High latency (220ms) for 2 weeks. Peering problem with Cogent Communications

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1

On August 8 I logged into the Classic stress test to find that my latency was 220ms. I contacted my ISP on August 9. They sent someone out but there was nothing they could do. They said nothing was wrong. The ping from the road read 2ms and the internet speed was where it should have been (60 Mbps download / 30 Mbps upload). I logged into retail to make sure it wasn’t just the Classic stress test. The latency on retail was the same. 220ms. So the tech left my house since there was nothing wrong, nothing he could do. A day or so later I called my ISP back and was told to email one of their level 2 techs that worked there.

On August 12 he emailed me back and said “We will contact Cogent to see if we can get someone to look at and work on this for us. It would be a loss to replace the router or the equipment on the outside of the home. My testing here indicates the same thing that you are seeing. I will keep you informed of what we find out."

On August 16 I logged into retail to find that my latency was great. 59ms. I was a happy camper but tempered my expectations. I emailed the tech and told him that the problem seemed to have been fixed and that I would let him know if anything changes. He replied that they had sent a ticket into Cogent but haven’t heard anything back.

On August 17 I logged into retail and was back at 220ms.

I’ve asked for help from some other people during this whole ordeal and was told by one person that it looks like a peering problem between AS174 Cogent Communications and AS57976 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Said it looks like the traceroute is going from IP addresses registered to Blizzard US, to Blizzard Europe (Netherlands), to a Singaporean Telecom Company, then back to Blizzard US.

Things that I have tried:
-checked other computers to make sure it wasn’t just one
-flushed dns
-reset router
-vpn - this worked. my latency was around 50ms. obviously I don’t want to have to rely on a vpn but this just reaffirms the fact that my house isn’t the issue

Things I haven’t tried:
-opened ports

With Classic just one week away I’d really like to get this figured out. I had to level a character to 10 just to make this post

Tracing route to 137.221.105.2 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 199.59.168.1
3 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 199.59.174.244
4 7 ms 8 ms 8 ms te0-19-0-2-2.ccr41.atl04.atlas.cogentco dot com [38.122.46.149]
5 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms be2788.ccr22.atl02.atlas.cogentco dot com [154.54.5.193]
6 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms se3-1-7-0.ca01.atl02.atlas.cogentco dot com [38.104.2.1]
7 241 ms 241 ms 241 ms ae1-br01-eqat2.as57976 dot net [137.221.75.33]
8 228 ms 227 ms 227 ms xe-0-0-0-0-br01-eqda6.as57976 dot net [137.221.65.48]
9 228 ms 228 ms 228 ms et-0-0-29-br02-eqda6.as57976 dot net [137.221.65.101]
10 56 ms 56 ms 56 ms et-0-0-2-br02-swlv10.as57976 dot net [137.221.65.67]
11 238 ms 239 ms 295 ms et-0-0-67-pe01-swlv10.as57976 dot net [137.221.83.71]
12 228 ms 228 ms 227 ms 137.221.105.2

Trace complete.

2

Generally speaking, if you can use a VPN to bypass the issue, it’s a problem on the ISP network, not how Blizzard is routing your traffic – otherwise you’d experience the same thing. I do see that your latency jumps when your ISP hands off the connection to the Blizzard routing partner. It’s possible there are steps in between that we can’t see because the ISP doesn’t disclose the full route.

3

seems to me that the problem lies with Cogent. Do you think opening ports to Blizzard would help?

4

This is part of a larger issue happening. See this thread: 8/19 - Stuck at Logging in to game server

Opening ports won’t do anything, sorry.

5

I’ve had this issue for weeks. How could this possibly be related to that?

6

It could be that you’re having two issues, but I know CogentCo is involved in the thread I just provided. In other words, the VPN is probably going to be your only option at this point to avoid lag and any issue logging in.

7

I just logged in lol. So my issue isn’t related

8

But you said you’re still lagging, right?

9

Yes. As a matter of fact my word latency is a staggering 300ms. Still, I’m sure they will have their issue resolved while mine won’t be. Not trying to be negative. That’s just the way I see it.

EDIT: Fallen a little but still much higher than the 220ms I’ve had the last few weeks.

10

I’ve seen several reports about CogentCo in the Overwatch forum over the last few weeks too. I’m hoping that the resolution of today’s issue will address that also.

11

Home latency is the same it’s been for weeks (220ms) but the world latency is what’s been climbing the last few days. Showed 341ms when I logged in but has fallen to 253ms

12

Did you check this thread?

13

yes I checked that thread. Still over 220ms even after they supposedly worked with a few peoples ISPs in that mega thread.