Packet Loss Problem

[Kintro]

Hi,
I've been noticing some problems with packet loss, particularly in high DPS situations (ToD, etc), making things unplayable. In a raid instance like shroud or ToD packet loss can be up to 15%, even in public instances a small amount of packet loss occurs making it a pain moving around. Here's an MTR test I ran to gls.ddo.com:

Host                                              Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1.                                                0.0%   199    4.2  58.5   1.3 105.8  29.4
 2.                                                0.0%   199   23.1  23.8  21.7  35.5   2.5
 3.                                                0.0%   199   23.3  23.9  22.1  35.2   2.2
 4.                                                0.0%   199   28.8  29.9  28.7  40.1   1.6
 5.                                                0.0%   199   28.7  29.8  28.2  49.3   2.2
 6. 213.120.157.178                         0.0%   199   30.2  30.2  28.1  95.0   5.1
 7. acc1-10GigE-0-2-0.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net  1.0%   198   28.4  91.8  28.4 11603 826.5
 8. 109.159.250.5                              5.0%   198   35.5  77.4  34.9 7675. 557.1
 9. transit2-xe-1-1-0.ilford.ukcore.bt.net 1.0%   198   35.4  37.6  34.2  76.8   6.3
10. t2c2-ge14-0-0.uk-ilf.eu.bt.net        4.0%   198   36.6  36.2  34.7  46.9   1.5
11. t2c1-p3-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net           0.0%   198   36.1  36.1  34.5  43.2   0.9
12. t2a1-ge4-0-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net      0.0%   198   34.6  36.4  34.6  51.5   2.0
13. 166-49-211-38.eu.bt.net               0.0%   198   35.2  38.7  34.8  89.9   9.1
14. xe-1-2-0.bos10.ip4.tinet.net          5.0%   198  119.4 115.8 112.5 155.3   6.2
15. internap-gw.ip4.tinet.net              94.9%   198  111.0 111.9 110.6 117.1   1.9
16. border1.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn003.pnap.net 97.0%   198  111.8 115.6 111.5 128.4   6.4
17. turbine-6.border1.bsn003.pnap.net  8.1%   198  119.6 112.3 110.4 125.6   1.9
18. 74.201.102.154                           93.9%   198  112.9 112.9 111.4 116.8   1.5
19. 74.201.102.13                             94.9%   198  111.4 115.4 111.4 131.3   6.1

As you can see the packet loss doesn't get really bad until it's within Tinet's network who I think are the international carrier.

Does anyone else have a problem like this at the moment or any advice as to what we can do about it?

[Whippy]

We have both played DDO from this location for years together, we have only been having these problems for the last 2 weeks, all hardware has been tested/replaced.

The problem has not changed at all since this problem first appeared and my byf posted this thread last week, if anything it has just gotten worse. There are a number of other international players on ghallanda suffering the same issues. I witnessed it myself when the koreans had the same problem as me in a ToD run, new to them too, also some in australia with the same problem.. all just in the last 2 weeks.

Last night in ToD I was suffering 92.5% loss, the game is simply unplayable in that state.

[Kintro]

Some more MTR results taken just now:

Host                                          Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. BThomehub.home                   0.0%   300   73.3  61.4  13.2  98.7  13.6
 2.                                            0.0%   300   21.4  21.8  20.8  31.5   0.9
 3.                                            0.0%   300   21.5  21.9  21.0  28.8   0.6
 4.                                            0.0%   300   27.5  28.0  27.2  35.0   0.5
 5. 213.120.157.18                      0.0%   300   32.8  27.9  27.1  32.8   0.5
 6. 213.120.157.178                    0.0%   300   28.2  28.0  27.2  38.6   0.9
 7. acc1-10GigE-11-2-0.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net 1.7%   300   28.4  29.4  27.2  86.3   7.0
 8. 109.159.250.5                       2.0%   300   35.1  34.8  33.6  69.8   2.2
 9. transit2-xe-0-1-0.ilford.ukcore.bt.net   1.7%   300   34.5  35.6  33.4  84.0   6.0
10. t2c2-ge11-0-0.uk-ilf.eu.bt.net  3.0%   300   34.5  34.3  33.4  42.1   0.6
11. t2c1-p3-3.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net     0.0%   300   34.2  34.5  33.7  58.9   1.5
12. t2a1-ge4-0-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net  0.3%   300   34.2  34.6  33.6  48.6   1.1
13. 166-49-211-38.eu.bt.net          8.7%   300   34.6  40.1  33.8 123.0  14.1
14. xe-1-2-0.bos10.ip4.tinet.net     13.7%   300  112.2 112.5 110.4 145.8   4.4
15. internap-gw.ip4.tinet.net         86.6%   300  110.7 112.9 110.5 151.2   7.4
16. border1.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn003.pnap.net  99.3%   300  115.1 113.2 111.4 115.1   2.6
17. turbine-6.border1.bsn003.pnap.net 14.0%   300  113.0 111.8 110.7 123.0   1.3
18. 74.201.102.154                      86.3%   300  112.2 112.0 110.8 114.3   0.7
19. 74.201.102.13                       99.7%   300  111.6 111.6 111.6 111.6   0.0

Hop 17 makes me think the results are misleading. Loss further down the line should always increase, a drop like that makes me think the earlier loss is due to restrictions on ICMP traffic. There's also the fact we aren't affected in game until we're engaged in a heavy DPS scenario.

In the screenshot Whippy posted above I was away from the main group (other side of the room) and had 0.0% loss. As we share an ADSL connection any network congestion should've affected me aswell.

Was there anything changed in the client 2 weeks ago which may be causing loss for players on a higher latency connection, particularly in high DPS scenarios?

[Harkle]

G'day Kintro / Whippy..

i recently had similar problem, and have just been able to fix it.. ill provide a link to the thread for you

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...=1#post2956623

Hope this fix's your as well mate

[Kintro]

G'day Kintro / Whippy..

i recently had similar problem, and have just been able to fix it.. ill provide a link to the thread for you

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...=1#post2956623

Hope this fix's your as well mate

Thanks for your reply. Both our voice latency bars are set to 250.0 but I'll try completely disabling voice chat for our next shroud run to see if it makes any difference.

Regarding the MTR/traceroute packet loss; I found lots of these in my firewall logs:

14:00:45 13 May FIREWALL icmp check (1 of 250): Protocol: ICMP Src ip: 77.67.77.54 Dst ip: xx.xx.xx.xx Type: Time Exceeded Code: Time to Live exceeded in Transit

Which is from one of the servers showing very high loss. Not sure why these ICMP responses are failing to traverse NAT properly, going to try a different brand of router shortly.

[Kintro]

Switched the router again (to a different brand this time) and the MTR is clear:

Host                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. www.routerlogin.com        0.0%   103    0.4   0.4   0.4   2.4   0.2
 2.                                      0.0%   103   19.7  19.9  19.2  41.4   2.2
 3.                                      0.0%   103   19.6  20.5  19.4  45.2   3.5
 4.                                      0.0%   103   25.6  26.2  25.2  47.3   2.1
 5. 213.120.157.30                 0.0%   103   26.2  26.0  25.2  31.6   0.7
 6. 213.120.157.178                0.0%   103   25.8  26.5  25.4  52.2   3.1
 7. acc1-10GigE-11-2-0.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net      0.0%   103   25.8  28.9  25.3  86.2  10.0
 8. 109.159.250.5                   0.0%   103   32.9  33.0  32.0  52.5   2.2
 9. transit2-xe-0-1-0.ilford.ukcore.bt.net  0.0%   103   32.5  36.0  31.6 150.2  15.6
10. t2c2-ge11-0-0.uk-ilf.eu.bt.net  0.0%   103   32.7  32.5  31.7  46.7   1.5
11. t2c1-p3-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net  0.0%   103   32.5  32.5  32.0  41.1   0.9
12. t2a1-ge4-0-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net   0.0%   103   32.7  32.6  32.0  47.2   1.5
13. 166-49-211-38.eu.bt.net      0.0%   103   32.1  34.5  31.8  98.8   9.5
14. xe-1-2-0.bos10.ip4.tinet.net 0.0%   103  117.3 120.2 116.3 164.8   8.3
15. internap-gw.ip4.tinet.net     0.0%   103  109.4 111.4 108.6 206.4  12.3
16. 63.251.128.107                 0.0%   103  109.5 110.9 108.7 229.4  11.9
17. 64.95.76.202                    0.0%   103  109.7 109.5 108.7 112.1   0.5
18. 74.201.102.154                 0.0%   103  111.0 110.3 109.1 135.9   2.6
19. 74.201.102.13                  0.0%   102  108.9 110.1 108.8 123.5   2.1

I'll update later if it had any effect in game.

[Kintro]

No change in game. Whippy (with voice chat disabled) running the shroud part 4-5 with 0-20% loss, gradually increasing as the fight progresses. Meanwhile I'm running around killing things in the Devil Battlefield with 0.0% loss.

[AZgreentea]

I'm not sure if it helps here, but do you run with a static group? I have seen a few comments that it can be one or two party members with a poor connection that can bring everyone down with DPS lag. Packet loss can be due to timeouts, as well.

[Whippy]

I'm not sure if it helps here, but do you run with a static group? I have seen a few comments that it can be one or two party members with a poor connection that can bring everyone down with DPS lag. Packet loss can be due to timeouts, as well.

No it happens on guild runs and in complete pugs.

[Kintro]

I made a video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb7Ie4NYXNY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRCzIglmoU

Put it in 720p and full screen, you should be able to see the loss climbing and the FPS staying about the same.

Sounds like this guy was having the same problem last December: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=219881

He switched ISP and the problem went away. We've been talking to our ISP and have an engineer coming tomorrow so fingers crossed