Extreme lag with FFXIV Excalibur(NA)

[Raist]

They were likely only looking at the localized nodes and not potential issues from their peering partner or their exchange to that partner. It is important that you are dealing specifically with Tier3 support because of this. Those Tier1 and Tier2 guys most people deal with when they call in cannot look into the deeper issues usually at fault. Why people usually have better luck with the online contact options--it provides them a means to send things like tracert data demonstrating the problems crop up in relation to their peering arrangements with groups like Level3, Telia, Verizon Business/UUnet, etc.

Here is a sample trace I ran from a looking glass and posted a few days ago. It is from a Hurricane Electric router in LA to the Aether lobby in Canada:

  1    65 ms   48 ms   59 ms 213.248.67.141
  2    81 ms  144 ms   15 ms 4.68.70.129
  3    80 ms  273 ms  117 ms 4.69.153.86
  4    81 ms  218 ms  175 ms 4.69.153.86
  5   111 ms   99 ms   99 ms 4.59.178.74
  6   181 ms   82 ms  162 ms 192.34.76.10
  7    88 ms  178 ms  124 ms 199.91.189.242
  8   121 ms  153 ms   96 ms 199.91.189.74

The connection is showing signs of high congestion coming into and through their peering partner (Level3). This is an issue happening on the other side of their customers localized networks--beyond the point where those Tier 1/2 guys are usually looking. It would be along the line of the 5th hop or further down the route in most cases--those help desk guys are rarely looking past the third hop in such cases.

For comparison, here is a sample trace from my laptop to the same server here in South Carolina:

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

  1     1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  LPTSRV [10.10.100.1]
  2    36 ms    25 ms    26 ms  cpe-75-176-160-1.sc.res.rr.com [75.176.160.1]
  3    31 ms    30 ms    25 ms  cpe-024-031-198-005.sc.res.rr.com [24.31.198.5]
  4    13 ms    15 ms    17 ms  clmasoutheastmyr-rtr2.sc.rr.com [24.31.196.210]
  5    26 ms    25 ms    24 ms  be33.drhmncev01r.southeast.rr.com [24.93.64.180]
  6    33 ms    33 ms    32 ms  bu-ether15.asbnva1611w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.80]
  7    30 ms    29 ms    31 ms  0.ae2.pr1.dca10.tbone.rr.com [107.14.17.204]
  8    38 ms    35 ms    32 ms  ix-17-0.tcore2.AEQ-Ashburn.as6453.net [216.6.87.149]
  9    65 ms    63 ms    60 ms  if-11-3.thar2.NJY-Newark.as6453.net [216.6.87.242]
 10    56 ms    56 ms    58 ms  if-6-4.tcore2.N0V-New-York.as6453.net [66.198.111.98]
 11    69 ms    65 ms    61 ms  if-1-2.tcore2.NYY-New-York.as6453.net [216.6.99.6]
 12    73 ms    62 ms    60 ms  if-12-6.tcore1.CT8-Chicago.as6453.net [216.6.99.46]
 13    59 ms    66 ms    61 ms  if-22-2.tcore2.CT8-Chicago.as6453.net [64.86.79.1]
 14    59 ms    55 ms    57 ms  if-3-2.tcore1.W6C-Montreal.as6453.net [66.198.96.45]
 15    63 ms    64 ms    60 ms  66.198.96.50
 16    60 ms    66 ms    71 ms  192.34.76.2
 17    63 ms    60 ms    60 ms  199.91.189.234
 18    64 ms    66 ms    68 ms  199.91.189.74

Trace complete.

Notice how much tighter the response times are across the entire route? That is because Time Warner is using TATA for our peering at the moment. When they switch us to Cogent, it gets a little worse...when it is Level3 it doesn't take long for it to go to pot on us and we have to contact them to get it switched again.

These decisions are governed by our ISP's policies not SE, and managed by the higher level teams in their infrastructure like Tier 3 Support (sometimes referred to as Engineering).