WaW DM Server Lag!

[BigPapaDean]

This is my latest!

[7Toes]

wow went to ping test uses java not good and wants unrestricted access to your computer also not a good thing, with the crap that's out there today not a good thing to let a site have unrestricted access to your computer

Edited April 20, 2014 by 7toes_ky

[djMot]

This is my latest!

 

Dean - you're only pinging to your local ISP.  Click on the server down in Dallas for a ping that more closely reflects what you see in the game.

[djMot]

wow went to ping test uses java not good and wants unrestricted access to your computer also not a good thing, with the crap that's out there today not a good thing to let a site have unrestricted access to your computer

 

 

It only uses Java for the packet loss statistic, not the ping test.  Notice on mine where it says "Unable to test packet loss" (on Dean's too - good thing, Dean) - that is the only downside to not having Java running in the browser.  And it shouldn't be.  If you're seeing a packet loss statistic in your ping test, TURN JAVA OFF IN YOUR BROWSER !!!  (Has the NSA not told you that? lol)

[djMot]

Here are some graphs taken over roughly the same period of time.  One is using the new utility I mentioned I would be using.  It's called PingPlotter, and it gathers ping data over time, displaying it in an easily interpreted graphiocal and tabular manner.

 

So the piano was back this morning:

 

 

And this is what the PingPlotter graph was showing:

 

 

Note that the destination address is shown as "Unavailable" as is the hop right before it.  This does not surprise me, but it is disappointing nonetheless.  It is most likely that SoftLayer is actively denying a response to a ping request (or a request of the type the "freeware" PingPlotter is sending - the "standard" or "pro" versions of PingPlotter might have better luck.)

 

What IS telling to me is the high pings (really long hi/low bars) to a couple of the nodes on the "networklayer" peering network.  Specifically, it's at the Dallas end of of the route which you should be able to discern by the node addresses.  The highest ping is at the hand-off to SoftLayer where the IP addresses change from 173.whatever to 50.whatever.

 

I think if you add intermittently high peering network pings to those of the already high international players (Panzergirl in Germany was playing with a ping just shy of 300 this morning) and the game server may be having fits trying to mitigate the high ping differentials.  Yes, the server does try to account for these differences from what I'm seeing in the server config files.

 

All that can really be done about the peering network faults is request that SoftLayer talk to networklayer to see if they can clean up the connection.  This would seemingly benefit all SoftLayer customers.

 

If you run PingPlotter, you may find you have an entirely different route to the server as there are many different peering networks out there.  Obviously, I'm on Charter Internet and the first 13 hops on this graph are all within Charter-land.  The peering network begins where Charter ends.  SoftLayer, where the XI game servers live, is at the other end and reporting 100% packet loss, but again, I interpret this to mean SoftLayer is discarding ping requests of the type PingPlotter is sending.

 

For those of you interested in PingPlotter, you can find it here (use the link at the bottom of the page for the freeware version): http://www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html

[TheLastColdBeer]

Ran fine this morning, haven't played all day, so haven't had any issues.

[BigPapaDean]

So here is one to Dallas but my head hurts now from all that hard work figuring out how to change the location. lol

[Labob]

Oh Dean fuck you with your 47 meg down load and I wish I knew better words for that upload

[djMot]

Oh Dean fuck you with your 47 meg down load and I wish I knew better words for that upload

 

 

Right?  But don't look at mine either, Labob.  But even I can't match Dean's upload rate.  That's just sick, Dean.

[djMot]

This noontime on the DM Server, there was a lot of lag and micro-CIs.  I captured some video, and a PingPlotter graph.

 

I'm hoping, @@Ruggerxi, that you might open a conversation with SoftLayer regarding the congestion we are seeing at nodes immediately adjacent to their servers.  This may be occurring outside of their jurisdiction, but it's close enough that they should have a rapport with networklayer. 

 

Not everyone was seeing the lag and micro-CIs, but a good number of us were undeniably affected.  Again, I think it just depends on what peering network you are routed to SoftLayer on whether you'll have any issues or not.

 

Given the sometimes crappy encoding xfire does to video, I'm not sure the lag will be all that evident, but I could definitely see it on the raw avi video.  Note several comments on lag in the vid.

http://www.xfire.com/videos/623ac8

 

 

[Olive]

01:00 pm cst ...almost unplayable for me...

 

[Ruggerxi]

We had this same issue with a COD4 server, there was a bad hop and if you went through it you were getting the lag and if you didn't go through it then your game play was perfect. 

 

If you can run a traceroute to the server ip address and then post your route on here we can find the problem hop. But we need it from people having issues and people not having issues to see where the difference is. Then we can tell the network data center

[djMot]

For those of you who can and would like to help, what Rugger is suggesting is to:

1. Click the Windows Start Orb (or whatever you call it, or however you get to your Windows Start Menu)
2. enter CMD to launch a DOS prompt
3. enter "TRACERT 50.97.113.67" (without quotes of course)
4. Once you get to where the command starts timing out (or finishes, but mine always times out,) grab a screenshot (http://app.prntscr.com/ - a very cool utility to make screenshots a breeze.)
5. post your picture here.

Simpler than a Screenshot:

You can also click the little DOS Prompt icon in the upper left on the title bar of the DOS prompt window to open the control menu, then click Edit/Select All, and then go back into that menu again and this time select Edit/Copy.  Finally, paste the stuff you just copied into a post here.

 

For the more adventurous:

1. Get PingPlotter (I posted the link in the first screenshot I posted from it above; it installs clean without any crapware riding along in the installer.)
2. Enter the IP address in the "Address to Trace" text box, then set all the settings above to big Trace/Stop button to look like mine.
3. Start it (i.e., Click "Trace") and go play a couple of maps.
4. After a map or two, from the PingPlotter Edit menu, click Copy as Image
5. Paste into a post here (literally hit Ctrl+V or Right-click/Paste) and the image will show up in your post.

Advantage to using PingPlotter:

If you ARE affected, PingPlotter will better capture the "worst case" scenario.  If you just run a tracert, you might get a decent report even if you've been affected by the lag/CI issue.  Why?  Look at a  PingPlotter graph and notice that, for the nodes along the route that are showing a long hi/low ping bar, their AVG ping is still good, but the MAX ping is probably spiking up when there's a lag/CI episode in progress.  But since the lag/CIs come and go, even during any given map, you could easily capture a tracert (which only runs once, not continuously like PingPlotter) that captures an "AVG" ping rather than a MAX ping.  PingPlotter is way better at detecting intermittent lag/CI issues than a straight tracert since it keeps repeating the test and building the statistics over time.

 

If you have never had an issue with lag and CIs, please do this anyway because we need route information showing that some routes are clean while others are dirty.

 

Thanks everyone.

[JohnnyDos]

 

Hope I did it right Mot,hey the magic word today is LightShot.I used it twice today.You know what I'm talking about.Thanks.

Edited April 22, 2014 by JohnnyDos

[Ruggerxi]

That's right Johnny

Thanks

[2_MANY_BEERS]

[Labob]

I now got bad internet aND BAD EYES mR. bEERS -

[Labob]

Here's mine LOL

 

 

[BigPapaDean]

[JohnnyDos]

I'll try Ping Plotter when I play later or tomorrow.

Edited April 22, 2014 by JohnnyDos

[Labob]

Tried again at 11.30 and 11.45 same results as above.

[Labob]

Hmm both the dm and new FT server are doing this. Is it possible this is on purpose to help them with denial of service attacks or somthing like that ?? 

[djMot]

Here's mine LOL

 

LOL - try paying your internet bill once in a while. 

[djMot]

Hmm both the dm and new FT server are doing this. Is it possible this is on purpose to help them with denial of service attacks or somthing like that ?? 

 

 

Could be.  Looks like your ISP is discarding ping request packets.  Does tracert work, or just immediately time out also?

 

It really looks like you're not even getting out of your router.  Do you have a firewall turned on in the router?

[Labob]

 I'll pay them once they give me a tiny little look at this interweby thing. As for out of the router well. The internet comes out of dlink box and from the dlink box I run a wire to the top of the chimney where I got me an internet antenna. So I'm using the new cloud based internet - and the electricity comes out of the hole in the wall. Yea I do not know why mine is not showing all the hops (could be we have dead bunny's from Easter around here) Here's some other's