Curse

NiukNiuk · Sep 16, 2006, 08:52 AM // 08:52

Hi all

Well, I have a "weird" problem:

My internet service provider is "filtering" a lot of protocols (p2p, newsgroups, vnc etc...) for a lot of weeks (months?), but now it seems that it's also filtering everything that is not HTTP ou Email (in order to preserve bandwith etc etc...money etc...).
So, as you may imagine, I have A LOT of connection problems, lag etc with every online game I use (including guild wars of course).

During the week, if I play guild wars during the "working hours", it plays fine.
But If I launch guild wars in the evening or during the week end, it simply doesn't work:
Here's a screenshot of the network traffic graph in guild wars, screenshot taken yesterday in the AvA arena:

It's unplayable.

Another example: I've downloaded the last update @ 1-2Ko/sec...
So, I'm just wondering if changing guild wars default communication port (I think it's 6112) to something else (for example port 80) will help reducing my lag and make my game playable again?
Is there a way to "force" the game to use another port?
Thanks for any answers ^^

majoho · Sep 16, 2006, 09:43 AM // 09:43

If you've only had the problems for a few days it's probably not your connection, the game has been rather laggy - I assume from the streaming of the new content.

But if you've had it longer I'm sorry to say you can't change the ports.

I would complain to my ISP if they started "filtering" protocols, since that has a huge impact on the usability of the connection - especially torrents ports are used by a lot of programs and there's nothing 'illegal' about it.

Josh · Sep 16, 2006, 09:51 AM // 09:51

I *think* that if you go into your Router Configuration setup page, and go on settings about Port Forwarding, I'm not sure but I *think* you can put in 6112, then forward it to port 80 or something.

NiukNiuk · Sep 16, 2006, 09:59 AM // 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by majoho

If you've only had the problems for a few days it's probably not your connection, the game has been rather laggy - I assume from the streaming of the new content.

But if you've had it longer I'm sorry to say you can't change the ports.

I would complain to my ISP if they started "filtering" protocols, since that has a huge impact on the usability of the connection - especially torrents ports are used by a lot of programs and there's nothing 'illegal' about it.

Thanks for your answer.

Well I had these connection problems for months, it's a known fact that my isp is filtering protocols in order to preserve bandwidth, I read it daily on several forums, but it usually happened during only several hours of the day (the evening for example), and of course my isp simply denies that it filters our internet connection to save money.
But since one or two weeks it's nearly impossible for me to play any kind of online game.
My isp uses cisco routers that now filter anything that is not http or mail...so you can easily imagine the result when an application tries to acces the internet using a port that is not 80 or 119...
So I was thinking about the possibility of forcing the game to use a different port, but if it's not possible well I'll have to cancel my contract with my isp and find another one

majoho · Sep 16, 2006, 10:07 AM // 10:07

I know some ISP lower bandwith for p2p ports in the evening, but that shouldn't affect games since the bandwith usage is pretty low.

But yeah change ISP to a decent one.

Ricebox · Sep 16, 2006, 11:10 AM // 11:10

if port forwarding doesn't work for you! i guess it's time for you to switch to a different ISP!

Tachyon · Sep 16, 2006, 04:33 PM // 16:33

If your ISP as installed 'Ellacoya' to inspect packets for P2P traffic then there's nothing you can do I'm afraid. My ISP is using Ellacoya for traffic shaping on P2P and FTP transfers, although it doesn't effect Guild Wars at all. This makes me think that your problem may not be releated to any form of traffic shaping by your ISP.

There are way's around it, for instance newer P2P applications are using Protocol Encryption to get around the packet inspections, but as per forum rules I can't go into them.