Curse

SotiCoto · Apr 24, 2007, 10:08 AM // 10:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razorwood

I'm sure that's your router speed not your broadband / ISP speed, if it is however mind telling me your ISP?

Probably. I was just reading off what the little connection icon next to the clock told me... I figured it was probably in MegaBits... as that would make much more sense.... since our connection is 6 megabyte... which is pretty good as connections go. We're with Pipex.

[For the record, to give you a better idea of my connectivity situation... I have two Internet connections... both wireless. One is slow and I pretty much have that to myself... and the faster one (6mb) I share with my flatmate Adam... who plays Everquest 2. It is important to note though that I got serious lag this morning and Adam was asleep... so it isn't him to blame. I get the same problems to the same magnitude on either connection most of the time anyway.]

Razorwood · Apr 24, 2007, 10:12 AM // 10:12

2 people sharing a 6mb line for gaming shouldn't cause you lag anyway, up until Virigin Media took over my connection it's been find and my wife plays at the same time using the same connection.

SotiCoto · Apr 24, 2007, 10:14 AM // 10:14

I could try upgrading my graphics card and seeing if that makes a difference.... (or at the very least turning down my graphics settings to Game-And-Watch level) ... though I am sceptical since it never has done with GW in the past (though it made a big difference to fully modded Morrowind before I upgraded my RAM).

Arkantos · Apr 24, 2007, 10:15 AM // 10:15

Quote:

im in an international alliance and no one has been complaining about lag at all.

Same. Nobody in my alliance has complained about lag since Hard Mode, and I haven't noticed any major lag.

Etta · Apr 24, 2007, 10:23 AM // 10:23

5 digit number lag! that's really bad! I'm on 8mb with BT and the highest lag was 3000 each, normal ping rate for me is 150-250+, even on the last weekend. I share my connection with my girlfriend as well, we did get a few rubberband in HA but apart from that everything was ok.

I didn't use wireless, had a bad experience with it, a few walls between the PC and the router and the connection speed drop all the time.

Pupu · Apr 24, 2007, 10:26 AM // 10:26

you running a hand cranked modem?

ye i seem to be having lag spikes aswell but my ping on xfire is normal 20-40

sometimes i got to 400max

silvershock · Apr 24, 2007, 10:32 AM // 10:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Natural

Have you checked with anyone else, or run tracerts before blaming anet? Other than the odd texture buffering lag from an early april update, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

No it's Anet for sure, got 5mb per second dsl here and I get lag spikes once in a while 2. I believe arenenat actually has a 'Network news' Link on the guild wars site that reports when a server is kinda not doing it's job right.

SotiCoto · Apr 24, 2007, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Etta

5 digit number lag! that's really bad! I'm on 8mb with BT and the highest lag was 3000 each, normal ping rate for me is 150-250+, even on the last weekend. I share my connection with my girlfriend as well, we did get a few rubberband in HA but apart from that everything was ok.

I didn't use wireless, had a bad experience with it, a few walls between the PC and the router and the connection speed drop all the time.

Heh... you think thats bad?

I've had over 160,000 before. I can't remember which weekend it was but it was one of these bonus weekends... and I was killing those undead walkovers in the Desolation (outside of wurms, as it happens)... on some mission for Paloko... or whatever the hell his name was.
And I got weirded out because I couldn't seem to move, and everything came to a stop in the middle of battle. I tried to attack an enemy but nothing was happening. After some moments I gave up and went to make myself a sandwich. It was still like that when I got back.

... And then a few minutes later again, it suddenly sprung forward. The entire undead group was beaten.... and more bizarrely again... ANOTHER patrol group of undead was lying, pwned on the ground nearby. The whole lot had been beaten by my heroes and henchies... thankfully...
But I still couldn't move. I was running blind at about one jerky step a minute... average.
I just got amused that I was able to survive there like that though. I think it is the fact that my party relies heavily on fire damage (Greater Conflagration + Mark of Rodgort + Minions) and undead burn like nobody's business. I get them killed just as fast outside the Wurms as inside them.

But yeah... sometimes I have the worst lag imaginable, though usually a faster FPS.... and other times the game runs smooth as a baby's bum.

Meikleham of Tyr · Apr 24, 2007, 11:06 AM // 11:06

You all need to understand that there are a hundred variables that could cause you to have lag and only one of them is ANET server load. Considering that MOST people don't have lag issues, I'd say that you should stop whining and looking for other people to blame and spend the time getting a better connection/supplier.

I don't even have that great of an ISP, and I play GW peak hours daily - including all through this last weekend, and never once experienced any sort of lag at all.

The point is - we can all share anecdotes about our connections, but whining about yours doesn't fix the problem. There are many things you can do to fix your personal lag issues that don't include whining about it every weekend.

Seissor · Apr 24, 2007, 11:14 AM // 11:14

ive had some severe lag spikes, to the point where the game has been near unplayable for say...1-2 hours. Its not me, im on a 1500/256 connection with a really fast pc, avg fps is 60-70.

Im going to venture a guess, that it's the info where your data is stored thats lagging right now, such as the anet server, perhaps because of overuse as in the past I have had hooorrrrible lag. but other times its been fine and smooth sailing.

I doubt you'll have this lag forever, maybe just for a few days etc.

Also...defrag. It helps I've noticed.

Patrick Smit · Apr 24, 2007, 11:25 AM // 11:25

Well, I think you need to learn a bit about networks, I'm certainly not an expert at it, but usually you are routed on a couple of big choke points if u experience lags, seldomly it has something to do with the end server. Maybe there is one exception, GURU. But I guess they have quite the serverload, maybe combined with lack of enough computational power or upload bandwidth. When servers are slow its usually extended databases, many requests of clients, or an avalange of calculations to create the pages.

try to ping adresses in the "neighbourhood" of the server you connect too, and most likely you will see lag as well. You could work your way back ur up to see where the lag is caused. Sometimes its even at home due use of switches instead of routers, and other activities by computers on the same network. Some broadband connections "share" bandwidth among severeal clients. If there are a lot of clients on one access point (for example in a flat) it might be much more laggy then in a nice suburb.

Dont start blaming Anet while u have no clue where and for what reason the lag is caused.

nekopowa · Apr 24, 2007, 12:04 PM // 12:04

I've never had more than 1 sec lag, and SotiCoto you really need to chill and stop blaming anet before gathering enough proof that it's actually them. Don't act like a smart guy before you're 100% sure about something, that would work for some other threads/posts you made as well. In most of them you got no idea what you're talking about.

Hockster · Apr 24, 2007, 12:49 PM // 12:49

Sure sucks to be the OP.

LONGA · Apr 24, 2007, 01:10 PM // 13:10

I do got a lag spike a few weeks already.It make my GW sessision queit bad.

Lifeinthefridge · Apr 24, 2007, 01:14 PM // 13:14

O come are you seriously complaining about 10fps I go trough threw that every time I play. I have a AGP card.. and I will start getting framerate lag shortly after I start playing..Ive got used to it I dream of reaching 48fps

Matsumi · Apr 24, 2007, 01:36 PM // 13:36

lol, 63 ms ping... do you live across the street from the server or something? God that would be nice. I've checked my routing to pretty much every one of their servers and the best ping I can get is 110 ms.

You guys could also run a -diag switch on the shortcut to guild wars to check you connectivity. Also, try to eliminate the possibility of spyware or malware by running scans. Spyware and malware can seriously mess up connection settings and corrupt your winsock file.

Hockster · Apr 24, 2007, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Not quite across the street. I'm in western canada connecting to the Euro servers, so about 4200 miles or so.

antialias02 · Apr 24, 2007, 02:02 PM // 14:02

From extensive experience troubleshooting my own connection and others, if you have a bad frame rate / bad ping, there's a 99% chance it's 100% your fault.

GW was built to run on Dialup, and I have a couple guildies and friends who play it on dialup.

Tips:

*If you're on Dialup, don't use VoiceCom unless you have to. Use a VERY LOW CODEC.

*No matter what connection you have, DO NOT run Firefox in the background unless you have to. This alone has caused me undue lag in the past (and I play GW on Cable).

*...For that matter, don't run anything you don't have to in the background. Either play GW or don't, but if you try to multitask, there's a chance your ping will shoot through the roof.

*Check your connection, double check it, and check it again. Sometimes things can be a little wonky. Especially during storms, or network strain.

Theosebes · Apr 24, 2007, 02:04 PM // 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

Now... since A-Net don't charge us fees, I understand that they're probably poor as hell and can't afford to fix up their servers to handle this number of people.....

First of all, I can gaurantee you that Anet is not as "poor as hell" If you do the math, they are making as per average player than a pay-to-play MMO. They have sold more than 3 million units in the space of 18-20 months. That's 150 million dollars gross in less than 2 years, and that's not counting the extra money from some of those sales being Collectors edition.

WoW (generally regarded as the gold standard of MMOs will make about $180 million in the same time period from the same number of players.

Anet is not suffering for money. Thier server architecture, and game design is hundreds of times more efficient than WoW's and allows for more flexibility, causing less and less lag, where doing the same for WoW would cost hundreds of times more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

I'm blaming A-Net primarily because I had NO problem before the introduction of Hard Mode... except at one of the previous bonus weekends. Every bit of lag has been correllated perfectly with a spike in activity among the populace.

Blaming Anet for a slow connection is like blaming the New York Nicks for the fuzzyness of the picture of the game that you are watching, or like blaming the bank because when you called thier customer service line on your cell phone, the connection was full of static and interference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

It might not be serverside fault.... but that is where the evidence points.

What evidence? A tracert? Packet tracking? What evidence, beyond circumstancial and ancedotal, do you really have?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

My connection is wireless broadband... Running currently at 54mbps.

That right there could be your problem. Wireles is notorious for being quirky and variable at best. Oftentimes it will show a connection of XX, but actual speed varies because it's "Speed" is based on the faster of either download or upload, but for a good solid connection to an online game, you have to have both upload and download to be fast. Wireless is not the best way to connect to an online game. Interference from a dozen different sources can affect it, and it can have blazing fast upload speed while having worse than dialup download speeds. Connect your computer to the CAT5 directly, then come and talk to us.

The other thing is this: Where are you physically located? In Europe, complaints of lag prometed Anet to work with the companies that provide broadband, and in the end solved an issue that was on the ISP's side of things.

Have you reported this? If not, make a report, it could be that there are others in your area that have the same issue, and Anet can start to track the cause, and they can get the ISPs to fix the issues on the ISP's side.

Report the issue to Anet. Run a tracert and see if you can see where the hops are taking the longest. (I can assure you the majority of it will be before they get to the server) Connect your computer directly to the CAT5 instead of the wireless, and see if makes a difference.

As a previous poster said, there are a huge number of things that can cause the lag, and server load is just one of them. However, becuase of the server architecture, instead of (like other mmo's) a single server assigned to all the people that happened to connect to that server, you can connect to any number of servers for each connection. If a server is filling up, the next connection goes to a different server. It's not like one server is handling too many people.

Anet is not to blame here. And if you haven't reported the issue to tech support, the only person to blame for continued lag is you.

SotiCoto · Apr 24, 2007, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meikleham of Tyr

The point is - we can all share anecdotes about our connections, but whining about yours doesn't fix the problem. There are many things you can do to fix your personal lag issues that don't include whining about it every weekend.

Don't suppose you see the hypocrisy of whining about whining... do you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekopowa

In most of them you got no idea what you're talking about.

Apparently you don't know what I'm talking about, thus you seem clueless to the fact that in most cases I do know what I'm talking about. In this particular case though I only have simple logic and a few facts to work on though... and NOT a thorough, in-depth knowledge of networking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hockster

Sure sucks to be the OP.

Yes... yes it does.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lifeinthefridge

O come are you seriously complaining about 10fps

No. I'm complaining about the 5-figure ping time. The FPS is a one-off, as last time I had this high a ping time the FPS was significantly higher.

Quote:

Originally Posted by antialias02

From extensive experience troubleshooting my own connection and others, if you have a bad frame rate / bad ping, there's a 99% chance it's 100% your fault.

GW was built to run on Dialup, and I have a couple guildies and friends who play it on dialup.

Tips:

*If you're on Dialup, don't use VoiceCom unless you have to. Use a VERY LOW CODEC.

As I have already indicated... I use wireless broadband; not Dial-up.

Quote:

*No matter what connection you have, DO NOT run Firefox in the background unless you have to. This alone has caused me undue lag in the past (and I play GW on Cable).

I do not use Firefox. That browser is worthless scum and I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. I use Avant...

Quote:

*...For that matter, don't run anything you don't have to in the background. Either play GW or don't, but if you try to multitask, there's a chance your ping will shoot through the roof.

Been there. Try to avoid it generally... but it doesn't actually seem to corellate. For what it is worth I have quite a lot of RAM... so multitasking isn't likely to be the issue anyway.

Quote:

*Check your connection, double check it, and check it again. Sometimes things can be a little wonky. Especially during storms, or network strain.

The weather has been clear and sunny for days now. No storms... nothing like that. The little green light on the wireless receiver blinks away to itself, indicating that it is certainly getting signal well enough... and other web-based stuff works perfectly quickly.