Bad lag again with NTT's NA server network

[brnslpy]

Its 2:15AM EDT, the usual time when things start to clear up, and still getting lag:

Ping:

$ ping 204.2.29.122
PING 204.2.29.122 (204.2.29.122): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=0 ttl=48 time=112.574 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=112.086 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=97.176 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=4 ttl=48 time=111.966 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=5 ttl=48 time=111.932 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=6 ttl=48 time=112.411 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=7 ttl=48 time=111.154 ms
64 bytes from 204.2.29.122: icmp_seq=8 ttl=48 time=101.274 ms
^C
--- 204.2.29.122 ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 11.1% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 97.176/108.822/112.574/5.648 ms

Currently on a different ISP so I can play FFXIV instead of using my ATT Fiber connection, which this new ISP is a world of improvement but I wish the ATT network and all using it can be resolved soon. Heard NTT is aware of congestion but it's a peer-to-peer "who's going to pay for expansion issue" whatever that is worth.

[grinkdaboy]

It would be a massive black eye for any company like SE to just not care about users on one of the largest Internet Providers in America.

if something like this was happening to JP players im sure it would have long since been resolved

[Bubunji]

Also ATT, horrible lag happening rn. I came back to do some dungeons (haven't done any content since first patch of 6.0 lol) and here I saw everyone teleporting around, pretty unplayable.

[ntt_routing_is_an_issue]

It might be worth getting away from just traceroutes. While this is informative when it comes to what route is being taken, it doesn't give a lot of context into the issues with packet loss. This is where something like MTR over a 5 minute period can be really helpful. In our current state, we will almost always have packet loss until the issue is resolved between NTT and ATT. The contact form that SE has provided requests traceroute info, and I'm going out on a limb here saying that MTR data is much more useful for them.

MTR combines traceroute and ping over a period of time to calculate packet loss at each hop. Blizzard uses this as a next step in their tech support chain, so it will work for our purposes as well. They provide a link to MTR for windows. If you use a nix* variant, MTR exists in almost all distros as just "mtr". OSX you're on your own... call apple? i dunno.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/000027780

The graphs I have been posting are powered by MTR, and I suspect Krojack as well. If you are running ping plotter, it's backend it also MTR. Running a 5 min sample from CLI makes it easy to copy and paste into the connection issue form found here:

https://secure.square-enix.com/enqt3...NETWORK_N/html

Your output will be different depending on your region and your internal network setup, but roughly it works out like so:

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                      WinMTR statistics                                      |
|                       Host               -   %  |  Sent |  Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|-------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|------|------|------|------|
|                      leaving my network -     0 | 11513 | 11513 |    0 |    0 |    7 |    0 | <- Any loss here is an issue in my network
|                            ISP network  -     0 | 11513 | 11513 |    0 |    0 |   29 |    1 |
|                            ISP network -      0 | 11513 | 11513 |    2 |    2 |    7 |    2 |
|                     Leaving ISP network -     0 | 11513 | 11513 |    7 |   11 |   31 |   13 | <- Any loss up to this point is an ATT issue
|     ae-5.a00.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -     1 | 11509 | 11508 |    7 |   33 |   95 |   26 | <- Any loss after this point is an NTT issue
|     ae-2.r20.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    29 | 5427  | 3885  |    0 |   33 |   81 |   18 |
|     ae-2.r24.lsanca07.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -     5 | 9712  | 9242  |   31 |   52 | 1906 |   37 |
|     ae-5.a01.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -     1 | 11388 | 11355 |   41 |   62 |  168 |   41 |
|     ae-1.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -     1 | 11402 | 11373 |   41 |   60 |  170 |   41 |
|xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net -    1 | 11419 | 11394 |   41 |   57 |  100 |   41 |
|                            204.2.29.241 -    79 | 2794  |  593  |    0 |   57 |   97 |   41 |
|                             204.2.29.86 -     1 | 11422 | 11398 |   41 |   56 |   94 |   42 |
|_________________________________________________|_______|_______|______|______|______|______|

This is probably too little to late as NTT is already aware of the issue, but for some of us, this is been going on for well over a month and it wasn't until recently that it seems to have started affecting a larger sample of people. Having concise reports of where the loss is occurring is much more useful in troubleshooting whether SE knows it or not.

[Jenna_Leowulf]

Can you explain what MTR is and how to use it? I have not heard of it.

[DevonEllwood]

I decided to try Cloudflare Warp and it's been working for me. It really sucks that people have to resort to using VPNs just to play a game they already pay monthly for. Even worse for people who don't even have that option. Worse still is that there has only been that one twitter post about the subject. Still nothing on the lodestone, no news post on their own forums. A game that's gotten many "best community support" awards is really dropping the ball on supporting the community now. Just some kind of update, on their own platform and not twitter, even if it's a "still working on it" post, would go a long way to help ease people.

[juniperspring]

I've also been having issues all week on at&t just to add to the voices here. I did install ProtonVPN (free version) and am having no issues now as long as I use that. Def Recommend for anyone that doesn't want to pay extra just to play.

You are so beautiful thank you

[gameofscones]

I cancelled my reoccurring subscription. If the issues get sorted before my current sub expires, great, I'll stick around. But if not, it's time for Square and I to part ways. I have a house, but I'm not going to let that hold me hostage to a game I can't even play.

[juniperspring]

I cancelled my reoccurring subscription. If the issues get sorted before my current sub expires, great, I'll stick around. But if not, it's time for Square and I to part ways. I have a house, but I'm not going to let that hold me hostage to a game I can't even play.

I completely understand but I'd hate for you to lose your house. As per a suggestion from another player, I've been using ProtonVPN on the free version (it isn't a trial, just permanently free) and it's been working for me so far. May be worth a shot?

[gameofscones]

I completely understand but I'd hate for you to lose your house. As per a suggestion from another player, I've been using ProtonVPN on the free version (it isn't a trial, just permanently free) and it's been working for me so far. May be worth a shot?

I appreciate the looking out, thanks! I won't touch free VPNs though, and I'm not about to pay for one when I shouldn't even need it to access something I'm already paying for in the first place.

n_n's argument against free VPNs is pretty much where I'm at:

I learned my lesson a long time ago with free VPNs; I used one for a game that had awful routing issues pop up after a 2 week long DDOS attack on its servers stopped and I ended up getting perma banned because I was given a dirty IP. Never again am I touching such garbage, especially on a game with rampant RMT.

Is it likely that this would happen here? Probably not. Am I willing to risk it? Also no.

Plus there's always the question of what the free service is doing with your data--if you're not paying for it with currency, you're paying for it some other way.