When are we going to get a fix for online gaming? Remove akamai ! (PC - both NA and EU)

chaz · November 2018

So, this thread is to beat this old horse until it dies. All of us, especially those of us over seas, myself, I live in the Hawaiian Islands, I have heard of the same issues from those outside the U.S., I have experienced the same issue's I have in the N/A server when I play in the E/U server.

No, it's not my ports. They're all open.
It's not my ISP, they are not blocking zenimax, and I have a very good connection.
It's not my antivirus.
Not my router.
Not my modem.
Not my PC or it's specs.

I was running fine and smooth all this time just up until the last week of September. That's when everything went to *** ! ((=crap))

October it got worse, then October November when ZOS's brilliant support team suggested to clear the dns by doing a flush, this made matters worse.

From October on, and worse now in November I can't even properly play this game, if I happen to get in, it's constant with very high ping. Constant lag. And constant disconnects. Try logging back in after a disconnect is like performing brain surgery. Takes a extremely long time to get back in. Oh that's very helpful to me when I'm running a daily dungeon or helping in PVP in cyrodiil. Once you disconnect, and it takes almost forever to get back in, you're no longer part of the dungeon party and worse, what ever you were doing in pvp now doesn't matter because that battle long since ended. Sometimes yes, it does take just one person to tip the scales.

So, what ever you did here to the server you specifically did not take into consideration what damages and collateral it would cost the over seas community. And or it's consequences. <-- I didn't have to google that word. Because of this action, zenimax has already lost my subscription. I will also not be buying crowns for the crown store, since this game is a useless POS not ever worth the price of a desktop paper weight. I have played this game for a very long time, and for me to say this game is now a piece of (S) crap (P.O.S.) takes a lot. Don't take my word for it, just go casually browse my eso account and you will see quit a few items that can only be purchased with crowns, it you have a consumer history of how much money I dumped into this, then you should know right from that point that I have invested a lot of time and passion into this game for someone like me to spend so much gawds damned money on it.

Post after post after post, thread after thread after thread, support ticket , after ticket , after ticket, and nothing you are doing , is being done correctly.

This guy in another tread pretty much hit it head on:

Justmee wrote: »

I do have a ticket open with support on this as well
for Elder Scrolls Online (http://www.elderscrollsonline.com)
Question Reference # 180920-003202

akamai.com the bottle neck appears to be at YOUR
network! Some of the information in here may not
be relevant for you akamai.com but please read
the full email this was also sent in a ticket on
Elder Scrolls Online as well.

Ok so there seems to be a constant latency to the
Elder Scrolls online North America servers.

I am getting a latency a lot of time in excess of
175 ms.

Now so you know I am a trained network admin myself
and I know the issue is NOT on my side here.

I am on a wired connection and on a machine powerful
enough to handle this game.

Intel i7-2500 3.40 Ghz 16 GB of RAM running
Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)

So I know the issue is not here on my side because
I know my network and everything is updated including
my router and please don't tell me to open up ports
I have already tried it. It does not solve the issue.

So I first used Wireshark to find out the IP for
the server which I was on it appears to be
198.20.200.155 which of course comes back to Zenimax
as the owner as expected.

https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-198-20-192-0-1/pft?s=198.20.200.155

So since the latency can be caused anywhere along
a hop that may be congested so I started to do several
traceroutes.

traceroute 198.20.200.155
traceroute to 198.20.200.155 (198.20.200.155), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 router.lan.darkshado.ca (192.168.0.1) 0.445 ms 0.541 ms 1.029 ms
2 rc1we-be107-1.ed.shawcable.net (64.59.186.53) 9.895 ms 9.907 ms 11.333 ms
3 rc3no-be6.cg.shawcable.net (66.163.64.69) 13.619 ms 14.279 ms 14.324 ms
4 rc2wt-be100.wa.shawcable.net (66.163.75.233) 29.925 ms 29.882 ms 29.833 ms
5 rc1wt-be18-1.wa.shawcable.net (66.163.64.81) 30.010 ms 29.878 ms rc4sj-be60.cl.shawcable.net (66.163.78.74) 50.815 ms
6 rc3sj-be60.cl.shawcable.net (66.163.75.90) 49.131 ms 47.988 ms 47.940 ms
7 akamai.prolexic.com (206.223.116.136) 53.334 ms 47.109 ms 46.701 ms
8 po110.bs-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.192) 48.783 ms po110.bs-b.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.200) 48.713 ms po110.bs-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.192) 48.742 ms
9 ae120.access-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.197) 266.280 ms ae121.access-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.205) 265.902 ms 266.602 ms
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 ae120.access-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com (209.200.184.197) 233.638 ms !X * *

well that really isn't good 265 MS just one hop inside of akamai's network
so it hits the routers on the border and the times are great at about 48 ms

Now where ever that piece of equipment is, is severely congested and that appears
to be where the latency issue is coming from.

The stars don't bother me at all because I know that you can setup a piece of
equipment to not answer ICMP requests which is more than likely what
akamai.com is doing since they are an anti-ddos type service.

But what does bother me is the huge jump in the latency time once it gets past
border switches on akamai.com it takes a huge jump from 48 ms to 265 ms
at IP 209.200.184.205 and as I said it is constant I did multiple traceroutes
and it seems like it bottlenecks in the same place every time.

Akamai is a anti-ddos service and I understand why they use them but
thier equipment should be able to handle the load the game servers
will put on it and it appears that it isn't right now.

Now this was done on September 20 2018 at about 4:00 PM MST (GMT-0700)

Come on can some one at the support please get in contact with akamai.com
and have them resolve this issue please.

Looks like I am not the only one this is just one example of many that
you can find about a high latency.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/435522/disconnections-rubber-banding-high-latency-spikes-and-my-tech-support-ticket-180910-002528

Also I have tried disabling any security software I have which is
Kaspersky 18.0.0.405(i) and that does NOT fix the issue the issue
clearly is NOT on my end at all and this isn't a connection
issue here on my side.

I will also email this to the Network Operations Center ("NOC") at
akamai.com to see if they can take a look into the issue.

Oh so a bit of an update at the request of Akamai.com they wanted me to do a tracetcp which I did
on September 21 2018 about 11:50 AM MST (GMT-0700)

tracetcp 198.20.200.155

Tracing route to 198.20.200.155 on port 80
Over a maximum of 30 hops.
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1 [router.lan.darkshado.ca]
2 25 ms 11 ms 10 ms 64.59.186.53 [rc1we-be107-1.ed.shawcable.net]
3 16 ms 17 ms 14 ms 66.163.64.69 [rc3no-be6.cg.shawcable.net]
4 31 ms 28 ms 29 ms 66.163.75.233 [rc2wt-be100.wa.shawcable.net]
5 50 ms 52 ms 30 ms 66.163.64.81 [rc1wt-be18-1.wa.shawcable.net]
6 49 ms 50 ms 54 ms 66.163.67.81 [rc3sj-tge0-0-0-0.cl.shawcable.net]
7 48 ms 48 ms 49 ms 206.223.116.136 [akamai.prolexic.com]
8 49 ms 48 ms 48 ms 209.200.184.192 [po110.bs-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com]
9 259 ms * * 209.200.184.205 [ae121.access-a.sech-sjc.netarch.akamai.com]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * 76 ms 77 ms 198.20.192.3
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.

Now you can see at hop 8 everything is great which again is the boarder of their
network at akamai.com but once again once it hits the 2nd hop inside of akamai.com
it only answers once and is at 259 ms.

On hop 8 again it is about 48 - 49 MS which is great and then on hop 9
once again it jumps up to 259 ms.

Again this issue is definately inside of akamai.com's network but these guys are idiots
at akamai.com and claim they won't do anything unless one of their customers complain
about the issue. Which would have to be Zenimax.

These guys are complete idiots at akamai.com I have a ticket open with them
as well AKAM-NOCC #B-P-2HW3BOR

If you are getting the same problem be sure to email
nocc-tix -[at]- akamai.com, nocc-shift -[at]- akamai.com, noc -[at]- akamai.com,
support -[at]- akamai.com

Can some one from Zenimax please complain to them about this issue and get this
fixed the people at akamai.com have no clue how to properly run their network and
the bottle neck clearly is within their network but they refuse to do anything because
I am not their direct "customer".

I hate idiot companies like this I have as much or more training in the computer field
that than that idiot that answered the ticket.

And yet, with so many posts, so many threads, and so many tickets, not once, did I ever see anyone here from zenimax even talk about this. When was akamai contracted? Was it always there? Or is this something new, because if it's something new, which I am assuming at this point because like I said, I'm from the Islands over seas and have been playing just fine, until the last week of September with 2 files out of your entire uploaded patch for the updated eso launcher, **Which I find very impossible to believe only 2 files are being flagged as trojan/virus**, and from there, October with extremely high ping that I have never seen before, to the End of October to beginning of November where high ping, turned to extreme lag, then from lag to flat out disconnects.

At this point, **actually before this point** I am expecting someone with facts to tell us exactly what the story is. What you did to the server and or what if any, date of contract between zenimax and the transit carrier service Akamai took place. And what, if anything, is going to be done to assist customers from over seas. I am a U.S. citizen, I just live outside the mainland, but what of other countries that also wish to use this game but cannot because there is no strong over seas transit connection being considered because you're only focusing on the East to West coast on the U.S.?

I'm already beyond livid and irate, surprised and confused to the lack of conviction from this company, not even addressing these issues or even to acknowledge them to give us some clue zenimax as a business is trying, ***TRYING*** to take steps in order to help those that these issues just started to destroy their online gaming experience.

I've been waiting, watching, and asking for this over and over and yet to see results. I can barely, just barely be able to log in for this current event to participate, just barely, for example today, logged in, lot a high ping, lot of lag so much everything was frozen, I got to hit a monster once, before the game disconnected me, luckily after 5 minutes of logging back in, the game still recognized I hit a boss in order for me to complete the daily quest in order for me to get a event ticket today.

But what of tomorrow? What if I try all day and it doesn't happen and I lose out on getting a free indrik? You gonna give me one for free? BULL *** (crap)! That's not how it works, I am sure. I'm missing out on doing so many things I would like to do to have a good gaming experience here, and all I find is a constant battle to just try to log in, stay logged in, and try to do something before high ping and lag gets me.

Do you people even care?

Wow! By the time you come up with something, I, which I can speak for myself, will be long gone and past forgotten about this game.

When are you going to fix this issue zenimax?

When?

Aixy · November 2018

Never.....

chaz · November 2018

Here is an article that explains almost perfectly what Islanders have to go through, however reading this, keep in mind, as I stated at least the past 3 years I have been playing ESO in Hawaii, I have had no major issues in terms of game play. I remember last year the only thing that it seems everyone was experiencing was the screen of death. Meaning we all had at some point, especially in Cyrodiil, a very very long , and game killing ""LOAD SCREEN"". This wasn't much of an issue, because gameplay pretty much seemed, well seamless.

Then , this year, nothing on my or anyones end here in the Islands had anything changed. However, seems that zenimax did something Since September, which reduced load screens, but developed 2 files inside an entire patch load from the same source get blocked like trojans, and, October / November, high ping, lag and disconnects really is the game killer now.

Read this article, from stem to stern and you may understand a little bit of what may be the cause.

https://theoutline.com/post/1424/hawaii-s-online-gaming-curse?zd=1&zi=jq5but6a

Korax · November 2018

@chaz . You described my issues I've been having for the past two months to the letter!
Same issues here in South Africa.

Don't bother creating tickets... they are just keeping us busy kicking the can down the road.

I've given up trying to play this game. I'm definitely not going subject myself any further to try and load a character 1000 times before getting in for a few minutes...

Even reading patch notes is enough to get me in a foul mood, because I keep on reading about all sorts of non-sensical fixes that gets done yet not a word about addressing the elephant in the room that you cant actually get logged-on to experience these supposed updates/fixes.

Vapirko · November 2018

Akamai has been in service with ZOS for some time though, over a year, maybe two? So if you’ve just now noticed issues it’s probably not that. Akamai bumped up the ping for everyone playing overseas (AU/Asia) by about 50ms and it’s been pretty steady since then but not unplayable. So unless there is some part of their service that randomly targets certain IP addresses or does so for a reason (I honestly have zero idea how this stuff works) then I can’t see the issues you’re havjg now being that. Did you run your own ping test? If it’s Akamai you’ll see a huge jump in latency at their network.

Also as I’ve mentioned in other threads, if you experience unstable latency and inconsistent service to ZOS’ servers try the Mudfish routing service. It’s very affordable, pay per use, and has a specific setup item for ESO. Keeps my latency around 260-300 from Thailand and never problems logging in or getting kicked except on occasion.

chaz · November 2018

Well to be honest I feel spending extra money on this game to circumvent akamai from port forwarding my IP address all over the world incorrectly is major B.S! And zenimax really should be ashamed of themself, themselves. I figured thet now owe me $12 dollars for getting vpn based on your suggestion, that seems to be keeping my at 166 ping constant. So, I call BS when it comes to zenimax, because using vps is only proof there are good connections from Hawaii that can definitely reach their server, however they are allowing what ever program and or company to target us (eg : meaning me and my IP address) and forwarding it all over thats keeping me and or us from a stable connection in transit.

$12 dollars for one month got me this ping, see below:

However , ^^^^
That said, even though it's showing low ping, I'm still getting hit. Even in dungeons where a lot of trash adds will make the game stop, high ping is obvious, and sometimes even closes the game window where I'm staring at the game launcher.

So nothing is perfect. If anything, this only helped about 5 to 10,, ,, ,, percent.

Solo over world, maybe 20ish,, ,, ,, percent, World Boss, yeah even get lag on that as solo, like the WB is OP'd and doing things I can't see until it's too late, ya know, I'm going to stand by my original assumption, things were just fine, I remember buying a new PC in may, playing just fine and perfect, same service, same PC, then in October , I know zenimax did something to *** this up because nothing on my end changed where 500 to 999 ping, lag, freeze, get logged off, or crash window. I know its zenimax, I know it and nothing is going to change my mind.