Using ping/vpn programs to reduce latency?

[Siete]

Is it legal? If so what are some good ones?
I'm tired of getting hit by stuff I dodged over a half second ago

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It'll only help if its a routing issue you have. They are not illegal, they don't interfere with the game or its network traffic. Its just a pipeline from one place to another.

[Siete]

Well I'm trying WTFast and it makes no difference at all.
Doomed to 400ms it seems.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Well I'm trying WTFast and it makes no difference at all.
Doomed to 400ms it seems.

Are you located somewhere outside NA? Or are you using DSL or Satellite?

[Siete]

Are you located somewhere outside NA? Or are you using DSL or Satellite?

Yes. Argentina, Buenos Aires. On DSL.
I usually get 130-150ms to NA, except West Coast which gives me the same ping as EU servers.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Yes. Argentina, Buenos Aires. On DSL.
I usually get 130-150ms to NA, except West Coast which gives me the same ping as EU servers.

Ahh... Yeah, VPN isn't going to do much there I don't think. That's mostly a distance thing, exacerbated by number of hops most likely. The more equipment it goes through, the higher the latency.

[rachcouture]

Like Valkyrie said, you can use a VPN to bypass routing issues. I've done this numerous times in the past to bypass my ISP shoving everything through the problematic Level3 junctions that sit in front of FFXIV's servers.

As far as recommendations: any subscription-based VPN with servers operated outside a 14 eyes country will do. I've always been happy with ExpressVPN, but plenty of others meet the requirements, as well.

Well I'm trying WTFast and it makes no difference at all.
Doomed to 400ms it seems.

WTFast isn't worth it. You're better off subbing to a real VPN for the security enhancements than a mediocre rerouting service with a low success rate.

[Sylve]

WTFast isn't worth it. You're better off subbing to a real VPN for the security enhancements than a mediocre rerouting service with a low success rate.

Played ARR without WTFast, Ping was constantly fluctuating between 450 and 600 (This was back in the days before the adjusted server tick rate).
With WTFast, my ping is a rocksteady 180. From the south eastern end of Australia no less, which means my traffic needs to cross the entire width of the country to get to the pipe in WA that connects to San Jose.

To get the best results from WTFast, you absolutely need to enable multi server routing in the settings and have a sub. Then when you setup the connection, set both servers to "Choose Best". That picks lowest possible ping WTFast node on the first server, then picks a server with the least possible hops to destination as the second server.

For me, this manifests as a 5 hop journey.
1 - Home
2 - ISP
3 - WTFast node AU
4 - WTFast node US
5 - destination XIV datacenter.

You could probably do some sort of manual routing if the Security VPN service allowed user control like that, but generally their concern is data safety/anonymity, not best possible game connections (I'm aware there are some VPNs that offer both services in one). And they're especially unlikely to have dedicated server nodes exclusively for gaming traffic the way WTFast and I assume other similar services like Pingzapper do.

Also, some sites like Netflix simply will not function if they detect you on a VPN.

[Siete]

Actually I stand corrected, it made it worse.

[Lethros]

Have you tried using the different routes, or clearing settings (if you've used it quite a bit)? I use WTFast in australia and it helps quite a lot in my experience, but sometimes I need to clear settings, or select a different country at a busy time of the day. I normally set it to just "Select Optimal wtfast Server 1" (automatic selection), but sometimes I specifically select Japan for a stable connection when it's otherwise unstable, because that's my datacenter location anyway. It can help with resolving data loss and spike issues. Sometimes just disconnecting WTFast and connecting again helps. I select connect during character selection