Regular ping spikes in-game

Ethoir

I've been seeing ping spikes for the last few days. I'm not sure if its just my end or not. It would happen even if I'm the only person using the internet in the house.

The ping spikes are not exactly frequent, but they happen often enough to impact my enjoyment of the game (as in I have to drop what I'm doing and wait it out).

This prompted me to start conducting ping, pathping, and tracert tests and I ran into some interesting results.

I couldn't ping the elderscrollsonline.com domain at all. The test has a 100% failure rate. The NA server IP also fails the same way. It didn't matter if I used the command prompt or my DSL modem's control panel page. Now obviously I could still access the game, site, and forums so I don't know what's going on here.

Next I did a pathping and that seemed okay, oddly enough. The traceroute on the other hand had a lot of ping timeouts in it and the first dozen traces had between 450 and 620ms response times.

I don't know what's going on right now, but its getting irritating. I'm hesitant to point fingers, but right now it could be anything from local traffic to ISP meddling.

ESO NA Server:
Tracing route to 198.20.198.110 over a maximum of 30 hops
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1 
  2   463 ms   490 ms   736 ms  10.30.4.1 
  3   621 ms   728 ms   520 ms  P0-0-1-0.RONKVA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.195.36] 
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6   560 ms   561 ms   518 ms  0.et-5-3-0.BR1.IAD8.ALTER.NET [140.222.239.79] 
  7   522 ms   523 ms   527 ms  ae-4.r06.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.209] 
  8   516 ms   554 ms   531 ms  ae-1.a02.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.192] 
  9   521 ms   631 ms   580 ms  be-30.r04.asbnva02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [165.254.191.118] 
 10   542 ms   514 ms   599 ms  a209-200-144-192.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [209.200.144.192] 
 11   621 ms   449 ms   515 ms  a209-200-144-197.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [209.200.144.197] 
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.
Trace complete.

Ethoir

Here's what the tracert says when the modem's wifi is disabled. Its not any different except in response times.

Tracing route to 198.20.198.110 over a maximum of 30 hops
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    24 ms    24 ms    24 ms  10.30.4.1
  3    27 ms    27 ms    27 ms  P0-0-1-0.RONKVA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.195.36]
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6    39 ms    38 ms    38 ms  0.et-5-3-0.BR1.IAD8.ALTER.NET [140.222.239.79]
  7    39 ms    38 ms    39 ms  ae-4.r06.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.209]
  8    40 ms    40 ms    38 ms  ae-1.a02.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.192]
  9    44 ms    44 ms    44 ms  be-30.r04.asbnva02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [165.254.191.118]
 10    43 ms    43 ms    44 ms  a209-200-144-192.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [209.200.144.192]
 11    41 ms    39 ms    39 ms  a209-200-144-197.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [209.200.144.197]
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.
Trace complete.

Nunida

I've been having problems with ping spikes since the dungeon event and I have seen a few posts from others about similar issues too. You're definitely not the only one.

I submitted a ticket about this myself last week, but so far there's been no solid conclusion.

Thogard

Hey man that problem is all on your end. Your ping shoots up as soon as you leave your router.

Odds are that someone is hogging your bandwidth or QOS is being used against you.

also try to download matt’s Trace route (MTR) to more accurately measure packet loss

Nestor

Ethoir wrote: »

Here's what the tracert says when the modem's wifi is disabled. Its not any different except in response times.

A few things about Pings, Tracerts the like. A tracert is a series of Pings from your location to the next hop, repeating for each hop. That is why you normally see increasing response times as you go through tracert. As you say a dramatic difference in Ping Response times when you shut down your Wifi, that means someone was leached onto your Router sucking down your bandwidth. This is an issue not because they take bandwidth away from you but because you are legally reponsible for what they are doing, like if they were illegally downloading movies. This will get traced to your IP, not theirs and you will have to answer for any activity that goes on your Router.

So, you need to lock down your router, use Mac Filtering at the minimum, but a password on top of that is even better. Plus it encrypts your traffic so people can't hack your credit cards and network activity.

Back to your first Tracert, those response times were more than likely related to the bandwidth leaches you kicked off your router than any network issue.

In addition, network routers will, either by design/config or operation, flat out not respond to ICMP requests for the Pings and Tracerts. So, it is not a reliable method to troubleshoot networks. They are more for can I even reach the Internet these days than can I reach my destination. You can thank all the neophyte hackers and their DDOS attacks for that.

Now, all that being said, I am seeing Ping spikes in the game too. Are they related to the network or the server? Well, both to be honest. Which makes figuring out where the issues are a maddening problem.

One thing you can do to mitigate these issues, as on my machine, the ping spikes don't really stop me from playing unless I am at 999MS for a significant period of time, is to make sure Port Triggering is set up on your router, your Windows Firewall ignores this game and your AV ignores the game. For the ports you need, see this:

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1133/kw/Ports

Ethoir

I live in a house holding 5 people. There's two computers, an occasional laptop, and sometimes a smartphone or a Nook I have to account for. From 7 AM to midnight, I am not allowed to turn the wifi off. Family rule (and if I break it, they turn off the power to the circuit my PC is on).

I can change the password, and its been running on WPA2-Personal wifi security encryption since I got this particular model of modem (an Actiontec DSL modem/router). Now as far as I'm aware, WPA2 encryption has a flaw, but I don't know if I should worry about that or not.

I haven't seen anyone "logged in" on the wifi who didn't belong however. I had previously tinkered with its internal network IP address assignments to resolve a network address conflict a month or two ago. I had to google how to do that because the bloody thing didn't come with documentation. That itself wouldn't cause this trouble I'm having.

This ping issue started in the last few days, about five or six days ago to be more precise. I didn't want to start pointing fingers, but I did flip my lid. My initial reaction was to blame a certain recent FCC vote for it as well as my ISP. But it wouldn't be fair to sling blame around without trying to figure out what's causing the problem first.

When sharing the connection, ESO is always a bit plagued by lag spikes. This family likes to watch their little video streaming services, and that impacts everything. Its caused some arguments in my house, trust me. But since I mainly play ESO after midnight rolls around, when the wifi is turned off, I expect ping to drop to 140 at minimum and stay there. Instead, it often jumps to 600+. This leaves me wondering "what the fark is going on".

Now, it very well may be some local issue between me and the nearest "jump point". It could also be my ISP being a jerk now that its no longer bound by Title II Common Carrier limitations. And I'm a little skeptical about someone leeching off me when the wifi isn't even on after midnight.

EDIT:
@Nestor I came back to examine my modem settings thinking that I figured out how to do it. But as it turns out, you mentioned port triggering specifically, and my modem doesn't have it. It only has port forwarding.

I looked into the matter further and there's a couple of posts elsewhere in the forum advising to not touch port forwarding because it means anyone on the internet using those ports would get a free pass into your system.

So where do I go form here? Do I stick to port forwarding, as its the only such feature my modem is supporting?

Ethoir

I've had a talk to my ISP. I've showed them the tracert. According to my ISP, the timeout at step 4 of the trace suggests that ESO is having the problem, not me or my ISP.

This making any sense?

Nestor

Ethoir wrote: »

I came back to examine my modem settings thinking that I figured out how to do it. But as it turns out, you mentioned port triggering specifically, and my modem doesn't have it. It only has port forwarding.

I looked into the matter further and there's a couple of posts elsewhere in the forum advising to not touch port forwarding because it means anyone on the internet using those ports would get a free pass into your system.

So where do I go form here? Do I stick to port forwarding, as its the only such feature my modem is supporting?

Odd that it does not have Port Triggering, that is easier for the Router to do. Try this first, Google the make and model of your Router and the term "Port Triggering" to see if there is a way to do it, you may very well do this in the same place as you set up Forwarding.

Forwarding can be done with the ports to the same effect, you just have to assign your gaming machine a Private Static IP. Make sure it is not part of the DHCP Pool, the best way for that is to see the pool to the lower half of your IP addresses in the subnet. So, assuming a 192.168.1.0 Subnet, the Pool would be 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.100, then you static assign anything above that range.

Anyway, once you have the Static assigned, then you can set up Forwarding. It just may take a few extra steps, and as above, search for make and model and the term "Port Forwarding" for specific instructions.

Nestor

Ethoir wrote: »

I've had a talk to my ISP. I've showed them the tracert. According to my ISP, the timeout at step 4 of the trace suggests that ESO is having the problem, not me or my ISP.

This making any sense?

No. That guy needs to be educated. Hops 10 and 11 are getting close to ZOS.

1rst Hop Your machine to the Inside of Router
2nd Hop Inside of the Router to the Outside of the Router
3rd Hop Router at your house to the Router at the Central Office
4th Hop Aggregation Router to the Core Router or Handoff to Circuit Provider (I am betting Core for most ISP's)

How do I know this, I work for the ISP that supplies a big chunk of bandwidth to Verizon. And I designed and built the back haul network in the region of my country that gets all the Verizon traffic from their cell towers back to their network.

Ethoir

Nestor wrote: »

How do I know this, I work for the ISP that supplies a big chunk of bandwidth to Verizon. And I designed and built the back haul network in the region of my country that gets all the Verizon traffic from their cell towers back to their network.

Oddly enough, my ISP is Verizon. They kept insisting that the fact it timed out at hop 4 points to ESO as the problem and not them (or me). I'm no network guru so all I responded with about it was "so, what... Do I go pester ESO customer support about it?"

And one other player I've talked to in-game with similar ping spikes said they may share the same "path" to the server as me, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt since they haven't really said more than "I'm one state south from you and our normal ping times are the same so we must have the same route to the server".

Now as far as my modem (and it is a modem with a built-in wifi module, not a router) is concerned, it's an "Actiontec GT784WNV", V for Verizon obviously. Its advanced setup control panel tab doesn't have anything in it for port triggering, only port forwarding. This is the port forwarding page and the column pane on the left is the list of advanced settings open to me.

Thogard

Your ping skyrockets as soon as your router hits your modem. It’s not your ISP’s fault and it’s not ESO’s fault either.

If I were a betting man, I’d say you have something downloading in the background of your own computer (since you ruled out anyone else being on your network)

Does your router have a tool for monitoring the network traffic? Most do.

The last windows update installed a bunch of anti malware programs that keep downloading updates non-stop. I had to block the program to avoid lag spikes.

See if you can download a program that will allow you to measure bandwidth usage per process / task. I use killer networking control center but that is because my NIC is by killer as well

Nemeliom

Same thing is happening to me and my brother. I'm married, so I don't leave with him, and we play using skype (old school). Every 30 minutes, WHILE using skype, we get a lag spike and we both loose connection on the game, but not on skype. Even when he is not online, and I'm not on skype, I still get this lag spikes every 30 minutes.
I leave 50 miles from his home, so you can't tell me it's my internet. Too much of a coincidence.
Anyone has solved this?
I'm leaving in Argentina. Never had this problem before.

Ethoir

I don't have a plain router. I have an ADSL Modem+Router combo. 4 Ethernet ports in the back plus the wifi. So its two devices in one and I still call it a modem because it is the gadget that "dials" into the internet.

So how would it skyrocket "as soon as it hits the router"? I did turn the auto-update thing to manual but that only means it will stop downloading them automatically, scanning for them is still automatic. I will look into disabling even that for Windows Defender.

Thogard

Ethoir wrote: »

I don't have a plain router. I have an ADSL Modem+Router combo. 4 Ethernet ports in the back plus the wifi. So its two devices in one and I still call it a modem because it is the gadget that "dials" into the internet.

So how would it skyrocket "as soon as it hits the router"? I did turn the auto-update thing to manual but that only means it will stop downloading them automatically, scanning for them is still automatic. I will look into disabling even that for Windows Defender.

I don’t know how. I just know what your tracert says from what you posted. Your problem is localized, and if you’re the only one on your network then your problem is either your computer or your router.

Find a way to monitor your bandwidth usage. That’ll be how you know.

Here’s a guide:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/43713/how-to-monitor-the-bandwidth-consumption-of-individual-applications/

Like I mentioned earlier, you also might have QOS working against you. QOS is a tool many routers have to prioritize traffic. If it’s assigning ESO a low priority, you’re gonna have a bad time.

What kind of router do you have?

Ethoir

I found a kind of monitor/logger and tracked things that way. Doesn't really help much. It doesn't tell me how much bandwidth its using, but it does track traffic.

Initial tests seem to point to SkypeBrowserHost when the ping spikes happen, and for the most part they settle down when I shut skype down. The process apparently is only used to load ads in the skype UI, so its practically useless.

I'll do more tests tonight to see if anything else makes my ping spike like crazy. Skype can't be the only thing that does it. I know Discord doesn't, and Firefox generally doesn't.

makreth

last 3 days here....in the evenings only...having spikes every 20-30secs... of 999+ sometimes it stays around 400ms

chjumaliev

The game stops responding and the perpetual download during the transition from the locations. Problems started 3 day ago...

Ethoir

A little followup on this issue.

I've had one or two latency spikes that I can't explain over the last couple of weeks. But that aside, the issue is much less irritating now bordering on non-existant. It is possible that "disabling" (by renaming) the Skype Browser Host application within my Skype folder may have helped with that. I am not saying that it is the only possible cause, but it was a definite contributor to it.

If it recurs, I'll have to file a ticket and hope I they have some folks experienced in network stuff that may shed some light on it.

Slick_007

Thogard wrote: »

Hey man that problem is all on your end. Your ping shoots up as soon as you leave your router.

Odds are that someone is hogging your bandwidth or QOS is being used against you.

also try to download matt’s Trace route (MTR) to more accurately measure packet loss

24ms isnt much if they are using some sort of adsl. theres actually not much in that traceroute that shows an issue. Yes, MTR is a better indicator of an issue.

If you are running windows 10, maybe turn the update sharing feature off as i think by default its on, meaning users on the internet and your network can upload windows update data from you.