Help SOE track the Lag (instructions inside)

[Byteblock]

Spork asked for user feedback to help track the lag problem many people are experiencing, so let's help him out!

Firstly, we all need to /bug every time we experience the really bad lag. Just type /bug in your chat window and they will know what server and time you are on when you experience it.

Secondly, let's collect a list of tracerts to show it is not on our end!

Here are the IPs to the world servers

Markov: 199.108.14.48
Emerald: 199.108.204.48
Werner: 195.33.135.48


If you already know how to use tracert, please do so to your server during the time of day you experience lag most often. Post the results to this thread so we can collect a public record and demonstrate to SOE that it is not our collective ISPs that are to blame! A clean tracert shows that it is not some errant router in Oaklahoma causing the lag for everyone in North America.

How to Do a Trace Route:
To do a trace route, go to your Start menu and select Run. A small dialog box will appear. Type into this box: "cmd" (without quotations) and then press the OK button.

A Command Line window appears saying something like:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Name Here]>


Type into this window: tracrt ip.to.the.server.you.use
(i.e.: tracert 199.108.14.48)

Windows will now attempt to resolve the route for you. Give it a few minutes, and before long you will have a screen like this:


C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Name Here]>tracert 199.108.14.48

Tracing route to sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 10 ms 12 ms your.PC.goes.here[xx.xxx.xx.xx]
2 10 ms 12 ms 12 ms your.GateWay.Starts.here[xxx.xxx.x.xxx]
3 9 ms 10 ms 13 ms 68.87.229.81
4 10 ms 10 ms 13 ms 68.87.229.77
5 14 ms 12 ms 17 ms 12.244.72.246
6 15 ms 14 ms 17 ms tbr2-p011801.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.62]
7 22 ms 17 ms 24 ms tbr2-cl7.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.46]
8 60 ms 60 ms 60 ms tbr2-cl2.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.10.14]
9 62 ms 60 ms 61 ms gbr2-p20.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.11.254]
10 64 ms 62 ms 63 ms gar1-p370.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.123.145.25]
11 65 ms 64 ms 66 ms mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.san2.attens.net [12.122.255
.206]
12 66 ms 64 ms 61 ms 63.241.1.254
13 61 ms 62 ms 62 ms vl10.sdkoll1sw-1.sonyonline.net [63.241.60.42]
14 62 ms 62 ms 64 ms sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]

Trace complete.


To copy from this window you will need to find and click on the Icon for the Command Line Window. It will be a little icon in the top left corner of the window that will look like a little blue line over a black screen with "c:\" on it. Click on this for a contect menu.

From the context menu, hover your mouse over Edit and a secondary menu appears. Click on Mark at the top of this secondary menu.

Now drag your mouse over the tracert output. Once you have the whole thing selected press ENTER on your keyboard to copy it.

No you may make a post here with this by pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard.

Important Notes for posting:
Please make sure these tracerts are only done during the times you experience lag.
Please remember to XXX out your IP and host information from the first entry of the tracert.

Please keep your posts on this thread in this format:

World: Markov
My Region: Montana
My ISP: Cox
Time and Day of TraceRT: 3:00pm CST - 1/17/04
Tracrt:
Tracing route to sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 10 ms 12 ms your.PC.goes.here[xx.xxx.xx.xx]
2 10 ms 12 ms 12 ms your.GateWay.Starts.here[xxx.xxx.x.xxx]
3 9 ms 10 ms 13 ms 68.87.229.81
4 10 ms 10 ms 13 ms 68.87.229.77
5 14 ms 12 ms 17 ms 12.244.72.246
6 15 ms 14 ms 17 ms tbr2-p011801.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.62]
7 22 ms 17 ms 24 ms tbr2-cl7.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.46]
8 60 ms 60 ms 60 ms tbr2-cl2.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.10.14]
9 62 ms 60 ms 61 ms gbr2-p20.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.11.254]
10 64 ms 62 ms 63 ms gar1-p370.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.123.145.25]
11 65 ms 64 ms 66 ms mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.san2.attens.net [12.122.255
.206]
12 66 ms 64 ms 61 ms 63.241.1.254
13 61 ms 62 ms 62 ms vl10.sdkoll1sw-1.sonyonline.net [63.241.60.42]
14 62 ms 62 ms 64 ms sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]
Additonal Comments: SOE please fix this immediatly, I love PS but can't cope with the lag! It is not on my side!

[hackingsniper]

that is very ture my computers is blazing fast and I lag horribly b/c of server plus its been having alot of lag lately.

[DSSurge]

i ping 35 to the Emerald server (tracert) but in game my pings usually up in the 60-110 range.

PS has UT2003 netcode -_-

(those of you that have played UT2003 for a while will understand why i'm saying this)

[LiLKiLLeR]

Well it sure is good to know that SOE is working on the lag problem :)

laterz
~LiLKiLLeR

[Marsman]

/bug is always a good idea. It provides SOE with a specific time and account experiencing the lag.

However, it should be known that tracert is not a conclusive test by any means. It uses very short packets to return round trip times to each router in the path from your location to the destination. It does not reflect heavy load real world situations where congestion and hardware problems most often occur. A path can have severe problems, yet still look normal in a tracert. Thus a good looking tracert is not a guarenteed clean bill of health by any means. So you can not conclusively "rule out" your path as a cause of lag solely from a tracert with low ping times. I therefore question the value of this to SOE or us in the community for path quality analysis. While it might point out an occational hardware problem in the path for some users, on the whole it just doesn't prove anything conclusively.

I think we will have the most affect by continuing to /BUG during times we experience lag and the continue to post in the forums that lag is up from previously experienced levels. Be sure to report the type of lag you are seeing, connection pop-ups, low fps, no movement, or non-responsivness of doors, reloads, etc... and those on teamspeak can compare how many other players are experiencing or not experiencing lag at the same time.

The following was transcribed from the recorded AGN - Ask the Devs Interview on 1-15-04:
Dallas response to the lag question:
"Ah, we're doing what we can to look into that. It's really peculiar in that there weren't any changes to our client or server. We checked through all of the links in our inferstructure and our connections to the internet and nothing significant has changed. So, honestly the more information that people can give us, those who are experiencing this problem right now, tell us who your ISP is, tell us where you're connecting from, in fact - maybe I'll talk with Spork about setting up a specific thread on this, because it is obviously of concern. But as far as we can tell, up to this point, it's not something that's on our end. It could very well be and the more data we get from the community, the better we can try to track it down. But we have had issues like this in the past, not just with Planetside, but with but other SOE games and sometimes it actually has to do with - if you happened to be living in 'this' area of the country or in this area of the world, there are some network issues. We don't know where the problem is yet and we are concerned so give us your feedback, please."

[TeraHertz]

C:\Documents and Settings\TeraHertz>tracert werner.planetside.com -d

Tracing route to amspls-01-02.planetside.com [195.33.135.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 26 ms 30 ms 30 ms x1
2 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms x2
3 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 193.251.249.77
4 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 193.251.128.205
5 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 193.251.128.190
6 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 195.66.224.27
7 46 ms 30 ms 30 ms 165.87.216.81
8 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 165.87.212.74
9 43 ms 30 ms 30 ms 165.87.216.54
10 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 165.87.212.33
11 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 165.87.217.246
12 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 165.87.211.41
13 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 165.87.217.158
14 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 195.33.129.76
15 46 ms 46 ms 45 ms 195.33.135.34

Trace complete.


I have 70fps consistantly, with over 100 in the sanc, and I still lag. Sorry, but the server software, or netcode, is simply b0rked since they removed the christmas hats. I doubt very much if it is a hardware issue.

[edit]
Hmm, one thing I just noticed. The pings the same, but I've lost a hop since all the other times.

[Rayder]

World: Emerald
My Region: Michigan
My ISP: Comcast
Time and Day of TraceRT: 9:20pm EST - 1/17/04

Tracing route to ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 9 ms 8 ms 10 ms 10.104.64.1
2 7 ms 11 ms 9 ms 68.87.60.229
3 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms srp-0-0-ur01.pontiac.mi.mich.comcast.net [68.87.
60.129]
4 21 ms 16 ms 17 ms 12.118.239.41
5 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms tbr1-p012301.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.123.6.9]
6 49 ms 38 ms 35 ms tbr1-cl1.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.10.1]
7 36 ms 37 ms 36 ms tbr2-cl2.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.9.130]
8 36 ms 35 ms 36 ms tbr2-cl1.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.54]
9 35 ms 33 ms 35 ms gbr5-p40.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.11.186]
10 35 ms 34 ms 34 ms gar3-p360.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.9.65]
11 35 ms 35 ms 36 ms mdf1-gsr12-1-pos-7-0.wdc1.attens.net [12.122.255
.182]
12 35 ms 45 ms 37 ms mdf1-bi8k-1-eth-1-1.wdc1.attens.net [63.240.192.
246]
13 37 ms 38 ms 48 ms vl10.ashaens-1.sonyonline.net [63.240.201.58]
14 34 ms 34 ms 58 ms ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]

Trace complete.

I did this just now, but I usually get the big lag at around 12 pm or about 2 am EST.

[krayons]

World: Markov
My Region: SLC, Utah
My ISP: Earthlink
Time and Day of TraceRT: 8:29MST - 1/17/04



Tracing route to sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 37 ms 34 ms 37 ms X
2 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms X
3 34 ms 33 ms 35 ms ge-5-0-102.hsa1.Denver1.Level3.net [63.211.250.4
9]
4 34 ms 35 ms 36 ms so-4-3-0.mp1.Denver1.Level3.net [4.68.112.153]
5 76 ms 77 ms 78 ms so-0-0-0.mp2.SanDiego1.Level3.net [64.159.0.254]

6 77 ms 75 ms 75 ms so-8-0.hsa2.SanDiego1.Level3.net [4.68.112.138]

7 76 ms 77 ms 77 ms vl862.sdtermswitch-2.sonyonline.net [63.212.173.
146]
8 75 ms 76 ms 77 ms vl832.sdkollsw-2.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.90]
9 76 ms 76 ms 76 ms sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]

Trace complete.

[Ghryphen]

World: Markov
Region: Everett, WA
ISP: Comcast
Time: 7:35 pm Jan 17, 2004
Symptoms: I don't get lag often, but every once in a while lately it can take a couple seconds to reload or turn on implants.
Tracing route to sdkpls-01-14.planetside.com [199.108.14.46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.123.254
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 11 ms 28 ms 9 ms 12.244.20.161
4 12 ms 12 ms 15 ms 12.244.0.21
5 12 ms 12 ms 15 ms 12.119.199.21
6 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms gbr2-p20.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.123.44.150]
7 24 ms 14 ms 15 ms tbr1-p012601.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.12.161]
8 29 ms 27 ms 28 ms tbr2-cl1.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.12.113]
9 39 ms 43 ms 38 ms tbr1-cl3.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.10.26]
10 37 ms 37 ms 37 ms tbr2-p012501.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.9.146]
11 40 ms 38 ms 44 ms gbr2-p30.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.2.121]
12 39 ms 39 ms 38 ms gar1-p370.sd2ca.ip.att.net [12.123.145.25]
13 42 ms 42 ms 40 ms mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.san2.attens.net [12.122.255.206]
14 57 ms 40 ms 45 ms 63.241.1.254
15 41 ms 41 ms 40 ms vl10.sdkoll1sw-1.sonyonline.net [63.241.60.42]
16 39 ms 38 ms 47 ms sdkpls-01-14.planetside.com [199.108.14.46]

Trace complete.

[bruttal-ps]

World: Markov
Region: Louisville,ky
ISP: Bellsouth.net [dsl]
Time: 11:02 pm Jan 17, 2004
Symptoms:besides the most common problem of my diskcatch constently trying to catch up a lot here recently after spawning ill go to equipment term wait for 30secs after i hit g 40times befor the menu appares then i try to make for the door and it wont open for a good 20-30seconds

NOTE: Id like to say that i have gotten these types of problems back in closed beta befor the servers where split =/
Tracing route to sdkpls-01-14.planetside.com [199.108.14.46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Wizard.camelot.camelot [192.168.1.254]
2 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms adsl-80-121-1.sdf.bellsouth.net [65.80.121.1]
3 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms adsl-21-184-65.sdf.bellsouth.net [66.21.184.65]

4 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 205.152.133.248
5 41 ms 46 ms 41 ms 65.83.237.106
6 42 ms 40 ms 48 ms pxr00msy-2-0-0.bellsouth.net [65.83.236.34]
7 43 ms 43 ms 42 ms 500.so-2-0-0.GW5.NOL1.ALTER.NET [65.208.10.21]
8 43 ms 43 ms 42 ms 0.so-3-0-0.CL1.NOL1.ALTER.NET [152.63.102.98]
9 56 ms 56 ms 56 ms 0.so-0-0-0.TL1.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.193]
10 87 ms 85 ms 87 ms 0.so-6-0-0.TL1.LAX9.ALTER.NET [152.63.10.14]
11 90 ms 91 ms 92 ms 0.so-2-0-0.CL1.SDG2.ALTER.NET [152.63.29.105]
12 90 ms 91 ms 90 ms 509.ATM4-0.GW4.SDG2.ALTER.NET [152.63.114.233]
13 86 ms 87 ms 87 ms sonyonline-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.247.25
4]
14 86 ms 86 ms 85 ms gi2-2.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.146]

15 86 ms 87 ms 86 ms vl831.sdkollsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.82]
16 88 ms 87 ms 87 ms sdkpls-01-14.planetside.com [199.108.14.46]

Trace complete.

[CycloneWarrior]

Region - South Texas
ISP - Cableone.net Service level -- 1Mbps Down 200kbps Up
Server - Emerald
Time of traccert - 10:05 PM Central Time 17JAN04

C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXX>tracert emerald.planetside.com
Tracing route to ablpls-01-02.planetside.com [199.108.204.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 8 ms 11 ms 8 ms 10.116.104.1
2 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms 12.119.131.117
3 13 ms 13 ms 62 ms gbr1-p59.auttx.ip.att.net [12.123.211.42]
4 20 ms 21 ms 17 ms tbr2-p013901.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.2.109]
5 48 ms 45 ms 22 ms tbr1-p013601.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.9.161]
6 34 ms 32 ms 36 ms tbr2-cl1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.2.90]
7 55 ms 38 ms 41 ms gbr1-p20.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.34]
8 65 ms 32 ms 38 ms gar1-p360.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.1]
9 46 ms 48 ms 104 ms mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.wdc1.attens.net [12.122.255
.178]
10 58 ms 47 ms 80 ms mdf1-bi8k-1-eth-2-1.wdc1.attens.net [63.240.192.
238]
11 205 ms 406 ms 45 ms vl10.ashaens-1.sonyonline.net [63.240.201.58]
12 82 ms 46 ms 101 ms ablpls-01-02.planetside.com [199.108.204.34]

Trace complete.

[martyr]

region: FL
world: emerald
time: 0700gmt, jan 18 (packet loss messages displaying all the time now)

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
E:\Documents and Settings\martyr>tracert 199.108.204.48
Tracing route to ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms charon.mshome.net [192.168.0.1]
2 9 ms 30 ms 9 ms [earthlink/brighthouse/twc]
3 8 ms 7 ms 6 ms pos1-1.orldflorbh-rtr1.cfl.rr.com [24.95.226.70]
4 8 ms 10 ms 9 ms 24.95.224.97
5 37 ms 54 ms 52 ms srp2-0.orldflwrpk-rtr2.cfl.rr.com [24.95.224.73]
6 10 ms 10 ms 8 ms srp4-0.orldfldvsn-rtr4.cfl.rr.com [24.95.224.10]
7 27 ms 35 ms 20 ms pop1-tby-P0-2.atdn.net [66.185.136.173]
8 18 ms 45 ms 18 ms bb1-tby-P0-0.atdn.net [66.185.136.160]
9 36 ms 35 ms 36 ms bb2-atm-P7-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.245]
10 67 ms 65 ms 39 ms pop2-atm-P5-0.atdn.net [66.185.138.43]
11 38 ms 50 ms 36 ms so-1-0.hsa1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [66.185.138.34]
12 43 ms 165 ms 125 ms so-4-1-0.bbr1.Atlanta1.Level3.net [209.247.9.165]
13 66 ms 48 ms 54 ms so-0-1-0.bbr1.Washington1.Level3.net [64.159.0.229]
14 65 ms 54 ms 49 ms ge-7-1.ipcolo1.Washington1.Level3.net [64.159.18.67]
15 54 ms 53 ms 53 ms vl117.asheqnx-1.sonyonline.net [63.210.41.178]
16 75 ms 51 ms 52 ms vl46.ashaens-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.177]
17 64 ms 82 ms 52 ms ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]

Trace complete.

also, my mapped path:
http://www.brentroad.com/photos/00212155.jpg

[Unknown]

...I thought Emerald was on the east coast, what's it doing on the west coast in your trace?

[Ghryphen]

Because NeoTrace can only plot that by the address given by the ip's info which is owned by SOE so it comes back with a SOE street address. It isn't very accurate, just looks neat.

[h4fk]

World: WERNER
My Region: Germany / Stuttgart
My ISP: T-Online
Time and Day of TraceRT: 1:00pm GMT - 1/18/04

tracert 195.33.135.48

Routenverfolgung zu amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48] �ber maximal 30 Abschnitte:

1 19 ms 22 ms 21 ms 217.5.98.32
2 17 ms 16 ms 16 ms 217.237.152.242
3 33 ms 34 ms 36 ms LINX-gw12.LON.GB.NET.DTAG.DE [62.154.15.154]
4 36 ms 34 ms 34 ms linx.ibm.net [195.66.224.27]
5 34 ms 34 ms 33 ms gblond2101cr2--0-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.216.81]
6 36 ms 36 ms 37 ms gblond1101cr2--4-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.212.74]
7 36 ms 36 ms 37 ms gblond1102cr2--2-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.216.54]
8 46 ms 44 ms 46 ms nlrtrd1101cr2--0-1-2-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.212.33]
9 45 ms 45 ms 45 ms nlrtrd1102cr2--2-0-0-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.246]
10 47 ms 45 ms 45 ms nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-1-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.211.41]
11 45 ms 44 ms 46 ms nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.158]
12 45 ms 45 ms 45 ms vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net [195.33.129.76]
13 43 ms 44 ms 44 ms amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

[EVILoHOMER]

i use an: -amd64 -51
-3 gig ram
-radeon 9800 xt 256mb
-nforce3 mother board
-audigy2 plat 7.1

I get sumtimes as low as 10fps now and used to get 210fps and never went lower than 180! Now since the christmas patch i get 40fps-10fps and it blows! i dont notice any lag apart from my ping is around 40-60 instead of 20-40. That doesnt matter i dont notioce lag on planetside till my ping goes past 4000, but that was on 56k

[Turel]

World: Werner
My Region: Germany/Frankfurt Main
My ISP: T-Online
Time and Day of TraceRT: 14:20EST - 1/18/04


Routenverfolgung zu amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48] �ber maximal 30
Abschnitte:

1 116 ms 85 ms 57 ms 217.5.98.166
2 29 ms 29 ms 28 ms 217.237.157.38
3 45 ms 44 ms 44 ms LINX-gw12.LON.GB.NET.DTAG.DE [62.154.15.154]
4 43 ms 44 ms 44 ms linx.ibm.net [195.66.224.27]
5 46 ms 43 ms 44 ms gblond2101cr2--0-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.216.81]
6 46 ms 47 ms 47 ms gblond1101cr2--4-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.212.74]
7 45 ms 44 ms 44 ms gblond1102cr2--1-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.216.50]
8 51 ms 52 ms 52 ms nlrtrd1101cr2--0-1-2-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.212.33]
9 52 ms 52 ms 53 ms nlrtrd1102cr2-1-0-0-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.242]
10 52 ms 52 ms 52 ms nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-3-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.12.38]
11 53 ms 52 ms 52 ms nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.158]
12 231 ms 239 ms 170 ms vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net [195.33.129.76]
13 53 ms 52 ms 53 ms amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

[sPooT]

World: Werner
Region: The Netherlands
ISP: XS4ALL (2048/320 KBit ADSL)
Time and Date: 14:28 CET on sunday 18-01-2004

tracert output:
Tracing route to amspls-01-02.planetside.com [195.33.135.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 195.190.241.73
2 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 42.ge-1-1-1.xr2.d12.xs4all.net [194.109.5.141]
3 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms 0.so-3-3-0.xr1.tc2.xs4all.net [194.109.5.90]
4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms amix2nap.am.nl.ibm.net [195.69.144.191]
5 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms nlrtrd1102cr2--0-1-2-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.211.69]
6 20 ms 10 ms 20 ms nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-1-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.211.41]
7 10 ms 70 ms 10 ms nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.158]
8 21 ms 10 ms 10 ms vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net [195.33.129.76]

9 20 ms 10 ms 10 ms amspls-01-02.planetside.com [195.33.135.34]

Trace complete.

Experiencing no network lag at all, just horrible swapping because PS is such a mem monster :P (only got 512 ram)

[Ace]

World: Werner
My Region: Belgium
My ISP: Skynet
Time and Day of TraceRT: 1:49pm GMT - 1/18/04

traceroute to amspls-01-16.planetside.com (195.33.135.48), 32 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 ge.m20.access.science.belnet.net (193.190.198.3) 0.294 ms
2 oc48.m160.core.science.belnet.net (193.191.1.65) 0.295 ms
3 oc192.m160.ext.science.belnet.net (193.191.1.2) 0.276 ms
4 ibm.bnix.net (194.53.172.77) 0.591 ms
5 brus1br1-5-0-0-1.br.be.ip.att.net (152.158.42.253) 2.131 ms
6 bebrsl1101er1-0-3.br.be.ip.att.net (165.87.212.1) 2.070 ms
7 165.87.212.170 (165.87.212.170) 7.333 ms
8 gblond1102cr2--2-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net (165.87.216.54) 6.713 ms
9 nlrtrd1101cr2--0-1-1-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net (165.87.211.10) 15.165 ms
10 nlrtrd1102cr2--2-0-0-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net (165.87.217.246) 14.967 ms
11 nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-3-0.am.nl.ip.att.net (165.87.212.38) 16.974 ms
12 nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net (165.87.217.158) 10.336 ms
13 *
14 *
15 *
16 *
17 *
18 *
19 *
20 *
21 *
22 *
23 vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net (195.33.129.76) 10.311 ms !X


made just after a nice laggy game

[Hamma]

My emerald trace stops in wash - dunno whats up with martyr

[martyr]

it took it almost two minutes to make its way from DC back to palo. ::shrugs:: i figured maybe they actually had all the servers in CA and just had a monster pipe from emerald back to DC, and thus was the "east coast" server. that's what i'd do.

[Onizuka-GTO]

World: Werner
My Region: UK
My ISP: Blueyonder/Telewest
Time and Day of TraceRT: 8:22pm GMT - 18/1/04

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Onizuko-Chan>tracert 195.33.135.48

Tracing route to amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms server.mshome.net [192.168.0.1]
2 19 ms 35 ms 21 ms 10.102.0.1
3 16 ms 9 ms 10 ms gsr01-ny.blueyonder.co.uk [62.31.xxx.xxx]
4 13 ms 14 ms 11 ms 172.18.18.37
5 41 ms 33 ms 59 ms edi-gat-pos.telewest.net [194.117.136.9]
6 59 ms 52 ms 40 ms 194.117.136.142
7 32 ms 45 ms 53 ms 195.66.226.27
8 51 ms 39 ms 53 ms gblond1102cr2--0-0-0-0.lo.uk.ip.att.net [165.87.216.29]
9 80 ms 44 ms 46 ms nlrtrd1101cr2--0-1-2-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.212.33]
10 49 ms 40 ms 47 ms nlrtrd1102cr2--1-0-0-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.242]
11 50 ms 53 ms 105 ms nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-3-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.212.38]
12 52 ms 43 ms 46 ms nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.158]
13 44 ms 35 ms 39 ms vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net [195.33.129.76]
14 43 ms 101 ms 42 ms amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]

Trace complete.

PC: 512MB Ram, 2400+ Athlon Chip, 9600pro ATI Radeon

I sometimes get huge spikes when lots of ppl are on a cont, as much as 400ms and it will stay like that for as long as 2mins then it will speed it, then my ftps decides to drop! But i can only blame my measely 512mb =P

[Shadowblade1114]

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>tracert 199.108.204.48

Tracing route to ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 24 ms 22 ms 23 ms adsl-69-104-79-254.dsl.irvnca.pacbell.net [69.10
4.79.254]
2 24 ms 22 ms 22 ms dist1-vlan50.irvnca.pbi.net [67.114.48.66]
3 24 ms 22 ms 24 ms bb1-g8-3-0.irvnca.pbi.net [67.114.48.250]
4 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms bb2-p15-0.lsan03.pbi.net [66.123.41.154]
5 23 ms 23 ms 22 ms bb1-p12-0.lsan03.pbi.net [67.116.100.29]
6 24 ms 23 ms 23 ms bb1-p12-0.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net [67.116.100.38]
7 24 ms 22 ms 23 ms exch1.laeqnx-1.sonyonline.net [206.223.123.90]
8 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms vl890.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.128.66]
9 82 ms 104 ms 89 ms vl851.asheqnx-2.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.166]
10 84 ms 86 ms 86 ms vl47.ashaens-2.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.181]
11 85 ms 82 ms 82 ms ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]

Trace complete.

[insaneferret]

Tracing route to sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 11 ms 12 ms 10.50.96.1
2 10 ms 12 ms 11 ms pos5-1.stfrtxpik-rtr1.houston.rr.com [24.28.97.162]
3 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms srp1-0.hstntxtid-rtr1.houston.rr.com [24.28.96.129]
4 23 ms 15 ms 12 ms srp8-0.hstntxtid-rtr3.texas.rr.com [24.93.33.147]
5 25 ms 13 ms 14 ms son0-0-3.hstqtxl3-rtr1.texas.rr.com [24.93.33.161]
6 18 ms 15 ms 13 ms pop1-hou-P0-3.atdn.net [66.185.133.149]
7 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms bb1-hou-P0-0.atdn.net [66.185.146.96]
8 18 ms 19 ms 20 ms bb1-dls-P6-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.132]
9 18 ms 18 ms 20 ms pop2-dls-P0-0.atdn.net [66.185.133.97]
10 19 ms 20 ms 19 ms 0.so-1-0-0.BR6.DFW9.ALTER.NET [204.255.173.37]
11 * * 21 ms 0.so-1-0-0.XL1.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.97.57]
12 26 ms 22 ms 21 ms 0.so-0-0-0.TL1.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.193]
13 64 ms 64 ms 64 ms 0.so-5-0-0.TL1.LAX2.ALTER.NET [152.63.2.153]
14 68 ms 68 ms 70 ms 0.so-3-0-0.CL1.SDG2.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.9]
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * 68 ms 70 ms sonyonline-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.247.254]
17 70 ms 70 ms 81 ms gi2-2.sdtermsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.146]
18 70 ms 70 ms 70 ms vl831.sdkollsw-1.sonyonline.net [64.37.144.82]
19 72 ms 76 ms 68 ms sdkpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.14.48]

Trace complete.

i dunno, seems some routers are sscrewing up in the Dallas/fort worth area

[Cauldron Borne]

I get serious monster lag all the friggin time on emerald. The downstream ping (from server to me) is usually in the thousands. the upstream NEVER goes beyond 120, and is usually at around 20-45. I have never had more than 20fps outside of sanc. EVER! I always just thought it was normal, until after the x-mas stuff was takin away. Now I am lucky to get 20fps IN the sanc, and 10fps anywhere else. I think there was sumtin that that patch, i think it was Jan 7, took away that SOE didn't realise was needed.

[Phaden]

ok, im computer literate, and everytime i try traceroute it stops at about hop 4 and then times out. It goes to hop30 and then quits as its the max hop count. It leaves my IP and gets somewhere and then stops. Any ideas?

[infinite loop]

No offense guys, but this is a waste of time. Tracing to the server at some random time does not show any realistic use of the network and traffic on it. Like Marsman said, you would need to be running a trace program constantly to try and detect moments of congestion or packetloss. The real solution is for SOE to be running these traces non-stop with logging, and hitting multiple nodes on the internet from their subnet. The fact that they seem unwilling to do so is infuriating, and I feel no obligation to try and help them solve their network issues. Based on the overwhelming amount of feedback and reports on this issue lately, SOE should have taken it upon themselves to troubleshoot this on their end, and not stop until the problem is found. I personally find the way they are handling this to be very unprofessional.

[Marsman]

ok, im computer literate, and everytime i try traceroute it stops at about hop 4 and then times out. It goes to hop30 and then quits as its the max hop count. It leaves my IP and gets somewhere and then stops. Any ideas?This is one of the problems with tracert - with the recent attacks on routers many carriers have simply turned off responses to echo packets. Thus you can trace within your own ISP's network, but when it is passed to another carrier (one with their router echos disabled) it just dies. (I have the same problem Phaden) So it's not something that everyone can even do.

[Hamma]

No offense guys, but this is a waste of time. Tracing to the server at some random time does not show any realistic use of the network and traffic on it. Like Marsman said, you would need to be running a trace program constantly to try and detect moments of congestion or packetloss. The real solution is for SOE to be running these traces non-stop with logging, and hitting multiple nodes on the internet from their subnet. The fact that they seem unwilling to do so is infuriating, and I feel no obligation to try and help them solve their network issues. Based on the overwhelming amount of feedback and reports on this issue lately, SOE should have taken it upon themselves to troubleshoot this on their end, and not stop until the problem is found. I personally find the way they are handling this to be very unprofessional.
I know, which is exactly why I encourage people to use /bug and /appeal before this on the news page, and in this thread :)

[Marsman]

No offense guys, but this is a waste of time. Tracing to the server at some random time does not show any realistic use of the network and traffic on it. Like Marsman said, you would need to be running a trace program constantly to try and detect moments of congestion or packetloss.Yup I agree, this really isn't productive. The real solution is for SOE to be running these traces non-stop with logging, and hitting multiple nodes on the internet from their subnet. The fact that they seem unwilling to do so is infuriating, and I feel no obligation to try and help them solve their network issues. Based on the overwhelming amount of feedback and reports on this issue lately, SOE should have taken it upon themselves to troubleshoot this on their end, and not stop until the problem is found. I personally find the way they are handling this to be very unprofessional.Well just a sec here! The internet isn't Sony's problem - thus running tracert's from their end is just as pointless.

Look folks: Lets apply a little common sense here. When SOE said "SOMETIMES" it can be related to an area of the country or part of the world - it means just that "SOMETIMES". If there is a network event out there that disrupts a path to the PS server you want to know that first. Sony does not want to waste time tearing apart their own equipment and code looking for a problem which isn't at their end.
Imagine you are a SOE network tech - 500 people say they are getting lag at a certain time - you tear into the switchs, the wiring, the connections, and pour over the networking code for 6 hours - then suddenly you find out that all 500 people have ACME ISP and they discoved they (ACME ISP) had a defective router which affected routes to Southern Calf. That poor SOE tech just beat his head against the wall for nothing. That's all SOE is trying to do here - eliminate problems which lay outside their control so they don't chase wild geese - not pass blame for all lag on the internet.
Now if we all report our ISP's and show SOE that this lag is NOT ISP related, does not have a correlation to any outside internet event or area specific event, then we can make sure the SOE chases the real problem. They are just making sure they eliminate causes outside their equipment first.
So continue the reports, give them your ISP and when you are connecting from - give them plenty to work with and show them the lag is not a internet problem, and truely is a server problem.

[infinite loop]

Very good points Marsman, I suppose I was a bit quick to put all of it on SOE's lap. I'm just frustrated that their attitude seems to be that the problem is on our end, and they more or less deny the possibility of it being their problem. If they want us to report our ISP's and such, that's easy, and if it helps, we should do it.

Based on my play experience with the lag, I have come to my guess that the problem lies on their end. First of all, it did not start happening after the server merge. The first time I noticed it was on New Years' weekend. Secondly, it didn't start happening after any patch was released. It was well before the patch to remove the holiday stuff. And lastly, my outfit uses TS, and I've made an effort to ask across TS everytime I lag, if anyone else did. Every single time I have, every other person on TS responded with a yes. And my outfit is comprised of players from all across North America and different ISPs. I'm not debating you Marsman, I guess if it takes more badgering from us to get their network techs to look harder on their end, it's worth it. Deep down though, I know we're wasting our time.

[Phaden]

Thanks Marsman. But i can understand SOE trying to try the cheap solutions first. Marsman's example is so true, as any IT guy can account for. Not always the same example, but the same idea, try the easy stuff first before you commit resources.

[Marsman]

Well I agree also that there seems to be a problem and I concur with you that it's not the merge. One: as you you pointed out, it really didn't start after the merge but around the time of the holiday patches, and two - the merge doesn't explain werner which people report is experiencing the same symptoms of lag since the holiday patches as well - since they had no merge it really can't be atributed to that.
The TS correlation is exactly the type of thing that SOE needs to make sure their efforts are concentrated on the problem - keep the reports comming - and I am certain the dev team will take notice of it. They don't want an issue like this to ruin the game any more than we do - it's counterproductive to the entire dev team's efforts to have severe lag turn people away from the game. Hopefully Spork will give us an update soon - at least that they are continuing to investigate the problem.
One thread I did note pointed out that lag is usually minimal when you first start the game and progressively gets worse - plus when in an area where you are experiencing extreme lag, restarting the computer and going right back to the same area greatly lessens or completly remove the lag at that time. I have also noticed this trend where the longer you are on - the worse the lag seems to affect you. This may have to due with filling up the windows virtual memory swap file (which clears on restart). Perhaps memory management has a problem rather than the network code. In any event I think we all agree something is different from around the time of the holiday patches and despite there were no network code changes - something is affecting lag. :confused:

[ZeroShadow]

Ok, i have a fps of 100 in sanc and 20-60 in a heavy battle. And a ping of 40-60
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\matt carr>tracrt 199.108.204.48
'tracrt' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\matt carr>tracrt199.108.204.48
'tracrt199.108.204.48' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings/Zeroshadow>tracert 199.108.204.48

Tracing route to ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 8 ms 8 ms 24 ms 10.177.4.1
3 8 ms 9 ms 8 ms 12.244.112.65
4 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms 12.244.69.25
5 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms 12.244.69.17
6 10 ms 9 ms 12 ms 12.244.73.18
7 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms gbr6-p80.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.123.17.30]
8 12 ms 12 ms 13 ms tbr1-p012701.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.12.69]
9 28 ms 24 ms 26 ms tbr2-cl1.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.2.90]
10 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms gbr2-p20.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.12.38]
11 26 ms 27 ms 28 ms gar1-p370.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.5]
12 37 ms 38 ms 41 ms mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.wdc1.attens.net [12.122.255
.178]
13 40 ms 39 ms 41 ms mdf1-bi8k-1-eth-2-1.wdc1.attens.net [63.240.192.
238]
14 52 ms 41 ms 40 ms vl10.ashaens-1.sonyonline.net [63.240.201.58]
15 39 ms 39 ms 38 ms ablpls-01-16.planetside.com [199.108.204.48]

Trace complete.

[Marsman]

pings and latency don't seem to be the issue here. We all know we can turn on the latency hud in PS (I believe it's called the performance hud - Shift + Peroid ) which shows ping, packet loss, and fps. But there is another setting that I don't think there is a key binding for. You can enable this by typing /stats

You will notice an additional hud under the performace hud which shows Upload and Download bytes per second. These also toggle green, yellow, and red like the permance hud figures do for good, warning, and bad conditions.

What I find is that when lag is low, my Download b/s is green (<1000) but when lag is present, it seems to cycle between green and red often jumping to 4000 to 6000 or more - if the lag is really bad - it can stay red almost constantly at 4000+ and only occationally dipping into the green area.

It would seem the server is getting backlogged trying to send me information - often for many seconds (as people have noticed from reloads, doors opening, etc..). Has anyone else enabled this hud and noticed the download rate? Btw, my upload almost never turns red or yellow - and seems to stay relativly contant. I don't know if this has any direct relation to the lag problem or not but I'd be curious to see what other peoples stats show on this hud? One other thing, if I completely remove myself from the area that is getting bad lag - i.e. respawn at another base, jump and a gal and move away, my stats will return to normal levels and the lag goes away. Same if I restart the machine. Also lag seems to affect machines differently - some experience fps crashes, others get gameplay delays - some get both and even at times some people have neither althought lately that is far less common. For the most part, laggy for some almosts always means at least some lag to everyone - some just worse than others. Thoughts?

[Edited as per following post- lol - thanks]

[Unknown]

...Or just type /stats to get the stat hud ;). I leave my stat hud on all the time, and I notice the download stream increases as the amount of people around increase, it's not directly related to the lag for me (sure, when the number gets bigger I lag, but that's a given, when the number is relatively small I still lag in some instances.)

[Marsman]

Thank you :rolleyes: I just learned that was the command for that. :doh:

[Unknown]

You're very welcome. It'd save people alot of time over the method you posted hehe.

[Marsman]

You're very welcome. It'd save people alot of time over the method you posted hehe.Quite! :lol: :love:

[Tssha]

I think this problem may be a population problem. Think about it, this all started on the New Year weekend. This is the time when most people return from visiting relatives and have access to their gaming machines again. It's also the time when they start to use some of their holiday gifts, and some people got the gift of Planetside, and a play card to start them off. I'm betting a lot of people got Planetside for christmas, and this would explain how people in Werner could have a problem with population when they didn't have a server merge.

Even though the downstream isn't big to us, they gotta use a pretty big pipe to send it to so many people. It might be a bandwidth problem (though they might have that covered, I don't know). Another possibility is that there may be a queue, as someone else proposed. That data may be held up because of the sheer volume of data being sent. When you move away from an area, the server removes you from that queue, and your data isn't held up by it anymore. You no longer have to be sent the data on everyone at that base or on that continent.

Also, virtual memory may contribute to this in some way, though I have no idea how. It may be one element among many. The more we find out about this, the sooner SOE can fix this. Keep those ideas coming, and maybe we'll come up with the answer as a whole.

If everyone keeps posting ideas, I'll try to summarize them, and maybe I'll see a connection where you don't. With enough time, we may lick this problem yet. After all, with all of us working together to solve this problem, our collective wits may come up with a solution to this perplexing problem. 1000 eyes searching are better than 2.

[infinite loop]

Marsman - after reading your idea about downstream, I decided to check it out. I always have the stat window open, and I've noticed I frequently get into the red during big fights. But I never looked at it when these lag spikes were happening. Last night, on at least 3 of the lag spikes, my downstream shot up to over 10,000B/s (10K), and at one point was hovering around 16K for a few seconds. You may be on to something with the idea that the server is either overloaded, or has some other problem that causes it to freeze, and then catch up by sending a bunch of data at once. Could be one thing is causing the other actually. All I know is, every time I get the "lag", my downstream gets really high.

But when you think about it, the sheer amount of downstream shouldn't be lagging our client machines, especially those with broadband. My cable connection gets me ~200Kb/s down, so 10-16Kb/s shouldn't make my machine even blink. Very strange.

[ens.uk]

World: Werner
My Region: South Britain
My ISP: Blueyonder
Time and Day of TraceRT: 21.26 GMT- 21/01/04
Tracrt:


Tracing route to amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 7 ms 10 ms 12 ms 10.86.0.1
2 13 ms 8 ms 8 ms gsr01-cr.blueyonder.co.uk [62.30.112.33]
3 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms tele1-cro-pos.telewest.net [194.117.136.34]
4 11 ms 8 ms 12 ms eu-gw1.telewest.net [194.117.136.186]
5 17 ms 18 ms 33 ms amix2nap.am.nl.ibm.net [195.69.144.191]
6 20 ms 26 ms 20 ms nlrtrd1102cr2--0-1-2-0.rd.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.
211.69]
7 19 ms 26 ms 24 ms nlamtr1102cr2--0-1-3-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.
212.38]
8 21 ms 23 ms 24 ms nlamtr1101er1-15-0.am.nl.ip.att.net [165.87.217.
158]
9 27 ms 20 ms 20 ms vl50.amsixmsfc-1.sonyonline.net [195.33.129.76]

10 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms amspls-01-16.planetside.com [195.33.135.48]

Trace complete.

Additional Comments : Can some give me feedback on this route. Is it slow or anything like that ?

[Marsman]

tracert is Trace Route - it sends 3 pings (a ping measures rtt or round trip time) to each router (a device which controls or routes internet traffic) in the path starting from your location and proceeding a step at a time towards the final destination.
3 pings are used to get an average and to show consistency. Seeing small increments in time along each step is normal and the 3 pings should be close in value. Large changes in value are indications of problems or severe congestion. If a single router responds with 17ms 465ms 40ms - I'd believe that router is having intermittent problems. If the progression of average values jumps between steps (7,10,13,15,458,464,472 for example) then the 5th router in this example is having problems adding aprox 440ms to the latency. Most posts so far have show fairly consistent router pings and normal progressive values through the steps indication no problems along the path.

[Biff]

Hrmm.. when I do shift+. or /stats I do not see the upstream, downstream bars as you guys describe. Is there something else I need to do?

I do get the ping and fps box though...

[Marsman]

/stats is the upstream downstream hud - not sure why you aren't seeing it if you typed /stats in the chat window. Should appear right under the fps hud.