing with people individually, I suspect a large amount new threads will start popping up regarding this issue.

[sc_]

I just wanted to say this is affecting me as well. I have tried all of the troubleshooting steps and it seems like I'm in the same position as everyone here. I want to play the game, but I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to do... Is this something that's going to be fixed, or is everyone affected by this just out of luck?

[Gaealiege]

At this point, it seems clear that SE's stance is "Screw you, thanks for the money." Hope it's worth losing thousands of customers in the U.S. over the issue. Most people won't even bother to come here and complain, they'll just stop playing and move on.

Effectively when I have to quit because of this, you lose 6 subs because my static group will be leaving with me. Comcast levels of bad customer support in this game.

[Kerwin]

Nice start to the patch day!

Thank you!

As of 7:30 PM CST:

Tracing route to 204.2.229.97 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  10.0.0.1
  2    14 ms    13 ms    10 ms  96.120.24.33
  3    16 ms    11 ms    13 ms  te-0-7-0-0-sur04.elmhurst.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.86.117.209]
  4     9 ms     9 ms    10 ms  162.151.37.113
  5    11 ms    12 ms    12 ms  be-124-ar01.elmhurst.il.chicago.comcast.net [69.139.235.53]
  6    12 ms    12 ms    14 ms  be-33491-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.92.33]
  7    13 ms    13 ms    12 ms  be-10506-cr02.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.229]
  8    14 ms    11 ms    11 ms  be-10577-pe03.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.2]
  9    16 ms    15 ms    18 ms  ae-26.a02.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.66.65]
 10   185 ms   189 ms   187 ms  ae-3.r07.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.111]
 11    14 ms    13 ms    20 ms  ae-5.r21.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.213]
 12   185 ms   183 ms   185 ms  ae-5.r22.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
 13     *      188 ms   179 ms  ae-40.r02.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.121]
 14   181 ms   193 ms   189 ms  ae-3.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.11]
 15   190 ms   193 ms   182 ms  xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [129.250.195.46]
 16   183 ms     *      181 ms  204.2.229.234
 17   161 ms   164 ms   164 ms  204.2.229.97

Trace complete.

As of 9:40pm CST:

Tracing route to 204.2.229.97 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  10.0.0.1
  2    12 ms    13 ms     9 ms  96.120.24.33
  3     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  te-0-7-0-0-sur04.elmhurst.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.86.117.209]
  4    18 ms     9 ms     9 ms  162.151.37.113
  5    11 ms    12 ms    11 ms  be-124-ar01.elmhurst.il.chicago.comcast.net [69.139.235.53]
  6    13 ms    14 ms    14 ms  be-33491-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.92.33]
  7    13 ms    20 ms    12 ms  be-10506-cr02.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.229]
  8    11 ms    12 ms    13 ms  be-10577-pe03.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.2]
  9    17 ms    12 ms    11 ms  ae-26.a02.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.66.65]
 10   191 ms   195 ms     *     ae-3.r07.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.111]
 11    14 ms    13 ms    27 ms  ae-5.r21.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.213]
 12     *      195 ms   189 ms  ae-5.r22.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
 13   183 ms   185 ms   183 ms  ae-40.r02.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.121]
 14   188 ms   182 ms   191 ms  ae-3.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.11]
 15   193 ms   185 ms   184 ms  xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [129.250.195.46]
 16   191 ms     *      191 ms  204.2.229.234
 17   197 ms   190 ms     *     204.2.229.97
 18   184 ms   190 ms   185 ms  204.2.229.97

Trace complete.

Terrible terrible service! This lag makes this game unplayable! Still awful connection pushing over 2 hours now!

[Mesarthim]

I'm getting the same thing, just different nodes from NTT starting with "ae-5.a00.lsanca20.us.bb.gin.ntt.net".

But don't worry I'm sure they'll tell you they won't talk to their ISP about it and instead tell us to talk to ours despite it being out of their jurisdiction.

[Red-X-deR]

I am also suffering from the same issue. There is literally nothing wrong with my connection and my ISP, but I can't even do a Quest Duty without it disconnecting me. So what do we, paying customers do? I can't play the game I'm subbing for at reasonable quality? This is not out of your control Square, you provide the game, you must also provide quality connections from your end as well. I expect compensation for hours of unplayable game time, Square Enix. We are the reason this game is sustainable. I understand that there are limits to what can be done, but it has been an ongoing issue since patch 4.2 that has yet to be resolved. What must we say to garner further attention? What must happen that it warrants undivided attention? The response here is disrespectful to the players, who are going out of their way to *show* you that is not their fault, and that Square Enix are the only ones who can provide a solution. Unacceptable.