BT Broadband and Gaming, am I reding this right

Bald-Eagle22 · 4 Apr 2010 at 11:49

Chaps I have alwyas been very very weary of BT as a gaming ISP and after they delivered there new Homehub 2.0 nothing has changed.

Talking to a few of my clan buddies they are telling me to get rid of BT as all my connections issues are with the Path that BT follows to the exchange and to whoever I connect to .

I decided to connect to a major gaming ISP and my friends Sky ISP .
Am I reading that this is appauling ?

Sky

Multiplay

wesley · 4 Apr 2010 at 11:59

what is the problem exactly? the pings looks fine to me

Bald-Eagle22 · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:05

wesley said:
what is the problem exactly? the pings looks fine to me

Constant disconnection from games , and yes all my Ports are open on the router by disabling DMZ

wesley · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:08

disconnection from games or internet? not being funny but please be specific

Bald-Eagle22 · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:19

wesley said:
disconnection from games or internet? not being funny but please be specific

No problem .

Dissconetions from Games not the internet .

BFBC2 , Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 . It's now getting beyond a joke.

wij · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:27

Doubt very much it's anything to do with BT mate, the routs are perhaps a bit longer than other providers but they all seem to be working just fine.

I'd point more of a finger at something locally, starting with the HomeHub.

Having said that, here for comparison is multiplay from my ISP, first two hops are my internal network and local router.

Code:

C:\Users\William Jones>tracert multiplay.co.uk

Tracing route to multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  fw0.van-neste.co.uk [10.10.0.1]
  2    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  rt0.van-neste.co.uk [81.187.151.73]
  3    13 ms    13 ms    14 ms  a.gormless.thn.aaisp.net.uk [90.155.53.11]
  4    14 ms    13 ms    13 ms  a.armless.thn.aaisp.net.uk [90.155.53.6]
  5    14 ms    14 ms    14 ms  linx1.multiplay.co.uk [195.66.224.224]
  6    14 ms    14 ms    14 ms  www.multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]

Trace complete.

Code:

C:\Users\William Jones>tracert dustworld.net

Tracing route to dustworld.net [193.238.84.199]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  fw0.van-neste.co.uk [10.10.0.1]
  2    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  rt0.van-neste.co.uk [81.187.151.73]
  3    13 ms    13 ms    13 ms  a.gormless.thn.aaisp.net.uk [90.155.53.11]
  4    13 ms    13 ms    14 ms  a.armless.thn.aaisp.net.uk [90.155.53.6]
  5    14 ms    14 ms    14 ms  ge-3-0-2-0.raphael.as34270.net [85.91.232.29]
  6    14 ms    14 ms    14 ms  ge-0-1-0-0.picasso.as34270.net [85.91.232.1]
  7    15 ms    15 ms    14 ms  ae0-1234.rt2.the.uk.goscomb.net [195.66.224.226]
  8    15 ms    18 ms    16 ms  ge-0-0-479.rt0.iph.uk.goscomb.net [77.75.109.98]
  9    15 ms    14 ms    14 ms  dustworld.net [193.238.84.199]

Trace complete.

wesley · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:34

PHP:

C:\Documents and Settings\Wesley>tracert multiplay.co.uk

Tracing route to multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    11 ms    11 ms     7 ms  cpc2-know12-2-0-gw.know.cable.virginmedia.com [9
2.239.248.1]
  3    10 ms    10 ms    11 ms  osr02know-ge38.network.virginmedia.net [81.97.11
4.193]
  4     8 ms    16 ms     7 ms  manc-bb-1b-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.18
2.178.149]
  5    22 ms     7 ms     8 ms  manc-bb-1a-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253
.187.177]
  6    27 ms    17 ms    16 ms  glfd-bb-1b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.175.146]
  7    18 ms    15 ms    16 ms  redb-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
185.78]
  8    18 ms    21 ms    17 ms  linx1.multiplay.co.uk [195.66.224.224]
  9    17 ms    24 ms    16 ms  www.multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]

try different router

wij · 4 Apr 2010 at 12:45

Oh and are you connected via wireless or with a cable?

Changing the router would be something I'd try, it won't make bugger all difference to your ISP's routing but it may help if the HomeHub is the cause of your disconnects - maybe see if you can borrow one from somebody?

Bald-Eagle22 · 4 Apr 2010 at 13:46

wij said:
Oh and are you connected via wireless or with a cable?

Changing the router would be something I'd try, it won't make bugger all difference to your ISP's routing but it may help if the HomeHub is the cause of your disconnects - maybe see if you can borrow one from somebody?

Through a cable

Bald-Eagle22 · 4 Apr 2010 at 14:13

My mate just sent me this wich was a comparison between my BT internet and his Sky internet.

http://gameservers.multiplay.co.uk/game-servers/bad-company-2/

Load up a DOS Prompt (AKA cmd.exe)

Pinging Hops to MultiPlay Gaming servers.

to do this type in DOS

tracert 85.236.96.2

this means i have 5 Hops to the game server.
this means:

NO DISCONNECTIONS
NO PACKET LOSS

BT Inernet Trace to the game server .. . . . .
(remember the less hops the better)
the more servers you go through the more packet loss (Major Lag) you will encounter

a lot OF PACKET LOSS = Jumpy game - random disconections to servers & EA server

17 HOPS WTF!

Bane · 4 Apr 2010 at 15:06

Heres some more tracert's to see how they compare to BT.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Me>tracert [COLOR="Lime"]www.sky.com[/COLOR]

Tracing route to a1065.b.akamai.net [213.155.157.40]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    19 ms    20 ms    19 ms  213.130.147.50
  3    20 ms    20 ms    19 ms  bdr6.lon-th1.as8401.net [195.82.97.239]
  4    26 ms    19 ms    19 ms  if-13-6.icore1.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.48
.165]
  5    20 ms    38 ms    20 ms  ldn-b5-link.telia.net [213.248.74.1]
  6    20 ms    19 ms    20 ms  ldn-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.197]
  7    21 ms    20 ms    20 ms  ldn-b3-link.telia.net [80.91.249.170]
  8    19 ms    19 ms    20 ms  213.155.157.40

Trace complete.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Me>tracert [COLOR="Lime"]www.multiplay.co.uk[/COLOR]

Tracing route to www.multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    20 ms    19 ms    20 ms  213.130.147.50
  3    20 ms    19 ms    20 ms  195-82-97-238.rdns.as8401.net [195.82.97.238]
  4    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms  lonap1.enta.net [193.203.5.134]
  5    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms  te5-2.gs1.core.enta.net [87.127.236.42]
  6    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms  te1-1.interxion.core.enta.net [87.127.236.86]
  7    19 ms    20 ms    19 ms  gi4-3.enta-transit.as35028.net [84.45.252.122]
  8    19 ms    19 ms    19 ms  www.multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.68]

Trace complete.

KIA · 4 Apr 2010 at 15:29

Try a different router before you switch ISP.

wij · 4 Apr 2010 at 16:31

Bald-Eagle22 said:
My mate just sent me this wich was a comparison between my BT internet and his Sky internet.
a lot OF PACKET LOSS = Jumpy game - random disconections to servers & EA server

17 HOPS WTF!

If that is your friend telling you such things they are stupid and wrong.

1) There is no obvious packet loss occurring in ANY of your traces. They are all low ping times and all hosts respond to them, though again just because something doesn't answer pings does not mean packet loss.

2) Just because you go through 17 hops will not make your game choppy or laggy... I can play on servers in parts of Europe which are circa 20 hops from me with a 50-100ms ping and it is perfectly fine.

3) More hops does not mean packet loss, yes there is more of an opportunity for it to happen, more nodes to pass though and all that.

Yes BT are not the best ISP in the world, but they are far from the worst out there, if anything I'd say your BT line actually performs better than your friends Sky connection in terms of latency, though judging from his times they are probably on an interleaved line.

Cycrow · 5 Apr 2010 at 15:53

the number of hops aint all that bad tbh, and the latency between them isn't that terrible either, i've seen ppl game perferectly well on much worse than that.

the one problem from there however, is the large latency between your pc and router, 100ms just to get to the homehub, theres clearly something not right there

wij · 5 Apr 2010 at 16:04

Cycrow said:
the number of hops aint all that bad tbh, and the latency between them isn't that terrible either, i've seen ppl game perferectly well on much worse than that.

the one problem from there however, is the large latency between your pc and router, 100ms just to get to the homehub, theres clearly something not right there

Ignore it, some routers will just give very low priority to answering pings.

Caged · 5 Apr 2010 at 16:07

Is the Home Hub trying to do anything 'clever' like intrusion detection? Try disabling that.

Mattus · 5 Apr 2010 at 18:13

Bald-Eagle22 said:
this means i have 5 Hops to the game server.
this means:

NO DISCONNECTIONS
NO PACKET LOSS

Rubbish. The number of 'hops' has nothing to do with whether you're getting packet loss or being disconnected. If every extra step led to extra packet loss, then the internet would barely work! If anything, your stats are better than your mate's - your ping is lower, which does actually make a difference.

BT isn't the best ISP, but there's no evidence there that BT is performing badly. I'd be looking at your router before changing your ISP. When I had the HomeHub, it was pretty poor for anything besides basic surfing. I dunno if things have changed very much.

Randomface74 · 5 Apr 2010 at 18:22

The SPI Firewall on your router is detecting a UDP Flood and disconnecting you from Steam, and that in turn kicks you off the server with the message 'no steam logon'. You need to log into your router control panel and change the UDP Flood threshold to about 130-150. This of course varies per router, so I can't give specific instructions.

Ste · 5 Apr 2010 at 22:43

There is definately nothing wrong with those tracert's - nothing wrong with 15-20 hops to a game server either, if all is working well (which it is).

PL shows up on tracert as '*', i.e. on your examples there is zero loss.

Try 'ping www.multiplay.co.uk -n 200' and report the (summary) result.

Bald-Eagle22 · 6 Apr 2010 at 10:19

And what you asked for was the ping ;

What is this telling me ?