Very high gaming latency, total freezes and disconnects

[#1]

Hi,

Our Fibre broadband was activated on the 14th and no noticeable problems arose until the 16th when I began experiencing incredibly high lag spikes in games to the point where games remained unresponsive to all inputs for around five minutes, before eventually being disconnected. I am also frequently stuck on loading screens to the point where I am forced to restart.

This has not been constant but has reoccurred frequently over the past couple of days to the point that any gaming is virtually impossible.  Other internet usage appears fine and speed tests come back okay.   I am on a wired connection, and there are no background downloads,etc running when these spikes occur.

Please let me know what further information will be required to investigate this fully and I will run the appropriate tests.  Obviously I would like this resolved as quickly as possible as this is my primary use for the broadband and we have only just switched to Plusnet so it is disappointing to be encountering issues so early on.

Thanks,

Vca

[#2]

Hi there.

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing latency issues.

Line tests aren't finding any problems and your connection coming into the router isn't dropping.

Can you run a traceroute for us to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com?

[#3]

Hi there,

Traceroute as requested - at the moment as I've taken this I don't appear to be experiencing any latency.  I will run another to this address as soon as a spike crops up.

Tracing route to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
5 19 ms 20 ms 19 ms 195.99.125.140
6 20 ms 20 ms 19 ms peer8-et-3-1-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.162]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 30 ms 29 ms 25 ms po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
9 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

Here is a second Traceroute to one of the Blizzard EU IP's taken last night during a period of in-game freezing and disconnects:

Tracing route to 185.60.112.157 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
5 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms 195.99.125.144
6 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms peer2-et0-1-4.slough.ukcore.bt.net [62.172.103.208]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 22 ms 21 ms 21 ms ae1-br01-eqld5.blizzardonline.net [137.221.79.33]
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 27 ms 27 ms 28 ms et-0-0-67-pe02-eqam1.blizzardonline.net [137.221.78.73]

Trace complete.

Thanks,

Vca

[#4]

Hi Vca.

Those traceroutes/latency look OK to me.

Could you try running this when the problem occurs next?

Cheers

Anoush

[#5]

Hi Anoush,

Thanks for the quick response.  Yes, it is a bit frustrating that I don't seem to be capturing the issue here.

I'm at work at the moment so will run the BQM when I get home; however I have a Hub One, which I thought didn't support this tool?  I do have the old Netgear router I previously used which I could switch to if required.

Thanks,

Vca

[#6]

No problems Vca.

I've just discussed this with our products team and yeah unfortunately the Hub One doesn't work well with the BQM tool.

If you could switch to your Netgear router for this, that'd be great.

Cheers.

[#7]

Hi Anoush,

Unfortunately I've not had the chance to swap over the router tonight, but I have stumbled across a number of threads on the Blizzard forums where a number of World of Warcraft players seem to be encountering similar issues to mine, and Plusnet seems to be the common denominator.  This post links to a number of related posts, if this is of any use: https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17620032322 .

I will get back with the BQM when I have it.

Thanks again for your assistance,

Vca

[#8]

Hi Vca.

From reading through that thread and the linked threads last night, it doesn't seem to be solely affecting people with Plusnet as their ISP. It also appears that Blizzard are aware of a problem and investigating.

That said, in some cases a static IP improved things so I've assigned you one. This basically means that your connection would take a different route across our network.

Ideally this can't be a permanent change as it's not really a viable fix.

Can you let us know either way if you're still having issues?

[#9]

Hi Anoush,

Thanks so much for taking the time to read through the posts, and for sorting out the static IP.  I will monitor the situation tonight and see if it makes a difference.

Have a great weekend

-Vca

[#10]

Hi Anoush,

The static IP seems to have completely resolved the issue.  I have tested extensively all weekend and have not encountered any unusual latency, rubberbanding or disconnects since you've made the change.  The difference is quite startling!

If this isn't viable as a permanent fix are there any alternatives you can suggest that might accomplish the same result?

As an aside it seems that my old router is also incompatible with the tool so unfortunately that test seems to be out for the moment.

Thanks,

Vca

[#11]

Hi Vca. Thanks for letting us know.

I'm really glad to hear this has resolved things for you.

I've gone back to our infrastructure/networks guys with this info. For the time being I'll leave your connection as it is with the static IP on. When I know more, I'll come back here to let you know.

Cheers

Anoush

[#12]

@Gandalf Do you have other affected users?

[#13]

@Kelly nope this is the only one so far where a static IP fixed the problem.

I've tried this for two other customers over Here but they're yet to come back to us.