Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

I hope someone has an answer to my problem because I don’t know how to solve this. I’ve tried many things.

THE PROBLEM:
I login normally. Loading the map sometimes takes ages or I get disconnected while in loading screen. When I manage to get in-game, the lag or whatever should I call this, is horrible. All my skills only blink, I can’t talk to any NPCs, the only thing that seems to work is the Trading Post. I can search for items and buy them etc. This usually leads to a disconnect or the action I took happens with a two minute long delay.

THE SOLUTIONS I’VE TRIED SO FAR:
I have:
- tried WTFast
- tried Battleping
- tried Laetrix
- tried running GW2 with -clientport 80
- deleted Local.dat and used -repair
- forwarded the ports used by GW2

OTHER INFORMATION:
GW2 worked well in the first few months. When Karka attack came, the lag was horrible (not just at the event with a lot of people but anywhere). Then during Wintersday 2012 it was all good again and this continued. For some patches it was good, then lag started again and so on and so forth. But never have I experienced anything like I am now. Skills flashing etc.
I make sure that all “bandwidth-eating” programs are closed when I play, I recently formatted my computer as well. Browsing the web and downloading is fine, perfectly normal. Playing for example Call of Duty = no problem. I get steady 30 ping on German servers. The only other game I have had problems with is Aion. So I’m guessing my ISP has a quarrel with MMORPGs or my router configuration is blocking something somewhere?

MY SETUP:
My area doesn’t have a lot options for internet services, so my ISP has a tower (transmitter?) set up approximately 500 meters away from my house. My modem is a wireless receiver. The signal is green and maxed out, as I said, I don’t have problems with other games or browsing. The connection type is PPPoE, and I’m behind a Dlink router. The connection speed is 2Mbps. I tried connecting my PC to the internet at my friend’s house. They have an EMX connection which uses PPPoE as well, and it runs smoothly there.
Judging from all this, I’m going to have to blame my ISP, but I’m wondering if anyone has any other idea to solve this because not many ISPs are available here (maybe 2-3) and others offer even lower connection speeds.
I’m from EU, playing on Gandara.

Sidenote: Before I forwarded the ports I had this horrible lag. After I forwarded them it was all good for about three days. Now the last three days every day around 5 P.M. I get the same lag, as if the ports “unforward” themselves and then forward themselves again in a few hours.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you!

Rhymzo.6720:

MY SETUP:
My area doesn’t have a lot options for internet services, so my ISP has a tower (transmitter?) set up approximately 500 meters away from my house. My modem is a wireless receiver. The signal is green and maxed out, as I said, I don’t have problems with other games or browsing. The connection type is PPPoE, and I’m behind a Dlink router. The connection speed is 2Mbps. I tried connecting my PC to the internet at my friend’s house. They have an EMX connection which uses PPPoE as well, and it runs smoothly there.

There is no fixing that. Wireless based ISP’s all have this issue. And all it takes is them setting Priority for something OTHER then gaming traffic to ruin it for everyone else.

You literally have no hope to getting this resolved with out buying a DSL ISP based connection (DSL SHOULD be available in your area, even at 256Kb up and 1Mb down)

Thank you for your reply and help.

I was afraid this might be the root of the problem. Well, I am still bound by contract to this ISP so it’s a no-go at the moment, but if everything bodes well, our area is getting fiber-optics later this year. That should solve the problem, no?

Rhymzo.6720:

Thank you for your reply and help.

I was afraid this might be the root of the problem. Well, I am still bound by contract to this ISP so it’s a no-go at the moment, but if everything bodes well, our area is getting fiber-optics later this year. That should solve the problem, no?

All ISP contracts have an underlining SLA agreement. If they cannot uphold the SLA then the contract can be voided. I suggest reading your Agreement thoroughly.

Have you called into your ISP to complain about the latency issues? Since it happens at certain times of day, its going to be interference. They can work on that. But Wireless over long distances sucks for real time applications (GW2, VoIP…ect)

You would first need to set up a line monitor to see how your latency is on the network, and then figure out what is the cause of it. Seeing as it is a wirless ISP, you have room for all kinds of trouble, green lights also mean nothing. That means it is “connected” and even if it has a signal strength on it, that also means nothing. It is the same as any wireless transceiver, not only does it have to have a good signal from the tower, but your AP also has to be able to transmit back, which is the most common problem with these kinds of networks. Does the AP you have allow any kind of access? That is can you log into it and see any signal strengths etc? If it is a common wifi type of AP, it might, but if it’s working in one of the other bands it might be proprietary HW and not allow access.

@sirsquishy
I haven’t called them because everything else works fine, I don’t even know how to present my case. I can chat on skype, browse the web, play CoD and whatnot while my GW2 skills are flashing and disconnecting.

@TinkTinkPOOF
Thank you for your input. How do I set up a line monitor? As I’ve mentioned before, everything else works fine while this happens in GW2, so I’m guessing the AP is transmitting back, no?
And regarding the access, I wouldn’t say so. Nothing was mentioned to me and no information regarding the AP was given at any point. It’s a small tower with a “satellite-dish-looking-thingy” on top I’m sorry, I don’t have much knowledge in this area.

Side question:
When I was forwarding my ports, the guide on portforward said that I need static IP. My connection type is PPPoE and I was assigned no static IP at the beginning, so I assume I have dynamic IP. So I followed the guide on portforward to make my IP static. Then when portforwarding, I opened 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 (the ones I know GW2 needs) and when I tested them if they’re open, it shows that 6112 and 6600 are open and the other two are closed. I don’t understand how this is possible as I took the same action for all four of them …
And after I made my IP static, should I also change the connection type in the router configuration to static IP? I think I’ve tried it, but then my internet didn’t work.

Thank you all.

If Skype and other real-time applications are working correctly, then your ISP needs to set COS/QoS for GW2 to work properly. It really sounds like they put ‘other traffic’ on a low priority that gets dropped when a threshold is approached (anything not defined via the ISP would be ‘other’), and that might just be the issue here.

I would call the ISP and ask them to fix connectivity for GW2 and make sure that its not being dumped due to CoS/QoS policies. they may require a PCap of you playing GW2 so they can setup the policy across the Wireless Link properly for you. But they can walk you through that.

As for this ‘Line monitor’ there is no such thing. Unless you have SNMP access into BOTH ends of your Wireless connection (which you do NOT), you cannot ‘monitor’ the wireless signal for signal to noise ratio and radio strength. And that is what you would need for this ‘line monitor’.

The best you can hope to do, is bring this to your ISP. Explain what is going on, and have them help you fix it. If COD doesnt have issues, then GW2 shouldnt either.

Rhymzo.6720:

Side question:
When I was forwarding my ports, the guide on portforward said that I need static IP. My connection type is PPPoE and I was assigned no static IP at the beginning, so I assume I have dynamic IP.

That isn’t what it means by a static IP. It doesn’t matter whether the IP your ISP gives you (ie your ‘internet IP’) is static or dynamic. Port forwarding is done within your own network (by your router), and you set it so that traffic on port X goes to say 192.168.1.100 (ie your gaming computer’s internal IP in your own network). If the next time you turn on your gaming computer your router gives it the internal IP address of 192.168.1.101 then your port forwarding won’t work.

Essentially you have to set your computer to use a fixed IP address in your computer’s Network Settings (in the Control Panel if you’re on Windows) rather than asking the router to give it one.

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Rhymzo.6720:

Side question:
When I was forwarding my ports, the guide on portforward said that I need static IP. My connection type is PPPoE and I was assigned no static IP at the beginning, so I assume I have dynamic IP.

That isn’t what it means by a static IP. It doesn’t matter whether the IP your ISP gives you (ie your ‘internet IP’) is static or dynamic. Port forwarding is done within your own network (by your router), and you set it so that traffic on port X goes to say 192.168.1.100 (ie your gaming computer’s internal IP in your own network). If the next time you turn on your gaming computer your router gives it the internal IP address of 192.168.1.101 then your port forwarding won’t work.

Essentially you have to set your computer to use a fixed IP address in your computer’s Network Settings (in the Control Panel if you’re on Windows) rather than asking the router to give it one.

However, if his Router supports UPnP (almost all newer ones do) Port Forwarding is not necessary.

OP – I still believe the issue is COS/QoS related. However, if you want to test the port forwarding correctly you need to setup your PC to use a static IP. Best thing to do is issue the command ‘ipconfig /all’ then goto your TCP/IP settings and copy that output as your static IP configuration.

Then go into your router and forward the ports used for GW2 back to the IP address you just set in TCP/IP.

Thank you, I’ll try contacting the ISP then, got nothing to lose.

Regarding the IP, yes I’ve set it up that way. I used ipconfig /all and used the information to input my own IP address in the TCP/IP settings, used the DNS servers from my ISP. I forwarded all four ports using that static IP and port 80 and 443 are still not open. I don’t understand it…