Curse

Seissor · Sep 08, 2007, 09:58 AM // 09:58

Firstly here is a cut and paste of my support ticket to PlayNC. (Names etc edited)

-Customer () 09/05/2007 01:18 AM
Hello as of today 5th Aug 1PM Australian Eastern Standard Time I have been experiencing a consitantly very high ping. From as low as 3000 MS to as high as 34,000 MS.

I have run ad-aware scanners, spyware scanners, virus scanners and defragged my PC and my ping has not improved. My internet is not capped and seems to be working fine, and I played another game BF2142 online and experienced no lag at all. It is perhaps an issue on ANET's side maybe a broken/faulty/overloaded server?

The server IP was 216.107.241.3

Included is a screenshot of my ping and the server I was on. I experienced the high lag both in The Temple of Balthazaar and my own Guild Hall so it was not a result of too much activity in that area.

-Response () 09/05/2007 04:08 AM
Hi Teeka,

Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Technical Support. In order to better understand your issue, please send us a little information about your network setup. We need to know exactly how you connect to the Internet. Do you use any routers, hubs, or switches? If so, what is the make and model? Who is your Internet provider and where are you physically located? Are you on a home, campus, business or military network? Please also let us know if you are using any firewall or Internet security applications such as Norton™, McAfee®, or ZoneAlarm®.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team

-Customer () 09/06/2007 12:01 AM
I am on a 1500/256 ADSL Broadband connection. I connect to the internet via an ADSL Modem/Router the exact make is hard to narrow down IConnect624. My internet provider is "EFTel". I am located at home which is in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. The firewall I use is the one intergrated into Windows Vista 32bit Home Premium.

I have however not changed any settings on my modem, computer and the internet runs fine for me as does playing other games online. Guild Wars however has very bad ping with it being as low a 600ms for a matter of seconds before it spikes into the thousands and often into the tens of thousands. This high ping is consistant and makes the game unplayable as I cannot move my character and there can be anywhere from a 10-30 second delay in my chat.

-Response () 09/06/2007 12:08 AM
Hi Teeka,

Thanks for the information. Usually connection issues such as this are caused by the way your network is set up. If you use a router, hub, or switch to share a single Internet connection, try disconnecting the device and connecting your PC directly to your modem. To reestablish your Internet connection, you will need to reset the modem by unplugging the power from it for 30 seconds and in addition rebooting your computer. Confirm your Internet connection is working properly by visiting a few websites. If this setup resolves the connectivity issue with the game client, then the router may need to be configured properly or require a firmware update. Assistance for both of these tasks can be found at the device manufacturer’s support website. If you are still experiencing this issue while directly connected to your modem, make sure any firewalls are configured to allow the game client and/or patcher to connect. If you still have connectivity issues after trying these steps then please let us know.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team

-Customer () 09/06/2007 01:59 AM
I have connected my PC directly to the ADSL modem and turned the modem off for 30 seconds and the PC as well. Then I have plugged the modem back in and turned it on and the PC as well. The internet worked fine, loading any website with ease. When I logged into Guild Wars I still had the same high latency issues. My firewall is set to allow the Guild Wars client.

I ran the Guild Wars diagnostic test and have included the results as an attachment

-Response () 09/06/2007 12:09 PM
Hi Teeka,

There is a free trial program called PingPlotter Standard that may be of some use to us in determining the health of your Internet connection. We ask that if you are using a router, hub, or switch, to first disconnect this device and connect directly to your modem before running this utility. You may have to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection.

**This program is not supported by NCsoft**

You can find the program and information on how to use it at http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html

Please download and install the Standard version of PingPlotter. Run the program and in the upper left corner you will see an Address to Trace: section. Type in the server IP you find in game by hovering your mouse over the colored dot in the lower right hand portion of the screen and click the Trace button.

Please let the test run for at least 30 minutes, or until a problem (such as a disconnect or lag) occurs. Then click on the Stop button. Next, click on File -> Save Sample Set and save the file to your computer in a location that will be easy to find, such as your Desktop.

Please update your incident at the provided link and attach the report. If you encounter a problem such as excessive lag or Code=007, please tell us what time the problem occurred so that we can investigate that section of the report.

Also, I would like for you to run a program for us. It is called Hijack This and it will give us a list of any programs on the machine that could be causing this issue. You can download it from the following location:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Please run it and click the button that says Save Log. Send us this log file. I'll take a look at the log and send you some suggestions if I find anything.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team

-Customer () 09/07/2007 01:26 AM
My connection issue is linked to Global Crossing and Level 3.

http://www.internetpulse.net/Main.as... 3&Metric=TCP

Last night and this morning when there was no issue with these I could play Guild Wars perfectly fine with my usual ping. However at the moment there is an issue with Global Crossing and Level 3 so my ping has gone higher again.

-Customer () 09/07/2007 02:25 AM
I ran pingplot and connected to 216.107.245.41 a Guild Wars server and received an almost instanteous error with the destination unreachable with 100% packet loss. This occurred at roughly 5:21 PM Australian Eastern Standard time or rougly 12:21 AM Los Angeles time.

Attached is the set from ping plot.

-Response () 09/07/2007 04:40 PM
Hi Teeka,

It actually looks like the connection just stops ICMP traffic so we don't get any information beyond it. That's unfortunately not very helpful since we don't get a full trace.

The link you provided gives me a service error when I try to access it.

I would like for you to run a program for us. It is called Hijack This and it will give us a list of any programs on the machine that could be causing this issue. You can download it from the following location:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Please run it and click the button that says Save Log. Send us this log file. I'll take a look at the log and send you some suggestions if I find anything.

Thank you,
Guild Wars Technical Support

OK END OF PlayNC Ticket.

So I KNOW it's not my PC, why?

A: I have two PC's, one has been freshly formatted and I encounter the same errors.

B: I have not loaded anything new recently

C: Usually around midnight to 9-10am (AEST) my ping is what it normally is and I can play the game.

D: All other games, internet browsing etc work FINE.

And I know it's not directly my ISP, why?

A: I can still use the internet, visit sites from all over and it runs fine.

B: Connect to msn networks etc play other games online with excellent ping.

I have noticed that according to this website/graph linked by immortalis http://www.internetpulse.net/Main.aspx that whenever the Global Crossing server has anything in the yellow my connection to Guild Wars varies between 1k MS ping to 139k MS ping.

What on earth can I do? According to my ISP (EFtel) which is in Australia, as am I, there are no faults. And their service connects me fine to everyone and everything else. Just not Guild Wars servers, unless its very late at night for me, as thats when the Global Crossing servers etc appear to have no difficulties.

So what on earth can I do, whats goin on? Will this fix itself over time or is it time to find a new game?

Arcane_Penguin · Sep 08, 2007, 11:20 AM // 11:20

I still only get 10 ping. Never gone higher than 800 (downloading) in 13 months of playing GW

Yanman.be · Sep 08, 2007, 11:22 AM // 11:22

Without reading most of the dialogue: It's probably a routing issue, something A.Net nor EFtel can do anything about.

Seissor · Sep 08, 2007, 11:35 AM // 11:35

will it fix itself in time? :'(

SuperDave · Sep 08, 2007, 12:24 PM // 12:24

I feel your pain. I too have these "ping spikes". Sadly everything else works fine. My ISP claims that Anet is at fault, and Anet sends me generic support tickets. I now have to limit the hours in which I play Guild Wars.

What really bugs me about this is that I usually have pretty decent ping (around 500ms, I'm also connecting from the Southern Hemisphere), and at a certain time during the day GW becomes unplayable. This is also a reason why I don't PvP

Seissor · Sep 08, 2007, 12:35 PM // 12:35

in 2 and a half years of playing GW this have never happened. So will it pass? or will I be restricted to 50k+ ping during the day and only tolerable pings from 1-8 am Cuz I dont really think I can play within those idiotic times

Nida · Sep 08, 2007, 12:48 PM // 12:48

well I think maybe I can actually help you with this. I bought a new computer 4 weeks ago. For the first week everything seemed fine, I didnt really notice much lag, then slowly over a few days the lag got worse and worse, to the point where I was getting a ping of 120,000 I KID YOU NOT!!

I did all the above things suggested to me by the support staff, and I have a dozen other players and friends trying to find out what was causing my problems. It turned out to be something very simple and fast to fix.

click start, control panel. network connections, and then on your internet connection, go to properties, then UNTICK the box for QoS packet scheduler.

I was really getting annoyed becuase Id been trying to fix it for 2 weeks and GW:EN was about to come out and I was unable to play because of my lag. It was fixed 2 days before GW:EN, and then EB games had to go screw everything up for us Aussies and I had to wait 2 more days anyway

I hope this helps.

good luck and happy killing!

Seissor · Sep 08, 2007, 01:09 PM // 13:09

Ok ty. I will try that. But how would it change it?

I mean this whole crappy ping thing just suddenly came upon me, and suddenly disappears and then suddenly comes back again. (always in relation to global crossing)

Seissor · Sep 08, 2007, 02:01 PM // 14:01

Changed it, just played for about 20-30 min with a ping jumping between 900MS to 5000ish MS.

Abedeus · Sep 08, 2007, 02:25 PM // 14:25

Last ping - 50k, average ping 3,5k. And after few minutes 007. If not for Reconnect, I would loose 1,5 hour of Dungeoning (solo, with h/h, in Raven's Point). Oh, wait, I made it through... Wasn't worth anyway.
I wonder why high pings are ALWAYS on weekends. And it's not only for me...

Seissor · Sep 09, 2007, 05:30 AM // 05:30

Updated.

- Customer () 09/07/2007 11:22 PM
I think I have discovered the problem and it is with Global Crossing. http://www.internetpulse.net/Main.aspx

They are having technical difficulties with their servers and whenever their servers are faulty, my connection is very poor. However when their servers are running fine, my connection to GW is fine.

My connection to GW is perfectly fine late at night for me (around midnight to early morning) which is early morning Los Angeles time. Which is when the Global Crossing service is fine. As such I am confident my connection problem is not related to software on my PC and most likely is also not a problem with ANET's servers but an issue with perhaps my ISP or affiliates.

Here is the Hijack This log file anyway.

-Customer () 09/09/2007 12:25 AM
It seems ping plotter can connect to any website and do a round trip except for Guild Wars servers and the Guild Wars website. And the Guild Wars website has always worked for me.

Furthermore last night 12:30-1am to 7am Australian Eastern Standard time I played Guild Wars fine without any lag. However now during the afternoon I get a ping in the 18, 000 area on Guild Wars.

This is not due to a slow down in my internet service and downloading from other websites and playing other games online still download and perform as best they could on my connection.

The only thing I can think of, is that between 12:01am and 8am is my ISP's off period download time. But I cannot see how this would impact Guild Wars seriously as I have not had this issue until this week and I have been with my current ISP since March and have been playing Guild Wars for over two years.

END OF PLAY NC TICKET.

So as you can see, rule spyware out, because hey I played last night for 7 hours and then hey wow today I cant because the ping is as low as 18,000.

So WTF is goin on, I can play during my ISP's Offpeak download zone. But its not like my ISP or traffic is overloaded during the day, during the day other games, the internet and downloading are FINE, they run at perfect speed. The max I can download anything at is 160-161 kpbs. Turn on GW, 50k ping. Turn it off, go to another website, download something 160kps download. So its not my local ISP traffic being flooded.

Also with pingplotter I can do a successful trip with ANY website. But it fails with www.guildwars.com or any GW server.

Angelica · Sep 09, 2007, 06:48 AM // 06:48

NSW (AU) here and I'm having the same exact problem as you.
I have never ever experienced such a terrible lag as these last two days.

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Matfei · Sep 09, 2007, 07:13 AM // 07:13

QLD AU here.... My ping is minimum of 4k at all times. Can't be anything on my side as I've not changed a single thing in setup since I started playing in 2005.

Seissor · Sep 09, 2007, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Can all you guys please submit PlayNC tickets if you already haven't. Im not a tech whizz, but Im thinking there is a server between our ISP and ANET that is messing up our connection. And when have you guys had this problem? For me it was Wed, 5/9/07

Also please tell me what ISP you guys use. And if you need to tell PlayNC about my support ticket, my support ticket ref number is

Reference #
070905-003456

Seissor · Sep 10, 2007, 12:28 PM // 12:28

Does anyone have any updates? I notice when I type something into chat it can take 5-50 seconds for it to appear but when people are chatting to me, their messages come straight away.

Seissor · Sep 10, 2007, 07:11 PM // 19:11

People are having similar issues.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...39#post3127639

Right now, GW is fine! It's my ISP's offpeak download zone. But today it was unplayable, ping in 20-50k region. But when I quit GW i went to various websites and downloaded some zips pics etc and my download speed was super fast as it should be. So its not exactly my ISP being slow during the day.

Jamison0071 · Sep 11, 2007, 01:26 AM // 01:26

Well it turns out, it is my ISP's fault for my lag. I am churning to Internode from Exetel and am extremely confident the lag will disappear (as it is 100% my ISPs problem)

Fr_3_aK · Sep 11, 2007, 03:46 AM // 03:46

My friend is having the same problem. In NSW Australia and get 100000 ping.
However im in Australia too, only difference im in a City, whereas he's out in the Country 600KMs away. My GWs is fine.

I'll direct him to this thread.

Fox Reeveheart · Sep 11, 2007, 04:49 AM // 04:49

I would like to know why i lag so much too.

I have been lagging since i started GW, it's been that bad.

When i am soloing its much better. but when I am with H/H or other players it's TERRIBLE

stiffler · Sep 11, 2007, 05:55 AM // 05:55

Adelaide SA here, I use Bigpond for my provider @ 1500/256 and in most cases my ping sits around 200-300 which is good. However lately I have been experiencing some rubbish lag spikes that inconsistantly come and go spiking up to as much as 50,000 ping. Last night was the worst, I was in international and kept rubberbanding all over the place, funny thing is my mate in England was rubberbanding as well but at different times to me. I have grown tired of all the head aches involved in GW and I am retiring soon so this will no longer be of concern for me, but I hope something is done about all the problems for all the Aussies out there, its not very fair.