[FIOS] Significantly higher ping exclusively with Overwatch

For a few weeks now I have been suffering a significant increase and ping. I was hoping it would settle itself out since it was only with Overwatch, however I am still dealing with this. Here is all the info of what’s up and what I’ve tried:

Before:
35-40ms png in qp/comp
30-35ms png in practice range

After:
61-70ms png in qp/comp
80-90ms png in practice range

IND is okay, I’m connecting to my usual server. Here’s my winMTR:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| WinMTR statistics |

| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

| RT-AX86U-0168 - 0 | 226 | 226 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |

| 24.105.43.218 - 0 | 226 | 226 | 1 | 5 | 80 | 2 |

|____________|||||||

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

I have also tried on multiple PC’s in my home, 2 different modern routers from different manufacturers, multiple firmwares, QoS on/off/adjusted, port forwarding/packet prioritization on/off/adjusted, factory resets, rebooted ONT, plugged my ISP ethernet directly to my PC, reached out to my ISP (Fios) and had my connection/cross connect/traffic inspected and they don’t see anything. Furthermore, this is literally only with Overwatch. Ping in all other non-blizz games are normal.

Was networking overhauled to support the new beta? The only theory I can come up with is that the datacenters I usually hop across to get to ORD1 are being provisioned to support the OW2 beta in my region and causing my connection to OW1 to require different routing/more hops.

I guess I should ask as well if any other fellow Fios users playing overwatch are experiencing the same thing?

Hey Periphery,

We have seen some reports of higher latency affecting FIOS users on the East coast / Northeastern US recently.

This kind of intermittent issue along the routing path can sometimes take a while to clear up. It could also be that the routing path has changed due to maintenance or other factors. The WinMTR also does not show us the full route, due to how their network handles ICMP packets.

As far as we are aware there haven’t been any changes for the Overwatch 2 Beta that would be causing this only for FIOS users. The Overwatch 1 servers are still in their normal locations, but again the way your ISP routes your connection to that datacenter can change without any warning.

In the meantime if you want to use a different connection, such as a mobile data hotspot/tether or a VPN connection, either of those would re-route the connection and may provide you more stability while playing Overwatch.

I’ve updated your thread title to include FIOS in case any other users want to chime in with their experiences recently.

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This is something I observed.

Almost all Verizon East Coast OW traffic including live, beta and console traffic with a destination of Chicago goes to Miami first then back North to ORD via a BGP route owned by “Telecom Italia”. I don’t know why verizon is doing this, but it’s been like this for close to month now. BGP world is very cash driven and I doubt verizon or other participating ISPs will say why this is happening. Using looking glass inside ORD1 (Blizzard), the traffic takes an asymmetric path back to the end users and doesn’t take the Miami route for the return traffic. It may completely be different internally, just what I saw in looking glass.

With major changes happening with ow and a beta being rolled out, I can’t imagine the impact this will have in the long run. With that said, infrastructure issues as such can affect how devs create, patch and make changes. It can also cause issues such as no regs. When verizon does fix this issue, if they ever - it could default those very changes in production causing more issues down the road. Angry players and such leading to more trouble tickets and forums flooded with change suggestions and what not. Certain changes may now seem op or experience bugs. Low user count, etc.

As you suggest, a VPN would help. We can’t control ISP Bureaucracy.

Thanks for your help Nicole & Jambrix, it’s always appreciated.

2 Likes

Yeah, I have the exact same problem!
So nothing can be done? :frowning:

Guess we sit and pray that Verizon does something about it…

1 Like

I’m at a loss. This is all verizon has to say:

This is something that is outside our control. When you try accessing their server, how it routes depends on the owners of the server because it pings their servers’ information. You will have to reach out to Blizzard support for further assistance. - Albie

Is there anything that could’ve changed with the servers in chicago?

Use PingPlotter Pro (trial version), change packet type to UDP, and then run a test to the Chicago server to see where the issue is happening. WinMTR doesn’t support IPv6 and Verizon doesn’t support ICMP packets.

Host Information
1,192.168.1.1,192.168.1.1
2,,-
3,100.41.32.104,100.41.32.104
4,0.csi1.GRCYNYGC-MSE01-BB-SU1.ALTER.NET,140.222.3.206
5,,-
6,0.ae10.BR3.NYC4.ALTER.NET,140.222.2.129
7,204.255.168.106,204.255.168.106
8,et5-1-5.miami15.mia.seabone.net,89.221.41.177
9,blizzard.miami15.mia.seabone.net,89.221.41.3
10,ae1-br01-eqmi2.as57976.net,137.221.76.33
11,xe-0-0-0-1-br01-eqat2.as57976.net,137.221.65.50
12,,-
13,et-0-0-1-pe03-eqch2.as57976.net,137.221.69.57
14,chi-eqch2-ia-bons-03.as57976.net,137.221.66.13
15,et-0-0-4-br02-eqch2.as57976.net,137.221.65.46
17,24.105.44.110,24.105.44.110

Here ya go. Miami. That is just wild. Who’s the culprit and how do I resolve?

Edit: I am having this issue with all blizzard servers on any game, not just overwatch.

Can you take a screenshot of the window? This is just the IP addresses for the route.

Sure thing:

(https://imgur.com/QXrdVGk)

Edit: This is a screen shot after letting it ride which shows how much it is spiking at times:
(https://imgur.com/a/7ecqWpT)

The connection does look good. Those 100% loss hops are false flags because the connection does make it to the server, and you’re able to play. Hmm. Are you experiencing the problem around the time you’re running the test?

This issue has been consistent for over a month now. I have been playing at 30-40ms ping for years and now everything is 60+ms no matter what I do. If I get a west coast game I used to deal with 70-80ms but now it’s just over 100 there. Things could definitely be worse and I can be fortunate that this is at least “playable” but I really want to get back to the low ping I used to have. Practice range is always 80+ ping on ord1 now in particular. I should add that all custom games that I look at in the list that used to be 4 bars are now 3 bars. Everything I connect to is +20-30ms unless I use a vpn.

So if a VPN solves the problem, then we know for sure the problem is the ISP route. Do you have any other ISP options in your area?

I’m sorry, I’m going to use a vpn as well, you must understand, this issue is beyond us. It seems to be a very serious issue, I’m sure they’re (Verizon) is trying to work through it. But due to the severity of the fix, it’s going to take time.

Other FIOS customers on another board did contact Verizon also and they basically received the same answer.

Last month one early morning the entire upper East Coast internet was down briefly, including internet access via cell phones. It was announced on the radio this was due to a Verizon maintenance window, as many choppers doing early morning traffic reports couldn’t complete their 5am traffic reports. The radio claimed the issue only affected “gamers” right before the guys in the choppers yelling about the East Coast traffic cut out completely. I’m sure other things went out, hospitals, police and other important services. Service was restored just before 6am that morning.

Apparently the Verizon route that does the hand off to the path into Miami is also sending other important traffic into Miami first, then back up North. The “Miami” name is for convenience, it may never even travel into Miami (we take their word for it as you can see the timers increase. Commercial/private internet routing is very business driven, people who pay or say yeh or neh, have the last word.

It’s pretty interesting, hope we find more info.

1 Like

Not for a gigabit up and down, no. I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and get a VPN if I want to keep that level of speed. They should be up front about this and/or save us some money to go towards the cost of vpn. I pay too much per month to be ignored, dismissed for something entirely on their end. I’ll be keeping my tickets open with them, I suggest you guys do as well.

This issue has been resolved it appears. I don’t know if it’s coincidences or not, this morning I emailed blizzard peering team, when I logged into a game later in the day, I saw the routing issue was fixed. However there was also a schedule maintenance in progress. East coast is now back to normal 30ms-35ms ping. Whatever the fix was, thank you. Games are more intense and responsive now for East players.

Now:

24.105.40.0/21 (2 entries, 1 announced)
        *BGP    Preference: 170/-96
                Age: 13:27 	Metric: 10 	Metric2: 500502 
                Announcement bits (4): 0-KRT 3-RT 9-BGP_RT_Background 10-Resolve tree 4 
                AS path: 3356 57976 I  (Originator)
                Communities:   
                Localpref: 95
         BGP    Preference: 170/-96
                Age: 13:27 	Metric: 10 	Metric2: 500502 
                AS path: 3356 57976 I  (Originator)
                Communities:   
                Localpref: 95

before:

24.105.40.0/21 (2 entries, 1 announced)
        *BGP    Preference: 170/-96
                Age: 4w6d 12:01:51 	Metric: 10 	Metric2: 500502 
                Announcement bits (4): 0-KRT 3-RT 9-BGP_RT_Background 10-Resolve tree 4 
                AS path: 6762 57976 I  (Originator)
                Communities: 0:201   
                Localpref: 95
         BGP    Preference: 170/-96
                Age: 4w6d 12:26:46 	Metric: 10 	Metric2: 500502 
                AS path: 6762 57976 I  (Originator)
                Communities: 0:201   
                Localpref: 95


trace from client to destination:

traceroute to 24.105.41.152 (24.105.41.152), 30 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  * * *
 2  208.214.138.94 (208.214.138.94)  1.499 ms  1.732 ms  1.149 ms
 3  * * *
 4  BLIZZARD-EN.ear7.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.7.196.134)  28.148 ms  24.027 ms  23.961 ms
 5  * * ae1-br02-eqch2.as57976.net (137.221.69.35)  604.674 ms
     MPLS Label=167 CoS=0 TTL=1 S=1
 6  et-0-0-1-pe01-eqch2.as57976.net (137.221.69.51)  23.227 ms et-0-0-0-pe02-eqch2.as57976.net (137.221.69.49)  23.888 ms et-0-0-1-pe01-eqch2.as57976.net (137.221.69.51)  23.288 ms
 7  chi-eqch2-ia-bons-03.as57976.net (137.221.66.13)  37.423 ms * *
 8  24.105.62.151 (24.105.62.151)  24.127 ms * 24.105.62.149 (24.105.62.149)  24.503 ms
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

trace from server to client:

RACEROUTE:
traceroute to ), 15 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  24.105.63.83 (24.105.63.83)  0.820 ms  1.464 ms  1.463 ms
 2  24.105.62.152 (24.105.62.152)  0.717 ms  0.735 ms  0.764 ms
 3  137.221.66.14 (137.221.66.14)  1.161 ms  1.164 ms  1.163 ms
 4  * * *
 5  137.221.69.32 (137.221.69.32)  1.411 ms  3.450 ms  3.462 ms
 6  7-1-4.ear7.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.7.196.133)  1.068 ms  1.014 ms  1.000 ms
 7  ae2.2.edge1.Chicago10.level3.net (4.69.133.29)  4.071 ms  4.074 ms  3.928 ms
 8  Verizon-level3-Chicago10.Level3.net (4.68.37.186)  2.895 ms  2.909 ms  2.903 ms
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12   21.259 ms  20.856 ms  20.865 ms
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *

Thank you Nicole and others for helping resolve this issue!

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I can confirm as well. Thanks to all.

1 Like

I was pleasantly surprised to open the game and see my ping back to normal! All within the vpn refund window as well :smiley: congrats guys, I really appreciate everyone speaking up on this.

I think I might be facing a similar issue with a different ISP, Xfinity (Comcast). I haven’t played the game much recently but I’ve tried it twice this month and both times I have had 70-80 ping with the bad connection indicators. What were the trouble shooting steps you went through to determine it was routing related?

Start a new thread with a WinMTR test :slight_smile:

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