Latency and Packetloss Issues - Loc Europe

[wicked-one]

Hey SE

I am afraid to inform you, that playing this game has gone nearly impossible.
Nearly ever day at primetime there is unbearable packetloss (5-20%) happening.

Affects me at home likewise (DSL - 16M Down / 3M Upload ISP: A1 Telekom) as being captured by my Monitoring Server connected to a 8 Mbit SHDSL Line... (Screenshots see below)

This happens nearly every evening, really bad today on sunday.

Reachability of the Website/Lodestone/Forums also affected, as the game itself.

Its not my local connection as other Partymembers suffer the same issues, spread across Austria, Germany, etc...

But go see for yourself:

C:\Users\wicked>pathping 199.91.189.45

Routenverfolgung zu 199.91.189.45 über maximal 30 Abschnitte

  0  xxx [192.168.xx.xx]
  1  dsldevice.home [192.168.xx.xx]
  2  193-83-7-254.adsl.highway.telekom.at [193.83.7.254]
  3  SALZP011.highway.telekom.at [195.3.93.21]
  4  195.3.118.233
  5  IIX11-AUX11.highway.telekom.at [195.3.70.110]
  6  ae51.bar2.Vienna.Level3.net [212.73.203.137]
  7     *     ae-11-11.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.1]
  8     *     ae-11-11.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.1]
  9  ORMUCO-COMM.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.59.178.74]
 10  192.34.76.10
 11  199.91.189.242
 12  199.91.189.45

Berechnung der Statistiken dauert ca. 300 Sekunden...
            Quelle zum Abs.  Knoten/Verbindung
Abs. Zeit   Verl./Ges.=   %  Verl./Ges.=   %  Adresse
  0                                           xxx [192.168.xx.xx]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  dsldevice.home [192.168.xx.xx]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  2   13ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  193-83-7-254.adsl.highway.telekom.at [193.83.7.254]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   16ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  SALZP011.highway.telekom.at [195.3.93.21]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  4   18ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  195.3.118.233
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  5   19ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  IIX11-AUX11.highway.telekom.at [195.3.70.110]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  6   22ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  ae51.bar2.Vienna.Level3.net [212.73.203.137]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%   100/ 100 =100%  ae-11-11.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.1]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%   100/ 100 =100%  ae-11-11.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.1]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  9  116ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  ORMUCO-COMM.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.59.178.74]
                                4/ 100 =  4%   |
 10  118ms     4/ 100 =  4%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.34.76.10
                                1/ 100 =  1%   |
 11  117ms     5/ 100 =  5%     0/ 100 =  0%  199.91.189.242
                                1/ 100 =  1%   |
 12  116ms     6/ 100 =  6%     0/ 100 =  0%  199.91.189.45

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

Monitoring outtakes (brown line indicates Packetloss)

Recent


Last day


past 5 days

[wicked-one]

Still an Issue, still no Response...

so push it, push it real good ^^

[Sove92]

There is no answer from SE, because they can't do anything about it. The biggest culprit is the same as usual, Level3. There is also the tcore1 in France that is giving problems.

The only solution is to make ISPs stop using the services of these two providers as they are clearly not interested in upgrading their network capacity.

[wicked-one]

I am aware of that, as im working in that segment.

We know from another Thread (ISP throttling because of FFXIV classified as P2P traffic) that SE is indeed in touch with a bunch of ISPs...

I am also aware that this won´t likely help, but if I would be SE, I clearly would be concerned... half my FC is considering quitting their sub due to the fact that the FCoB is nearly unbeatable when you have 10% packetloss and you miss 2 Seconds of a Mechanic...

>>>The only solution is to make ISPs stop using the services of these two providers as they are clearly not interested in upgrading their network capacity.


TL;DR - Heading Offtopic

Well, that´s the basic "pointing fingers at each other" game.

According to Level3, their Capacity is fine, it´s the Local ISP´s not upgrading their Links to Level3, because that would cost money, which most ISP´s dont have (Level3 not being an ISP, to differ, reffering to them as they are - a Tier1 Provider or Carrier)
And I tend to believe that, for reasons too much to explain here..

But - just if Level3 would be the Issue, SE definitely COULD do something (as not use Level3 for their Datacenter anymore ;-) )...

It´s the classic problem the Internet now encounters, more Bandwidth need with migration all and every sh** to the Internet, being Youtube, Netflix just being 2 popular bandwidth eaters... and rotating Access pricing to the botom [0]

[0]Basic DSL Internet Access in Austria costs a mere ~20$ - while technology makes you upgrade your network for insane amounts of money... so how will you keep that company running and not bleeding to death...

i predict a meltdown sooner or later, but hope is not gone entirely, so i want to raise awareness to the topic once in a while...

[Raist]

SE doesn't use Level3... it is your ISP's policies that are making the election to use Level3 to get to Ormuco (SE's ISP) instead of one of the other 3 that Ormuco peers with. In the US, pretty much all the main ISP's have agreements with 3 of the 4 that Ormuco peers with on the residential front (Level3, Cogent, Tata)--some also have agreements with the fourth one, TiNet/GTT. From other countries, the list of names that get involved can get a bit longer, but in many cases you may still wind up on network segments for one of those 4 along the way to the servers in Canada.

If you do your homework and can identify issues around/along the exchange points with the routing partner(s) getting you to Ormuco, you need to get in touch with your ISP's Tier3 support technicians. They are the ones with the resources to conduct the proper type of investigation and than take action to correct the problem--be that getting someone to work with that routing partner to address any issues they find or to change you to an alternate routing partner. At the very least, you can provide them the registered DNS names for the lobby servers (which I will provide in a second) so they can run tests along your assigned route(s) to see what may be going on.

This can and has been proven to work for many. It may take a fair amount of persistence and patience...but it can be done by working with the proper people (ie: your ISP). Your ISP's policies ultimately determine the route you take to SE's ISP (be that Ormuco in Canada, or JP-NIC (or whatever name the government is using now) in Tokyo). By extension, that makes them responsible for resolving issues on your behalf if there are problems along that assigned route, and not SE.

Lobby Servers in Canada (currently for NA/EU):
neolobby02.ffxiv.com
neolobby04.ffxiv.com
neolobby06.ffxiv.com

Lobby Servers in Japan:
neolobby01.ffxiv.com
neolobby03.ffxiv.com
neolobby05.ffxiv.com

Edit:
To further clarify how your ISP may be able to take more direct and immediate action, here is a breakdown of peers available to telekom.at that shows they have other options available for routing you to Ormuco:


Here's a breakdown of who those ASN's are:

AS1299 	TeliaSonera International Carrier
AS3356 	Level 3 Communications, Inc.
AS6939 	Hurricane Electric, Inc.
AS3320 	Deutsche Telekom AG
AS3491 	PCCW Global
AS6461 	Abovenet Communications, Inc
AS6762 	TELECOM ITALIA SPARKLE S.p.A.
AS9002 	RETN Limited
AS3257 	Tinet SpA
AS20485 	Closed Joint Stock Company TransTeleCom

Source: http://bgp.he.net/AS8447#_asinfo

Notice the name at the end... AS3257 Tinet SpA. Ormuco (SE's ISP in Canada) has a peering agreement with them. While other peers may cause additional round-about routing to happen, Tinet is also a more direct peering path to Ormuco like Level3:

AS701 	Verizon Business/UUnet
AS3356 	Level 3 Communications, Inc.
AS6453 	TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC
AS3257 	Tinet SpA
AS174 	Cogent Communications

Source: http://bgp.he.net/AS20324

Hmm.. interesting to note... Ormuco is now showing some peering with Verizon (last looked at their ASN's a month or two ago). Granted, it's more their business class provisioning... but it may eventually prove beneficial to all those Verizon customers in the northeast that have been having all kinds of issues lately.