djMot

@@Labob - I don't have passwords to the NY Server yet, so I cannot mess with that stuff. I did inform @@Sitting-Duc though. For those of you experiencing lag or ping issues, please post a PingPlotter screenshot in this thread (but don't use PingPlotter's built-in copy graph to clipboard method I mentioned in another post; turns out that doesn't work in a post here) or post a screenshot of tracert to 74.208.223.131. Remember that, for a tracert, you might get good numbers. PingPlotter gathers hi/low/avg numbers over however long you run it and can better detect intermittent degradation in your connection. Of course, you may already be degraded. God knows I have been for decades.

Turns out I was wrong about pasting an image into a post from the clipboard, so I struck that out in the quoted post above. The image shows up when you're writing the post, and even if you "preview" the post, but when actually posted, it's not there. Use LightShot instead and upload the screenshot you take with it. Awesome utility. http://app.prntscr.com/

Yeah - not the card I thought it was...

The Senior Admin Team along with the COD5 Server Admin Team are pleased to announce the relocation of the DM Server to new hosting in New York! Take a bite of that apple, whydon'tcha? As this will be our own dedicated server, we have high hopes that difficulties experienced in the past, and especially the current lag/micro-CI issues on the Dallas version of the DM Server, will all become a thing of the past. That's not to say there won't be bumps along the way, but fingers crossed for a smooth transition, right? The new server is an identical clone of the current DM Server, so gameplay should be just as you've always enjoyed. A shout-out to SoftLayer (Dallas) for hosting us for however briefly, and best wishes they get their peering network issues resolved. The new server IP is: 74.208.223.131:28960 You can open the console in-game (tap the ~ key to open the console) and enter: "/connect 74.208.223.131:28960" without the quotes. In HLSW, just enter the IP address in the address bar - like so: HLSW will automatically grab the name from the server, so you don't need to enter that part. It will also drop the new server into your custom server list where you can right-click/connect as usual. The links on the home page of our website will be updated as things are finalized. Apparently, this is not the only server on the move... Stay tuned.

What's the power supply wattage? Hopefully they didn't cut a corner there. That's a pretty decent spec right there, though - although a stronger video card would be good. 620 is no POS, though, so you should be gaming in style.

@@Labob - huh? How am I involved in this post?

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?

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

For those of you who can and would like to help, what Rugger is suggesting is to: Click the Windows Start Orb (or whatever you call it, or however you get to your Windows Start Menu) enter CMD to launch a DOS prompt enter "TRACERT 50.97.113.67" (without quotes of course) 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.) 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: 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.) 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. Start it (i.e., Click "Trace") and go play a couple of maps. After a map or two, from the PingPlotter Edit menu, click Copy as Image 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.

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

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

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

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)

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.

Use Apache.

Yeah, sorry... Here's using pingtest.net I chose the Dallas server as the destination. I will have to recheck this when I get the piano back, but in the meantime it's decent. Why didn't you run the test to Dallas, Labob?

Yeah, no sly taken, Labob. But as you can see, all is good to my ISP. Believe me, this is the very first thing I checked.

It's actually not my provider. I'm using a new utility to show this, but I have to wait till it goes all wonky again to capture it. Earlier today, what I was seeing is that it is on the Dallas end of the connection, but it may not be SoftLayer directly. Rather, I think it's their first lever peering network that's falling short. Now if you ultimately get to the server via another route, then you may see something more like what Johnny's seeing, but if you hit the wrong inbound route, you get what I'm seeing. And btw, just because my ping graph looks like a piano keyboard doesn't necessarily mean the game plays like shit for me. In most cases it's just fine despite the piano. I cannot explain that, but that's the way it is. And sometimes, it seems that it all clears up when I go into the game. I have a laptop running alongside me here, and although I may get a piano when I'm just monitoring, it might just clear up when I start playing. This is all rather perplexing.

This is what I'm seeing currently and I took my screenshot when Johnny did.

Looks like you're Legal In The Backseat. Careful, now. And congratulations!

Welcome !! What's that smell?

The COD5 Server Admin Team is pleased to announcing the Grand Opening of a second Freeze Tag Server for your immediate gaming gratification. This new server decommissions and replaces the Black Ops Server at the same IP address This is a standard Open Warfare Freeze Tag server, (i.e., not a Vietnam Freeze Tag Server like the other one.) The Vietnam Freeze Tag Server will be set to redirect on server full to this new Freeze Tag Server. But why wait for that to happen before getting your game on in the new server, right? What are you waiting for? Get on in there and kill the other guys! Please feel free to comment or post initial problem reports here and, in the case of a problem, one of us will try to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible. Remember that, although you may already have the maps on your computer, you may still notice a brief download of the actual mod before playing on the server for the first time. The XI Downloader has been updated to include the current map rotation on this server, so you might want to check there first to see if you have all the maps. Thanks, and most of all ENJOY!

First concert I ever went to was a triple-bill - Siegel Schwall, REO Speedwagon (pre-Kevin Cronin), and Wishbone Ash. 1973.

I did not know Bryan did anything with Mel C. NICE. That rocked! Thanks for that one, KEG.

I got to this passage (near the top)... ...and decided this was all a huge load of bullshit, bullshit reporting, or any combination thereof. Not worth the bandwidth to get it to me.