Troubleshooting Recent Lag in DCUO

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bareheiny

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

Topic # 124536 11-Jul-2013 09:20

Hi,

I have been playing DCUO (online super-hero MMO) on the PS3 for about 10 or so months, mostly trouble free. About 1 month ago I started to experience extreme lag (I find myself three or four minutes behind everybody else - i.e I get a message that the boss is dead, but I haven't even reached that part of the fight) when in a raid (8 man group), and some open-world parts of alerts (4 man group).

At first I thought it was my PS3, so I replaced the hdd - this solved my rendering issue, but the lag persisted. I then suspected it was the actual game as a new DLC was released around the time I noticed the lag. Seeing as nobody else in my league is having problems, I started to look at my internet connection. speedtest.net is showing a ping of about 350 - 400ms from my PC to Amsterdam (where the EU DCUO servers are)....from memory that gave me a rating of "D"

So I started to poke around, and ran a trace route - results follow:

Tracing route to amsdco-01-02.dcuonline.net [195.33.108.7]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms D-Link.DSL2740B [192.168.1.1]

2   129 ms    29 ms    34 ms 222.152.45.9

3    41 ms    41 ms    41 ms mdr-ip20e-int.msc.global-gateway.net.nz [203.96.66.22]

4    41 ms    50 ms    42 ms ae0-10.akbr6.global-gateway.net.nz [203.96.66.21]

5    40 ms    41 ms    40 ms ae5-2.akbr4.global-gateway.net.nz [210.55.202.213]

6   227 ms   219 ms   221 ms xe3-1-0.sjbr2.global-gateway.net.nz [122.56.127.14]

7   197 ms   197 ms   197 ms ae0.pabr4.global-gateway.net.nz [203.96.120.74]

8   219 ms   219 ms   219 ms te-7-4.car2.SanJose2.Level3.net [4.59.4.93]

9   362 ms   360 ms   363 ms vlan80.csw3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.152.190]

10   388 ms   389 ms   387 ms ae-81-81.ebr1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.153.9]

11   386 ms   385 ms   386 ms ae-2-2.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.135.186]

12   355 ms   358 ms   355 ms ae-46-46.ebr2.NewYork2.Level3.net [4.69.201.30]

13   388 ms   389 ms   389 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.NewYork2.Level3.net [4.69.135.253]

14   355 ms   355 ms   367 ms 4.69.201.89

15   387 ms   386 ms   386 ms ae-44-44.ebr2.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.137.61]

16   360 ms   360 ms   360 ms ae-45-45.ebr1.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.69.143.133]

17   387 ms   386 ms   387 ms ae-71-71.csw2.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.69.140.6]

18   358 ms   357 ms   358 ms ae-73-73.ebr3.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.69.163.5]

19   385 ms   415 ms   396 ms ae-46-46.ebr1.Dusseldorf1.Level3.net [4.69.143.169]

20   354 ms   354 ms   362 ms ae-22-22.ebr2.Dusseldorf1.Level3.net [4.69.143.186]

21   358 ms   356 ms   355 ms ae-47-47.ebr1.Amsterdam1.Level3.net [4.69.143.205]

22   355 ms   355 ms   355 ms ae-58-113.csw1.Amsterdam1.Level3.net [4.69.153.194]

23   393 ms   357 ms   358 ms 4.69.162.189

24   358 ms   358 ms   359 ms SONY-ONLINE.edge4.Amsterdam1.Level3.net [212.72.42.182]

25   355 ms   385 ms   386 ms amsdco-01-02.dcuonline.net [195.33.108.7]

I like to think that I'm reasonably astute, but I have no idea how to read this, let alone work out if where the problem is likely to be occurring!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PeterReader

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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 853696 11-Jul-2013 09:20

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

Ragnor

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Reply # 853966 11-Jul-2013 15:59

The tracert only shows 300ms (milliseconds) yet you said you are 3+ minutes (180000ms) behind so it doesn't correlate.

300ms+ is normal latency to Europe from NZ, in that trace your traffic goes NZ > US > France > Germany > Amsterdam.

This begs the question why are you playing on Europe servers instead of US servers? West coast US servers would have half the latency and less hops/networks to pass through so less chance of issues upstream in the route.

Try running WinMTR to the address, this will run multiple tracerts and give you an indication of packet loss.
http://winmtr.net/

Also the 30ms for the 2nd hop could be lower if you get Telecom to turn off interleaving on your line profile. You can request this via their online help form.

bareheiny

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 853970 11-Jul-2013 16:19

The 3+ minutes may very well be 1 or 2 that feels like 3 - but I'm definitely way behind everybody else (other symptoms of the lag are powers not cooling down and "teleporting" enemies etc).

For some reason SOE have decided that Australasia should be served via the EU server....so the only way I could play on the US server is to create a US PSN account - which means creating a new character, losing my existing friends etc and having to deal with the apparently horrible DCUO player-base over there, as well as their broken in-game economy.

If the latency is normal, then there must be something else going on....and the only other piece of equipment involved is the PS3 itself. Or possibly the PS3 ethernet cable - I may test that tonight.

Anyways, thanks for your response - much appreciated.