Guild Wars 2

Just putting this out there to see if others are experiencing the same problem as I am.

Four days ago, I noticed that I was getting severe lag in GW2, and only GW2. My internet speed was absolutely fine, other games and applications were working perfectly, but GW was practically unplayable: if I even managed to log into the game, I would try to use a skill and it would take over a MINUTE to activate.

Miraculously at midnight that night, it all started working perfectly again. The next day, at around 6.30pm, like clockwork the same problem came back. I tried to figure it out myself, I played the game on my work laptop and had the same issues, I tethered my phone and used its internet connection to play and that worked just fine. I figured there must be some sort of throttling going on by EE. The same problem has been happening for 4 days in a row now.

Today, I rang EE to try and fix the problem. After battling with the person on the other end who point blank refused to deviate from his script, and being put on hold for fifty minutes by a supposed “technical engineer”, I finally managed to get someone who seemed friendly and actually understood the problem I was having. Unfortunately, even after performing all their line checks and whatnot, they still couldn’t find any problem with the line. (this wasn’t surprising since my speedtests were always coming back super speedy.)

As it stands, I cannot play Guild Wars between 6 and 12. EE are apparently going to call the BT engineers on Monday to see if there’s anything they can do, since BT may own the exchange where I live.

Anyone else in the same boat? The more of us there are the more likely they are to fix the problem. I’ve heard they have a history of not admitting it when they have accidentally throttled something they thought was a torrent site.

I am also experiencing this on EE – I was wondering if it was a client issue…?

I’m with EE and having the same problems
my connection is fine and i log into the game fine.
But my ping seems to be really bad during prime time (6pm-12pm)
and the game cannot be played during these times
this has been happening for about 4-5 days now, so after BW3.

Just out of interest guys, what part of the UK are you from? Trying to see if it’s a regional or national thing. East Midlands here

East midlands too.

West London here

Oh so it’s not just me. Was talking to GW2 support and I got this response:

- Thank you for getting back to us and providing the requested report.

I noticed the previous agent asked you to contact your ISP. But I will give you more details regarding that and I will also give you the exact information you need to give them regarding Packet Loss from Hubs. After reviewing the WinMTR report you just sent, I noted that the package loss causing the disconnections is starting on your local network Hub: “BrightBox.ee” and I also found some Jitter (Ping Spikes) that went from 183 to 584 (you can find this in t he column under the title “Wrst”) in the following IP: “213.1.112.80”. I do strongly recommend to contact your ISP in order to troubleshoot this issue. You can send them the reports you just sent to us, in order to make it easy for them to locate the root of the issue. Remember to highlight that the package loss start on your local network Hub.

Please contact them at your earliest convenience and let me know if you have any additional questions about this issue.

Unfortunately I am not the owner of this connection and he is away on holiday for 2 weeks. I am not sure what I’m gonna do though, I’ll try to call EE tomorrow but I doubt I’ll get anything because as mentioned.

I am based in London. The related ping issues thread also showing alot of concerns that are related.

Old Timez.5194:

Oh so it’s not just me. Was talking to GW2 support and I got this response:

- Thank you for getting back to us and providing the requested report.

I noticed the previous agent asked you to contact your ISP. But I will give you more details regarding that and I will also give you the exact information you need to give them regarding Packet Loss from Hubs. After reviewing the WinMTR report you just sent, I noted that the package loss causing the disconnections is starting on your local network Hub: “BrightBox.ee” and I also found some Jitter (Ping Spikes) that went from 183 to 584 (you can find this in t he column under the title “Wrst”) in the following IP: “213.1.112.80”. I do strongly recommend to contact your ISP in order to troubleshoot this issue. You can send them the reports you just sent to us, in order to make it easy for them to locate the root of the issue. Remember to highlight that the package loss start on your local network Hub.

Please contact them at your earliest convenience and let me know if you have any additional questions about this issue.

Unfortunately I am not the owner of this connection and he is away on holiday for 2 weeks. I am not sure what I’m gonna do though, I’ll try to call EE tomorrow but I doubt I’ll get anything because as mentioned.

I am based in London. The related ping issues thread also showing alot of concerns that are related.

Some internet providers (at least in Canada) will help you troubleshoot issues with the service even if you aren’t the account holder. Good luck calling though. I know some American companies are silly. Mine knows the service is paid for, so they want to ensure they can help fix issues.

thank God I’m not the only one. I do too have problem with prime time gaming and I use EE also (west midlands). Ill try to call them tomorrow and see what they will say to me. Everything started 4 days ago (literally day after BW3). If any of you guys will get a solution to our problem, please post is here for everyone. Thank You.

I have been suffering with this connectivity issue also for about 4-5 days, I thought it was just me, if I manage to get into the game which is highly unlikely I am stuck with about 3-4k ping which I didn’t think was possible without being auto disconnected, is it just EE customers though? North West btw

I have the same problem, im with EE in the North West and I cant connect at all what so ever

It’s nice to know I’m not alone! I’ll let you know what the EE man says when he calls back tomorrow after he has spoken with the BT engineer – hopefully I can direct him to this thread to show its not just me, it’s a large-scale problem.

Exact Same problem here. EE User in East Anglia.

Exactly the same problem for me, EE in West Anglia/Norfolk. Only been happening now for roughly 4 days. I had it during the 2nd day of the beta aswell but it cleared after that for a few days. Seems a little odd and its frustrating that this is happening, but a huge correlation with it being EE users haha.

Yup also from the UK, using EE and have exactly the same problem, you’re not alone, hopefully it’s server side since everything else seems fine with my internet/other games.

Playable ping from “EE”
been like this from 5pm-1am for about 5 days now
not been able to do any dungeons

could changing the ports get this working again?

CarnivoraxSapientia.6084:

Yup also from the UK, using EE and have exactly the same problem, you’re not alone, hopefully it’s server side since everything else seems fine with my internet/other games.

Yeah thats my confusion too, ALL my other games, processes and everything work at top speed, but after 6/7pm GW2 just drops its bowels everywhere and doesn’t want to work. I dont think that would be specifically an EE design/fault as it would affect other games if it were packetloss.

I am a UK user of EE and like clockwork at 7.00 pm every day i get a ping between 2-9k rendering the game unplayable. this lasts till 12.00 midnight.
I live in the sussex area.

I have already contacted my isp once and they say there isnt an issue but the staff at anet have given me some evidence so i shall try talking to them again.

The problems started 4 days ago approx

Some other people under:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Ping-Issues-merged/first
Seem to have similar issues.

My lag only seemed to start after the beta weekend and also only seems to be happening during peak times. Like somebody already said, straight after midnight the lag stops. It must be some kind of throttling.

Kusaku.9056:

I am a UK user of EE and like clockwork at 7.00 pm every day i get a ping between 2-9k rendering the game unplayable. this lasts till 12.00 midnight.
I live in the sussex area.

I have already contacted my isp once and they say there isnt an issue but the staff at anet have given me some evidence so i shall try talking to them again.

The problems started 4 days ago approx

Some other people under:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Ping-Issues-merged/first
Seem to have similar issues.

Yup! exactly the same, seems to be affecting quite a lot of people at this stage, hope this gets seen to soon, making the game unplayable at certain times

Also from the UK experiencing exactly the same issues, half 6 until too late for me to be awake and fine for the rest of the day. I’m from down south (Hampshire)

Same here in Leicester with EE, tried port-forwarding GW2 but still nothing at these times.

I’ve had some lag spikes but not as high as you lot but now the game just lags out hell it just sits in the loading screen before it dcs. Torquay EE

I’ve now tried changing the settings of my ISP but it didn’t work. My friend uses EE and doesn’t experience these problems, only difference is he uses an IP forwarder such as HotSpot Shield that makes his IP track to America before relaying anywhere else.

Logically to me, this means there is some communication issue between Anet and EE between 6-7pm and Midnight.

http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/EE-Home-Broadband/Recent-severe-lag-during-peak-times-gaming/m-p/356387/highlight/false#M13517

I also phoned EE customer support and all they told me to do was open my firewall. :/ Obviously didn’t work, hoping that someone on the forums can help us.

I have done alot of tests the problem is at ip: 213.1.114.142 for me
I have linked ee to a set of trace tests so hopefully that will help.

I have done some more tests and this is partially theory but it looks like the problems are created by EE’s peek usage bandwidth shaping.
I havnt gotten much more out of EE yet i will update if i hear anything or find anything else out.

I’ve been in contact with a GM to run some tests as I have been having ping/connection issues for a few days now. There is a reported packet loss between my pc and their servers, my internet otherwise seems fine. I’ve been told it’s a problem on my ISP side (EE) and that i’d need to contact them to get a better wi-fi signal. Feeling slightly at a loss here since my wi-fi has no issues otherwise apart from the rubber banding in gw2 lately.

Changing the ports has given me no improvement.

I’ve tried both -clientport 80 and 443

And yet, the timing of the slow down it seems pretty clear that this is a consequence of EE’s traffic shaping policy. And yet, that policy states that EE Prioritise Game traffic at peak times over P2P and streaming.

I and wondering if anything was changed post BWE3 in terms of netcode that might lead to this problem?

I mean I realise, really, this is a problem for EE to sort out. But getting in touch with an actual engineer at an ISP and not a call centre person or a forum ‘expert’ is like banging your head against a brick wall.

Same problem here in Leeds with EE, started about 4 days ago. Have trouble logging in after 6.30pm. The game is unplayable because i rarely get past loading screen with any character and on the odd occasion that i do there is severe lag before a random disconnection.

From my experiments it actually looks like EE have changed there bandwidth changing and its not a knock on effect of the server changes by GW2.
Not that this is immensly important as this is a problem with EE eitherway but it does look like theres nothing anet can do to help.
I have tried adjusting ports and changing communication routes but i cant seem to get round the bandwidth shaping.

So after testing this out myself now, I can definitely confirm using HotSpotShield during these peak times, allows me to connect to GW2. Yeah, I’m still at 2-400 ping, but it’s playable at least.

I am also the same with this severe lag issues in prime time I am with EE and has happened since BWE3. I live in Maidstone Kent South East
would love to hear any solutions with this as very annoying having to resort to using mobile phone as hotspot at the moment during peak hours

im amazed ur mobile phone can get a good enough connection to play gw2 ^^ ahh the power of 3.. wish my contract hadnt run out now.
Presuming its an unlimited 3 sims or similar anyway.

same problems from spain also… from what i see all is ok on spain teritory but on paris connection start the problem (via tracert)…

godsie.2864:

I am also the same with this severe lag issues in prime time I am with EE and has happened since BWE3. I live in Maidstone Kent South East
would love to hear any solutions with this as very annoying having to resort to using mobile phone as hotspot at the moment during peak hours

Google something called HotSpot Shield it’s pretty good, it allows me to connect during the peak times, so it can’t be their bandwidth shaping, otherwise I’d still be unable to play, but with HSS I can.

It might be that case that by ip forwarding you are bouncing it off a different host and evading the bandwidth shaping.
Just a theory although my knowledge on bandwidth shaping and network traffic is limited.

As an update, EE called me back today and said they were ‘working on the issue’ but ‘needed some time’. They’re going to call again with an update. Hang in there guys!

And funnily enough, in using my phone’s 4g connection to play which is actually through EE also.

-Update on my end:
It is likely that your phones 4g connection gets transferred through a different exchange and host path to separate out mobile broadband and landline broadband for easier management.
I have been talking to a useful volunteer on the EE forums and it looks like the problems might be caused by a host under EE contract for use and maybe an EE host also.

-For those who have been told by EE to disable/remove your firewall:
I also advise ignoring anyone who says to disable your firewall permanently, for starters in this case you can track the problem down to a remote host and not a firewall so it wont even help.
If disabling the firewall did help you, you would be better and safer making an exception for gw2 although in this instance it wont do anything.

-Link to EE forum about the issue
http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/EE-Home-Broadband/Recent-severe-lag-during-peak-times-gaming/m-p/356387/highlight/false#M13517

-Link to a program that you can use to trace where the packets are being dropped:
http://winmtr.net/download-winmtr/
-Note that you may need to enable packet tracing on your firewall temporarily to use this program.

Same issue in Bristol. Still waiting to hear back from an apparent EE engineer. Don’t think he will help matters though.

Same here in Buckinghamshire. I can play every other game, all downloads, uploads no issues whatsoever.

As it stands there seems little point in me pre-purchasing as I can’t play any of my characters.

It seems that my posts are getting swallowed in the posts of all of us feeling this problem. It is by no means a FIX for the problem, but if you download this programme

https://www.hsselite.com/

You will be able to play during the peak times. You WILL still encounter between 200-400ping. In the 4 hours last night I played during peak time, it went no higher than 454 or something. There is a tiny amount of lag, but hell. I did Teq, Triple Trouble and more with it so it’s playable.

I repeat, this is NOT a fix, it is a bandage on the problem untill EE/Anet can work together to solve it.

So its looking like the problem is with a host the EE is contracting out owned by Deutsche Telekom in the ip range of 62.157.249.202.

Hey guys,

On the phone with EE right now, the guy I’m speaking to seems to think I’m the only one who has called with this problem, he says if he can get evidence of other EE customers that are experiencing this, he can escalate the problem. I’m giving him a link to this forum so perhaps they can see how many of us there are, and also to benefit from any of the details you have all provided.

Also a UK EE customer experiencing severe ping during peak hours. In all other respects my connection is fine – no issues with other games, streaming, downloads, etc. I did try contacting EE myself but was stuck on hold for so long I gave up.

Here’s a screenshot from earlier this evening:

Is there a twitter account that we can all just tweet at to show how many of us are affected? Beats being on hold for 20 mins to talk to someone just to go round in circles with some guy reading from a script.

Me and my friend can’t even get past the loading screen and even when we do our ping is 500-4000. We are both on EE living in north west England UK.

Every other game is fine and there’s no trouble browsing the web.

i’m having the same problems, only with guildwars, only been happening recently too

I’m also having the same problem, been happening for over a week now. my connection is fibre with EE and is rock solid with anything else. But ping for guild wars 2 is very high, but only at peak time, making it unplayable. It’s quite frustrating since this is the mostly the time I get to play.

still having problems, can’t even get in at the moment