Stutter Stepping?

[Caitlinzulu]

Square Enix is the only entity that will have any pull with Level3 which is where the bottleneck is occurring. Companies that run major internet backbones don't deal with individual internet users, they deal with the ISPs and companies who are pushing lots of traffic through their networks. Until Square Enix puts the pressure on Level3 by threatening to move their datacenter elsewhere then we're all stuck with this problem. Square of course does not want to have to resort to moving their datacenter as it would cost them an immense amount of money. Instead, those of us routed through Level3 (which is a very large number of people, even if not the "majority"), are instead just stuck twiddling our thumbs waiting on SE to do something, ANYTHING. As of now, they have not even posted an update to let their customers know they're even working on the problem at all.

I dont think SE can put much pressure at the level3 operator unfortunatly. Shure they can threaten to move their server but the level3 operator knows the cost of moving servers would be huge (as you state) so i can imagine that they would call SE's bluff and just do nothing.
If there was an alternative backbone to use and everyone would pressure their local ISP to use alternate routing then perhaps the level3 operator could be forced because they wouldnt have any clients whatsoever.

Or does all this work differently?

[Downdrop]

I dont think SE can put much pressure at the level3 operator unfortunatly. Shure they can threaten to move their server but the level3 operator knows the cost of moving servers would be huge (as you state) so i can imagine that they would call SE's bluff and just do nothing.
If there was an alternative backbone to use and everyone would pressure their local ISP to use alternate routing then perhaps the level3 operator could be forced because they wouldnt have any clients whatsoever.

Or does all this work differently?

The only way to get the ISP to do anything about it is to ask them. They (Comcast), have already stated many times to many different people that the problem is not on their end and refuse to do anything about it. Comcast has been refusing to give people ticket numbers even who are calling to complain. So our only options are to cancel service with Comcast and try to find another ISP. For many people that's not a viable option. In many US suburban areas we don't get the choice between multiple internet providers. We get but one. Even if we could change our ISP, this often comes with very pricey early termination fees. My early termination fee with Comcast Business is $250, plus an additional 10% of the remaining overall total I would have paid. That means should I cancel my service today to find another provider, I would pay in excess of $380USD. That's certainly not going to happen for me just to play FFXIV when my internet works just fine.

Is it really Comcast's problem though? Ultimately, no.

Square Enix is the one who will lose business over it in the end, firmly making it their problem to deal with. Why should Comcast care if Square Enix loses business? They're separate entities.

EDIT: I also find it relevant to add that it's not just Comcast routing. Reports from Time Warner, T-Mobile Broadband, and other ISPs also use Level3. All of these ISPs are saying it's not their fault and refuse to do anything about it. So say I *do* pay the early termination fees and switch to a new provider.. there is no guarantee the new provider won't use the exact same route through Level3 making the hassle of switching extremely pricey and pointless.

[Galibier]

The only way to get the ISP to do anything about it is to ask them. They (Comcast), have already stated many times to many different people that the problem is not on their end and refuse to do anything about it. Comcast has been refusing to give people ticket numbers even who are calling to complain. So our only options are to cancel service with Comcast and try to find another ISP. For many people that's not a viable option. In many US suburban areas we don't get the choice between multiple internet providers. We get but one. Even if we could change our ISP, this often comes with very pricey early termination fees. My early termination fee with Comcast Business is $250, plus an additional 10% of the remaining overall total I would have paid. That means should I cancel my service today to find another provider, I would pay in excess of $380USD. That's certainly not going to happen for me just to play FFXIV when my internet works just fine.

Is it really Comcast's problem though? Ultimately, no.

Square Enix is the one who will lose business over it in the end, firmly making it their problem to deal with. Why should Comcast care if Square Enix loses business? They're separate entities.

I ran a WIn MTR test... latency spikes were not on Comcast... they were on Level 3 nodes... then I hit packet loss with SE's CSP. So Comncast seems to right, sadly, in this case.

[Caitlinzulu]

Perhaps it wasnt a poor choice at the time they chose it? From what i read in other threads its sometimes peak hour based. Sounds like the line is way overloaded. Moving servers ,would be the easy way out. Consider that the cash-shop is supposed to be created to fund the move of chaos data center to europe, you can imagine the costs in moving the primal and (name escapes me) data center to US to be double that. Also who knows what the cost is for running a data center in montreal compared to a US city?
That combined could make a change of server location something that wouldnt be soon.
And wouldn't a move to US create problems for canadian players who would have to go through te same backbone?

[Galibier]

Perhaps it wasnt a poor choice at the time they chose it? From what i read in other threads its sometimes peak hour based. Sounds like the line is way overloaded. Moving servers ,would be the easy way out. Consider that the cash-shop is supposed to be created to fund the move of chaos data center to europe, you can imagine the costs in moving the primal and (name escapes me) data center to US to be double that. Also who knows what the cost is for running a data center in montreal compared to a US city?
That combined could make a change of server location something that wouldnt be soon.
And wouldn't a move to US create problems for canadian players who would have to go through te same backbone?

It's a poor choice anywhere I fear, thanks to Level 3. The NA internet infrastructure is pretty full at this point. If they moved anywhere, carrying NA and EU servers to the same location I see little difference occurring.

[Galibier]

Perhaps it wasnt a poor choice at the time they chose it? From what i read in other threads its sometimes peak hour based. Sounds like the line is way overloaded. Moving servers ,would be the easy way out. Consider that the cash-shop is supposed to be created to fund the move of chaos data center to europe, you can imagine the costs in moving the primal and (name escapes me) data center to US to be double that. Also who knows what the cost is for running a data center in montreal compared to a US city?
That combined could make a change of server location something that wouldnt be soon.
And wouldn't a move to US create problems for canadian players who would have to go through te same backbone?

Oh and I forgot. If moving would work this is how you determine when/where/why. Where are the majority of your customers in that market. If 80% of your NA customers are in the US and 20% in CAN, you may consider a move to appease the 80%. I would be surprised if the difference between Canada and the US is even more than that since CAN total population is like only 10% of the US's.