How the tracert system works?

Levianna · January 2020

Because of huge lags/disconnections from the Cyrodiil last 2 weeks, i ran tracert eso for EU server.
My question is: once ran, should it be ran again and again each time i turn on laptop, or it's permanent?
Also, does it help with the lag problem?
If not, what else could help? I have wireless connection (not possible to get wired because i live in a rented flat and owners don't allow it), signal strong most of the time while anywhere else than at Cyrodiil, and all i have tried was running that tracert yesterday and tonight again.

Thanks for advises in advance!

Azurya · January 2020

why run it when the server is down??

Levianna · January 2020

Azurya wrote: »

why run it when the server is down??

So it means that i have to run it only when want to play?
Should i leave the system C: window with this file put opened in the background while playing or i can close it and it's still there?

Nestor · January 2020

Tracert is a test command, it does nothing to effect routing. Only used to see where the problem is.

Levianna · January 2020

Nestor wrote: »

Tracert is a test command, it does nothing to effect routing. Only used to see where the problem is.

Is there anything for effect the routing? (see my first post where i described my type of connection)

Nestor · January 2020

No, it only shows you the routing. Routing decisions are made by the Telecom Companies. You have no control over the routing.

fred4 · January 2020

There is a VPN that was originally developed for gamers, called Speedify. It's main claim to fame is that it will bond together several connections, such as your landlord's WiFi and your own 3G/4G data service, if you have such a thing. This is a unique feature no other VPN offers to my knowledge. The intention is that the VPN will use the lowest latency connection at any given moment. I do not use this myself and have the impression that they shifted their marketing focus away from gamers over the years. I do not know whether it's any good. I use a single 4G+ wireless home router, which it's marginally better than the landline in my area.

zaria · January 2020

fred4 wrote: »

There is a VPN that was originally developed for gamers, called Speedify. It's main claim to fame is that it will bond together several connections, such as your landlord's WiFi and your own 3G/4G data service, if you have such a thing. This is a unique feature no other VPN offers to my knowledge. The intention is that the VPN will use the lowest latency connection at any given moment. I do not use this myself and have the impression that they shifted their marketing focus away from gamers over the years. I do not know whether it's any good. I use a single 4G+ wireless home router, which it's marginally better than the landline in my area.

An VPN adds extra steps in the process and will slow networking down, exception if if its routing bugs who send you weird places.

fred4 · January 2020

zaria wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

There is a VPN that was originally developed for gamers, called Speedify. It's main claim to fame is that it will bond together several connections, such as your landlord's WiFi and your own 3G/4G data service, if you have such a thing. This is a unique feature no other VPN offers to my knowledge. The intention is that the VPN will use the lowest latency connection at any given moment. I do not use this myself and have the impression that they shifted their marketing focus away from gamers over the years. I do not know whether it's any good. I use a single 4G+ wireless home router, which it's marginally better than the landline in my area.

An VPN adds extra steps in the process and will slow networking down, exception if if its routing bugs who send you weird places.

Which is the very reason some people use VPNs despite what you're saying being technically correct. I've seen posts from Australians in this forum who use a VPN, because their VPN provider specializes in providing good routes. I imagine they can do this by bouncing traffic through their own data centres in different countries, rather than relying on default routes.

Be that as it may, I think you've missed the point of what Speedify does, which goes above and beyond this. Speedify does not use a standard VPN protocol. They developed their own! This allows them to send the same packet simultaneously on two or more connections, then propagate the one that got there fastest at the VPN exit point. That is totally unique. I imagine it primarily works around people's local ISP problems. The main claim to fame is that it allows you to make a single connection, which uses and switches between multiple ISPs you have available to you in real time, on a packet by packet basis. Some friends of mine were based in Egypt. Channel bonding their landline with their mobile connections certainly helped them a few years ago.

Buddy_Bradley · January 2020

Levianna wrote: »

My question is: once ran, should it be ran again and again each time i turn on laptop, or it's permanent?
Also, does it help with the lag problem?

"tracert" is short for "trace route" - it's a command that tells your computer to send a message to a destination (in this case, the ESO data centre in EU) and tell you what route it took. Each step in the route is called a 'hop' - so the first hop is from your PC to your router (the box in the living room that connects to the outside world); the second hop will be from your router to your local telecom junction box; and so on - out from your city to find the optimal route to wherever ESO is hosted (somewhere in Germany).

The output of tracert tells you the IP address of each location, and I think also the nominal owner, plus the time it took to get there. It's useful when you're experiencing dropped connections or lag, because you can see "ah, from point 9 to 10 took 30 seconds to complete, that's where the problem is."

So, you only need to run it if you're interested in debugging an internet request by seeing how your request reached its destination - it doesn't actually do anything.

ghastley · January 2020

This gets into the whole "net neutrality" debate if we're not careful.

What a VPN does for you is amalgamate traffic from multiple users into a single stream between two points on the internet. ISP's who operate packet priorities have to treat everything in that stream the same, as they can't see what kind of packets are sent. It benefits you to use a VPN when the ISP's you go through would otherwise give your packets low priority. It makes it worse when there's a faster route available that doesn't include the VPN endpoints.

The usual reason for using a VPN is security. It prevents the packet contents from being inspected between the two VPN endpoints, because of encryption, so companies use it between their own nodes to be as secure as a private line. The side-effect of concealing packets from priority systems is just that - a side-effect - and may not always be a benefit, as it forces a choice of route that is not always the best available.

fred4 · January 2020

ghastley wrote: »

This gets into the whole "net neutrality" debate if we're not careful.

What a VPN does for you is amalgamate traffic from multiple users into a single stream between two points on the internet. ISP's who operate packet priorities have to treat everything in that stream the same, as they can't see what kind of packets are sent. It benefits you to use a VPN when the ISP's you go through would otherwise give your packets low priority. It makes it worse when there's a faster route available that doesn't include the VPN endpoints.

The usual reason for using a VPN is security. It prevents the packet contents from being inspected between the two VPN endpoints, because of encryption, so companies use it between their own nodes to be as secure as a private line. The side-effect of concealing packets from priority systems is just that - a side-effect - and may not always be a benefit, as it forces a choice of route that is not always the best available.

I wouldn't be surprised if such factors were involved, but on the other hand ESO data volume is really low. Purely from the perspective of a techie, I would see no reason to throttle it. In fact quite the opposite, in which case, as you say, you might shoot yourself in the foot by using a VPN. It's trial and error.

ghastley · January 2020

fred4 wrote: »

wouldn't be surprised if such factors were involved, but on the other hand ESO data volume is really low. Purely from the perspective of a techie, I would see no reason to throttle it. In fact quite the opposite, in which case, as you say, you might shoot yourself in the foot by using a VPN. It's trial and error.

It's not a practical bandwidth issue, it's a marketing one. If the ISP sees a time-dependent kind of traffic, they'll want a premium rate for it. Throttle until they pay extra.

DMuehlhausen · January 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmv8quf_xM

...just gonna leave this here.