Omg when will my Interwebs be better!!!

[Paranoia]

The post a few up shows this.. the tracert is ~40, in game (when elevated) ~120.

In game normally fluctuates between 40 - 60ms.

[DevilsRefugee]

rocky, your issue is cause O2 cram as many people onto their BT Central pipes as they can (link between BT's network and their own).  If you did manage to get out of your contract, I'd bet you wouldn't have any ping issues as long as you picked a _GOOD_ isp.  you'll defo have to give up bandwidth allowance (cause unlimited really doesn't work on BT based adsl) and probs pay more per month (no idea what access costs anyway)

agreed life, but the best anybody got from o2 is a reported 3 months free (which is better than a slap in the face ofc) currently paying £17 p/m and would be more than happy to ditch the Unlimited Bandwidth AND pay a bit extra to know my ping wont go into space.

In am currently looking into the complaints procedure will post when I know more.

Cheers for the info life

[Paranoia]

Just a further post to see if anyone has any inspiration - interestingly, I noticed an extra quirk this evening.

This is the hlsw ping graph for the community server:



and then the community server, after resetting my router:


The reset is clear to see as the long period of red, and then afterwards, the improvement can be seen also.

Interestingly, the arena server graph was the same (i.e. not elevated) before and after the router reset:



So it seems the problem only affects game traffic (as a normal ping/tracert would have not been elevated) and but indeed, only to a server that I have (presumabley) played on. I.e the lag only occurs when the traffic is going via a specific port.

The above, as well as the fact that when using the USB modem over the weekend, I didn't get this elevated latency at all, is making me believe more and more strongly that it's the router.

Now to convince Sky...

[EDIT: You'll probably need to click through on the pics to see all the graph, and hence the interesting part of the 2nd one]

[lifeless]

hmmm.. that is kinda strange.  could be some traffic management issue as arena is on default port and comm sever isn't. tho that doesn't explain the router reboot fixing comm....  how does it look for the 2 match servers? (and the 2 srctv's for that matter)

Now to convince Sky...

good luck with that tbh...
are you on LLU and are you tied into a contract?  any other LLU available on your exch?
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

[Paranoia]

Not on LLU, and NOT in contract atm - but the only ISP LLU'd at my exchange is TalkTalk.

I have heard for gaming they can be pretty reasonable, and download speeds are only throttled (albeit heavily) at 'peak times' and on a 'per exchange' basis... meaning if my exchange is undersubscribed it shouldn't be too bad, but if oversubscribed, it could be a nightmare.

Scared to make the jump to TalkTalk, as it's an 18 month contract  - wouldn't want to be stuck with a shite ISP for a year and a half.

[lifeless]

i'd say away from talktalk, heard loads of horror stories about them.  and 18month contract? i wouldn't even sign a 12month contract. i think i'm allergic to them

[Paranoia]

Strangely enough, I'm experiencing the problem now, and match#2 is symptomatic, but match#1 is not.

The plot thickens...

[stoned_llama]

27015 is not "shaped/fucked" but 27016/anything else is?

Sounds like your ISP. Course, how teh fuck does resetting your router change anything?

Mysterious...

Does your router have an option to allow outside access to it's http interface? Maybe one/some of us could take a look at it's settings for you.

[lifeless]

that defo sounds like some sort of port trotteling issue.  match 1 is on default port, match 2 isn't.  their game port mapping utterly fails as i bet a sh1t load of servers don't use default ports.  epic fail!

[Paranoia]

Also just thought that this might/might not be relevant:

When I am using utorrent, I can't establish new internet connections. i.e. the web breaks etc.

that defo sounds like some sort of port trotteling issue.  match 1 is on default port, match 2 isn't.  their game port mapping utterly fails as i bet a sh1t load of servers don't use default ports.  epic fail!

But then why does power cycling my router fix it?

[frymaster]

the utorrent issue definately sounds like the NAT table in your router is full.  Workaround for that is to reduce the number of connections utorrent uses.  (A better solution - assuming utorrent isn't using insane values - is to get a better router)

if the NAT is especially bad, maybe it could explain the 27015 / anything else issue as well... like, maybe it special-cases well-known game ports? or is doing some sort of QoS thing?

since you seem to have got a hold of the details needed to use another router, i'd go ahead and use one tbh, never mind the Ts&Cs

[Paranoia]

Hm, I'm beginning to doubt the assumption that I've made between the graph of elevated ping in hlsw, and actual elevated ping in game.

I'm fairly sure these two things are not related - the high ping in hlsw seems to be a red herring... though I do not know what the cause is.



Also, just spotted it sort itself out - whereas I'm fairly sure my ping spikes do not sort themselves out. Although, I suppose I never stay playing for long enough!

My parents are away again this weekend, so I think I will whip the old USB modem out again and see what happens. Bloody thing gives me BSoDs in win7 though!

[Paranoia]

Right, after having a read of the forums over at http://www.skyuser.com I've seen a few recommendation for an ISP called ADSL24.

For £18.90 per month (currently paying £17) 8MB connection I'll be subject to 30GB bandwidth allowance, but this only counts for 8am - 12 midnight weekdays. Overnight, and weekends are not included - so I think it's roughly the same as the 40GB allowance I have now from Sky. But, it looks like traffic will not be throttled in anyway - not any aggressive way anyway.

The best bit? 1 month contract, so if they're shite, I can ship off to Zen or NewNet or somewhere else.

Also, once my exchange gets upgraded to 21CN (6 - 9 months from now hopefully), my speed should bump to 24MB down / 1.4 MB up, with the monthly cost staying the same.

Fairly sure I'm going to set the migration in progress tonight.

[Paranoia]

Oh, and I wanted to download a tv episode via bittorrent yesterday evening, but was getting throttled to hell:

[lifeless]

heh, adsl24 are good, but they use the entanet network, which...errr...isn't anymore

i use to be with ukfsn (another entanet reseller) and they were good for a while, but then i got moved on to 21CN...oh god. no end of issues, and from what i've seen they still ain't fixed (moved to Be in feb!).  

of course you can always give it a go, thats what 1 month contracts are for!