stop-and-go Lag

[Dariun]

Since the last update (4.2), I have been experiencing an annoying type of Lag: Everything is perfectly fine, and then the game freezes up for 2-4 seconds.

When it freezes up, I can still make my character swing his weapon, but he won't move. All the monsters freeze. But, if I'm swinging away at the monster, when the 2-4 seconds is up, I will often see several red damage numbers pop up all at once and the monster fall dead, so it seems my actions are going into a queue or something.

I assume this is a type of client lag rather than server lag as other people in my parties have not reported the problem. It happens in quests and in public areas. It happens whether there are a lot of people online or few people online. It has happened on two different servers (one post-merge, one not merged yet). It happens randomly. Sometimes I go 15 minutes without it happening at all, sometimes it happens 3 times in 1 minute.

My first thought was this was a problem with my internet connection. I've checked this and don't think that's it. I have no other evidence of these brief disconnects in any other software I use. I also tried deleting the DDO Exception in my firewall and then putting it back in. This did not help.

I have 2 gigs of RAM, so that's not it.

My processor and graphics card are low end and are probably the problem (although they worked fine for a year), but frankly it doesn't seem like this is happening when processing power is in high demand. I use "very low" graphics setting and have tried to turn off anything that could be causing problems.

Any thoughts, advice, or suggestions would be appreciated.

I don't think upgrading my graphics card is an option because I'm using a notebook computer and I'm not sure I can change it (i.e., I'm not sure the graphics card is a user serviceable part in my machine or that compatible higher end graphics cards are available for my machine).

[Theboz]

Run a tracert

WinXP
Start>RUN>Type "CMD"

in the CMD window Type "Tracert gls.ddo.com"

If you see any * you could have a problem with your connection to DDO

Also when you log into your server and play if you look for a icon to left of your character sheet icon you should see Latency, Loss, Sent and Recv.

Look at Loss if you see any percentage of loss you then have a connection problem.
this could be from a bad wireless connection, router, provider, or any nurmerous connection along the path to DDO.

[Dariun]

Thanks for the tips.

The trace turned up no *s, but there was definitely "loss". I ran around for a bit watching it. It was around 2% when I started watching, then I "froze", when I started again loss was around 6%. It later dropped to 0.3% then went back up around 2%. I "froze" again and it was up at 4% afterwards.

While frozen the "BPS received" dropped to 0 but the "sent" number stayed the same

So, likely a connection problem? I guess I'll start by rebooting the PC, router, and cable modem. Not sure if my expertise will get me much past there...

Run a tracert

WinXP
Start>RUN>Type "CMD"

in the CMD window Type "Tracert gls.ddo.com"

If you see any * you could have a problem with your connection to DDO

Also when you log into your server and play if you look for a icon to left of your character sheet icon you should see Latency, Loss, Sent and Recv.

Look at Loss if you see any percentage of loss you then have a connection problem.
this could be from a bad wireless connection, router, provider, or any nurmerous connection along the path to DDO.

[Altumus]

Do you have a router, firewall or peerto peer network running at all?

[Dariun]

Do you have a router, firewall or peerto peer network running at all?

linksys router
windows XP firewall
one other PC and a printer connect to the router

nothing else

P.S. Tried shutting off the Windows firewall. This did not help.

[Altumus]

Just for troubleshooting purposes can you try bypassing the router and see if you can play well. If not can you post the results of a tracert to gls.ddo.com, thanks!