Unbearable server lag since yesterday

[Sho86]

Just wanted to update, still smooth gameplay for me with VPN (NordVPN in my case) as a comcast user, no spikes or lag; although people in my server are complaining about them (Midgardsormr, Aether).

[Mistress-Luna]

I noticed the lag start to kick in a little before 8pm PST and turned on my vpn ( Mozilla ) and it's been smooth ever since.

[Seacomet]

Past few days 9pm CST on the dot the lag hits - people are teleporting, none of your abilities work. Game is unplayable until morning. Today the lag started an hour later than normal (10pm CST exact). Again. Unplayable.
I'm hopeful this will be fixed Tuesday - otherwise rip being able to do any new content. This has been nothing but frustrating considering Final Fantasy is the ONLY game I own that is experiencing this problem at these specific times.

[MegaMage]

Issue has maintained for days. Really wondering where SE's response to this is.

[eaudaemon]

5th day, lag returned around 8PM PST, before then no problem, it was good while it lasted.

[E4EO]

I'm getting some slight lag too, but I'm reading through the thread and seeing people say it may be a issue with Comcast. That can't be the case, I live in Canada and don't use Comcast, unless Comcast is just THAT bad

[callmenat]

Hi all, I have Comcast as well and using a VPN to bypass the node has worked exceedingly well for myself along with multiple members of our novice network on Leviathan. There's a lot of free trials for things like Exitlag and Mudfish that could fit your needs until the node is fixed!

[Jarrell]

Issue is persisting for me since my earlier post on 4/6/21. I am unable to run any combat content and even crafting in an inn room results in 5-10 second delays between abilities frequently enough that macros cannot be used. Game is effectively unplayable as anything other than a social platform currently.

So, as some previous posts suggested, I tried using a VPN to escape Comcast's network and hopefully be able to play again. I already had a sub with one of the well known VPN services and did some testing. Below are the traceroutes. The first is my normal Comcast connection, the 2nd is to a San Francisco VPN pipe exit, and the 3rd is to a Dallas VPN pipe exit. My conclusions are after the traceroutes.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert 204.2.229.113

Tracing route to 204.2.229.113 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms x
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms x
3 8 ms 8 ms 9 ms po-302-1215-rur01.snyder.az.pima.comcast.net [68.86.201.65]
4 7 ms 9 ms 8 ms po-2-rur02.snyder.az.pima.comcast.net [68.87.172.114]
5 9 ms 15 ms 9 ms be-6-ar02.pimaco.az.pima.comcast.net [162.151.153.157]
6 22 ms 29 ms 24 ms be-36922-cs02.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net [96.110.45.133]
7 20 ms 23 ms 22 ms be-2201-pe01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net [96.110.44.102]
8 25 ms 21 ms 21 ms 50.242.151.62
9 31 ms 29 ms 31 ms ae-11.r25.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.187]
10 34 ms 32 ms 31 ms ae-3.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.150]
11 63 ms 58 ms 63 ms ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
12 75 ms 61 ms 62 ms xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
13 60 ms 65 ms 63 ms 204.2.229.234
14 61 ms * 62 ms 204.2.229.113

Trace complete.

---

tracert 204.2.229.113

Tracing route to 204.2.229.113 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 30 ms 32 ms 30 ms x
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 48 ms 31 ms 31 ms 10.64.4.44
4 41 ms 37 ms 33 ms 138.197.249.174
5 37 ms 32 ms 33 ms 138.197.249.190
6 62 ms 61 ms 79 ms 138.197.244.247
7 80 ms 52 ms 41 ms 138.197.244.238
8 45 ms 48 ms 35 ms ae-13.r05.plalca01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [157.238.179.237]
9 * 47 ms 42 ms ae-13.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.42]
10 55 ms 52 ms 49 ms ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
11 74 ms 45 ms 61 ms xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
12 58 ms 55 ms 67 ms 204.2.229.234
13 45 ms 69 ms 66 ms 204.2.229.113

Trace complete.

---

tracert 204.2.229.113

Tracing route to 204.2.229.113 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 58 ms 57 ms 57 ms x
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 57 ms 57 ms 58 ms br1.dal.as8100.net [96.44.144.17]
4 58 ms 59 ms 58 ms be5814.rcr21.b010621-0.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [38.122.58.57]
5 59 ms 57 ms 58 ms be2561.ccr32.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.73]
6 59 ms 58 ms 59 ms be2764.ccr41.dfw03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.47.214]
7 59 ms 58 ms 61 ms ae-5.r10.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.9.205]
8 58 ms 57 ms 57 ms ae-6.r25.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.5]
9 100 ms 100 ms 100 ms ae-2.r25.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.154]
10 101 ms 101 ms 103 ms ae-5.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.146]
11 119 ms 101 ms 103 ms ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
12 103 ms 104 ms 103 ms xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
13 * * 106 ms 204.2.229.234
14 104 ms 104 ms 104 ms 204.2.229.113

Please note that the timeout on the 2nd hop is normal for this particular VPN service due to the type of protocol they use. It is for client security purposes and can safely be ignored.

The above tracerts are examples of what I was seeing (I ran 20+ and am not going to spam this thread with them). What I see beyond that is continuing intermittent timeouts well within the NTT network, often on the server or server bank itself.

I do find it interesting that most of the affected players are on the Comcast/Xfinity network, but want to reiterate that experiencing the same issue while on a VPN service means not just Comcast/Xfinity customers are affected. This cannot be a Comcast routing issue as the VPN testing has completely circumvented that, as the traceroutes above show.

If you do wish to use a VPN to help improve your connection to FF14 server, I'd like to suggest getting as close to Sacramento as possible, as my traceroutes encountered the least number of timeouts using these connections. You will still experience issues until this is resolved though.

I commented earlier in this thread (post #7) that I believed it may have to do with the handoff from Comcast to NTT.

Given this new information, I can only conclude that this is an issue with NTT network, or the NTT Sacramento based CA2 server bank (google it if interested) that hosts some of the FF14 US server groups specifically. I apologize if my previous post has sent some people over to Comcast to report the problem, I do not believe they are the cause of the issue at this point in time.

While I am personally withholding judgment until we get a bit more confirmation, remember that NTT hosts FF14's data. Ergo, it may not be directly SQEX's fault, but it is their issue to address with their host.

I hope this is of some help to those experiencing this issue. It's not your computer or your connection.

[MadCabbit]

After posting to the Xfinity forums along with others following up as well, I got to messaging someone from Comcast directly. The most recent response I received is this:

I appreciate the link! I've seen a few customers' message in this evening regarding the same issue, so I've been researching it on my end to figure out what we need to do to report this for you. I'll follow up with you as soon as I have an update, and truly appreciate you bringing this to our attention. I haven't played FFXIV, but fully know how irritating it is to experience lag that makes a game unplayable. I appreciate your patience as well, and will touch base soon!

We'll see if this goes anywhere.

[Aylin]

I've also been in touch with Comcast about it, and they specifically asked what game I was having issues with. They updated our ticket, and said someone from Advanced Repair might reach out for more info. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Definitely report it to Comcast/your ISP if possible. The more tickets/complaints about this issue, the better the chance they might actually address it (fingers crossed, anyway).