Sticky thread for NA tech support for NTT has now moved and been locked...

[Kerwin]

I can't do trials without d/cing every few minutes. I don't have this issue in any other MMO. (Swotor/Aion). It's really frustrating - I've tried flushing the IP and nada, nope 90k. It's frustrating when you go into a trial and no one gets the I'm having the 90k bug.

Try raiding in Kefka Sigmascape savage where your raid group depends on you to be at your best. But you never can be because of the problem that persists with NTT every night. An issue completely out of your control.

[KisaiTenshi]

See. I'm on the west coast, and I've not once experienced a 90k problem (well at least not one that "everyone" experienced at the same time, and I mean everyone, where the data center was congested.) I'm not naive and going to go "see the problem is on your side", because routing is not the same to every city. Mine goes from my ISP via Telia to NTT (Seattle->San Jose->Sacramento) before reaching the FFXIV servers. 30ms ping time.

One of my machines at AZ NAP goes via LA and then follows the same San Jose->Sacramento path, 20ms. Where as another machine located in the bay area , actually takes the same Telia path my ISP does at San Jose, but has 4ms.

NTT's own looking glass site is https://www.us.ntt.net/support/looking-glass/

Select Sacramento (if your data center is Aether or Primal), and then ping your own IP address to see if you get packet losses.
Mana, Elemental, and Gaia are in Tokyo. I actually get random packet loss to these machines, it does not use NTT from my ISP (132ms), but does for my AZ NAP machine (120ms). The bay area machine goes over flagtel (also 120ms.)

Of interest, a map of the actual fiber backbone of the US:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ure-180956701/

[Remyogic]

Maybe I just got lucky, but I'm on the east coast (SC) and I have no issues, EVER. Statistically speaking, what percentage of the player base has these issues? 5%? 25%? I don't think anyone really knows.

I'm not a technological genius, but I do oversee operations of a company and, from a business perspective, I'm not draining my companies capital to "fix" an issue that a fraction of my customer base experiences occasionally. I'm guessing this is where NTT is coming from, not SE, as even SE's total traffic on their network is only a small percentage of their total traffic.

From SE's point of view, I'm sure they are concerned about the complaints, but their talks with NTT are likely to the effect of:
[NTT] "Ok, you want us to overhaul our infrastructure, the cost is X, since we are doing this specifically for YOU (SE), you are helping foot the bill"
[SE] "We can't do that"
[NTT] "Well, all data shows we are within the SLA terms of our contract, unless we breach those, you are bound by our agreement and we are not bound to make upgrades"
[SE] "Is there any fix to the situation"
[NTT] "If you have individual customers complaining about their routing through our network, they will need to work out a solution on their end to change the way they are routed"

SLA's are all based on averages as there will always be best-case and worst-case customer experiences. Really, all that can be done is to gather data and wait until NTT organically needs to upgrade.

[Kerwin]

SLA's are all based on averages as there will always be best-case and worst-case customer experiences. Really, all that can be done is to gather data and wait until NTT organically needs to upgrade.

It's an every day issue. Not occasionally.

Also without knowing the details regarding the agreement between SE and NTT, this is just speculation though.

You do make sense, but it disgusts me to think how they would tell us to "deal with it" as a resolution.

[Elamys]

Also without knowing the details regarding the agreement between SE and NTT, this is just speculation though.

You do make sense, but it disgusts me to think how they would tell us to "deal with it" as a resolution.

It sounds as though SE has tried but cannot reach a satisfactory resolution with NTT. I guess the only option is to keep complaining. Though it is very interesting to me that everyone with this issue is a Comcast customer.

[Kerwin]

It sounds as though SE has tried but cannot reach a satisfactory resolution with NTT. I guess the only option is to keep complaining. Though it is very interesting to me that everyone with this issue is a Comcast customer.

Cox Internet has also been heavily effected as well. The original NA thread was based off the many reports from there.

[Remyogic]

Cox Internet has also been heavily effected as well. The original NA thread was based off the many reports from there.

Please, don't take this as a derail or argument. I just want to put in a different perspective:

The phrases "heavily effected" and "many reports" have been, in one form or another used quite a bit in this topics various threads. What people lack is a high level perspective, what we see as "heavily effected" because we see a hundred, or a thousand, people post; is actually a fraction of a percent of total traffic; which doesn't even qualify as "minimally effected".

What we see as "many reports" because it takes us an hour or two to read through all the responses on a thread, in reality is not even a blip on the radar compared to the total number of people who run data through their network at any given moment.

The total data traffic created by ALL combined FFXIV users compared to the total data traffic on the NA Network as a whole, is a fraction of a fraction of a percent.

These issues are HUGE to us because we are looking at them in a microscopic vacuum of our particular circumstances, when, if you take a large step back and look at the big picture, we aren't even in it.

[Roda]

[snip]
These issues are HUGE to us because we are looking at them in a microscopic vacuum of our particular circumstances, when, if you take a large step back and look at the big picture, we aren't even in it.

Ok? but this mindset doesn't make the game any less unplayable. We know we're not the majority of internet users on this route, but that doesn't matter.
The people who are actually affected by this are trying to solve the problem so we can actually play the game we pay for.

[Kerwin]

Regardless of size. The issue is there and it doesn't change the effect.

[Hamada]

LGM Enkrateia:

I'll chime in like I did in the big thread.

On Comcast (which contrary to most people has been nothing short of extraordinary for me) I had 40ms and 0 packet loss when servers were in Canada. However, I'm not so naive to suggest others didn't have problems with the infamous L3 node.

That said since the server move, with 100% consistency I am unable to play this game post 7:30PM EST. It results in 200+ ms, 10%+ packet loss consistently every day, without fail. The issue is always with the San Jose CA NTT node, which is SE's responsibility to ensure is running efficiently as they are SE's chosen ISP partner.

I have resorted to Mudfish to be able to play this game. It sucks. I've never once needed a VPN to play ANY GAME over the course of 10+ years of gaming. Not once. Ever. I've had Comcast come out, I've talked to SE who gave me the runaround, and I've spoken with NTT NOC who confirmed that the only thing I can do is have SE contact them for breach of SLA because I am not NTT's customer, SE is.

The thing is, this type of stuff happens a lot, but other companies get it fixed. It's just not super common to hear about it.

Fun fact - I can connect to a AUSTRALIAN WoW server from the east coast with less ping than I can to FF14 post 7:30 PM. That should tell you something.

Can you explain to us why SE is not doing anything to complain to NTT's routing?