FFXIV and Level 3

[istvana]

From what I've seen in multiple threads FFXIV (the NA data centers) has had problems because access is through Level 3 but people report other games work fine because access isn't through Level 3. So it isn't SE's fault because they have nothing to do with Level 3, it is an internet issue.

This may all be perfectly correct but it raises the question of why FFXIV is routed through Level 3 and other games aren't. Not question in the sense of blame - SE couldn't have predicted what is going on now. Question in the sense of what can be done.

Is this purely an internet issue or does SE have some control over what internet systems access to its game is routed through? Can SE do anything to route through something other than Level 3? Can SE do anything to provide a choice so that when Level 3 is down players can elect a different routing?

If these are silly questions I can live with that I'm a gamer not a techie. I know that the problems are not with our local ISPs they are with something closer to (but not part of) SE's servers. I also know that often when access to NA is blocked access to EU works fine. So this seems to raise the above questions.

[HyoMinPark]

Level3 is a major Internet backbone for the majority of the US. It essentially directs Internet traffic, which is not something that SE can really control.

A lot of major ISPs in the US route through Level3 for different things, so really, it would be trying to get those base ISPs to redirect traffic around Level3. But that would require a lot of complaints from paying customers, and even then, the question of whether or not the base ISPs choose to route differently is still up in the air.

When Level3 starts having issues, it's up to them to contact various ISPs that route through their servers and tell them "Hey, we're having issues" and then those ISPs are responsible of redirecting traffic around Level3. SE can't really give users a choice when it comes to redirecting traffic around Level3, though you can download VPNs to try and bypass Level3 completely (something that only works for PC users, however).

I remember someone once mentioning that you could try a different DNS for those of you who play on consoles, but I have never tried that with regards to bypassing Level3, so I'm not sure if it works.

[TaurusGilgamesh]

The funny thing is, you can ping the server. So I don't know if this has anything to do with Level 3. Another thing is, when I load the lodestone, none of my characters on the NA data center is found, but my alt on an EU server. So basically, it sounds like the NA data can't be retrieved at all. I mean, if you can reach the server, but not the game, the application might not work properly.

Correct me, cause I'm not understanding that behaviour. Maybe someone got more knowledge than me about network tech.

[HyoMinPark]

The funny thing is, you can ping the server. So I don't know if this has anything to do with Level 3. Another thing is, when I load the lodestone, none of my characters on the NA data center is found, but my alt on an EU server. So basically, it sounds like the NA data can't be retrieved at all. I mean, if you can reach the server, but not the game, the application might not work properly.

When you ping a server, however, you're directly pinging that server, not going through the process of routing to it. A ping may take a route to the server, but a ping test isn't the same as a traceroute. All ping shows is your latency to the server; it doesn't show the trace, therefore it wouldn't show if there are problems somewhere down the road on the way to the server, and it doesn't care to show the trace.

I can ping Cactuar just fine. However, when I do a traceroute to it, I can't get through Level3's Montreal servers without a noticeable increase in latency, and without the requests just outright timing out. Others on reddit are also noting a few other IPs they can't get past as well (xe-9-0-0.mtl10.ip4.gtt.net and ormuco-gw.ip4.gtt.net).

The server is fine (I still have friends that are still on it). But the route some take to get to the server is where the problem lies (i.e., those that route through Level3 and those other IPs listed above seem to be having the problem).

EDIT: I'm seeing some post about how there's a lot of snowy weather going on in Montreal, which is where Level3 has servers a lot of us end up routing through. Could also be part of the problem. I believe the other two IPs I listed are also located in Montreal.