Recent Issues with NA Megaserver

Cously

Any chance we can get an extension on the event? I think it is fantastic and got people out to PVP more but the performance was a let down and many people, myself included, had to pass on it because crashes and kicks.

chrisw_63_ESO

So it seems some people don't really understand DDOS attacks. Lets see if I can help with that.

DDOS is an acronym for Distributed Denial of Service. Basically, the responsible ***.. er... people.. infect a LOT of computers with a virus that either does the attack directly, or enables them to tell the virus what to do.

Each of these computers can send a variety of regular internet messages to try to get the server's attention. It doesn't have to be, and usually is not, a game client connect request. If the servers in question are well monitored and set up properly, they don't respond to any of this, but the traffic still clogs the bandwidth a bit.

If these same aforementioned parties see that the attack isn't having much effect, they can attack the internet routers feeding the server instead. Typically routers are a lot more susceptible to such attacks, since they have to respond to many of these internet requests to do their job. Usually, these attacks use every single 'vector' they know about (every attack they can think of) to make sure at least some interruption of service occurs.

ON THE OTHER HAND... <cough>Bethesda<cough> Arcane error codes blaming the problem on a 'login error' Do Not Help. Tech support people telling us we have to re-download the Launcher or Repair the game DO NOT HELP. Especially when they already KNOW there is a problem elsewhere. (And if they don't, why aren't you telling them?) You end up with frustrated, upset players who want to flame you in the forums when they find out the real deal.

Humanize the error codes. Put in the description what they REALLY mean. Its not a Login Error when the Launcher can't connect to the Login Server - its a Connection Error. "Can't connect to Login Server" would be fine. We would know what's up, and go on the forums to complain about the DDOS'ers, instead of complaining about clueless Tech Support. And, PLEASE, change the tech support script so they ask if we're getting more than one error code? I realize that many people who call for tech support are truly clueless when it comes to anything deeper than gaming on a computer, but for the rest of us, at least find out our level of ignorance before treating us as morons? Please???

Those of us who do know what's going on are generally understanding when this carp happens. Give us the chance to show you that. I think you'll be surprised.

tinythinker

More than one MMORPG of this genre /category has been getting hit lately. Both games I play have been having issues. Thank the techs/coders working on this on behalf of the players (well, most of us, can't speak for all).

Tavian1978

I have absolutely zero problem with them not giving specifics about how they're trying to address this issue, however I have a major issue with it taking this long to actually address what the issue is.

DDoS attacks suck. That's not the issue. The issue (to me, and I hope, others) is that it took this damn long to finally speak up about it? This has been going on for weeks, yet no mention from anyone? Instead, we get a bunch of noise about power-cycling our modems, checking drivers, etc.

At some point, shouldn't one of the community managers actually address the community? Not weeks later, but perhaps days? Especially after this went into the second week?

TempusFugit

tinythinker wrote: »

More than one MMORPG of this genre /category has been getting hit lately. Both games I play have been having issues. Thank the techs/coders working on this on behalf of the players (well, most of us, can't speak for all).

Very true.

It is evident that the methods used to generate these attacks are getting more and more sophisticated - similar to viruses/trojans that can attack a pc, it's pretty much like a cold war out there.

The affected games result in all, most or some players experiencing disconnects, problems logging in and difficulty with transmitting/receiving data - high latency thus disrupting gameplay.

We also know that reported symptoms take a while to investigate especially if only a handful of users (As has occurred over the past few days.) are experiencing them and because there are so many other possible factors involved. Users' PCs can be the cause when one considers possible effects of updates, new software installs etc. Thus Technical support through the process of symptoms identification and possible factor elimination will advise on possible fixes, on an individual basis, until the actual cause is determined.

IMHO Technical Support did their job, and in fact the steps shared by a player who communicated Technical Support received steps to /flushdns etc did help my ability to play, if only for a bit.

I also humbly but firmly believe that the frustration felt by those affected was surely as intense as the stress level felt by the many ZOS individuals who were contacted to eliminate these problems, and get things back on track so that we can return to once more enjoying the amazing play environment offered through ESO.

Best Regards,

Enodoc

Tavian1978 wrote: »

I have absolutely zero problem with them not giving specifics about how they're trying to address this issue, however I have a major issue with it taking this long to actually address what the issue is.

DDoS attacks suck. That's not the issue. The issue (to me, and I hope, others) is that it took this damn long to finally speak up about it? This has been going on for weeks, yet no mention from anyone? Instead, we get a bunch of noise about power-cycling our modems, checking drivers, etc.

At some point, shouldn't one of the community managers actually address the community? Not weeks later, but perhaps days? Especially after this went into the second week?

They probably wanted to avoid giving the people who are causing the DDoS the exposure they're after. As lordrichter said, since Thursday it got much worse, and more noticeable that DDoS was the cause.

m12d12_ESO

10:35 a.m. still having issues. Neither me or my sons have been able to log in. I had been on very early morning with tons of issues, but neither of my sons have been able to be on at all yesterday or today- so far.

ADJMass

chrisw_63_ESO wrote: »

ON THE OTHER HAND... <cough>Bethesda<cough> Arcane error codes blaming the problem on a 'login error' Do Not Help. Tech support people telling us we have to re-download the Launcher or Repair the game DO NOT HELP. Especially when they already KNOW there is a problem elsewhere. (And if they don't, why aren't you telling them?) You end up with frustrated, upset players who want to flame you in the forums when they find out the real deal.

Humanize the error codes. Put in the description what they REALLY mean. Its not a Login Error when the Launcher can't connect to the Login Server - its a Connection Error. "Can't connect to Login Server" would be fine. We would know what's up, and go on the forums to complain about the DDOS'ers, instead of complaining about clueless Tech Support. And, PLEASE, change the tech support script so they ask if we're getting more than one error code? I realize that many people who call for tech support are truly clueless when it comes to anything deeper than gaming on a computer, but for the rest of us, at least find out our level of ignorance before treating us as morons? Please???

While this is all and good. The error code that is being presented IS correct because the login attempt is failing. The launcher has no way of knowing that the servers are being DDOs'd All the launcher knows is that it cannot connect to the server therefore "Login Failed"

drunkenspidey

DoS... ok, I thought that maybe I was experiencing an unusual long loading screen or it was maybe my internet connection.

sirston

Can we see a data chart? Like im not saying I don't believe you guys, But I don't believe you guys. Because its been talked about in the past....
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2396513#Comment_2396513
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2547808#Comment_2547808
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2825883#Comment_2825883
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/327242/na-megaserver-weekend-issues

Pretty sure ZOS that your parent company could loan you a small loan of million dollars from the 500 they got from facebook.

Turelus

sirston wrote: »

Can we see a data chart? Like im not saying I don't believe you guys, But I don't believe you guys. Because its been talked about in the past....
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2396513#Comment_2396513
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2547808#Comment_2547808
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2825883#Comment_2825883
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/327242/na-megaserver-weekend-issues

Pretty sure ZOS that your parent company could loan you a small loan of million dollars from the 500 they got from facebook.

What don't you believe?

rootimus

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone,
In short, we’ve been getting hit with many repeated DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service).

Why the short version? How about giving some technical details for us geeks? What type of DDoS attack was it, for example? I'll wait while one of you hits up google to see what the hell I'm talking about.

sirston wrote: »

Can we see a data chart? Like im not saying I don't believe you guys, But I don't believe you guys. Because its been talked about in the past....
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2396513#Comment_2396513
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2547808#Comment_2547808
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2825883#Comment_2825883
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/327242/na-megaserver-weekend-issues

Pretty sure ZOS that your parent company could loan you a small loan of million dollars from the 500 they got from facebook.

According to http://www.digitalattackmap.com, the last notable attack on the US was back in May. Perhaps this was the same DDoS attack that conveniently appeared after John Oliver told Ajit Pai to www.gofccyourself.com?

Edit: removed some words that snuck in from my original draft.

GamingLass

Thank you for the information! This explains so much and now if it happens, I don't have to bang my head against a wall trying to figure out if it's my ISP, port, anti virus... Greatly appreciate the update!!

Sythen88411

It's the ep zergs causing all this. #facts

Swifigames

Wheyntheblacksmith_ESO wrote: »

Swifigames wrote: »

Sincerest of thanks for the insight and all the hard work the team puts in for this gaming community. I can't say I know the inner workings of such madness, but I've done some reading on DDoS attacks earlier in the year and I'm sure it can be brutal at times. I send my best wishes to you all and hope for everything to work out like a kinked neck in the end. Then we'll all be able to relax.

Wheyntheblacksmith_ESO wrote: »

Still not working for me. Looks like I am stuck on EU servers from now on. You can at least transfer my wifes and mines stuff over since I will not be on the NA any longer.

How is it playing on the EU server(s)? I'm not certain I want to give it a go...but what's it like? Any differences, laggy, etc? And if that's an option why shouldn't I go that route myself in situations like this?
Thanks.

The ping is a little higher, chat is non-existent. Rather peaceful really. IMO I feel the EU servers are either dead or they now a NA player and don't like us. Hence they refuse to talk or the EU servers are A: That dead or B: The time difference is that drastic and everyone is asleep lol or C: it's filled mostly with *** bots they can't farm worth a damn which leaves a slow player like myself to enjoy his RP walking and still can farm to his heart content while enjoying the views and sites. if you decide to jump on, i have a Fem Bosmer named Nueska Osomi. Like me up so you have a fellow NA player to game with. Least talk to ya know.

I will certainly keep that in mind. I suppose my next question would be this, since it's a different server, you'd have to create a new char? Are NA chars I've already created not available on another (EU) server?

Lynea

yes ! glad to know is is not just me.. has been hard to get this latest fun thing finished tho... thanks for being on top of it all! ZOS

Rohamad_Ali

Smasherx74

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

emma666

DDOS attack, or just ESO's renowned awful servers that can't handle a PvP event because you won't actually use common sense and spend resources on fixing your base game bugs and performance issues?

Instead you keep working on new PvE content and crown store items and events that players can't even play because we keep crashing without being able to log on, stuck in forever loadscreen, pingspikes and horrible lag.

If it really is a DDOS attack, shouldn't every player be affected equally? And how can a DDOS attack affect THE ABILITY TO GROUP, when that bug mostly comes after maintenance/''fixes''?

Really *** I sometimes spend more time trying to log on the damn game than actually playing. I barely have crashes or serious lag in PvE, just in PvP, how do you expain that on a DDOS attack?..

Seriously, just fix your damn servers and don't put the blame on someone else, we all know ESO have performance issues and ZOS don't know how to fix them, time to atleast TRY and keep your paying costumers UPDATED on your progress.

TazESO

emma666 wrote: »

DDOS attack, or just ESO's renowned awful servers that can't handle a PvP event because you won't actually use common sense and spend resources on fixing your base game bugs and performance issues?

Instead you keep working on new PvE content and crown store items and events that players can't even play because we keep crashing without being able to log on, stuck in forever loadscreen, pingspikes and horrible lag.

If it really is a DDOS attack, shouldn't every player be affected equally? And how can a DDOS attack affect THE ABILITY TO GROUP, when that bug mostly comes after maintenance/''fixes''?

Really *** I sometimes spend more time trying to log on the damn game than actually playing. I barely have crashes or serious lag in PvE, just in PvP, how do you expain that on a DDOS attack?..

Seriously, just fix your damn servers and don't put the blame on someone else, we all know ESO have performance issues and ZOS don't know how to fix them, time to atleast TRY and keep your paying costumers UPDATED on your progress.

Not everyone necessarily gets affected equally in these situations because not everyone is getting the content from the same place. With less dynamic systems (think static content downloads, like YouTube vids), DDOS happens all the time but you don't even know it on those, or it just slows until you are rerouted to another content source. MMO real time global operations are more complicated though.

Check out how CDNs work, I'm too lazy to explain it all here. Akamai has some great vids on the tech.

With that said, ZOS does have more work to do.

Quantum_V

ZoS, you should make it so everytime you join a group larger than 6 players, every 30s somebody in that group randomly dies. Do that for 2 days and you'll see the latency issues resolved in PvP.

ADJMass

Smasherx74 wrote: »

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

What do you want to be compensated for? It's not their fault they're being DDOS'd...

Elsonso

ADJMass wrote: »

Smasherx74 wrote: »

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

What do you want to be compensated for? It's not their fault they're being DDOS'd...

On top of that, they are taking action to correct it.

Mojmir

lordrichter wrote: »

ADJMass wrote: »

Smasherx74 wrote: »

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

What do you want to be compensated for? It's not their fault they're being DDOS'd...

On top of that, they are taking action to correct it.

until the next "attack" lol

Elsonso

Mojmir wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

ADJMass wrote: »

Smasherx74 wrote: »

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

What do you want to be compensated for? It's not their fault they're being DDOS'd...

On top of that, they are taking action to correct it.

until the next "attack" lol

You do know that we can see that they are taking action, right? This isn't just a "take our word for it".

Mojmir

lordrichter wrote: »

Mojmir wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

ADJMass wrote: »

Smasherx74 wrote: »

I want to be compensated for your incompetence.

What do you want to be compensated for? It's not their fault they're being DDOS'd...

On top of that, they are taking action to correct it.

until the next "attack" lol

You do know that we can see that they are taking action, right? This isn't just a "take our word for it".

where do you see the action taken?

James-Wayne

Just means ESO is popular...

Jamascus

Thank you

Tevalaur

Mevrain wrote: »

Nothing transfers from the NA servers (no guilds, no items, no CP, nothing) so you basically get to start fresh with new chars. Which after all this time is kind of refreshing.

I might find it refreshing except for the loss of all crown store purchases (mounts & costumes that are no longer available, the banker & merchant, DLCs that were not cheap, etc).

ccfeeling

Ddos attacks won.
At least in the past 6 months.