Online gaming? Not a chance!

deadfolk

deadfolk

deadfolk

Associate
Joined
28 Jan 2005
Posts
237
Location
Ireland
Hi All,

I've noticed recently that my internet connection has gone all to hell for gaming. Any online games, I'm warping and rubberbanding, enemies are not responding when I shoot them, etc.

I've never really had the problem before, and at first I assumed it was just Battlefield 4, as that is notorious for these kinds of problems. Today, though, I fired up CS:GO and, lo and behold, same issue. Totally unplayable. I've even picked servers with ~50 ping, but it makes no difference.

My setup:

ISP: Eircom (I'm in Ireland, and this is pretty much my only option)
Connection: 8Mb ADSL2+, PC wired in to modem/router at 100Mb.

All other network clients go via separate APs, which I have unplugged as part of the troubleshooting process.

It might be an ISP issue, but I'm not sure what I can say to them: 'gaming is flaky'! I've tested via speedtest.net and pingtest.net and it all looks fine. Browsing seems fine. It's really just gaming that's a problem.

Anyone have any ideas how to troubleshoot this?

Cheers,

DF
 
I have had this problem since the first day I ever tried online gaming.

It seems to me that in every single online game you play the top 25% have lag advantage, the bottom 25% have lag disadvantage and the middle 50% have 50/50 lag advantage.

I imagine that the common causes are geo-location, PC hardware, Network Hardware, wireless vs wired, distance to exchange and then any number of possible conflicts associated with any of those things (multiplied by the number of players in the game).

Personally I find it more enjoyable just playing SP games now.
 
Hi,

Thanks for replying. Shot here:

OgMuLz2.png
 
jay20aiii said:
I have had this problem since the first day I ever tried online gaming.

It seems to me that in every single online game you play the top 25% have lag advantage, the bottom 25% have lag disadvantage and the middle 50% have 50/50 lag advantage.

I imagine that the common causes are geo-location, PC hardware, Network Hardware, wireless vs wired, distance to exchange and then any number of possible conflicts associated with any of those things (multiplied by the number of players in the game).

Personally I find it more enjoyable just playing SP games now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the thing is, it was fine up until a few weeks ago. I first noticed it during the BF Hardline beta. I don't usually play much multiplayer, but I've finally started to branch out.

If I don't get this sorted, I'm probably going to have to cancel my Destiny Preorder, which I really don't want to have to do.
 
Looks like interleaving is on which doesn't help and some suggestion of possible congestion at your ISPs end.
 
Yes they packet loss % is killing you.

To rule out your end, do you have another router/modem you can try? Otherwise you can then blame your ISP's network, probably congested.
 
Or your line is noisy or damaged? The loss starts at the first hop.

I'm not sure if Eircom offer a quiet line test or how that all works but listen to your phone line, if there is hiss or crackling then this will need fixing and might well help.

However, also do consider swapping out your router for a known good one. Even, if you can, try running that tool from another computer in the house, this will rule out problems with your computer and the network cable to it.
 
Thanks for the input guys!

I do have a couple of old modems I can try. I'll give that a shot.

Subsequent runs of WinMTR have shown some really nasty (50-80%) packet loss futher downstream, so I think I'll also get in touch with Eircom for a laugh.
 
YarwoodUK said:
Is it 50-80% at the lost hop/final destination?
Click to expand...

Nope. It's the last entry that ends in eircom.net, after that it's just IPs. I reckon that's Eircom's last hop before it's handed off elsewhere. I'm going to log a call.

The thing that baffles me is surely this must be happening for all Eircom customers, no?
 
I love Eircom.

Sorry, did I say love? I meant the other thing.

I posted on their message boards to see if anyone else was seeing the same issues. One of their guys responded with this:

I've conducted tests on your line & broadband service where I have found no internal or external issues. The modem seems fine, the line has no issues and your connection at socket point seems good too.

While I can understand that packet loss can be frustrating there is no guarantee or standard surrounding this - Once a consistant speed is offered the service is operable and as a result there is little we can do to support packet loss issues - However I have been advised by technical support to ask you to call them where they will assist as much as they can.
Click to expand...

He then goes on to repost the section from their FAQ about running antivirus, unplugging things, etc.
Yeah. I've got a virus and it's affecting your internet backbone.

In the meantime, it took me four attempts to even launch Steam last night because it wouldn't connect. I had 98% packet loss on one of the hops.

I'm thinking of switching to Sky if Eircom support don't sort this out. My only options here are Sky and Vodafone. Vodafone have a terrible rep for broadband here, so they're out of the question.

I know that like in the UK, other ADSL providers use the existing phone lines - but what about after that? Do they just take over from the exchanges or what? I guess what I'm getting at is: will changing ISP to another ADSL service help?
 
Quartz said:
You might want to make sure you haven't got a DNS hijacker installed.
Click to expand...

Not pretending to know about such things, but if DNS was being messed with, wouldn't that stop my requests from going where intended completely?

I'll try a different computer tonight, just to be sure.
 
I had issues like this with Eircom a few years back where all of a sudden we got a lot of disconnects and lag spikes during gaming.

If you decide to ring them up do not mention online gaming at all (they don't give a crap about that), tell them your web pages are taking a long time to load, act dumb, don't give them any troubleshooting you have done either as they are just using a script and it will confuse them. Eventually one will offer to send an engineer but if they find out it's a problem with your equipment then you will be charged for the call out.

I was happy with this as I knew it was nothing to do with my stuff. The engineer turned up, I wasn't even in to let him in to inspect the inside but he must have done something on their side as the packet loss and bad pings got fixed.

hope that helps :)
 
Try some of tye following, shouldn't take less that half an hour.

Locate master socket (main socket in the property)
Try form there
Still issues?
Change microfilter
Still issues?
Any other sockets in the home, ie sky or telephones connected? Disconnect them all and test again
Still issues?
On your master socket, take the bottom half off, inside is the test socket, plug filter into that and test again.

Still issues? Get your isp on the phone/forums
 
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