Bad lag again with NTT's NA server network

[Addisen]

I've been back and forth in email over this but I just keep getting the same scripted spiel of troubleshooting. Here's how it looks on the east coast every night for me from 8:15pm to 11:15pm EST.



9 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms 206.180.158.173
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 26 ms 42 ms 25 ms ae-43.a01.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.9.205]
12 * * 26 ms ae-6.r22.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.118]
13 * * 63 ms ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
14 * 69 ms 68 ms ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
15 69 ms 69 ms * ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
16 73 ms * 72 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 68 ms * 68 ms 204.2.29.122

[yurukii]

I ended up routing my game through mudfish, it's been a big help. that might help you out, as well.

[Addisen]

That has worked for me as well. I shouldn't have to resort to this, but I'm in and things aren't moving in Morse code.

[Leirsgrios]

Just adding my voice to the cacophony of voices struggling with this issue. Unfortunately, I've tried MudFish, PIA, and Cloudflare's WARP with no resolution. I have 3 subscriptions in the house all active since early 2020, and they are all borked.

I've not had these problems for 4 years, and this last month has rendered the game nearly unplayable prior to Dawntrail.

[eburk]

Recent returner, also seeing the same NNT routing issues and dropped packets. Was getting DC's and lag every 5-10 minutes, especially in instanced content.

I have a ProtonVPN business account and using one of their California-based nodes has massively decreased the amount of disconnections and lag spikes I have been getting

[gilmorej]

I've also been having lag issues the past month or so:

Tracing route to 204.2.29.72 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    15 ms     7 ms     8 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    24 ms    11 ms    10 ms  10.2.80.1
  3    13 ms    15 ms    14 ms  100.125.221.210
  4    17 ms    10 ms    11 ms  100.122.109.78
  5    29 ms    32 ms    30 ms  maribprj01-ae1.rd.at.cox.net [68.1.1.215]
  6    27 ms    26 ms    29 ms  atl-b24-link.ip.twelve99.net [62.115.167.68]
  7    29 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ae-2.a03.atlnga05.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.9.21]
  8    45 ms    29 ms    28 ms  ae-2.r25.atlnga05.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.120]
  9    26 ms    27 ms    28 ms  ae-8.r24.atlnga05.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.85]
 10     *       49 ms     *     ae-4.r25.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.165]
 11    49 ms    50 ms    43 ms  ae-1.r24.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.37]
 12    92 ms    99 ms   101 ms  ae-2.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.6.237]
 13    93 ms    95 ms    94 ms  ae-4.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
 14    92 ms    94 ms    92 ms  xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
 15     *        *      334 ms  204.2.29.241
 16    94 ms    93 ms    95 ms  204.2.29.72

Trace complete.

[BucklesTrespen]

Hello,

Over the past few months I've noticed 5-10 second pauses every few hours while playing and not thought much of it. However I am currently doing a lot of chocobo racing and the issue is more apparently there for me (just standing still for ages then warping across the map). Is the problem I am having the same as described here? How does using a VPN help? I do not want to go into Dawntrail with this awful laggy experience.

[osnoR]

I'm in the Texas Panhandle, and my wife and I also started having massive lag spikes when we play from 9p-12a CST (started maybe 2 weeks ago, before that, we never noticed any issues, 4 years in)....
If we hop on at noon or 11:30p, virtually no issues (89ms tops)... Seeing the same with the NTT nodes.....
On Sargatanas.

We ran Thalia earlier and it was miserable. We don't see DCs, but a lot of 2-seconds of running, then everyone stops, then they rubber band, or Vuln Stacks from things we know we dodged.

Here is our ping from earlier when we hopped on at 10:30p CST:
========================================

Ping statistics for 204.2.29.6:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 234ms, Maximum = 310ms, Average = 284ms
PS C:\Users\----> tracert 204.2.29.6

Tracing route to 204.2.29.6 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  -------------
  2     3 ms     3 ms     6 ms  -------------
  3    15 ms    14 ms    14 ms  -------------
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5   159 ms   219 ms     *     ae-43.a01.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.9.205]
  6   145 ms   197 ms   212 ms  ae-6.r22.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.118]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8   302 ms   305 ms   307 ms  ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
  9    58 ms    57 ms    56 ms  ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
 10   313 ms   239 ms   217 ms  xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12   284 ms   292 ms   234 ms  204.2.29.6

I'm hopping on the thread so I can keep updated.

::EDIT::

Here is my normal ping during the day:

Tracing route to 204.2.29.6 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  ---------------
  2     2 ms     3 ms     3 ms  ---------------
  3    14 ms    13 ms    14 ms  ---------------
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ae-43.a01.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.9.205]
  6    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ae-6.r22.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.118]
  7    50 ms    50 ms    49 ms  ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.69]
  8    59 ms    58 ms    57 ms  ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.7]
  9    58 ms    57 ms    57 ms  ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.76]
 10    58 ms    59 ms    58 ms  xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
 11     *       58 ms    57 ms  204.2.29.241
 12    58 ms    57 ms    57 ms  204.2.29.6

Trace complete.
PS > ping 204.2.29.6

Pinging 204.2.29.6 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 204.2.29.6: bytes=32 time=57ms TTL=49
Reply from 204.2.29.6: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=49
Reply from 204.2.29.6: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=49
Reply from 204.2.29.6: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 204.2.29.6:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 56ms, Maximum = 59ms, Average = 57ms

[Synthwave89]

Im not trying to shoot the messanger, i understand the moderators are trying their best here.

After reading posts and comments about this issue for 6 weeks and talking to different people, i have the slight suspicion all these "fixes" we should try are helping almost nobody.
The only thing thats seems to help is to use a VPN.

I also find it interesting that the lags for many including myself started happening regularly only after the DDOS attacks a couple weeks ago.

So since we are paying a subscription to a service, a service that is clearly not working almost every day at primetime and on the weekend. When can we expect to get some resolution or atleast an official apology? Has this even been acknowledged as a seroius problem by Square Enix? Doesnt look like it to me, since its only affecting a small percentage of players, seems like maybe around 10%? I know i sound like a Boomer, but i remember a time when game companys would give out free playtime in cases like this and write some sort of apology.
Its not about the money for me, its about being a decent human.

6 weeks, almost everyday at primetime, sometimes small lags, sometimes lags that makes certain content in the game unplayable.
All in all isn't that kinda embarrassing for a company that big? I wish SE would care more about their customers from EU / NA. I wish companys in general, with more then enough money, would try to fix problems sooner. Without having to calculate first, how big is the problem, how much money will it cost the company.

Rant over.

[osnoR]

I agree @Synthwave89.

We had lag so bad last night from 9p CST to 'x', it got us killed in PotD. Wife went to bed since she had limited time to play last night.
I decide to try 60/70/80 roulette, and get Ala Mhigo. I was virtually useless, and the Zenos red mechanic would hit before I had any chance to react, so more or less Id feed my tank or other DPS a vuln stack due to lag.

I got off after that because the latency didnt recover.

Its getting pretty frustrating.