Ping and the NA ZeniMax Subnet

xRIVALENx

Anyone able to get a response from the ZeniMax ip range 198.20.200.0 => 198.20.200.255? Decided to do some investigating since we seem to be having a plethora of lag and ping issues only to find out I am getting 100% packet loss.

Rin_Senya

Welcome to the club. Check last 3 pages on forum...

Mr_Snuggle

I created a support case with Zenimax. Since last week I am getting a significant amount of spurious retransmission packet resends from their servers (198.20.198.*), as if part of the communication is getting lost in their firewall or during routing.

The net effect in-game is that my ping spikes from 100 to > 700 every few seconds and there is a really ugly delay in bar swaps, ability activations and hitting your target. -I would consider it to be barely playable.

Zenimax support made me go through the regular troubleshooting steps you'd expect:

1. Disabled all Add-Ons.
2. Ran their game assistant diagnostic software and sent them logs.
3. Configured Firewall exceptions (For testing purposes, I connected PC directly to ISP router and temporarily disabled both, router firewall as well as Windows firewall).
4. Added ESO assemblies to Windows Defender exception list.
5. Ensured I have sufficient bandwidth.
6. Ran tracert & pathping to NA server.
7. Ran concurrent ping trace to google.com as a control group and established 0% packet loss during the same time period.

Currently waiting for them to get back to me. I sent them a long list of forum complaints of other users that occurred during the last few days (hinting at that it might not be my configuration.. ).

My recommendation would be for everyone to create a support case and to ping our community managers on all related forum posts. You know how the proverb goes. -Only the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I am convinced that this is a systemic problem that the majority of our player base is currently "tolerating". @ZOS_GinaBruno.

xRIVALENx

Nice to see someone else noticing the re-transmissions and fast re-transmissions, I'm almost positive this is causing some of the lag that we have been noticing lately.

Lirkin

I have been reporting a problem for days and have seen nothing from ZOS about it.

Mr_Snuggle

Update: This appears to be a problem with one of the nodes that my connection is getting routed through between me (Vancouver, CA) and Zenimax.

I tried forcing some alternative routing paths via a VPN and noticed that going through most other points along the west coast (Seattle) leaves me with the same problem.

Setting my VPN connection to go to Dallas and then connecting to Zenimax from there, completely alleviates the problem.

I don't see any more package re-transmissions through Wireshark and the lag is completely gone.

SirAndy

SnuggleStruggle wrote: »

I don't see any more package re-transmissions through Wireshark and the lag is completely gone.

Except the server lag of course, which has nothing to do with the network hardware between you and the ZOS servers ...

Mr_Snuggle

*deleted*

Lirkin

the server lag is nothing compared to what a bunch of us are experiencing.

xRIVALENx

SnuggleStruggle wrote: »

Update: This appears to be a problem with one of the nodes that my connection is getting routed through between me (Vancouver, CA) and Zenimax.

I tried forcing some alternative routing paths via a VPN and noticed that going through most other points along the west coast (Seattle) leaves me with the same problem.

Setting my VPN connection to go to Dallas and then connecting to Zenimax from there, completely alleviates the problem.

I don't see any more package re-transmissions through Wireshark and the lag is completely gone.

Excellent! Must be that notorious AT&T node acting up again. If you don't mind my asking what VPN provider do you happen to use? Currently I use Nord VPN but it would be nice to find a VPN service with a server right in Maryland or close by.

Elsonso

xRIVALENx wrote: »

Anyone able to get a response from the ZeniMax ip range 198.20.200.0 => 198.20.200.255? Decided to do some investigating since we seem to be having a plethora of lag and ping issues only to find out I am getting 100% packet loss.

This is normal and has nothing to do with server availability, lag, or connection drops.

Mr_Snuggle

xRIVALENx wrote: »

SnuggleStruggle wrote: »

Update: This appears to be a problem with one of the nodes that my connection is getting routed through between me (Vancouver, CA) and Zenimax.

I tried forcing some alternative routing paths via a VPN and noticed that going through most other points along the west coast (Seattle) leaves me with the same problem.

Setting my VPN connection to go to Dallas and then connecting to Zenimax from there, completely alleviates the problem.

I don't see any more package re-transmissions through Wireshark and the lag is completely gone.

Excellent! Must be that notorious AT&T node acting up again. If you don't mind my asking what VPN provider do you happen to use? Currently I use Nord VPN but it would be nice to find a VPN service with a server right in Maryland or close by.

IPVanish. Connections through San Jose & Dallas showed significant improvement. I played for a few hours yesterday and actually noticed that it isn't perfect. After a while, I saw some packet re-transmissions and there was a bit of lag but it was very manageable. Only a fraction of the lag that I was experiencing when routing straight to the Zenimax servers.

Ashtaris

xRIVALENx wrote: »

SnuggleStruggle wrote: »

Update: This appears to be a problem with one of the nodes that my connection is getting routed through between me (Vancouver, CA) and Zenimax.

I tried forcing some alternative routing paths via a VPN and noticed that going through most other points along the west coast (Seattle) leaves me with the same problem.

Setting my VPN connection to go to Dallas and then connecting to Zenimax from there, completely alleviates the problem.

I don't see any more package re-transmissions through Wireshark and the lag is completely gone.

Excellent! Must be that notorious AT&T node acting up again. If you don't mind my asking what VPN provider do you happen to use? Currently I use Nord VPN but it would be nice to find a VPN service with a server right in Maryland or close by.

I thought the Zenimax server farm was located in Dallas, so it wouldn't do any good to get the VPN in Maryland would it?

xRIVALENx

Always assumed it was around the Cockeysville Maryland area here, you may very well be correct.

QuebraRegra

xRIVALENx wrote: »

Nice to see someone else noticing the re-transmissions and fast re-transmissions, I'm almost positive this is causing some of the lag that we have been noticing lately.

network engineer here... retrans will absolutely increase application latency. Bigger question is why is there packet loss.. root cause?

Vapirko

I really can't believe we haven't even got an acknowledgment from ZOS. Absolutely unacceptable customer service.

moonbat

The game is 100pct unplayable for me now. Provided I can even get past the login screen, I will be disconnected within 5 seconds of logging onto a character.

xRIVALENx

Latency spikes seem to be occurring between New York and Dallas on the AT&T network, the hop from gbr3.n54ny.ip.att.net to gar24.dlstx.ip.att.net. NTT America does seem to have a direct hop from Chicago to AT&T in Dallas as well which smooths the latency issues out.

soulsedg3

I'm getting the same thing here. new Brunswick, Canada. The last 3 hops...are causing me significant issues playing. Essentially its unplayable in dungeons and pvp. i can manage to get thru quests, with considerable delays....I've opened up all ports, etc. Its not my internet, i can ping/tracert nearly any other server, etc and its good. I work for a cable company as a in field service tech. I've triple checked my home network....and internet provider. thats not it. It boils down to the last 4 hops on the way to the server.

Using pingplotter, this is what i'm seeing....

192.205.36.221 - 16% to 25% packetloss
cr2.dlstx.ip.att.net(12.123.16.78) - 16% to 25% packetloss
gar24.dlstx.ip.att.net(12.122.100.77) - 16% to 25% packetloss
live-services.elderscrollsonline.com(198.20.198.110) - 100% packetloss

would also like to point out, i connected to the EU server, and everything is fine. NO problems whatsoever.

Mr_Snuggle

@ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_AntonioP, @ZOS_EveP , @ZOS_JessicaFolsom, @ZOS_TristanK, @ZOS_GaryA.

There are pages and pages of customer complaints that outline similar issues occurring over the last week.

Even if the problem isn't directly related to the servers within your own infrastructure but with an ISP routing point close to your data center in Maryland, it would be helpful if ZoS acknowledged that there is a problem. A significant portion of your player base is experiencing this issue.

The last word I got from your 2nd level customer support was to please contact my ISP about the problem.

Lirkin

I doubt that they servers are in Maryland. If you do a traceroute to this address: launcher.bethesda.net you will get a failure in Nebraska. Using this site it shows where it goes to and then fails. I am in New England and it goes west not south.

Here is the site I used:

http://www.monitis.com/traceroute/

Morgul667

soulsedg3 wrote: »

would also like to point out, i connected to the EU server, and everything is fine. NO problems whatsoever.

That's interesting , cause connecting to EU from asia, I am facing the same issue that NA players describe here.
And it was not the case before last week-end (lag was normal, not crazy game breaking)

Elsonso

Lirkin wrote: »

I doubt that they servers are in Maryland. If you do a traceroute to this address: launcher.bethesda.net you will get a failure in Nebraska. Using this site it shows where it goes to and then fails. I am in New England and it goes west not south.

The NA servers are in Dallas, Texas.

Mr_Snuggle

lordrichter wrote: »

Lirkin wrote: »

I doubt that they servers are in Maryland. If you do a traceroute to this address: launcher.bethesda.net you will get a failure in Nebraska. Using this site it shows where it goes to and then fails. I am in New England and it goes west not south.

The NA servers are in Dallas, Texas.

You guys are really missing the point of my statement.

Elsonso

SnuggleStruggle wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Lirkin wrote: »

I doubt that they servers are in Maryland. If you do a traceroute to this address: launcher.bethesda.net you will get a failure in Nebraska. Using this site it shows where it goes to and then fails. I am in New England and it goes west not south.

The NA servers are in Dallas, Texas.

I guys are really missing the point of my statement.

Yeah, that is definitely true. Meanwhile, the NA megaserver is in Dallas, TX, which is the part of the comment that I am responding to.

Lirkin

Being in Texas would explain why the traceroute goes to Kansas but not why it fails there.

Elsonso

Lirkin wrote: »

Being in Texas would explain why the traceroute goes to Kansas but not why it fails there.

Well, if your traceroute looks like mine, it is 'failing' in Dallas, not Kansas. The "location" of these places is usually not right when you look at them on the web page. They guess. It is often somewhere in the center of the country. Guess where Kansas is.

As to why it 'fails', all I can say is that traceroute is not a guaranteed thing. When it works, it can tell us a lot about the path through the internet between A and B. When it does not work, all we really know is that it does not work.

Lirkin

Where your traceroute fails will depend on where you are locate or what location the traceroute originated from.

soulsedg3

i know one thing. its a routing issue, either on their end or in between. it's not MY isp. And if this continues, i will not be renewing my subscription. i will free to play like everyone else. I've spent probably 200 bucks in the past 2 months here, and that will end if this isn't remedied.

Vapirko

@SnuggleStruggle they did acknowledge the issue on Twitter.

Joffi

Vapirko wrote: »

@SnuggleStruggle they did acknowledge the issue on Twitter.

Bethesda support acknowledged it on Twitter. And that was a day ago. How many times we've been told Bethesda and Zenimax are different and the roles are different? Why hasn't the company in charge of the game given updates on an ongoing problem for the game they manage?