Severe Lag while only playing FFXIV

[changeXkendo]

Starting on this last Thursday I have been experiencing extreme lag while playing the game. The game will freeze completely for a few seconds and then everything fast forward to catch up. It has caused my character death on multiple occasions.
I have tested on two NA Data Centers and both are having the issue.
At first, of course, I thought it was my internet, but after pinging the router and Google, and both are stable on other games such as WoW and ESO both run without any lag or errors.
Keeping an eye on the connectivity while playing the game, I noticed that every few seconds I will receive 0 pings back from the server.
I have heard that this might be caused by the upcoming expansion, but there is no confirmation by this.
Can I get any help or suggestions on this?

[DrWho2010]

do a traceroute to primal. dollars to doughnuts it's probably NTT screwing up somewhere along the line to the server.

[changeXkendo]

yeah, I think it is NTT, but is there anything I can do? Or do I just have to suck it up and hope it resolves itself soon?

[Darneltia]

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

We understand the frustration this issue may cause and hope that this information can be helpful. If you are disconnected during play or logged out due to an unstable connection, please visit the World status page to see the status of your World.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/worldstatus/

If there is an ongoing maintenance or issue, we kindly ask you to wait for further updates.

If there is no ongoing maintenance or issue, it is possible there is a transmission or connection error. Please try these steps to troubleshoot the issue:

■ Restart communication equipment
Power off your communication equipment for 30 minutes to an hour. Unnecessary data accumulated on the equipment will be initialized, possibly allowing for smoother transmission.

■ Update firmware of communication equipment
Update your firmware, the program running your communication equipment. If the firmware is outdated, your communication equipment may not function properly, so please update your firmware before trying the version update again.

*Consult with the help manual of your hardware when updating firmware. Also, even if your firmware is up to date, rewriting the update may improve the situation.

■ Check settings for security programs and firewalls
There is a possibility that security programs and firewalls are interfering with files related to the game. Please disable these programs before attempting to run FINAL FANTASY XIV.

■ Check security services of your Internet provider
Depending on your Internet provider or service plan, there may be security services included. Please confirm that these security services permit online gaming. If they do not, or if you are unsure, contact your ISP for further details.

■ Close any running applications
Because other applications may interfere with your game, close all other running apps before running the installation file. You can perform a clean boot to ensure no other background programs are interfering with the installation by doing the following:

- Open the Task Manager and select the 'Start Up' Tab. Disable everything here and restart the PC.

■ Remove routers
In order to further diagnose the issue, remove routers and hubs temporarily and connect directly to your modem.

*This may change your connection to a broadband connection. Please consult with your provider for connection settings.

■ Check router settings
Check the settings of security functions (such as SPI) for your router. Also, please forward the ports used for the game. The ports are listed below.

*For details, please consult with the manufacturer of your router.

▼TCP
54992～54994
55006～55007
55021～55040

Note that we can confirm that there are no current reported issues with the servers. If the issue is indeed involving the connection itself from your provider, we unfortunately cannot provide more than just general troubleshooting. We advise making a report with your ISP regarding the issue and requesting if they can provide a workaround or if they can possibly reroute your connection to another node to see if this will prevent the lag/dropoffs from occurring. We apologize once again for the inconvenience and hope this information is useful.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

[Xtro99]

I've also been having connectivity issues for the past week or two, mostly at peak hours. My game will sometimes log me on with a DC icon on my character despite everyone else around me moving normally, then I'll stay in lag limbo for a good half a minute until I'm dropped to the log in screen. Sometimes I'll get DC'd with no rime or reason after an hour or two of playtime. The weird part is that usually when I do lag out and there's something wrong with my IP, my character lingers for a minute or two inside the server but with this particular issue, I'm able to log back in immediately as if the server just decided to log me off. I've been observing that there's most likely an issue with how we're getting routed to the server as the game picks different routes with each individual logging attempt, some of them are stable, and I can remain connected with no issues and sometimes I'll get logged into lag world just to get booted shortly after.

The catch is that this has happened to me using two different internet connections on 3 different systems and the same problem persists. I'll get a stable connection every 3 or 4 attempts and I'm positive both of my internet connections are working smoothly, so I'm inclined to believe this is not on my end.

[Flukeke]

I would like to add, I have also been getting lag over the last few days to Byrnhilder from the US East Coast. Router and Modem are both within a year old. Trace Route appears to show losses on the server side of the connection:

Tracert #1
8 60 ms 40 ms 54 ms ae-2.r23.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.102]
9 89 ms 108 ms 97 ms ae-1.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
10 107 ms 113 ms 100 ms ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
11 99 ms 105 ms * xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
12 * * 106 ms 204.2.229.230
13 95 ms 103 ms 92 ms 204.2.229.107

Tracert #2
8 46 ms 62 ms 58 ms ae-2.r23.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.102]
9 140 ms 114 ms 94 ms ae-1.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
10 129 ms 117 ms * ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
11 130 ms 125 ms 106 ms xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 120 ms * 112 ms 204.2.229.107

[Celsia]

Been having the same issues since Friday on Leviathan. Using a VPN seems to fix the packet loss with a little increase of ping time. Ping plotter is showing packet loss at ntt.net and further. ISP indicates no issues, rebooted every device connected to the house.

[Maxsdad]

I had something similar happening (I was running a well used Cat5 to a PS4). I updated to a new, shorter, flat Cat6 and the majority of the lag disappeared. I'm a crafter, so I was also failing crafting because the lag caused missed macro moves. For that, I reduced ALL my cooldown times to 4, haven't lost a crafted item in about two months. There still "feels" like the game has a slight lag, but nothing that has affected my actual play.

[Gilgameshtonberry]

Been having lag spikes since Monday. The last one hit me while running Sunken Temple of Qarn. It lags for fifteen to thirty seconds and then launches everyone forward trying to catch up. No disconnects, but this does not happen on any other online game right now, just FF14.

[Tussey86]

Same problem here that has been going on for at least a week. I have confirmed no hardware issues in my home nor with my ISP. Crafting and gathering are difficult at best and combat is down right impossible. Kind of sucks all the anticipation out of a new expansion when I can't even play legacy content.