Fellow Tech people. I need help to reduce persistently large lag spikes.

[Totemdancer]

I’ve been pulling my hair out for 3 weeks since these lag spikes started. I’ve made a few threads and even PM’d Keith to ask them to look into it (no response).

So this is a plea to other “actual” tech people.

 

The problem is there are no lag spikes or packet loss showing in ping Plotter or using ping command or tracert. If there are, they aren’t very big compared to what I see in the game and they don’t happen anywhere near as often. There aren’t any problems between me and the public IPs at the server end.

What happens in the game is terrible, constantly the ping jumps from 215ms to 260ms or 300ms or 400ms or higher. These aren’t always shot lived spikes. Sometimes they sit up high for a minute of more,

 

I’ve tried everything I can think of from my end.

I know it’s definitely not my ISP because I’ve got 3 fibre connections and they all do it.

I know it’s not my routers because I’ve got a few to test from

I know it’s not my cables because I’ve replaced them all

I know it’s not the PC Hardware because I’ve tested different PCs with different setups and drivers.

 

I’ve tested two different Win 10 builds. Last years and this years builds (can’t think which build numbers off the top of my head)

I’ve tried using a gaming VPN

I’ve tried using a none gaming VPN

I’ve tried setting QOS on the routers under Hardware or Services.

I’ve disabled all the Win 10 services I know are safe to disable.

I’ve tried setting up QOS in Win 10 on the off chance the router supports it (but don’t document it)

I’ve tried adjusting the NIC ip4 off load settings

I’ve tried adjusting setting in the registry and powershell.

I’ve even uninstalled my antivirus and firewall to make sure it’s not Norton.

 

I’m now at a loss of what else to do because nothing works to fix this problem. This only started 3 weeks ago.

Yes, I’m in Australia and play with high lag. I’ve spoke to other Aussie players I know and most, not all are having the same problem. I’ve also spoke to some Canadian and American players experiencing what I am, while others aren’t.

These big spikes only happen on Star Forge and Satele Shan. Darth Malgus seems normal (still the occasional spike, just not high or frequent).

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even if you have advice on doing something again that I’ve already tried or a different approach.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Totemdancer

[Totemdancer]

Nobody??

[WaveRun]

No the only solution is to play on oceanic if there were a server. This is nothing you can do besides complain to your internet company about not having a direct route to the SWTOR data servers. If you trace the packets being sent and received, it's probably going through a ton of intermediaries hence the lag. Trying to compare this with american and canadian players will do no good, your distance is no where near the amount of distance your packets have to travel. Edited October 14, 2018 by WaveRun

[Totemdancer]

No the only solution is to play on oceanic if there were a server. This is nothing you can do besides complain to your internet company about not having a direct route to the SWTOR data servers. If you trace the packets being sent and received, it's probably going through a ton of intermediaries hence the lag. Trying to compare this with american and canadian players will do no good, your distance is no where near the amount of distance your packets have to travel.

 

I’m sorry but you dont understand the problem. I don’t think you even read my post properly where I said I tested everything you just posted.

 

I’ve been playing just fine at 214ms since the server move (after some hiccups at the start that Keith got fixed). The problem are the lags spikes that started to happen 3 weeks also,

They aren’t happening anywhere along the route to the servers. They are only happening in the game. I’ve recorded over 100hours of ping Plotter data that shows it’s not the route or the hops to the server or the distance.

It is either in the game or it’s directly on my end. I’ve done as much trouble shooting as I can think of on my end and it’s made zero difference.

I know other Aussies who do and don’t have this problem. So it’s not the distance or the routing (I’ve checked).

I know North American players who also have the problem. Ones from all over and even some in Virginia, where the servers are located. So once again, it’s not the distance.

I’ve also tested the EU servers and they are even further away from me and they don’t do it. So once again it’s not the distance.

The fact that it doesn’t happen on the EU servers means it’s very unlikely it’s my end, but I’m not ruling it out.

I’m forming an opinion that the problem is occurring behind the firewall in the North American data centre and the reason it’s not happening for everyone is because not everyone is routed through the same ports or connections coming into the servers. The routing will depend on your IP and also which Bioware ISP you enter the data centre through (they have multiple ISPs, but I don’t know how many).

I was hoping Keith could look into this problem and get the tech guys to isolate the bugged hardware or connection. But he’s not responded to my PMs. I know he worked hard with the tech guys and ISPs when the servers were move to fix a lot of these sorts of problems. I’m very disappointed that he doesn’t seem willing to do so this time.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Totemdancer