Regarding Reports on Recent Connection Problems with the NA Data Center

[PrincessPeaNuT]

I'm having the same problem too. I have Cox. My friend also has similar problem and he has Cox. Like lundjames it all started around 4.15 ish. It used to be fine until then.

[DukeStardust]

Same here as well, and finally good to know it's not just me since it's been driving me crazy. :] Cox Internet subscriber in Orange County, Calif., suddenly started experiencing serious lag spikes (especially in dungeons/raids) in the evenings, and started happening around that patch timing (4.15-ish). Never had a sustained problem like this previously (been playing for ~2 years), and only seems to impact FF14. Can play other games, stream, etc. just fine. Please look into this; it's been bad enough for long enough that we've been considering unsubscribing since the game has sadly become borderline unplayable. Many thanks!

[Kevsop]

I am a Cox Communication Customer in Arizona and I know of at least one other person in a similar situation. Just posting here to make sure this topic gets the attention it deserves. The game has been very hard to play, and this was not the situation that the game was in when the servers first moved west. I am not having any connection issues in any other program or service, only FFXIV. With the new patch not so far away I'd like to get back into the game more but at this rate it is very hard to enjoy doing anything.

[MizunoNeko]

Yesterday I called Square Enix to talk to them about the severe packet loss on NTT network causing lag that makes the game unplayable. I was shocked to be told that no one else is experiencing this problem, and it is probably just a problem I am having. And until more people report it, there is nothing they can do.

Therefore, I'm suggesting EVERYONE on this thread who is having bad lag issues due to packet loss on NTT's network should CALL IN AND REPORT THIS VIA PHONE. Here is Square Enix's support number: 1 (858) 790-7529.

To check to see if you are having packet loss on ntt's network, in Windows, go into your start menu and type cmd and hit enter. At the command prompt type

tracert 204.2.229.9

The ip listed there is my particular server ip (aether), the others are all listed here https://arrstatus.com/. Anywhere you see a * on the output means a packet was lost. Here is an example of my tracert and you can see that I have lost packets on the hops that end with ntt.net:

1 2 ms <1 ms <1 ms www.routerlogin.com [192.168.1.1]
2 18 ms 8 ms 8 ms 10.7.82.1
3 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms 68.4.15.32
4 12 ms 11 ms 15 ms ip68-4-11-98.oc.oc.cox.net [68.4.11.98]
5 15 ms 16 ms 14 ms 68.1.1.63
6 15 ms 14 ms 21 ms ae-7.a00.lsanca20.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.194.165]
7 37 ms 42 ms * ae-3.r01.lsanca20.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.233]
8 30 ms 31 ms * ae-8.r23.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.48]
9 * 46 ms 39 ms ae-12.r22.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.150]
10 38 ms * 39 ms ae-19.r01.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.27]
11 39 ms 37 ms * ae-1.a00.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.228]
12 42 ms 45 ms 45 ms xe-0-0-42-1.a00.snjsca04.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [129.250.195.42]
13 25 ms * 26 ms 204.2.229.242
14 42 ms 42 ms 42 ms 204.2.229.9

I am very disappointed with how Square Enix is handling this issue. I cannot play any current content (Shinryu or Deltascape Savage, and of course Ultimate Coils are completely out). This will affect my ability to raid come 4.2 and if I lose my group due to it I will be canceling my subscription.

[Rahh]

Yesterday I called Square Enix to talk to them about the severe packet loss on NTT network causing lag that makes the game unplayable. I was shocked to be told that no one else is experiencing this problem, and it is probably just a problem I am having. And until more people report it, there is nothing they can do.

Therefore, I'm suggesting EVERYONE on this thread who is having bad lag issues due to packet loss on NTT's network should CALL IN AND REPORT THIS VIA PHONE. Here is Square Enix's support number: 1 (858) 790-7529.

I'm really surprised they say this issue is almost unheard of. I've seen multiple Reddit posts about it specifically to this game. This forum post has been going on for several weeks now too. I'll make sure to call to report it though. Thank you for the head's up.

I am very disappointed with how Square Enix is handling this issue. I cannot play any current content (Shinryu or Deltascape Savage, and of course Ultimate Coils are completely out). This will affect my ability to raid come 4.2 and if I lose my group due to it I will be canceling my subscription.

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm really hoping this issue gets resolved in the next few weeks because I am a raider as well and makes progression nearly impossible. I love this game to death and I appreciate everything SE, DEV and (of course) Yoshida but I just want to play the game

[lordcook]

Cox cable in California having this same issue since early December. I thought it was related to my county being on fire and just dealt with it thinking it was temporary (started having issues basically right when the fires started for my county). Still occurring daily during primetime, 6pm pacific past 10pm (aka the only time I have to play).

Hopefully they get this settled with NTT otherwise theres not much point in being subscribed for me.

[Laraul]

I have Cox im AZ and have not been noticing any issues with latency and the game. No lag spikes. No 90001 errors.

A 30 minute span during prime time. As you see I have no packet loss.


I'm unclear why some people are having problems and others not.

A few observations.

1. If it were NTT servers that were at fault then the latency problems would not be limited to just one ISP. All ISPs would be effected.
2. I don't see how an Cox support operator would know details for why just one game isn't working.
3. Back when the game passed through Level3 servers, a few people had these same problems. People complained that Level3 servers were garbage and they we're at fault. Like people are blaming NTT now.
4. A lot of people like me aren't experiencing problems. But you never here from us because why visit these threads unless we start having trouble.

[Syrehn]

Snip.

The reason you're not having an issue and others are is because they're hitting the congested NTT nodes during peak hours that are failing under the load and you're not. Simple as that.

It's not limited to just Cox, there are other threads with other people from other ISP's having the exact same problem when their connection is travelling through specific NTT nodes.

[Nega_Nomicon]

I have Cox im AZ and have not been noticing any issues with latency and the game. No lag spikes. No 90001 errors.

A 30 minute span during prime time. As you see I have no packet loss.


I'm unclear why some people are having problems and others not.

A few observations.

1. If it were NTT servers that were at fault then the latency problems would not be limited to just one ISP. All ISPs would be effected.
2. I don't see how an Cox support operator would know details for why just one game isn't working.
3. Back when the game passed through Level3 servers, a few people had these same problems. People complained that Level3 servers were garbage and they we're at fault. Like people are blaming NTT now.
4. A lot of people like me aren't experiencing problems. But you never here from us because why visit these threads unless we start having trouble.

"But you never here from us because why visit these threads unless we start having trouble." - So why are you here? We've already established that it's not affecting everybody which is what makes this situation frustrating and strange. I have exceptional hardware and I pay my ISP for the highest speeds they offer. If you did more research you'd learn that it's affecting Cox and other ISPs. If I play any other online game it runs beautifully as it should. This issue is entirely up to Square Enix to solve or they're going to lose a lot of subscribers from the west coast, southern, regions.

[Bluefve]

I have Cox im AZ and have not been noticing any issues with latency and the game. No lag spikes. No 90001 errors.

A 30 minute span during prime time. As you see I have no packet loss.


I'm unclear why some people are having problems and others not.

A few observations.
1. If it were NTT servers that were at fault then the latency problems would not be limited to just one ISP. All ISPs would be effected.

Wrong. MMOs don't work like that. Internet Data Centers often have numerous routes and uplinks, depending on geolocation and IP (for the intent of optimizing connections and providing more bandwidth. This could be a situation where one particular uplink is messed up, and why not everyone sees it.

2. I don't see how an Cox support operator would know details for why just one game isn't working.

True, but an ISP Network Engineer would have better insight and understanding for enterprise-level network architecture and their own infrastructure. The engineer I spoke to talked about his own experience working with Blizzard on a similar issue, back in 2013, for WoW.

3. Back when the game passed through Level3 servers, a few people had these same problems. People complained that Level3 servers were garbage and they we're at fault. Like people are blaming NTT now.

Level3 does have bad routing. Its worse in certain geographic areas though, like France.

4. A lot of people like me aren't experiencing problems. But you never here from us because why visit these threads unless we start having trouble.

Right, no one said EVERYONE is experiencing the problem. But the internet is a complicated beast, and a large number of people ARE experiencing a problem.

Two additional observations from your own data that I've noticed, is that...
1) Mostly (if not all) everyone who's having this problem is from California, CA. (You yourself are in AZ, which may not be affected)
2) Mostly (if not all) everyone who's reporting the problem are pinging 204.2.229.9 (You are pining 204.2.229.103 -- could mean everything, could mean nothing)

I don't know how relevant these details are, but they are nonetheless details.

My Pingplotter results taken just now.

Target Name: 204.2.229.9
IP: 204.2.229.9
Date/Time: 1/10/2018 9:19:17 PM - 1/10/2018 9:29:17 PM

Hop Sent PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
1 472 0 0.55 18.01 1.56 SYNOLOGYROUTER [192.168.1.1]
2 472 0 4.72 23.56 9.00
3 472 0 4.70 24.54 9.65 ip68-4-11-194.oc.oc.cox.net [68.4.11.194]
4 472 0 5.25 30.27 11.06 ip68-4-11-16.oc.oc.cox.net [68.4.11.16]
5 472 0 7.47 68.47 14.58 68.1.1.63 [68.1.1.63]
6 472 0 8.26 53.58 15.94 ae-7.a00.lsanca20.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.194.165]
7 472 1 17.92 40.26 21.84 ae-3.r01.lsanca20.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.233]
8 472 1 8.12 34.10 14.00 ae-8.r23.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.48]
9 472 3 34.06 59.62 38.16 ae-12.r22.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.150]
10 472 3 32.97 55.35 37.39 ae-19.r01.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.27]
11 472 8 35.81 61.52 41.08 ae-1.a00.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.228]
12 472 8 37.46 68.59 41.03 xe-0-0-42-1.a00.snjsca04.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [129.250.195.42]
13 472 23 36.84 57.31 41.21 204.2.229.242 [204.2.229.242]
14 472 5 35.93 98.00 41.41 204.2.229.9 [204.2.229.9]

Would be interesting to see more people's PingPlotter results, too, versus plain traceroutes.