Lag Issue - ISP or Hardware?

[Tizerak]

http://i.imgur.com/hA6bM18.png

The above image is an example of the latency issues I've been having where the map takes a bit to load for some reason. I've also experienced issues in Duty Finder where I will click an ability to cast it I see the bar come to completion and can keep casting but nothing visually/audio happens then all of the sudden it catches up. Icons will be slow to load when turning in quest items to an NPC, and sometimes after completing a quest or trying to converse with an NPC will cause pause as well.

I have Verizon FiOS 50/50 and I ran a ping test overnight to google just to see if there were any packets lost but it looked good:

Ping statistics for 65.199.32.91:
Packets: Sent = 31654, Received = 31654, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 12ms

Below is a link to the laptop I have with its specifications:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834314853

I'm really kind of stumped because it's better then my desktop I played on but performs worse? The only thing I can think of is that the monitor I use is plugged into the HDMI port on the Intel integrated chip that links to the GEForce dedicated GPU, I haven't experienced any problems with other games though, maybe I'll have to just use the laptop's monitor? Or maybe my monitor is too old? Not sure

[Tizerak]

Well I tried just using the laptop monitor that didn't change anything.
I'm running the DX9 version of the game maybe I should try DX11?

[Tizerak]

I've tried the DX11 version that didn't really change anything.

[Warheart777]

You need to search for the ip of your ffxiv server and ping that. Pinging Google only shows you home connection and service providers network is good. But all NA server are in Montreal Canada. So most lag comes from everyone trying to hit the same server. I use pingzapper and that resolved my issues as it makes my internet traffic take higher priority internet lanes. Especially my buddy who is a ninja.

[Tizerak]

You need to search for the ip of your ffxiv server and ping that. Pinging Google only shows you home connection and service providers network is good. But all NA server are in Montreal Canada. So most lag comes from everyone trying to hit the same server. I use pingzapper and that resolved my issues as it makes my internet traffic take higher priority internet lanes. Especially my buddy who is a ninja.

Pingzapper eh? Is there a location to look up the FFXIV server IP's?

[Disc]

http://i.imgur.com/hA6bM18.png

I have Verizon FiOS 50/50 and I ran a ping test overnight to google just to see if there were any packets lost but it looked good:

This is probably your issue. You generally won't see it during off hours, but during prime time & the hours surrounding it FIOS tends to get 20-50% packet loss to the Montreal servers. Next time it happens open CMD and type "pathping YOURSERVERIPHERE > c:\FFXIVping.txt" (without quotes) & hit enter. It runs a more thorough test checking all of the hops to see where the packets are dropped. If you're lucky it'll just be a wireless issue & you can grab an ethernet cord or power to ethernet adapter. If not, I've found tethering with my phone works way better than FIOS for ARR+Ventrillo/Teamspeak.

[Tizerak]

This is probably your issue. You generally won't see it during off hours, but during prime time & the hours surrounding it FIOS tends to get 20-50% packet loss to the Montreal servers. Next time it happens open CMD and type "pathping YOURSERVERIPHERE > c:\FFXIVping.txt" (without quotes) & hit enter. It runs a more thorough test checking all of the hops to see where the packets are dropped. If you're lucky it'll just be a wireless issue & you can grab an ethernet cord or power to ethernet adapter. If not, I've found tethering with my phone works way better than FIOS for ARR+Ventrillo/Teamspeak.

I don't use wireless at home just Ethernet. I don't see how 50/50 fiber is worse than 25/5 Xfinity cable internet I used to have. When I run tracert to Montreal and other IP's I always get a time out after the last Verizon hop:

Tracing route to bb6b6bb0.virtua.com.br [187.107.107.176]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms FIOS_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 6 ms 3 ms 5 ms lo0-100.WASHDC-VFTTP-326.verizon-gni.net [108.31.159.1]
3 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms T1-1-0-11.WASHDC-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.171.36]

I can't/shouldn't afford the cost to turn my phone into a hot spot.

[Disc]

I don't use wireless at home just Ethernet. I don't see how 50/50 fiber is worse than 25/5 Xfinity cable internet I used to have.

Because the upload/download speeds are irrelevant, a 1.5MB DSL line could potentially be better for games. Latency & packet loss are what cause us issues. FIOS has a reputation for overcrowding their hops & throttling bandwidth, but then what isp doesn't these days?

[Raist]

I don't use wireless at home just Ethernet. I don't see how 50/50 fiber is worse than 25/5 Xfinity cable internet I used to have. When I run tracert to Montreal and other IP's I always get a time out after the last Verizon hop:

Tracing route to bb6b6bb0.virtua.com.br [187.107.107.176]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms FIOS_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 6 ms 3 ms 5 ms lo0-100.WASHDC-VFTTP-326.verizon-gni.net [108.31.159.1]
3 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms T1-1-0-11.WASHDC-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.171.36]

I can't/shouldn't afford the cost to turn my phone into a hot spot.

That's a webserver (ping eidos.com, justcause2.com, or about a dozen other game sites under the EIDOS brand and you'll get that IP). It's hosted on i-web servers (different company), in a different section of town, and has nothing to do with gameplay.

Either use the lobby servers (their DNS names are embedded in the game files), or after logging fully into the game load Resource Monitor (resmon from search/run box) to find the IP used by FFXIV or run netstat . The servers in Canada start with 199, Japan's start with 124 (there may be some calls to addresses starting with 125 or 202 intermittently, but the game play will be on 199 or 124 depending on the region). These were the the DNS names for the lobby servers last time I looked at the files:

Canada:
neolobby02.ffxiv.com
neolobby04.ffxivlcom
neolobby06.ffxiv.com

Japan:
neolobby01.ffxiv.com
neolobby03.ffxiv.com
neolobby05.ffxiv.com

***note: these assignments may be altered somehow once the EU datacenter goes live.

As for the different bandwidth plans, anything beyond about 512 - 768k is nearly irrelevant for gameplay. Your bandwidth is not the speed of your transfer....that remains constant based on the medium in use (each type of cable runs the same unit of distance per second regardless of the bandwidth---all copper lines will be the same, all standard fiber will be the same, all dark fiber will be the same). Different bandwidth plans are like different sized vehicles...a bus carries more people than a car, but they could be traveling the same speeds. 4 people get to Chicago in the same time frame whether they are in a sedan, a van, or a bus. The game's payload needs really only exceed the 1Mbit mark during initial loading of zones, or possibly in the case of an extremely large amount of players on screen and such. Watch your send/receive numbers when in a crowded town. If you are pegging 3000bytes/second....that is only 24kbps of bandwidth being used. IDK if the interface would even scale to 1Mbit in the game...that would be 125,000 bytes.

What matters is your latency and not your bandwidth. It is the delays in the transmission between server and client that cause the problem. Sudden, massive spikes due to congestion that is overloading hardware along your route wreaks havoc in gameplay. You should have fairly consistent response times that increment steadily from hop to hop in proportion to the distance traveled. Highly inconsistent numbers at a hop (or between hops) within a single test sample, or wide variances across multiple samples are often an indicator of increased load that is straining the network segments your ISP has assigned you to take to get to Ormuco (SE's ISP).

When found, such samples should be investigated by your ISP's Tier3 support team and adjustments made to either remedy the elevated congestion or to route around it. It IS within the power of your ISP to manage this...the fact that you can subscribe to VPN services that provide you a means to alter your routing somewhat yourself is evidence enough that it can be managed to improve things, but there are those here and at other sites that have managed to get their ISP's involved to address such issues so they don't have to resort to using a VPN full time.

But you need to provide GOOD data: good and bad samples for this service, as well as comparison to other services as well--to draw a contrast (alternatively you can show good traces through a VPN against bad traces with no VPN in use). And you need to be getting that data to the Tier3 support team for review. Not the guy at the help desk that walks you through rebooting the modem, and not the guy that comes check your lines and installs new splitters/connectors or swaps your modem---Tier3 is a higher level group that deals with the more complex networking issues beyond your localized network components.

You may need to push hard for the escalation if you are using the phone. People typically fair better going about the process through online options. You can check your ISP's site for an official support portal, or check these sites to see if there are options listed (social media, outsourced forum, etc.):

www.http://downdetector.com/companies
(that page is mostly NA service, links to other regions at bottom of page)

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all
(this site provides more dedicated one-on-one style support between you and support---it's not an open forum like here)

[Tizerak]

That's a webserver (ping eidos.com, justcause2.com, or about a dozen other game sites under the EIDOS brand and you'll get that IP). It's hosted on i-web servers (different company), in a different section of town, and has nothing to do with gameplay.

Either use the lobby servers (their DNS names are embedded in the game files), or after logging fully into the game load Resource Monitor (resmon from search/run box) to find the IP used by FFXIV or run netstat . The servers in Canada start with 199, Japan's start with 124 (there may be some calls to addresses starting with 125 or 202 intermittently, but the game play will be on 199 or 124 depending on the region). These were the the DNS names for the lobby servers last time I looked at the files:

Canada:
neolobby02.ffxiv.com
neolobby04.ffxivlcom
neolobby06.ffxiv.com

Japan:
neolobby01.ffxiv.com
neolobby03.ffxiv.com
neolobby05.ffxiv.com

***note: these assignments may be altered somehow once the EU datacenter goes live.

As for the different bandwidth plans, anything beyond about 512 - 768k is nearly irrelevant for gameplay. Your bandwidth is not the speed of your transfer....that remains constant based on the medium in use (each type of cable runs the same unit of distance per second regardless of the bandwidth---all copper lines will be the same, all standard fiber will be the same, all dark fiber will be the same). Different bandwidth plans are like different sized vehicles...a bus carries more people than a car, but they could be traveling the same speeds. 4 people get to Chicago in the same time frame whether they are in a sedan, a van, or a bus. The game's payload needs really only exceed the 1Mbit mark during initial loading of zones, or possibly in the case of an extremely large amount of players on screen and such. Watch your send/receive numbers when in a crowded town. If you are pegging 3000bytes/second....that is only 24kbps of bandwidth being used. IDK if the interface would even scale to 1Mbit in the game...that would be 125,000 bytes.

What matters is your latency and not your bandwidth. It is the delays in the transmission between server and client that cause the problem. Sudden, massive spikes due to congestion that is overloading hardware along your route wreaks havoc in gameplay. You should have fairly consistent response times that increment steadily from hop to hop in proportion to the distance traveled. Highly inconsistent numbers at a hop (or between hops) within a single test sample, or wide variances across multiple samples are often an indicator of increased load that is straining the network segments your ISP has assigned you to take to get to Ormuco (SE's ISP).

When found, such samples should be investigated by your ISP's Tier3 support team and adjustments made to either remedy the elevated congestion or to route around it. It IS within the power of your ISP to manage this...the fact that you can subscribe to VPN services that provide you a means to alter your routing somewhat yourself is evidence enough that it can be managed to improve things, but there are those here and at other sites that have managed to get their ISP's involved to address such issues so they don't have to resort to using a VPN full time.

But you need to provide GOOD data: good and bad samples for this service, as well as comparison to other services as well--to draw a contrast (alternatively you can show good traces through a VPN against bad traces with no VPN in use). And you need to be getting that data to the Tier3 support team for review. Not the guy at the help desk that walks you through rebooting the modem, and not the guy that comes check your lines and installs new splitters/connectors or swaps your modem---Tier3 is a higher level group that deals with the more complex networking issues beyond your localized network components.

You may need to push hard for the escalation if you are using the phone. People typically fair better going about the process through online options. You can check your ISP's site for an official support portal, or check these sites to see if there are options listed (social media, outsourced forum, etc.):

www.http://downdetector.com/companies
(that page is mostly NA service, links to other regions at bottom of page)

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all
(this site provides more dedicated one-on-one style support between you and support---it's not an open forum like here)

Tracing route to neolobby02.ffxiv.com [199.91.189.74]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms FIOS_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 6 ms 6 ms 7 ms lo0-100.WASHDC-VFTTP-326.verizon-gni.net [108.31.159.1]
3 6 ms 10 ms 8 ms T1-1-0-11.WASHDC-LCR-22.verizon-gni.net [130.81.171.38]
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 9 ms 8 ms 10 ms 0.ae4.BR2.IAD8.ALTER.NET [140.222.227.197]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 31 ms 32 ms 32 ms ae-101-101.ebr1.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.204.229]
9 32 ms 38 ms 33 ms ae-1-100.ebr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.143.214]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * 16 ms 14 ms ae-1-11.ebr4.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.204.198]
12 31 ms 32 ms 31 ms ae-5-5.car1.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.5]
13 32 ms 32 ms 31 ms ae-11-11.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.69.141.1]
14 22 ms 20 ms 20 ms ORMUCO-COMM.car2.Montreal2.Level3.net [4.59.178.74]
15 21 ms 23 ms 21 ms 192.34.76.10
16 30 ms 29 ms 31 ms 199.91.189.242
17 21 ms 22 ms 20 ms 199.91.189.74

Trace complete.

and

Tracing route to neolobby02.ffxiv.com [199.91.189.74]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 <computername>.fios-router.home [192.168.1.154]
1 FIOS_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 lo0-100.WASHDC-VFTTP-326.verizon-gni.net [108.31.159.1]
3 T1-1-0-11.WASHDC-LCR-22.verizon-gni.net [130.81.171.38]
4 * * *
Computing statistics for 75 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 computername.fios-router.home [192.168.1.154]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% FIOS_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 6ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% lo0-100.WASHDC-VFTTP-326.verizon-gni.net [108.31.159.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 8ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% T1-1-0-11.WASHDC-LCR-22.verizon-gni.net [130.81.171.38]

Trace complete.
--------------------

I wish Pingzapper worked better but being that it causes 900002's a lot I'm hesitant to try the retail version/subscription, I might try WTFast next. I would honestly rather use some rerouting service then having to deal with "customer service" again if I can help it.