Does the Chicago server still exist?

Technical Support
1

I’m still always getting connected to Los Angeles and never Chicago anymore. My ping is constantly over 100ms and has been for months now. I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again: Automatically placing me, and many others, to the “best ping” server clearly isn’t working and hasn’t been working for quite some time.

  • It’s not my ISP’s fault
  • I’ve already submitted tens of traceroute/pingpath/winmtr in other threads
  • I’ve been told a different story from every Blizzard staff member thus far
  • This isn’t “expected latency”

I just want an answer. Does Blizzard Overwatch, at this current time, have a server for the game Overwatch located in Chicago?

If yes, why am ALWAYS being connected to Los Angeles. Is there that few people playing that you can’t possibly create a quick play match with the number of players connecting to Chicago?

If no, why did you shut it down, people who live in my area, Edmonton, Alberta, now suffer 100ms+ ping. While almost all other multiplayer games range from 50-70ms ping, and most have servers in Chicago or even closer.

2

Run the WinMTR with the correct data center IP so they can spot where you’re losing speed along the way.

24.105.62.129 (US Central)

3

You can use the in-game Network Graph to find your server’s IP address.

  • Launch Overwatch and click Play -> Game Browser.
  • Use the + Create button to create your own match.
  • Click the ADD AI button and click Add.
  • Start the game.
  • After the map loads, press Ctrl+Shift+N to open the Network Graph.
  • The server’s IP address is listed in the upper left of the graph.
  • Note: You need to remove the port and preceding colon (12.345.67.89:PORT) from the IP address before running a test.

Those are the instructions provided by the Battle Net support article. Following these instructions, here is a WinMTR result I posted before.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/server-routing-problems-albera-canada/137264/5?u=nouveau-11437

Here is another I just ran:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.168.1.254 - 0 499 499 0 0 17 0
10.145.252.1 - 0 499 499 12 16 56 16
STTLWAWBCI01.bb.telus.com - 0 499 499 30 30 39 30
six.blizzardonline.net - 0 499 499 30 31 66 30
ae1-br01-eqse2.as57976.net - 0 499 499 33 35 119 33
xe-0-0-1-1-br02-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 499 499 62 67 161 69
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 100 0 0 0 0 0
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

  • 24.105.42.175
  • United States
  • California
  • East Irvine (Irvine Medical and Science Complex)

My ping is around 100-110ms while connecting to Los Angeles area, while my ping connecting to speed test servers in Chicago are on average 70-80ms. So why am I forced onto Los Angeles for every game?

I just want my 70-80ms ping back, it’s not a great ping but it’s a lot better than 100ms+. Let me pick which server I want to play on, I don’t care about waiting another minute to find a match.

4

Please ping the IP I gave you. Whatever you’re getting in the network graph is the server in LA, which is what you said you don’t want to connect to. And again, we’re trying to see your route to the Central/Chicago server.

5
  • 24.105.62.129
  • United States
  • California
  • East Irvine (Irvine Medical and Science Complex)

How is this going to be any different from my WinMTR? That’s not a Chicago server IP.

6

The IP that Nicole provided is one the U.S. Central servers IP address. Note that if you are attempting to geolocate them, they may provide false information. This IP address is listed based on the WinMTR support article for manually mapping a connection route:

7

Alright, here you go:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.168.1.254 - 0 60 60 0 0 1 1
10.145.252.1 - 0 60 60 12 16 33 24
STTLWAWBCI01.bb.telus.com - 0 60 60 32 33 38 32
six.blizzardonline.net - 0 60 60 33 34 56 34
ae1-br01-eqse2.as57976.net - 0 60 60 86 87 112 87
xe-0-0-1-1-br02-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 60 60 65 69 109 70
be2-pe01-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 60 60 86 86 89 87
24.105.62.129 - 0 60 60 89 90 92 90
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

Given the difference between the two, it looks like the “best ping” system is seeing only the last result which is 62, but in reality, the actual ping to Los Angeles is over 100ms. The ping to Chicago is much better at 89ms and in some cases I’ve had as low as 65ms; that’s depending on the ISP.

8

Is that the entire WinMTR? Looks to be missing a lot of route information between start and finish.

9

That’s the whole WinMTR, here is another just in case you want one:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.168.1.254 - 0 145 145 0 0 11 0
10.145.252.1 - 0 145 145 12 16 31 12
STTLWAWBCI01.bb.telus.com - 0 145 145 32 32 41 33
six.blizzardonline.net - 0 145 145 33 34 46 34
ae1-br01-eqse2.as57976.net - 0 145 145 86 88 167 86
xe-0-0-1-1-br02-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 145 145 65 68 128 66
be2-pe01-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 145 145 86 86 100 86
24.105.62.129 - 0 145 145 89 90 100 89
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

10

Player from US East here. I’m having the same problem, I used to be connected to Chicago servers and had around 30-35ms ping but now I’m getting connected to Los Angeles servers with ping averaging around 48 ms.

This is my WinMTR from the IP ingame and my ping is around 45ms.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
10.0.0.1 - 1 501 500 0 12 28 14
96.120.72.165 - 1 501 500 0 12 32 15
68.85.118.217 - 1 501 500 0 13 57 14
162.151.210.101 - 1 501 500 0 13 35 14
be-37-ar03.plainfield.nj.panjde.comcast.net - 1 501 500 0 14 36 12
be-98-ar03.plainfield.nj.panjde.comcast.net - 1 501 500 0 14 32 16
be-33659-cr02.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net - 1 501 500 0 16 34 14
be-10396-pe01.60hudson.ny.ibone.comcast.net - 0 500 500 11 15 36 21
173.167.57.150 - 0 500 500 12 16 50 17
ae1-br01-eqny8.as57976.net - 0 500 500 12 17 144 16
et-0-0-2-br02-eqch2.as57976.net - 3 435 422 0 107 3853 35
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

Here is WinMTR from Chicago IP and the ping I used to get was around 35ms.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
10.0.0.1 - 0 53 53 8 13 27 15
96.120.72.165 - 0 53 53 8 13 30 13
68.85.118.217 - 0 53 53 9 13 30 14
162.151.210.101 - 0 53 53 10 14 30 15
be-37-ar03.plainfield.nj.panjde.comcast.net - 0 53 53 10 14 30 14
be-98-ar03.plainfield.nj.panjde.comcast.net - 0 53 53 11 15 32 12
be-33659-cr02.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net - 0 53 53 13 18 46 18
be-10396-pe01.60hudson.ny.ibone.comcast.net - 0 53 53 12 16 32 18
173.167.57.150 - 0 53 53 13 17 32 19
ae1-br01-eqny8.as57976.net - 0 53 53 33 37 47 36
et-0-0-2-br02-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 53 53 33 36 46 34
be2-pe01-eqch2.as57976.net - 0 53 53 34 37 47 35
chi-eqch2-ia-bons-02.as57976.net - 0 53 53 34 38 49 37
24.105.62.129 - 0 53 53 33 35 48 36
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

11

I can only guess that your ISP is hiding a lot of the routing information, or maybe their routing partners are hiding it for them. There should be a lot of other hops between telus and blizzardonline, so it’s impossible to tell where they’re sending your data before it tries to connect to Blizzard servers. They can only use the ping from the last address, because they have no control over how your ISP chooses to route traffic for you.

12

I’m not sure why the last hop that they both have in common is routing you to LA instead of Chicago. I think you should see what your ISP has to say, and also submit a ticket to Blizzard. Btw, I know you didn’t make a post about it, but your router or modem is losing 1% of packets which can cause disconnects and wonky gameplay visuals. So might be worth mentioning that to them when you call, since you’ll need their help to fix it.

13

I have submitted tickets to Blizzard, see my others post here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/server-routing-problems-albera-canada/137264/3?u=nouveau-11437

It’s both my ISP’s fault and not my ISP’s fault according to them; regardless, the way Overwatch decides which server I should connect to isn’t working as intended. My ISP can’t fix that problem because it’s not their problem. The number of routes and jumps made from where I am to the Chicago servers shouldn’t effect the actual factor being judged here: the ping from my computer to the server.

Based on the data above, it looks like Overwatch is only taking the last known ping from these lists. In my case, those are 89 (Chicago) and 62 (Los Angeles) and 89 > 62 so I’m placed on Los Angeles.

I would like any of the Overwatch staff to give me a valid, logical reason for myself and many others to be connected to a server with higher ping over a server with lower ping.

THIS IS A PROBLEM AND IT DOES EFFECT MANY PLAYERS. It can be fixed and it shouldn’t be up to the players to “figure it out” by calling their ISP’s and asking why their Overwatch (specifically and only Overwatch) ping is much higher than 3 months ago.

Possible solutions:

  • Let us pick which server we want to play on (like most other multiplayer games)
  • Find a way to judge “final” ping to server and not the last known (this seems to be what is happening)
  • Care enough about the player base to look into this issue in detail
14

We need this information to find out what’s happening. The only place to get this information is from your ISP company. That is why the responsibility falls on you, their customer, to work it out with them. Blizzard can’t investigate why your traffic is specifically being routed closer to LA than Chicago by your ISP, as they are not their customer, and have no rights to that information.

The hard truth is that games don’t come with any guarantees of technical support or connection speed to servers. Too many factors, like: ISPs, hardware, and user error are at play to make those kinds of promises. Even this support forum is a courtesy service, which is why staff does not respond to every inquiry here.

On that note: I personally know how much this sucks. My traffic was being routed from Florida to Canada to LA. I had to work it out with my ISP, help them find the hub that was mis-routing my traffic because it was damaged by Hurricane Irma, and then wait for the engineers to work on it. It took over a month, but I was finally able to connect from Florida to Houston to my LA-based WoW server. Keep bothering your ISP, because that is probably the only way you will see this resolved.

15

Lets start this off in a simple way.

  1. Can I connect to Chicago?
  • Yes
  1. Can I connect to Los Angeles?
  • Yes
  1. Can I connect to Chicago without being routed to Los Angeles?
  • Yes
  1. Can I connect to Los Angeles without being router to Chicago?
  • Yes
  1. Does Overwatch decide which Overwatch server I connect to?
  • Yes
  1. Does that mean Overwatch is routing me to Los Angeles instead of Chicago?
  • Yes
  1. If I contact my ISP and ask them why Overwatch is making the decision to connect me to Los Angeles over Chicago, can they give me that answer?
  • No

You are missing a very important step here: Overwatch, and Overwatch alone decides which Overwatch server I connect to. They base this on a number of factors and that includes, but is not limited to: ping to server.

Therefore, the connection itself is valid and information is both sent and received, and I can view the time it takes for that information to travel (ping).

Now, lets say I had a stop watch and wanted to see how long it took for me to get from point A to point B in a car. I take two trips, the first I make 5 stops and the second I make 15 stops. These stop aren’t for the same amount of time and the only factor in the end that is evaluated is the total time taken. The number of stops is not relevant, the path taken is not relevant. The only relevant information is the total time taken.

So, with all that said, the only case where I would contact my ISP would be if the connection isn’t possible or the connection is being routed different directly by my ISP, which it isn’t because they don’t decide which Overwatch server I get connected to.

Here is a WinMTR for:

  • chicago02.speedtest.windstream.net
  • Chicago, IL
  • Taken from: http://c.speedtest.net/speedtest-servers-static.php

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.168.1.254 - 0 100 100 0 0 1 0
10.145.252.1 - 0 100 100 12 16 38 13
154.11.12.201 - 3 93 91 30 33 60 31
sea-b2-link.telia.net - 0 100 100 80 86 115 81
chi-b21-link.telia.net - 0 100 100 84 88 110 85
windstream-ic-154238-chi-b21.c.telia.net - 2 96 95 65 69 114 66
et2-0-0-0.pe03.chcg01-il.us.windstream.net - 2 97 96 65 68 93 66
184.80.121.178 - 0 100 100 59 63 87 60
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

Here is a WinMTR for:

  • speedtest.belairinternet.com
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Taken from: http://c.speedtest.net/speedtest-servers-static.php

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.168.1.254 - 0 100 100 0 0 13 0
10.145.252.1 - 0 100 100 12 16 35 13
154.11.10.11 - 3 92 90 32 36 60 46
No response from host - 100 20 0 0 0 0 0
100ge11-1.core1.pdx1.he.net - 0 100 100 85 92 134 113
100ge7-1.core1.pao1.he.net - 0 100 100 94 99 125 119
10ge7-5.core1.sjc2.he.net - 0 100 100 98 106 149 125
100ge8-2.core1.lax1.he.net - 0 100 100 105 111 135 132
100ge14-1.core1.lax2.he.net - 3 92 90 99 103 126 99
bel-air-internet.gigabitethernet2-15.core1.lax2.he.net - 0 100 100 99 104 128 126
No response from host - 100 20 0 0 0 0 0
198.44.223.66 - 2 96 95 105 110 134 106
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

Both connections work and don’t route me to another place instead. The connection to Los Angeles, as you can see above, has a much higher ping than Chicago.

The only case in which I should be routed to Los Angeles instead of Chicago is if Overwatch (which should be able to see my ping to each server) can’t find a match on Chicago. This CAN AND DOES happen because ping isn’t the only factor. However, given all these factors, I should at the very least be connected to Chicago most of the time instead of Los Angeles. I never get connected to Chicago anymore only Los Angeles.

16

Based on the last hop of traffic. Their client is working exactly as intended, but your ISP is doing a really bad job and you don’t seem to want to blame them, but it’s their fault. Blizzard can only use the ping from the last hop before it reaches their servers, and it isn’t going to change because your ISP is the one choosing the route you take to Blizzard. That is how your server is decided. The last hop. The last hop that is chosen by your ISP. They are the root of the issue. They aren’t showing the route to you. They are hiding that information. Work it out with them.

Correct, already acknowledged this, no one is confused about the parallel you’re trying to make. This isn’t about the number of hops, this is about an absolute lack of data concerning your path to Blizzard.

You cannot say this with ANY certainty, as most of your traceroute data is missing and being hidden by your ISP.

17

Based on the last hop of traffic. Their client is working exactly as intended, but your ISP is doing a really bad job and you don’t seem to want to blame them, but it’s their fault. Blizzard can only use the ping from the last hop before it reaches their servers, and it isn’t going to change because your ISP is the one choosing the route you take to Blizzard. That is how your server is decided. The last hop. The last hop that is chosen by your ISP. They are the root of the issue. They aren’t showing the route to you. They are hiding that information. Work it out with them, end of story.

Did I not say this was the problem? Did you not read the post from the other guy who lives in the US and much closer to Los Angeles and Chicago? I know 4 other people, on 3 different ISP’s who are getting connected to Los Angeles instead of Chicago. You are going to tell me that all of them, having connections coming from different locations, closer and farther, all have their ISP to blame because the path it takes to the Overwatch servers?

So, if all of that is true, and everyone with this problem has only their ISP’s to blame, it seems Overwatch might as well move that server because it’s clearly in a bad spot, on a bad line, with a bad provider. Yet, I can ping, trace, WinMTR every single speedtest server in both cities and not have this problem.

You say their system is working properly fine, I can understand that maybe they designed it that way. That doesn’t mean it’s a good system and that doesn’t mean it does a good good. It clearly can’t get final ping but yet I get that final ping when I’m playing, you know, because I’m than connected to that server… Just saying, it seems like that system maybe needs an update.

You cannot say this with ANY certainty, as most of your traceroute data is missing and being hidden by your ISP. This is not any proof of the point you’re making.

I can say with pretty good certainty that based on that WinMTR information, speedtest information, pings from a command line, and my previous connection to Overwatch servers, my connection to Chicago is far less ping than my connection to Los Angeles. The point I’m trying to get across here.

You keep pointing out things I’ve said and try to prove them wrong, but you only keep pointing the finger at Overwatch.

  • Overwatch automatically places me to the “best server” for that match. My ISP doesn’t.
  • Overwatch wont let me pick which server I want to play on. My ISP doesn’t care and shouldn’t.
  • Overwatch can’t get my final ping to Los Angeles and find out it’s higher than Chicago, so Overwatch places me on Los Angeles. My ISP didn’t do that.
  • My ISP (and many others it would seem) specifically when connecting to Overwatch servers in Los Angeles, takes a stupid path but still makes a connection and still has a final ping.
18

Yes. Their ISP or the routing partners their ISP works with are to blame. This issue is common for people across the world, and really bad for certain countries like Singapore and Malaysia (hundreds of threads covering it on these very forums). It makes perfect sense that you would hear the same story from other players. ISP routing is generally a spaghetti mess, which sometimes has obvious reasons like natural disasters or replacement of hubs, and other times is just a mistake.

D is close to Chicago. M is close to LA.
Your ISP is responsible for you connecting to A to B to C to D to Overwatch. For some reason they are likely connecting you to A to B to C to M to Overwatch. It’s also possible whatever company controls hop C is doing a bad job. Might be a routing partner as your ISP doesn’t own the entire length of cables connecting you from start to finish. Since M is close to LA, Overwatch thinks you are close to LA. The ISP and companies they work with are the start of the issue; if this was corrected, Overwatch would see you are closer to Chicago and connect you there.

Thankful for this. We’d all have to scramble to find servers with players on them when queuing.

Edit: BTW you have a 3% packet loss on your ISP line in those WinMTR tests you just posted. Also, the WinMTR doesn’t really establish an ongoing connection with the server like the game does. It just sends small pieces of information and asks if the server got them. This is a far cry from the mass of data exchanged when playing Overwatch.

Edit2: I tried to add you so we could stop writing novels to each other.

19

That’s good and all, and I agree ISP’s don’t take an optimal path always, and they do take detours that increase ping. However, that doesn’t change the facts. Overwatch can get my final ping to both Chicago and Los Angeles. They need to stop looking from a distance and do real connection tests to actual game servers. That would solve this problem and many future problems like this one, and that is why I said it’s on them and it’s their system to blame.

Thankful for this. We’d all have to scramble to find servers with players on them when queuing.

Edit: BTW you have a 3% packet loss on your ISP line in those WinMTR tests you just posted. Also, the WinMTR doesn’t really establish an ongoing connection with the server like the game does. It just sends small pieces of information and asks if the server got them. This is a far cry from the mass of data exchanged when playing Overwatch.

There are tons of game out right now that don’t have a system like this and still function fine when finding players for matches. As a notable example Fortnite BR, I can pick which region I want to play on and find a match almost instantly. Overwatch ping system tries to solve the problem of a smaller player base but needs to understand it’s not a Win/Win situation, it’s a Win/Lose. Players closer to the majority server win, players far away lose most of the time.

As for the package loss, I agree that a WinMTR might not be the same as playing the game, and again I suggest Overwatch does a better job at finding actual game ping.

I would like to see Overwatch Technical Support Staff’s comments on the problem and possible solutions. If this is going to be the case for all Blizzard games in the future and they are not going to be updated to handle problems like this, I would look for other games that don’t have such systems.

20

Chances are, if you as their customer can’t see the routing data, neither can they. And they’d probably keep running into this problem.

They are a business and have no substantial or financial motivation to change the way their system works right now. This issue isn’t affecting the majority of their player base, even the sample you gave of 4 people is like a drop in an ocean.

It’s ok, we don’t have to be bnet friends after 4 days of working on a novel together.