Strange lag

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ItchyDemon
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Strange lag

Post by ItchyDemon »

I have been experiencing an unusual and annoying lag with TMW these past few days. After mentioning it in public chat, I found that I am the only one experiencing it. Doing a traceroute reveals the culprit about 8 hops in, and I have reported it to the people who run that network. The responded saying they can't look into it themselves without a support ticket, which I can't file since I'm not their customer. They told me to report it to the server admin here, however since I don't know who that is I decided to post on the forum instead.

Here is the traceroute:

Code: Select all

traceroute to server.themanaworld.org (192.31.187.185), 30 hops max, 60 
byte packets
 1  Wireless_Broadband_Router.home (192.168.1.1)  1.704 ms  5.077 ms  
7.213 ms
 2  L100.PITBPA-VFTTP-22.verizon-gni.net (96.236.129.1)  10.493 ms  
12.302 ms  13.444 ms
 3  G2-0-4-122.PITBPA-LCR-03.verizon-gni.net (130.81.129.32)  14.763 ms  
14.815 ms  15.305 ms
 4  so-15-0-3-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.28.204)  22.239 ms  
22.433 ms  27.162 ms
 5  0.xe-3-0-2.XL3.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.63.2.237)  79.298 ms  79.508 ms  
79.963 ms
 6  GigabitEthernet4-0-0.GW8.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.63.33.93)  33.254 ms 
GigabitEthernet6-0-0.GW8.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.63.33.13)  13.169 ms 
GigabitEthernet4-0-0.GW8.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.63.33.93)  13.972 ms
 7  tinet-gw.customer.alter.net (152.179.50.30)  15.333 ms  16.039 ms  
16.167 ms
 8  * xe-1-3-0.lax20.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.185.213)  90.773 ms *
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *
That traceroute is almost exactly the same both here at home and from my VPS, with very minor changes in the ping times.

Several traceroutes reveal that hop 6 sometimes is very high, and sometimes is very low, however hop 8 is always very high.
Frost
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Re: Strange lag

Post by Frost »

Good catch!
It does indeed look like tinet/GTT and Alter.net have some peering issues (oversubscription or latency or something).
Unfortunately, as you say, Tier 1 ("backbone") carriers are not very worried what we downstream customers think. Server admins are nothing at that level.

tinet doesn't have such a problem with Cox Communications. It looks like the same NAP too.

Code: Select all

$ traceroute server.themanaworld.org
traceroute to server.themanaworld.org (192.31.187.185), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1)  1.277 ms  0.817 ms  0.612 ms
 2  10.139.0.1 (10.139.0.1)  7.344 ms  7.568 ms  8.354 ms
 3  ocnsaggc01-gex0916.sd.sd.cox.net (68.6.11.54)  8.214 ms  14.996 ms  8.213 ms
 4  * * *
 5  fed1sysc01-gex0901.sd.sd.cox.net (68.6.8.100)  16.650 ms  9.728 ms  10.719 ms
 6  * 68.1.5.139 (68.1.5.139)  17.903 ms  27.240 ms
 7  ae2-223.lax20.ip4.tinet.net (173.241.128.81)  14.484 ms  14.766 ms  12.858 ms
 8  * * *
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Crush
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Re: Strange lag

Post by Crush »

74ms is not a particularly high latency when it's an intercontinental link.

The fact that the traceroute ends afterwards just means that the next server blocks traceroutes - it says nothing about the connection quality.
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AnonDuck
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Re: Strange lag

Post by AnonDuck »

Operator of the TMW server here!

If it's only you, it's likely local. If you're using wifi try cabling in directly and see if the issues go away. Wifi interference can cause variable latency and packet loss, both of which the TMW network protocol do not handle very well. Small blips you wouldn't notice in any other circumstances tend to affect TMW greatly. If the issue goes away when you are cabled up you can play with your wifi channels etc and take steps to minimize interference.

The geek in me wants to explain the traceroute so here goes!

Firist off a tool such as 'mtr' is better as it sends repeated probes to help locate areas of packet loss and variable latency.

In this case the traceroute ends after going through a tinet router. The network behind that router is blocking traceroute (and all non-TMW related) traffic as a security measure. Pings/Traceroutes to the TMW server timing out is normal.

I do see a bit of latency on hops 7/8. The alter.net (IAD: Washingto DC) link to the tinet Los Angles router at the end of the trace looks a hair higher than it should be latency-wise.. Keep in mind though this is a pretty long physical distance! Also, if this were the cause of your problems half the world would be experiencing them as it's so close to the TMW server and is a very common route for packets to take.

Hope this helps.
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ItchyDemon
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Re: Strange lag

Post by ItchyDemon »

Hardwired doesn't make any difference, and I rebooted the router last night but I'm still experiencing the lag. I've been using the same settings on the router itself for almost half a year now, so I'm confident it's not on my end.

I'd like to point out I did not experience this consistent lag before my two month hiatus, nor do I experience it on any other server.

EDIT: Also, I proxied through my VPS last night, which is in a datacenter one state over from me. The lag does not go away but actually remains about the same.
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AnonDuck
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Re: Strange lag

Post by AnonDuck »

*scratches head* Puzzling! Can you describe the in-game lag more precisely?
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Johanne Laliberté
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Re: Strange lag

Post by Johanne Laliberté »

Since 05:00 am time server at Themanaworld.org I get lags. Here my WinMTR:

Code: Select all

WinMTR statistics							
							
Host	%	Sent	Recv	Best	Avrg	Wrst	Last
192.168.2.1	0	15586	15586	0	1	29	2
64.230.200.247	1	15483	15482	12	15	454	13
64.230.36.200	1	15518	15517	12	16	132	13
64.230.185.137	0	15539	15539	26	31	166	26
77.67.78.29	0	15548	15548	26	29	165	40
89.149.184.94	7	3690	3447	111	118	190	115
173.241.129.78	100	316	2	0	136	150	150
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
No response from host	100	314	0	0	0	0	0
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ItchyDemon
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Re: Strange lag

Post by ItchyDemon »

MadCamel wrote:*scratches head* Puzzling! Can you describe the in-game lag more precisely?
Occasionally the Ping in the Debug window will spike, sometimes over a full second. When this happens, if I'm fighting mobs, the game will freeze for several seconds, then a whole bunch of animation will happen all at once, I'll receive lots of damage all at once, and I'll die instantly. When chatting with other players, it can take several seconds for messages to send/receive.

Sometimes other players experience this when I do (server lag), other times it's me only (my connection only). I know from asking several players in game.

To be absolute certain it's not on my end, I called my ISP this morning to ask them to check for issues with my connection. They said they detected no issues whatsoever. Normally I don't trust when they say that, however I am inclined to agree with them for a change due to this experience.
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vercingetorix
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Re: Strange lag

Post by vercingetorix »

me winMTR
i have epic lag please help me
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o11c
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Re: Strange lag

Post by o11c »

The high Wrst for hop 1 is very suspicious. That's inside your LAN ... are you on wifi?
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vercingetorix
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Re: Strange lag

Post by vercingetorix »

yes
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tux9th
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Re: Strange lag

Post by tux9th »

Try to get better reception or a LAN Cable and try again.

resetting your wifi router or restarting your computer (in case you run on windows) might help as well.
My laptop does strange things when on WIFI.
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vercingetorix
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Re: Strange lag

Post by vercingetorix »

I connect my cable but nothing gives her more :/
ItchyDemon
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Re: Strange lag

Post by ItchyDemon »

vercingetorix wrote:I connect my cable but nothing gives her more :/
Did you try rebooting your computer as Tux suggest? If that doesn't help, shut off your router for a full minute then turn it back on and try again. If it's still not fixed, then reset the router.
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