Bad lag again with NTT's NA server network

[brnslpy]

Been watching the nodes all morning from Midwest ATT. Right on schedule, around 11:30AM EDT, ping doubled from 60ms to 100-120ms with intermittent packet loss. Decided to spend my lunch break wading through ATT customer support. After they were done mucking around with my router, and allowing me to share trace routes, they watched my pings to 204.2.29.122 (FFXIV gateway server from SQEX's network issue report page) and confirmed the same thing I was seeing. Supposedly, their network engineers are aware of the peer-to-peer node with NTT and said their current timeline is 7-8 hours -- take that as you will though. 3 days for one bad node... I don't understand how two ISPs would take that long to fix that.

Partial Traceroute for the curious:

7 cgcil402igs.ip.att.net (12.122.132.197) 9.470 ms 17.816 ms 15.938 ms
8 192.205.32.194 (192.205.32.194) 9.816 ms 10.712 ms 12.681 ms
9 ae-4.r23.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.239) 15.468 ms 12.202 ms 10.787 ms
10 ae-1.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.17) 61.391 ms * 56.979 ms
11 ae-4.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.7.57) 104.897 ms 118.354 ms 108.629 ms
12 xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net (128.241.2.18) 99.586 ms 90.496 ms 103.030 ms
13 204.2.29.241 (204.2.29.241) 108.414 ms * *

You can see its always the node 129.250.7.57 that's locking everything up.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

AT&T Fiber here. If this hasn't been fixed by tomorrow, I'm going to be cancelling my upcoming resub. Game has practically become unplayable due to lag.

I don't want to go this route, especially since my static is relying on me to hit the ground running once 6.4 drops, but if I'm lagging, I won't be able to play.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

You can see its always the node 129.250.7.57 that's locking everything up.

Did you try running it with the actual datacenter IP? If you do that, you'll find that it's a different node acting up.

Partial `tracert` results:

4 4 ms 2 ms 4 ms 71.154.103.72
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 14 ms 15 ms 15 ms 32.130.25.65
7 18 ms 14 ms 20 ms ae-5.a00.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.237]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 108 ms 102 ms 101 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
11 102 ms 102 ms 103 ms ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
12 103 ms 102 ms 104 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
13 * 95 ms * 204.2.29.241
14 103 ms 95 ms 92 ms 204.2.29.6

Screenshot:

[Janyd]

I had to renew my VPN subscription as a result of this unplayable latency. Suffice it to say, rerouting does work if you're able to use or afford a VPN.

It's definitely not the best workaround, as I would prefer not having to use it, but it's at least viable until AT&T, SE, and/or NTT actually come forward with a "mea culpa" message.

Three days of this, and no official word, aside from what Techs have already stated. While it beats no word at all, official acknowledgment of this thread would be ideal.

If only there was a way to summon a CM in here to take a glance...

[Illyrian94]

For what it's worth, I figured I'd at least put in an SE support ticket. Filled out all the relevant info for the Connection/Network Issues form.
I'll share any updates I happen to get, although I'm assuming I likely won't get anything too relevant as I'm likely not the only one with a support ticket in for this issue right now.

Definitely frustrating that I renewed my sub only to not be able to play the game. The lack of any form of response after multiple days of an obvious issue is probably the biggest disappointment.

Edit: Received a very boilerplate-y response going through the usual stuff. "Turn off background processes on your computer, this might be caused by Microsoft Edge (lolwut), forward ports on your router, otherwise this is an issue with your ISP so take it up with them" sort of a deal. Replied with some traceroute screenshots showing ping issues at the NTT nodes and emphasized that this issue is not within my control or necessarily fully within AT&T's control. Sooooo we'll see what I get back.

After a bit more back and forth on my support ticket, Square Enix customer support responded and informed me that they are aware of the issue and are currently investigating and working on solving the issue. No timeline or anything given but... acknowledgement is a positive, I guess?

They also said to keep an eye on Lodestone for any updates.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

If only there was a way to summon a CM in here to take a glance...

Given that not even a moderator has popped in to say anything I don't think they want to touch this...

[brnslpy]

Yeah, I've gone down the list of the one from their support page and ones from is.xivup.com -- I concur that some might get different stuck routes but at least in my tests from two different sources, 129.250.7.57 is the one I'm locking up on.

[Janyd]

Finally, acknowledgment from Square Enix. I'm guessing a Lodestone post will come later today or tomorrow, at this rate. Fingers crossed!

[Krojack]

Updated my post with more working PIA (Private Internet Access) VPN nodes. It seems most nodes around Chicago and including Chicago get around this. Also Silicon Valley for western people and Honolulu if you're a lucky person that lives there.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6251695

Because this is a VPN, some of these IPs are dirty thus making Google.com make you complete a CAPTCHA in order to use their search. Last night I was using the Michigan node and found imgur.com has it banned.

[Janyd]

Updated my post with more working PIA (Private Internet Access) VPN nodes. It seems most nodes around Chicago and including Chicago get around this. Also Silicon Valley for western people and Honolulu if you're a lucky person that lives there.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6251695

Because this is a VPN, some of these IPs are dirty thus making Google.com make you complete a CAPTCHA in order to use their search. Last night I was using the Michigan node and found imgur.com has it banned.

Much appreciated, Krojack.