Latency Issues

Knowdice-illidan · July 6, 2022, 11:31pm

For about the last 2 weeks now I have been having lag issues. Prior to this, I had minimal issues. I have also reached out a few times to my ISP (Verizon) where they didn’t see any issue but I’m not sure I believe them. Also if it makes any difference I use a jetpack/ hotspot as my only source of internet.

It isn’t uncommon for game to stop (freeze) for several seconds in open world content (less often) and in raid / M+ (both more often). I have gone over all the basic and common causes for the lag issues. The lag issue can occur on home or world or both, where one side might be normal and other high (couple hundred MS). Additionally the lag does not always stay high but will go back to where it used to be around 60 - 80 MS in both home and world. below is a WinMTR of lag around 700 – 800 MS on world side only (home was 70).

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

| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 343 | 343 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 1 |

| 17.sub-66-174-63.myvzw.com - 0 | 343 | 343 | 23 | 39 | 70 | 41 |

| 192.sub-69-83-70.myvzw.com - 9 | 262 | 241 | 0 | 41 | 75 | 42 |

| No response from host - 100 | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

| 242.sub-69-83-70.myvzw.com - 1 | 339 | 338 | 26 | 41 | 64 | 40 |

| No response from host - 100 | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

| 212.sub-69-83-66.myvzw.com - 25 | 174 | 131 | 0 | 46 | 89 | 61 |

| 152.sub-69-83-66.myvzw.com - 10 | 253 | 230 | 27 | 44 | 107 | 72 |

| 153.sub-69-83-66.myvzw.com - 2 | 324 | 319 | 0 | 43 | 90 | 45 |

| 0.ae2.BR1.IAD8.ALTER.NET - 8 | 266 | 246 | 33 | 52 | 97 | 63 |

| 192.205.36.137 - 55 | 110 | 50 | 0 | 57 | 104 | 48 |

| cr81.wshdc.ip.att.net - 77 | 86 | 20 | 0 | 56 | 68 | 60 |

| cr82.wshdc.ip.att.net - 65 | 98 | 35 | 0 | 59 | 93 | 51 |

| cr1.cl2oh.ip.att.net - 65 | 98 | 35 | 0 | 58 | 97 | 49 |

| 12.122.135.237 - 45 | 126 | 70 | 0 | 55 | 107 | 54 |

| 12.94.166.218 - 88 | 78 | 10 | 0 | 76 | 103 | 63 |

| ae1-br01-eqdc2.as57976.net - 88 | 78 | 10 | 0 | 74 | 87 | 74 |

| No response from host - 100 | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

| et-0-0-0-pe04-eqch2.as57976.net - 82 | 82 | 15 | 0 | 67 | 91 | 61 |

| No response from host - 100 | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

Kneanderthal-lightbringer · July 6, 2022, 11:59pm

This is why you are getting jumping numbers. If you can test this with a wired connection and see if the issue is with the hotspot that would give you proof that the issue lies with the provider. Wifi has never been a good source for gaming, to be honest.

I occasionally have to use my hotspot and usually, the lag jumps all over the place. I only use it when my wired connection goes out and I’m in the middle of a raid which causes me to get the freezing running in place and the catch up. As a healer, this is not ideal.

Knowdice-illidan · July 7, 2022, 2:00am

As I stated above this is my only form of internet connection. There is no wired connection. Nor have I had any issues to this degree prior to the last 2 weeks.

Jetsum-echo-isles · July 7, 2022, 2:54am

Unfortunately, hotspots, while usable for the game, are not supported methods of connection.

Zungar-silver-hand · July 7, 2022, 11:29am

Jambrix · July 7, 2022, 3:56pm

The WinMTR is showing that the connection is dropping packets starting on the 3rd hop, at 192.sub-69-83-70.myvzw.com
This would mean that the problem isn’t with your PC or your hotspot/jetpack, but with the Verizon network or towers that your connection is routing through to get to the WoW servers.

If the problem only started recently there may be a new issue that Verizon needs to investigate at that point in the connection, or it may be something their engineers are already aware of. Either way, it should be something that Verizon would need to clear up for you to fix the packet loss which will provide more stability on the connection.

Lovebunny-bleeding-hollow · July 7, 2022, 4:08pm

If you are REALLY worried about ping times, I wrote a short guide quite some time ago on optimizing network adapters for latency (though it relies heavily on reference material / documentation from the Intel site, which you can read at your own pace if you happen to be interested.)

NOTE: These are just EXAMPLES (you have to edit them to make them work as well as you want) → One Button Network Adapter Configuration Script → Remove the spaces:

h t t p s : / / techcommunity . microsoft . com / t5 / windows-security / one-button-network-adapter-configuration-scripts / m-p / 3261978 / highlight / true # M826

Summary

I’ve noticed you have this device which has a USB-tethering option, somewhat like Ethernet, and also Wireless / WiFi. You might have to change the interrupt moderation rate, receive buffers, RSS queues, to be latency focused. As soon as you do that though, that can impact download speeds (often on most network cards, the adaptive setting works best. If this is an FPS or something like Overwatch, ping greatly affects response time, as you may or may not have a global cooldown, everything is nearly the same as instant cast. What I’m saying is it means Interrupt Moderation Rate has to be disabled if you want the lowest possible ping / latency response. High / Extreme Interrupt Moderation rates are very useful for high bandwidth streaming or downloads, but sometimes it increases latency at the cost of reducing CPU usage.)

NOTE: Blizzard servers, or the Launcher to be exact, DO NOT support Jumbo Frames / Headers in any way shape or form with most types of tunneling protocols, like WireGuard, so you have to use the default MTU of 1500/1514 bytes (depending on what type of adapter it is.) If it’s a home network with multiple devices connected, then of course the MTU is adjusted in the router / gateway firmware based on what every device on the network supports. So 1514 bytes on an Intel adapter is actually 1500 bytes on a Realtek adapter, though you also have to take into account the different operating systems, ie Windows, Linux (Android,) OS X (Unix,) etc, and the way they encapsulate information, and whether or not it has an external effect outside of your LAN. Most SoHo Routers / Gateways only have a basic setting for Jumbo / Frames / Headers which is relatively nondescript (so you just have to assume it’s 9K / 9014k.) Typically this is a good choice outside of a computer game environment, such as situations where you have a lot of sockets open, P2P networks, downloading big updates (40-60GB updates for Visual Studio, various other platforms like that.) For a computer game it will slow you down as soon as you finish patching. I’ve gotten Jumbo Frames / Headers to work on OpenTCP with the Battle.Net Launcher, but it’s not worth the hassle, given it barely impacts download speeds unless you had fibre-channel or something ridiculously fast. Sometimes that will also lag you with lots of smaller files, where it’s more intermittent, such as downloading patch information, checksums, scan and repair tasks, etc (where you constantly have to connect / reconnect, and it’s not as focused on steady throughput alone.)

TLDR: It’s way easier to just use the default MTU, as the Blizzard launcher supports nothing else. Jumbo Frames / Headers ALSO increase latency, minimum RSS queues, minimum receive buffers, Interrupt Moderation Rate set to Disabled. This could be problematic if you have programs running in the background, so you would have to look at your settings and adjust them accordingly (of course RSS queues might not even be an option on your network adapter.)

Disclaimer: The power is in your hands to make the changes you want now, aside from what happens on the WAN side that is beyond your control, but as a side note, if you want VERY high throughput at the cost of latency (latency is actually based on your upload speed,) then you have to max out interrupt moderation, RSS queues, receive / transmit buffers.

This overall DOES give you lower latency, relative to the package you buy with your internet service provider, your use case scenario / whether you’re a gamer or you download a lot, and any routes or relays where you get massive packet loss. If you have problems, you can just reset the adapter and start over. This is basically a command line version of editing the adapter configuration within this control panel module ( Start Menu → Run → C:\Windows\System32\ncpa.cpl )

system · August 6, 2022, 4:09pm

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