Guild Wars 2

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.

Just to keep it visible, Cayenne has posted a thread here on the BT forums. If you are a BT customer and are having these issues, it is imperative that you go here and post a comment: https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity-Speed-Connection/BT-throttling-online-games-guild-wars-2-all-the-sudden/m-p/1167366#M127329

If you call BT they will either do basic diagnostics, or try and suggest this problem is only affecting you, regardless of the number of calls they get, I know this from working in a call centre for an ISP. The people you get through to on the phone have two jobs to perform. They are to get you off the line as quickly as possible regardless of the issue being solved. More importantly, if you want your issue escalated they have to offer maximum resistance to this happening.

sirsquishy.8531:

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.

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.

Kahn.2486:

Another night, same stuff…7:30pm everything stopped and the lag comes back and it becomes unplayable for 3-4 hours.

Location: UK
ISP: BT

I don’t know how to do that Trace thing and cant’ find which page it’s on in this topic.

traceroute is done by opening command prompt (type “cmd” without quotes into windows search bar).

Then in the window that opens type the following: tracert 206.127.158.1

Then hit enter and wait.

The thing is it is unlikely to show any issues. Please complain to BT as well. We need to get a decent number of complaints logged to get them to look into it as well. It might not be BT directly causing the issue, but they are in a better position to deal with it than we are.

ginganinja.6752:

Looks like BT have turned off the tap again, become unplayable around about 5 and i bet the lag magically disappears around 11pm againkittenBT and youre crappy internet.

I am on BT and I am not currently (as in right this minute) having issues. However I have had them over the past week or so. Please do your bit and contact BT and complain.

It honestly might not even be them at fault because it seems hit and miss about who is affected. However complaining to them is the only way to get them to take notice. I’ve posted on their forums and so far they seem to be ignoring it, however if more people join in we can at least get them to investigate and they might be able to escalate it to a higher issue if it is not down to them.

Buy yeah, I can confirm that when I have issues they seem to vanish around 11pm. Saying that I have looked at forums for some other MMO’s and people all around Europe seem to be having similar issues on other games.

sirsquishy.8531:

Astro.7318:

sooo, is there a way to fix this or are we just helpless still

Call your ISP, they are the only ones that can initiate to fix this…

Not the OP, however I have tried speaking to BT on this matter through the correct help channels and they don’t seem to care. The issue itself actually seems to be at a higher level along the route from the UK to the servers and is likely out of BT’s personal control.

Apparently there is an issue at a network node in France (unconfirmed) but it appears that depending on how your connection to the servers is routed you can either experience no connection, laggy connection, or frequent disconnection (or a mix of all three).

Nobody seems to want to take ownership of the problem. Arenanet just point you to your ISP and the ISP blames Arenanet. Neither seem to actually want to escalate the issue and take it up with whatever ISP is causing the issue along the route.

Any chance we could get any official word on this issue? At the very least a denial of the issue being an Anet one would allow us to pressure our ISP’s on this. There seem to be a lot of people with there’s issues and the lack if response is not helping us get anywhere.

abomally.2694:

They can ONLY fix problems with their own servers.

Any issues beyond that are not their responsibility and they cannot fix it. I have no problems staying connected to GW2.

’’m having issues myself and tbh I have a feeling it is on their end rather than anywhere else.

I base this on the fact that I can be almost entirely lagged out in WvW while someone sat right next to me is playing fine in Kessex Hills.

If it is an ISP along the route and it is affecting a lot of people then it’s in their best interest to fix it. I doubt people are going to spend money purchasing Gems to unlock slots, skins, whatever for a game they cannot log in to play.

Arena don’t HAVE to fix it, just like people don’t HAVE to leave a burning building. the fact of the matter is if an ISP/Network node is an issue, Arenanet are able to exert a lot more pressure than customer can.

Xanzaki.8402:

UK as well with BT as ISP, the BT thing must be a red herring though surely as the game worked fine prior to tuesdays patch. Since Tuesday the game has been pretty much unplayable, even loading characters in LA, let alone the paralysing lag when you actually get in game and see a champ in the distance… All other games and speed tests confirm my connection is fine.

Same for me on all honesty, however around 11pm tonight my connection suddenly seemed to be perfectly fine. I’ve contacted BT to ask if they are doing any traffic shaping / traffic management. Still waiting for a reply. I do know that almost all BT traffic is no longer shaped, however some packages pre Feb 2013 are still shaped/managed.

Taniki.3014:

Yes well BT were known to have issues across England and Wales, so it was a thought but I think you could very well be right as most people experiencing problems can play anything else without issues.

Also I found in game I can use the chat long after the character has gone out of control. I found so far dungeons, areas with many people or mobs in them are the main causes for problems. Once hitting Lion’s Arch and Divinity’s Reach, it kicks and becomes nigh on unloggable.

Yeah, I can be rubber-banding like a cat on an acid trip, but the chat is still perfectly fine. In fact I can stuck in one place in WvW, while chatting to my fianceé who is perfectly fine on a separate map. The best part is her computer is pretty much right next to mine.

Zato.8245:

I’m based in N.Ireland so not that far off the UK’s west side and I’m also BT as an ISP.

I really don’t think BT is the issue though as this problem only start occurring after the EoTM update and I have no lag (or no more than usual) in any other game like Guild Wars 1.

As I already said I also forwarded all ports for GW2 on my BT Home Hub.

Northern Ireland here (BT as ISP) as well. Only started with the EoTM patch and was fine beforehand.

Traceroutes, pings, speedtests all perfectly fine. All other online games are perfectly fine. It isn’t the BT Home Hub because I’m using my own home router.

Most maps are fine, but occasionally I will lag out for no reason. Lions Arch and WvW maps are pretty much unplayable however I have occasionally been fine in them.

I doubt it’s an ISP issue because I cannot see how BT would have the ability to limit my access to certain maps within a game…

Holden.9273:

I have basically the same problem – it started today with huge lag in eotm, then Elona Reach borderlands. Iv restarted the game and i cant log to any character who is in LA. I can log to my mesmer who is in Snowden Drifts, but when i enter www with him – im getting huge lag and disconnect.

This is what is happening to me. I’ve been advised it is an ISP issue. I however find it odd that my ISP would go out of their way to deny me access to certain maps while letting me play others just fine…

I was lagging really badly in Kessex Hills, but loaded into Queensdale just fine. All WvW maps are toast and unplayable. Lions arch is off limits, and others are hit and miss.

Had these issues before and they cleared up for a while. Like others, they are back with the patch and now much much worse.

The ISP thing does not wash with me, my girlfriend is playing just two feet away from me and while I am disconnecting regularly and unable to load into Lions Arch, she can log on completely reliably to any map and do whatever she wants. While I am getting massive lag spikes she is running around on the same map, in the same place, while in a party with me and is entirely unaffected.

If she logs into her account on my PC it continues to run perfectly fine. If I log into her PC my account continues to lag/disconnect. It’s a shame I cannot run two copies of the game on one PC because then I could realistically test to see if it is an “account” or “computer” issue.

If anyone has any further tests I could try to see if I can shed more light on this issue please let me know. I have access to 3 different PC’s and both me and my girlfriend have GW2 accounts so there is decent scope for testing.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

This could be a regional thing, by some chance you are all on the same ISP, or or it could be a server issue. It is a good idea to post your region (city country), your ISP, does your system connect over WiFi or a cable, any ping paths or trace routs you have done, and the server you play on when posting lag issues of any kind.

I don’t think it is an ISP or regional issue as I can play in the exact same room mas my girlfriend and I will lag while she does not. I can be stood right next to her, unable to use skills or interact with anything while she is perfectly fine. Also while the lag is happening ingame chat functions perfectly fine.

Imagi.4561:

I’m inclined to blame the December 10th patch, as I never had this type of lag problem before then.

Yeah, the last time I played was when the toxic tower event thing had started, and I was fine then. Stopped for a a while and came back and it was like this.

Advice I got from someone else was to delete the file “Local.dat” in your “\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2” I’ve done this twice now and it “appears” to have fixed it both times, although it could be a coincidence and the lag will eventually stop after restarting the game a few times.

Also, I left myself ingame last night when the lag kicked in and I eventually got kicked out with the “7:11:3:189:101” error.

It’s been going on for the last week or so to be honest. I’m not sure about it being server lag either as me and my girlfriend were both on just now and I was lagging hopelessly and she was playing just fine.

However the chat was working perfectly, I could send her messages in party chat and they appeared instantly. However none of my skills would cast and I could not interact with any NPC’s or objects.

I’m on the Aurora Glade server and I haven’t heard of one other person complain about lag :/

Hello everyone.

I’m hoping to see if someone on here can provide me with some help I am having with a latency issue. At random intervals I start lagging ingame, it seems to happen for no reason and the lag is so bad that pressing a skill button results in a 1-3 minute delay before the skill actually casts.

I’ve looked into the issue extensively on my own but cannot find anything causing the problem.

I’ve ran speedtests, pingtests, traceroutes, pings and all of them come back perfectly fine. I tried running a traceroute to the server tonight when the issue happened again and it showed absolutely 0 problems with all response times coming back at under 40ms and no packets dropped at all.

The issue only started happening in the last few weeks, although I have not played for a while so this might not be exact.

Due to my house layout I am stuck using WIFI at the moment. However my girlfriends computer which sits about 2 feet from mine is generally ok with lag although she does get the odd disconnect (they happen at different times so there is no correlation)

The thing is when the lag does start, restarting the game instantly fixes it, and even logging out to character select seems to fix it for a short while. If I remain ingame while lagging it seems to be “permenant” in that it tries to catch up, but never seems to be able to fix itself.

Someone also suggested deleting a file called “Local.dat” from my “AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2” folder and I tried this and thought it may have fixed the problem yesterday, but unfortunately this does not seem to be the case today.

I’m just wondering if anyone can suggest any other possible causes? I’m trying to get hold of a very long CAT5 cable in order to test wired.

The only other thing to add is that everything else works 100% perfectly fine while the lag is going on. I’ve even tried other games and they run great as well. The thing that is really throwing me is the fact that a game restart fixes it, which makes me think it is someone up with the game. Perhaps a reinstall?