LAG. DISCONNECTS. peak time BT ISP throttle?

LAG. DISCONNECTS. peak time BT ISP throttle?

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

Q:

Dear Anet, you need to be aware of this issue and ideally contact British Telecom ISP in the UK to resolve the problem that has been created in the last few days.

I’m playing via British Telecom ISP in the UK on their Infinity Unlimited package (option 2). Today, once again at 5pm GMT the game suddenly became unplayably lagged, with minutes of lag and the accompanying disconnects. Other internet traffic (e.g. youtube or lovefilm) works fine during the ‘gw2 only lag’. This has been going on for several days with peak times effectively throttled to nothing.

The reason I’m sure it’s throttling somewhere is because:

  • happens each around start of prime time (17:00) and ends around end of prime time (23:00) etc
  • it happened on 2 computers at same time,
  • other internet useage working totally fine during the specific gw2 no traffic lag, e.g.g lovefilm or youtube or general surfing working fine during the GW2 specific lag
  • connecting any of the computers via any hardware/router variation, cabled or wireless through the other (non-BT) internet connection produces a stable peak-time connection to GW2 without the crushing lag and disconnects, once it’s not through BT
  • seen exactly these symptoms during the RIFT beta because of an IP / server change at rift putting them into BT’s p2p throttle blacklist

TRION (rift’s devs) had to contact BT to get themselves whitelisted out of the traffic management throttling blackhole during peak times.

It’s possible it’s not currently every BT package that this traffic management profile is being applied to, but BT is the largest ISP in the UK so it’s an issue worth solving to enable your UK playerbase to continue playing.

(edited by Kalan.9705)

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

A:

I managed to get someone from the BT options team on 0800 800 150 to remove the traffic management from my account, it took a couple of days but now I am playing during prime and offtime just fine across a BT infinity connection tonight.

The 5th call of the last few weeks worked finally!

(edited by Kalan.9705)

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

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Posted by: ikereid.4637

ikereid.4637

I doubt the game maker can do anything to fix your issue. You need to poll all the users affected by this together and contact BT to get it resolved.

If they are infact rate limiting the packets for GW2, the data stream is so small they should be able to see that their rate limit is unnecessary (as opposed to Bit Torrent). They simply need to look at the queued CoS buckets they are rate-limiting by to see the tail-drops vs the red-drops to see that its not needed.

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Posted by: Cayenne.5341

Cayenne.5341

according to BT themselves, they do not trottle infinity option 2 if your contract is younger than a year. That explains why not every single BT infinity user might have the same issue. It is still a problem for many players though.
Today after camping Teq on my home server deso for 2 hours, the fight started and the latency kicked in. You can imagine the frustration. I did long before I could see any combat happening and couldnt do anything but exiting the game.

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Posted by: Cayenne.5341

Cayenne.5341

I doubt the game maker can do anything to fix your issue. You need to poll all the users affected by this together and contact BT to get it resolved.

If they are infact rate limiting the packets for GW2, the data stream is so small they should be able to see that their rate limit is unnecessary (as opposed to Bit Torrent). They simply need to look at the queued CoS buckets they are rate-limiting by to see the tail-drops vs the red-drops to see that its not needed.

As the OP said, RIFT had the same problem and iirc BT didnt do anthing until they were contacted by Trion back then. The only difference is that for Trion it happened at launch, so the amount of upset users was probably bigger.

One of the annoying aspects is that the [insert any ISP] support is so bad. They try to blame it on a local problem with the clients hardware, software etc and offer you to send out a support guy that they will charge you for. They can do that because most customers can not argue their case well because they are lacking the technical knowledge / language.
I know how throttling of an MMO feels but I have no clue what CoS is.

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Posted by: Steakpuncher.1603

Steakpuncher.1603

I’ve contacted both sides with regards to this matter, the short story is that both sides appear to prefer to blame the other and say “it’s out of our control.”

However I am not 100% convinced it is a throttling issue because I can lag on one map while my girlfriend can play just fine on another one at the same time.

However regardless of the actual cause, please be aware that neither BT or ArenaNet feel it is worth their while pursing this for their customers at this point in time. RIFT was a subscription game at launch so it important for them to act to protect their revenue stream, in this case there is no guarantee of revenue for Anet, and BT likely already have you locked into a contract.

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Posted by: ikereid.4637

ikereid.4637

I doubt the game maker can do anything to fix your issue. You need to poll all the users affected by this together and contact BT to get it resolved.

If they are infact rate limiting the packets for GW2, the data stream is so small they should be able to see that their rate limit is unnecessary (as opposed to Bit Torrent). They simply need to look at the queued CoS buckets they are rate-limiting by to see the tail-drops vs the red-drops to see that its not needed.

As the OP said, RIFT had the same problem and iirc BT didnt do anthing until they were contacted by Trion back then. The only difference is that for Trion it happened at launch, so the amount of upset users was probably bigger.

One of the annoying aspects is that the [insert any ISP] support is so bad. They try to blame it on a local problem with the clients hardware, software etc and offer you to send out a support guy that they will charge you for. They can do that because most customers can not argue their case well because they are lacking the technical knowledge / language.
I know how throttling of an MMO feels but I have no clue what CoS is.

CoS = Class of Service, its what Enterprise routers use to rate Limit applications.

While Rift ‘May’ have been able to do something with the ISP it would have been due to either a contractual agreement. It’s very rare that an application provider can tell an ISP what to do for their rate limit. And even rare for that ISP to listen and ‘do it’.

I’m afraid that this will have to come from the users stand point. Even if NCsoft wanted to jump in and tell BT to fix their CoS. BT does not have to listen. Unless there is an underlying contract that dictates so.

best thing to do is have the paying customer base complain to BT to get it fixed.

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Posted by: Redundant.4128

Redundant.4128

I am affected by the same issue. Games becomes totally unresponsive and unplayable.

i5-3570k, Asus GTX 770, Kingston 8GB @1600MHz, Win 8 64bit

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Posted by: scanz.4536

scanz.4536

I advise all BT users suffering from this share their experience in the thread created on the BT community support forums posted above by Kalan.

Playing this game for well over a year now I’ve never had disconnects and latency issues, but the past few days to a week now I’ve been experiencing numerous disconnects during peak times in the evening. Outside of these times the game runs perfectly fine.

Something has changed somewhere, be it BT’s end, ANet’s end or somewhere in between, but we certainly need all parties to help pinpoint the issue. Hopefully ANet treat this as seriously as they can, but I won’t keep my hopes up as to how much they can exactly do to help here.

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Posted by: Steakpuncher.1603

Steakpuncher.1603

While Rift ‘May’ have been able to do something with the ISP it would have been due to either a contractual agreement. It’s very rare that an application provider can tell an ISP what to do for their rate limit. And even rare for that ISP to listen and ‘do it’.

I’m afraid that this will have to come from the users stand point. Even if NCsoft wanted to jump in and tell BT to fix their CoS. BT does not have to listen. Unless there is an underlying contract that dictates so.

best thing to do is have the paying customer base complain to BT to get it fixed.

The thing is if this change was caused by BT themselves, it’s unlikely to be because they want to limit this traffic, it will simply be because they are incompetent. They have a track record of making changes to their shaping/filtering/throttling and kittening this stuff up.

They will sometimes fix it once significant pressure is put on them, if ANET contact them and advise them there is a genuine problem, they might sit up and take notice. Either that or we get significant numbers on their forums posting about the issue. They will quite happily ignore small groups on their forums as well.

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Posted by: Kahn.2486

Kahn.2486

I would like to point out that I am on BT as well…Not Infinity…And have had absolutely no problems for two straight nights.

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Posted by: Riyua.6945

Riyua.6945

I’m also suffering from the same issues as everyone else but the thread on BT’s forum seems to be making progress as a mod has just announced he’s going to look into it, so if you’ve not already posted there please do so now.

Let’s hope ANet are doing something at their end too. /crosses fingers

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Posted by: Redundant.4128

Redundant.4128

Hopefully will be resolved shortly because this is outrageous. Can’t play the game I paid for…

i5-3570k, Asus GTX 770, Kingston 8GB @1600MHz, Win 8 64bit

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

I wish we were allowed enough characters to make a proper sentence as a thread title.

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Posted by: scanz.4536

scanz.4536

Game has been completely unplayable for me between 7pm and 11pm GMT for 3 days in a row now. Sigh.

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

If you want to get BT to reclassify GW2 traffic properly (not as p2p sharing or whatever) and let it be playable peak time again, make some noise here: https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity-Speed-Connection/BT-throttling-online-games-guild-wars-2-all-the-sudden/m-p/1169162#M127605

But Anet devs can probably get a lot more traction than we can, and provide some crucial tech data for the BT team responsible.

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Posted by: jayvux.4128

jayvux.4128

Here is my diagnostic.
Been DCing every 2 to 5 minutes every night.
Talked to numerous ISP agents, all claim I have great connection and can’t explain why it is only happening with GW2.

Tracing network paths
==================
—> pathping -w 500 -q 25 -4 64.25.39.1 <--

Tracing route to 64.25.39.1 over a maximum of 30 hops

0 JeffSher-PC.domain.actdsltmp [192.168.1.7]
1 192.168.1.1
2 L100.LSANCA-DSL-59.verizon-gni.net [98.119.43.1]
3 G0-6-0-5.LSANCA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.193.2]
4 ae4-0.LAX01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.199.98]
5 0.ae2.XT3.DFW9.ALTER.NET [140.222.225.55]
6 GigabitEthernet4-0-0.GW12.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.97.86]
7 65.205.119.210
8 64.25.32.9
9 64.25.32.26
10 64.25.39.1

Computing statistics for 62 seconds…
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 JeffSher-PC.domain.actdsltmp [192.168.1.7]
0/ 25 = 0% |
1 2ms 0/ 25 = 0% 0/ 25 = 0% 192.168.1.1
0/ 25 = 0% |
2 48ms 4/ 25 = 16% 4/ 25 = 16% L100.LSANCA-DSL-59.verizon-gni.net [98.119.43.1]
0/ 25 = 0% |
3 38ms 0/ 25 = 0% 0/ 25 = 0% G0-6-0-5.LSANCA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.193.2]
0/ 25 = 0% |
4 36ms 4/ 25 = 16% 4/ 25 = 16% ae4-0.LAX01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.199.98]
0/ 25 = 0% |
5 74ms 5/ 25 = 20% 5/ 25 = 20% 0.ae2.XT3.DFW9.ALTER.NET [140.222.225.55]
0/ 25 = 0% |
6 63ms 0/ 25 = 0% 0/ 25 = 0% GigabitEthernet4-0-0.GW12.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.97.86]
5/ 25 = 20% |
7 75ms 5/ 25 = 20% 0/ 25 = 0% 65.205.119.210
0/ 25 = 0% |
8 80ms 5/ 25 = 20% 0/ 25 = 0% 64.25.32.9
1/ 25 = 4% |
9 —- 25/ 25 =100% 19/ 25 = 76% 64.25.32.26
0/ 25 = 0% |
10 78ms 6/ 25 = 24% 0/ 25 = 0% 64.25.39.1

Trace complete.
—> pathping -w 500 -q 25 -4 206.127.158.1 <--

Tracing route to p4-23-c0-ncdc-pub.plaync.net [206.127.158.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 JeffSher-PC.domain.actdsltmp [192.168.1.7]
1 192.168.1.1
2 L100.LSANCA-DSL-59.verizon-gni.net [98.119.43.1]
3 G0-6-0-5.LSANCA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.193.2]
4 so-6-0-0-0.LAX01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.124]
5 0.ge-5-1-0.XL3.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.190]
6 TenGigE0-6-2-0.GW2.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.65.137]
7 tinet-gw.customer.alter.net [152.179.92.6]
8 * xe-0-0-1.fra23.ip4.tinet.net [141.136.110.121]
9 * 89.149.164.42
10 * 206-127-157-86.plaync.com [206.127.157.86]
11 p4-23-c0-ncdc-pub.plaync.net [206.127.158.1]

Computing statistics for 68 seconds…
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 JeffSher-PC.domain.actdsltmp [192.168.1.7]
0/ 25 = 0% |
1 2ms 0/ 25 = 0% 0/ 25 = 0% 192.168.1.1
1/ 25 = 4% |
2 33ms 2/ 25 = 8% 1/ 25 = 4% L100.LSANCA-DSL-59.verizon-gni.net [98.119.43.1]
0/ 25 = 0% |
3 31ms 1/ 25 = 4% 0/ 25 = 0% G0-6-0-5.LSANCA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.193.2]
1/ 25 = 4% |
4 33ms 2/ 25 = 8% 0/ 25 = 0% so-6-0-0-0.LAX01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.124]
2/ 25 = 8% |
5 93ms 6/ 25 = 24% 2/ 25 = 8% 0.ge-5-1-0.XL3.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.190]
0/ 25 = 0% |
6 82ms 4/ 25 = 16% 0/ 25 = 0% TenGigE0-6-2-0.GW2.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.65.137]
0/ 25 = 0% |
7 84ms 4/ 25 = 16% 0/ 25 = 0% tinet-gw.customer.alter.net [152.179.92.6]
5/ 25 = 20% |
8 —- 25/ 25 =100% 16/ 25 = 64% xe-0-0-1.fra23.ip4.tinet.net [141.136.110.121]
0/ 25 = 0% |
9 215ms 19/ 25 = 76% 10/ 25 = 40% 89.149.164.42
0/ 25 = 0% |
10 —- 25/ 25 =100% 16/ 25 = 64% 206-127-157-86.plaync.com [206.127.157.86]
0/ 25 = 0% |
11 203ms 9/ 25 = 36% 0/ 25 = 0% p4-23-c0-ncdc-pub.plaync.net [206.127.158.1]

Trace complete.
Section completed in 151.63 seconds

GM of Leaders [LEAD]
Server: Darkhaven (fb.com/groups/guildwars2darkhaven)
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJayvux

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Posted by: exemplar.5942

exemplar.5942

Bad lag on Darkhaven almost unplayable i got this game yesterday and have been lagging ever since (feb10th monday – feb11 tuesday) I enjoy this game more than i would have ever expected Anet please fix this lag problem so I and everyone else can enjoy this game that we all paid for im sure everyone one on every servers would agree

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

Canceling BT.. moving to a new provider.. this stinks

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

Complain to BT to get it fixed!

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Posted by: Rivga.9124

Rivga.9124

Well if thats how BT want it then the answer is simple, lets take our custom elsewhere. Question is which IP does not do the same, I know my friend has the same issues with Orange (EE as they are known now).

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Posted by: Myrtle.7653

Myrtle.7653

Having the same problem as these guys, been about 3-4 days now. Using EE with BT line. Game is unplayable and that is if I load before disconnecting from server. I tried late in the night playing wvw when couldn’t sleep a few days ago (past midnight) and everything worked fine.

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Posted by: CrashQuest.7132

CrashQuest.7132

This has been happening to me too. seriously thinking about hanging up this game if it continues, which is something i dont want to do, as have been playing since pre-launch. but if i cant start playing until 12am because of this latency/lag nonsence then i dont see the point in playing.

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

its not the games fault.. its BT provider.. they restrict network bandwidth during peak hours.. causing u to lag and discconect at these times.. now according to BT.. its only peer to peer stuff that they restrict bandwidth.. meaning torrents and the likes.. however it seems GW uses some same ports as torrents and therefore being restricted bandwidth as well for GW.. it sucks.. and BT will just blame the game.. so best solution.. change provider

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Posted by: scanz.4536

scanz.4536

its not the games fault.. its BT provider.. they restrict network bandwidth during peak hours.. causing u to lag and discconect at these times.. now according to BT.. its only peer to peer stuff that they restrict bandwidth.. meaning torrents and the likes.. however it seems GW uses some same ports as torrents and therefore being restricted bandwidth as well for GW.. it sucks.. and BT will just blame the game.. so best solution.. change provider

Problem is a lot of other providers go via BT anyway.

This is only a recent issue (literally the last week), so something has changed either ANet’s end, BT’s end or somewhere in between. Problem is neither party will investigate fully and simply blame the other.

Easiest thing to do is just play something else, no lag when I’m playing FF14.

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Posted by: Mafetix.9857

Mafetix.9857

I’m not with BT directly but my provider is one of the many who go through them, and this would go a long way to explaining my recent lag/DC issues.

It’s a little confusing because going on at the same time are incidents like this, which seem to affect everyone and not just us: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Everybody-lagging/ <- guildmates in the States have also been reporting similar issues to that thread, so I didn’t even realise BT might also be causing problems until I stumbled across this thread.

As for playing something else, I play other games as well and have had no issues with them, but I have friends in GW2 who don’t play any of the other MMOs I do. I’d like to be able to log in and spend time with them even if it’s just chatting, though staying connected and lag-free for long enough to contribute to a dungeon run would be great too.

The Legion of Honour [XIII] & OPERATION: UNION - bringing players together
http://is.gd/operationunion

(edited by Mafetix.9857)

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

its not the games fault.. its BT provider.. they restrict network bandwidth during peak hours.. causing u to lag and discconect at these times.. now according to BT.. its only peer to peer stuff that they restrict bandwidth.. meaning torrents and the likes.. however it seems GW uses some same ports as torrents and therefore being restricted bandwidth as well for GW.. it sucks.. and BT will just blame the game.. so best solution.. change provider

Problem is a lot of other providers go via BT anyway.

This is only a recent issue (literally the last week), so something has changed either ANet’s end, BT’s end or somewhere in between. Problem is neither party will investigate fully and simply blame the other.

Easiest thing to do is just play something else, no lag when I’m playing FF14.

BT will only control network throttling on their own service.. other providers who rent ports from BT, are usually giving the crap ports, but BT wont control those, so u’ll just get normal lag issues.. the issue that BT is doing right now is quite specific between certain times and only started on Monday

(edited by Saifon.9857)

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Posted by: Ok I Did It.2854

Ok I Did It.2854

Im not with BT, but my ISP does seem a little slower than normal, ive been with them for 10 years, and never in 10 years have I had an issues regards lag, yet this week it seems bad, I can still get into game unlike some others, but its 2/3 seconds of skill lag, I have asked friends in the UK whom also play and they state they are getting the same thing, again they are not with BT or the same ISP as me,

Now me and my friends connect to the NA servers from the UK, im wondering is there an issue with that connection, espically give the back to back severe storms the UK has been getting recently,

I will try a full reset later of my internet and see if that helps.

On another note, the BT issue seems to be sorted, well for some.

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity-Speed-Connection/BT-throttling-online-games-guild-wars-2-all-the-sudden/td-p/1167348/highlight/false/page/7

(edited by Ok I Did It.2854)

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Posted by: Lostyus.4250

Lostyus.4250

its not the games fault.. its BT provider.. they restrict network bandwidth during peak hours.. causing u to lag and discconect at these times.. now according to BT.. its only peer to peer stuff that they restrict bandwidth.. meaning torrents and the likes.. however it seems GW uses some same ports as torrents and therefore being restricted bandwidth as well for GW.. it sucks.. and BT will just blame the game.. so best solution.. change provider

It isnt.

It might be affecting some BT users (if theyre with infinity or what ever) but Anet isnt blameless

Me my friends and many posts ive seen have had the same problem, but the thing is, if I/they sign in with another character, then the game works fine with that one and is playable. I really dont think BT are restricting the toons im using lol.

I think the people who have it the worse are infinity users who are also suffering from the problems with Anet.

This problem is affecting more than just BT customers.

(edited by Lostyus.4250)

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

Not sure you get the specific problem that BT has only started.. before Monday.. everything perfect.. fine.. no lag issues.. the odd disconnect.. expected in any game.. I still had peak rate traffic restriction on my provider.. which only many affected downloading of torrent files, which I don’t anyways.. so no problem.. come Monday… something changed.. at exactly 7pm.. I was unable to load PvP areas like mists or WvW.. just sticks on loading screen.. I could not load towns like LA, I can only play for a few mins in PvE explorable areas.. strangly.. the chat system always worked.. never had no chat lag like u would expect with normal lagging issues.. chat functioned perfectly and immediately.. even when u lagging on your toon.. but I do agree that is not completely 100% BT’s issue.. I can play other only games at these times fine.. first person shooters work perfect and getting great ping.. but its difinatly something unique that GW uses.. maybe GW uses some some ports that these peer to peer file sharing programs use.. and that BT have since blocked some of these ports.

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

Just an update.. I contacted BT and they confirmed that my broadband had a network restriction, so I got them to remove it, as my particular subscription should not have restrictions. And perfect.. game is now fully functional again during peak times.

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Posted by: johnnymiller.5968

johnnymiller.5968

Dear Anet, you need to be aware of this issue and ideally contact British Telecom ISP in the UK to resolve the problem that has been created in the last few days.

I’m playing via British Telecom ISP in the UK on their Infinity Unlimited package (option 2). Today, once again at 5pm GMT the game suddenly became unplayably lagged, with minutes of lag and the accompanying disconnects. Other internet traffic (e.g. youtube or lovefilm) works fine during the ‘gw2 only lag’. This has been going on for several days with peak times effectively throttled to nothing.

The reason I’m sure it’s throttling somewhere is because:

  • happens each around start of prime time (17:00) and ends around end of prime time (23:00) etc
  • it happened on 2 computers at same time,
  • other internet useage working totally fine during the specific gw2 no traffic lag, e.g.g lovefilm or youtube or general surfing working fine during the GW2 specific lag
  • connecting any of the computers via any hardware/router variation, cabled or wireless through the other (non-BT) internet connection produces a stable peak-time connection to GW2 without the crushing lag and disconnects, once it’s not through BT
  • seen exactly these symptoms during the RIFT beta because of an IP / server change at rift putting them into BT’s p2p throttle blacklist

TRION (rift’s devs) had to contact BT to get themselves whitelisted out of the traffic management throttling blackhole during peak times.

It’s possible it’s not currently every BT package that this traffic management profile is being applied to, but BT is the largest ISP in the UK so it’s an issue worth solving to enable your UK playerbase to continue playing.

I’m playing out of New Zealand and experiencing unplayability too; generally it starts around 10pm nz (9am UK) and becomes progressively worse. Its now approx 8.30am nz (7.30pm UK). I can play pve with reasonable lag ( 3 second delay); cannot play world vs world at all.
You may well find this is not just a UK issue although it appears to happen during UK prime time.

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Posted by: chronometria.3708

chronometria.3708

Back when all this started I did put up a comment that this phenomenon has happened before when other service providers mislabelled gaming traffic as file sharing. It looks like my theories on this may well have been correct and it would be very helpful for arenanet to look into it and chat to the BT provider. In the previous case it was sorted out with a few calls and immediately improved play experience for everyone concerned.

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Posted by: Steakpuncher.1603

Steakpuncher.1603

BT are already looking into it. Within the thread posted on their forums a moderator (BT staff member) took some traceroutes to their network team, and they have tried modifying our route to the servers to alleviate the lag. Can confirm they changed the route as my traceroutes now avoid the Tinet carrier in France whom they through the fault lies with. However this seems to incorrect.

BT do have bad track record, however their moderator team on the forums do have a great track record of fixing things, and have sorted things for me on a few occasions when the callcentres just stonewalled and refused to help.

All that said, and the big DDoS attacking going on at the moment, leads me to think they are not actually throttling traffic but just picking routes that are being hammered.

I would genuinely love BT to be at fault because I am having other issues with them over billing and if they WERE throttling my “totally unlimited with no throttling package” I would be able to cancel and shift elsewhere.

At the very least I can confirm people are looking into it, and it’s not just some guy in a callcentre whose version of “looking into it” means ignoring it and going home for the day. Please see the BT thread and make a post there if you are having issues. Include a traceroute or a pingpath as well and hopefully they can find the issue and fix it.

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Posted by: simzy.2417

simzy.2417

Okay, so i only skimmed over this entire thread to get an idea of what is going on, the problem with a lot of online games is that they required peer 2 peer networking in order to deal with updates etc, BT are one of the few companies that despite how often you complain, will not actually deal with it. I was with them back when i played WoW and it got to the point where it became unstable to play, not because of the game but the connection, all the games i tried, even through steam, couldnt keep a connection online during the peek times.

Now i know this might sound bad but virgin media despite some of their reputation can actually be very good for handling game traffic, even on their lowest package which is now 30mbps down and they do prioritize gaming traffic even during peek times. They currently have packages up to 120mbps and its going higher later this year.

BT are not known for caring, if you are the only person on your network, try setting your hub into dmz for your pc/laptop, that will reduce some of the connection issues but not much.

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Posted by: Sickboy.2705

Sickboy.2705

Same with a mate of mine, BT Option 2 infinity – he’s on now and cannot play because of lag and it only happens at peak times. We were today and it was smooth, no issues. I’m on the same BT package as he is and I’ve no issues (we’re also on the same BT exchange)

We’ve tried a few things in house, but it’s clear the issue is not coming from local hardware or software.

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Posted by: lucagn.3765

lucagn.3765

I’m in the UK as well, using EE. Been playing for months and months and never had any issues. Since last week I can not connect anymore during peak time (especially in the evening).
I can load the character selection just fine but then I get stuck on the loading screen to access the map (any map, across all my characters)
It’s is becoming quite annoying now. Not sure who changed what (gw or provider) but somethign wrong happened here…

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

Still unplayable, still needs fixing. Would help a lot if one of the Anet staff would respond they’re aware of the issue.

When TRION devs contacted BT about exactly the same symptoms in RIFT that action helped fix the issue within a few hours.

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Posted by: vicar.7085

vicar.7085

Experiencing exactly the same issue with BT (happened when I sued to play RIFT until the company contacted BT and had the game removed from the BT p2p blacklist). ANET need to get their act together now this is on the forum and contact BT and explain the issue and see if a change, either by BT or by ANET, has caused them to be classified as a p2p. I have also posted on my Guilds forums and asked people to post here and on the BT forum, suggest people get everyone they know to post in both and get some attention to the issue

VcY Human Resources (Stabability Dept)
Office 317, 3rd Floor Corporation Street

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Posted by: Akatosh.7621

Akatosh.7621

Same problems as some of you guys but 3 of my character’s will just NEVER load, the other two will after about two minutes and then no response. I Thought it would be only during peak times but it is affecting me this moment (10:16a.m) and has made the game completely unplayable. Anet, don’t let down your british players.

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Posted by: Akatosh.7621

Akatosh.7621

Same problems as some of you guys but 3 of my character’s will just NEVER load, the other two will after about two minutes and then no response. I Thought it would be only during peak times but it is affecting me this moment (10:16a.m) and has made the game completely unplayable. Anet, don’t let down your british players.

“code=7:11:3:191:101” just noted that I keep getting this error on all character loading screens.

Attachments:

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Posted by: lucagn.3765

lucagn.3765

Guys – if you have EE and have the same issue, please post also here:
http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband/Internet-slowed-down-for-internet-gaming/m-p/96144#U96144
let’s try to push both sides..

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

Same with a mate of mine, BT Option 2 infinity – he’s on now and cannot play because of lag and it only happens at peak times. We were today and it was smooth, no issues. I’m on the same BT package as he is and I’ve no issues (we’re also on the same BT exchange)

We’ve tried a few things in house, but it’s clear the issue is not coming from local hardware or software.

Yeah.. I’m on the exact same option.. if you got this before feb 2013, then it will have network restrictions, however after feb 2013 it will not have network restrictions. BT will remove the network restrictions if you ring them, it took 48 hrs and then game is now fully playable at peak times.. I’m not sure policy of posting BT’s phone number on here, so if u pm me in game.. I can give you the BT options team phone number..

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Posted by: LaFleur.9374

LaFleur.9374

Having the same issues since I started playing again a week ago, BT customer but not the Infinity option. Tried contacting them directly and on forums without any solution. Looks like my return will be short lived if neither side refuse to admit fault and get a fix sorted.

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Posted by: Kalan.9705

Kalan.9705

Same with a mate of mine, BT Option 2 infinity – he’s on now and cannot play because of lag and it only happens at peak times. We were today and it was smooth, no issues. I’m on the same BT package as he is and I’ve no issues (we’re also on the same BT exchange)

We’ve tried a few things in house, but it’s clear the issue is not coming from local hardware or software.

Yeah.. I’m on the exact same option.. if you got this before feb 2013, then it will have network restrictions, however after feb 2013 it will not have network restrictions. BT will remove the network restrictions if you ring them, it took 48 hrs and then game is now fully playable at peak times.. I’m not sure policy of posting BT’s phone number on here, so if u pm me in game.. I can give you the BT options team phone number..

Go ahead and post the number, it could be useful info, particularly if it connects to anyone in the UK. I’ve spent 2hrs with call centers in India speaking to supervisors etc and I still can’t get anyone to admit any type of traffic shaping or network restrictions has ever existed, despite it being in writing on the BT website and openly admitted in the past.

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

Yeah its connects directly to the UK team.. so anyone with BT experiencing issues during peak times, its well worth giving this team a ring, and inquiry specifically about network restrictions, most BT packages now don’t have restrictions, but if your with BT for awhile, your package might still have it enabled. The number to the BT options team is 0800 800 150.

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Posted by: Akkarrin.3406

Akkarrin.3406

right im in an interesting position on this one

Im having the same problem as everyone else literally exactly and have been since the last patch (except i dont have a second laptop or computer so havent been able to test that)

but im not on BT infinity, the phoneline connecting my house to phone and internet is owned by BT but my wifi is provided by Orange (sometimes known as Orange BT, im not sure what the difference is or if there is a difference between the two)… so yeh, who exactly do i have to blame for this?

for me i crash out 19:00 – 23:00 gmt (guild wvw raiding time ¬_¬)

Akkale
Underworld Battalion [WvW]
Gandara

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

yeah exact same times it was for me too

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Posted by: Saifon.9857

Saifon.9857

ok.. this is what I think. .providers in the UK are restricting ports.. probably because of the piracy thing.. downloading of illegal material.. I get why they do it.. but it seems that games use the same ports.. and it has an adverse effect on our gaming.. especially GW2.. I mean it makes sense.. especially PvP stuff.. when u play with other players.. so to save upload and download speeds.. use ports so u can directly upload and download from other players… this is causing a major issue because of these piracy things…

So here’s a few suggestions:

If your with BT.. phone and get these restrictions removed.. they do have many packages that support this..

If your with other provider.. phone and check to see if u have a restriction and see if u can get it removed..

Worst case scenario.. and u really wanna play at peak times and u cant change to a provider that has no restrictions.. then unfortunately.. u have an expense involved.. Is too buy one of those USB dongles.. you know.. where u get so many megabytes download thing.. play through a dongle..

The issue is 50% provider and 50% game developer… but I see why there’s an issue.. and the major problem is getting someone to accept responsibility.. from GW’s point of view.. they have a downtime of say 5% of players during a 3 or 4 hour period.. dont think they will do much about that.. and providers point of view is to restrict people using the same port to download illegal material.. they will also not bend on this.. so if u can change to a provider that has no restriction great.. but if u cant.. using a dongle during these times might be your best option.. although comes with a cost..