Massive latency, question about dungeon servers, WinMTR and VPN

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1

Hi, I’m playing on Azshara. Over the past week I’ve been getting worse and worse latency to the point that it was literally unplayable (e.g. talking to an NPC or equipping items/rearranging my bag takes maybe 15s to activate, if it does at all). In-game statistics say my ping ranges from 1500 to up to 9000 in the worst cases yesterday. It was okay last week.

To try to troubleshoot, I ran pingtest and tracert with the Azshara IP address and found that the problem was when my connection passed through AT&T en route to Azshara (I’m from outside US but playing on US servers since my friends are there). It got bounced between various AT&T IP addresses, losing packets and getting 200+ ping on each hop. I ran WinMTR with pretty much the same results. An example:

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

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.205.32.221 - 0 13 13 180 187 242 187
[ip.att address] - 0 13 13 207 215 241 212
[ip.att address] - 0 13 13 209 214 240 213
[ip.att address] - 0 13 13 208 212 242 214
32.130.248.132 - 0 13 13 208 213 241 214
32.130.248.163 - 0 13 13 208 214 241 211
No response from host - 100 2 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 2 0 0 0 0 0

(edited out the link in the WinMTR results to comply with blizzard forum regulations not letting me include links in posts)

I tried using a VPN to force it through a different route and this successfully brought the ping down to normal levels. However, halfway through a dungeon (roughly around the 2nd to 3rd boss) from random instance finder, my ping spiked up into the thousands again and persisted to the end, also persisted through closing and restarting WOW and logging back into the dungeon. After leaving the dungeon, my ping remained high for a matter of minutes while doing quests around the broken isle before settling back down to normal levels. I verified this three times in different random instance groups, had the same problem whether I left the group halfway or stuck through to the end and left after completing the dungeon on ultra high latency. The latency also caused me to have problems exiting the dungeon.

Also, this problem persisted through different VPN server addresses (I tried several across US and Canada). However, I can’t tell if this is because the different address had the same problem, or it’s because either way, for whatever reason, it takes a period of time before my ping goes down again.

I’m trying to understand why this might be happening and what I can do about it. Based on the ping test and trace route results, I assume that the problem is with AT&T and not Blizzard’s own servers. However, I’m guessing that when I join a random dungeon, since I’m being matched with players from other servers as well, my theory is that the instances are on a different server from Azshara, and even with the VPN, I end up going through the problematic AT&T networks en route to this other server. Is this correct?

Is there anything I can do about this to ensure a good experience in dungeons? I find dungeons more enjoyable than doing world quests, and I need the dungeons to finish the questlines anyway.

2

Update: I realise the WinMTR report I added in isn’t really a good representation since I just popped it open for this post. I let it run for a while longer and this is what the results look like:

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

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
192.205.32.221 - 2 464 455 178 192 1510 183
[ip.att address] - 2 464 455 207 220 1509 211
[ip.att address] - 3 460 450 207 223 1508 215
[ip.att address] - 2 476 470 207 218 1070 217
32.130.248.132 - 2 472 465 208 218 1069 211
32.130.248.163 - 2 464 455 208 222 1509 213
No response from host - 100 99 0 0 0 0 0

so there’s some huge latency spikes at each point occasionally that goes from 200 to 1000+

edit - new to the forums and the game in general. Apparently I made the original post with my alt rather than my main, didn’t know the forums are linked to your characters rather than your blizz account! This post is from my main.

3

Is that the whole report?

Because the first hop is bad as well.

I’m also not sure what ip you used for azshara. For the Americas you should use
137.221.105.2 (US West)
24.105.62.129 (US Central)

Depending on where your realm is hosted.

4

Hi Zungar, I used 199.108.48.77 since I found that IP address for azshara specifically on some website.

It’s not the whole report, only the point where it jumped from Europe to USA. I omitted my local data for security, don’t want my location traced.

I just tried using 24.105.62.129, here’s the results:

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

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
local data omitted for security
las-b21-link.telia. net - 25 1116 840 175 268 2021 176
blizzard-ic-348621-las-b21.c.telia. net - 18 1316 1089 173 201 1124 185
ae1-br01-eqla1.as57976. net - 21 1220 969 220 250 1881 231
et-0-0-2-br01-swlv10.as57976. net - 22 1187 928 0 288 2197 294
137.221.65.133 - 20 1245 1001 0 252 1535 236
et-0-0-0-pe04-eqch2.as57976. net - 32 984 675 299 325 1161 299
chi-eqch2-ia-bons-04.as57976. net - 31 994 687 0 321 1162 308
24.105.62.129 - 22 1200 944 221 239 1098 437
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

(added a space before each “.net” since I’m not allowed to post links)

5

It looks like you are dropping packets starting from very early, possibly from your modem. As you’re omitting data it is hard to be more precise than that.

There is no security reason to omit anything in a winmtr. At best someone will be able to tell what city you’re in by including it, and probably just country. Sweden?

6

I see, I’m just a little paranoid about internet identity security. The hop just before las-b21-link.telia .net averages about 21 ping, so I don’t think there is any issue outside america. 268 to las-b21 is normal for my country to USA. The problem seems to be from there onwards. I’m hoping that it’s possible to figure out what’s wrong without having to post more specific country/city information :x

7

I’m not worried about your average latency, I’m worried about both lost packets, and your worst latency. You’re losing 20%+ of your packets and your worst latency is 1000-2000 in the first hop you show. On what hop does that start.

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8

You can edit out the ip,or make it xxx.xxx.xxx and still leave the connection data.

Yindar is right, the telia hop is a disaster, and we can’t tell if it started before that or not.

Without the data, you’re wasting everyone’s time.

9

I didn’t realise the dropped packets were more of an issue than the latency. Here’s the full data then, from a new round of tracing:

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

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
xxx.xxx.x.x - 1 3882 3850 0 7 2394 2
xx.xx.xx.x - 2 3840 3798 0 13 2798 4
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - 1 3895 3867 0 13 3179 5
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - 1 3856 3818 0 14 3475 6
xxx.xxx.x.xx - 1 3862 3825 0 14 2546 6
xx-xx-link.telia. net - 2 3834 3790 0 13 2550 10
xx-xx-link.telia. net - 2 3830 3785 0 14 2546 6
las-b21-link.telia. net - 27 1946 1430 0 277 1563 269
blizzard-ic-348621-las-b21.c.telia. net - 20 2241 1798 173 208 2157 176
ae1-br01-eqla1.as57976. net - 20 2259 1821 0 263 2792 266
et-0-0-2-br01-swlv10.as57976. net - 33 1731 1161 0 332 3046 317
137.221.65.133 - 22 2164 1702 0 247 2035 237
et-0-0-0-pe04-eqch2.as57976. net - 43 1494 864 0 326 1263 320
chi-eqch2-ia-bons-04.as57976. net - 41 1536 917 306 329 3046 318
24.105.62.129 - 23 2127 1657 221 241 3179 234
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

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

You can see that the losses do start at the connection to LAS anyway.

Is it right to say that I should be focusing primarily on the packet loss rate rather than the latency? Also, is there a way to show the winmtr data as a histogram or at least percentiles rather than just the best/worst/average? I want to know what the distribution is like to see how much of the data is actually spiking.

10

No. The losses get worse. You have 1% packet loss from the start, with over 2 seconds of latency spikes from the first listed hop.

Whatever this is starts on your first listed hop, which would normally be your router.

Are you wired or wireless?
Router firmware is up to date?
Network drivers are up to date?

11

Zungar is spot on.

You’re losing packets at the first step.

12

Wireless. I’m renting a room, don’t have access to the router itself. However, we had the router checked and fixed two weeks ago so in theory it should not be a problem.

That said, while there’s 1% loss there, there’s also much worse loss further down. Isn’t this a bigger concern, or am I misunderstanding something about it? I’d have thought 1% would have quite a minor effect compared to losing a huge chunk down the road. Also doesn’t explain why using a VPN mostly solves my world latency unless I go into a random instance. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

Edit: How should I interpret the latency? I’m assuming that if each step has a biggest spike of 2000-3000, that means that any of them can be contributing independently to the latency by 2-3s, and if multiple hit at once, that would lead to my 10s latency. That’s why I’m trying to focus on the LAS connection onwards, since the biggest packet loss and average latency is from there onwards, while highest ping is about the same throughout. Is there something wrong with this reasoning? I’d like to understand more about what’s going on.

13

1% packet loss is enough to cause disconnects in wow.

Your first hop resembles many that we’ve seen on this forum with no later spike in packet loss which show the exact same behavior you are describing.

Since you don’t have access to the router, that makes it more difficult.

Are your wireless card drivers up to date?
What brand of wireless card?
Does it use any additional software? Killer networking software has had issues in the past.

14

I’m not having problems with disconnection though, just latency where everything freezes up. Unless that’s what you mean by disconnects.

I’ve the same problem on two different computers here, and I’ve updated my cards. One uses killer, yes, the other is on qualcomm atheros. In that case, though, I don’t understand why the problem only emerged recently and has been okay before.

15

The world has changed in the last few weeks. Congestion on local networks has changed. Overall internet traffic has changed. The building you’re in may have more people in it. Someone may have updated other software. The router may have changed settings.

When you don’t have complete control over even your local network, it makes everything harder to troubleshoot.

With the current situation, all we can go on is the data, and your data indicates the issue begins on the local network. That’s what we’re trying to troubleshoot.

16

Yeah, I mean the global issues makes sense, it’s how that interacts with my card that I don’t understand. My reasoning was that since it only happened recently, it can’t be my card (which has been a constant factor). The other factors do make more sense. Anyway, thank you for being patient and explaining!

17

Except we don’t know that.
Has the router been updated?
That impacts the card.
Has the router been moved?
That impacts the card.
Have there been items placed between the computer and the router?
That impacts the card.
Are there new wireless networks around you?
That impacts the card.

We don’t know what’s happening at your place. Unless you can share, all we have is the test data. The test data indicates the issue starts on your home network. Since you can’t address some of those issues, due to your living arrangements, neither can we.

18

Same issues. Dungeons and Horrific Visions. (basically any instance). No lag at all doing quests in the open world.

19

Due to the quarantine, this place has been deserted. I’m the only person living in this building now. That’s also why I can’t just go to the router, I don’t have access and the owner isn’t able to come down to open up. I do get your point that other things may be happening. That said, assuming that nothing can be done at the router, isn’t there anything that I can investigate or does this just mean I have to give up?

20

Here’s my take.

Yes, your wifi connection is bad. It alone could be causing you noticeable problems, and you should troubleshoot it once you’re able to get access to the router. But, I doubt this is what is causing your problem.

That telia hop is much worse. Your connection goes from just kind of bad to awful at that hop. You need to complain to your ISP. Keep in mind that with all the increased internet usage, they may just be doing the best they can, so might not be able to offer you a speedy fix. You could try using a VPN. VPN’s can use different routes to get places so it might bypass your problem hop. If you still have problems while using a VPN we would be able to mostly attribute them to your wifi.

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