Australian Game Servers Being routed through other countries

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Scotty1986

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#228620 14-Jan-2018 21:22

So I went to play Battlefield 4 on PC and had a ping of 166 on AU servers, nearly all of them. Turns out most (all?) people on Vodafone have the same issue. This is a trace to one of the AU Servers. The ingame server browser shows good pings, but once ingame they are high. The chrome browser for BF series called Battlelog shows the true pings.

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 10 ms 13 ms 32 ms 254.227.252.27.dyn.cust.vf.net.nz [27.252.227.254]
3 11 ms 9 ms 10 ms 10.200.12.21
4 45 ms 44 ms 46 ms 10.123.39.130
5 166 ms 167 ms 167 ms 56106.syd.equinix.com [45.127.172.43]
6 168 ms 167 ms 171 ms 172.17.3.5
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
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30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

rscole86

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#1938777 14-Jan-2018 21:30

This is nothing new, it all depends on the peering that your ISP has. When I was on TCL years ago, I would often have some of my traffic routed via South East Asia, before going to the Sydney based server. Nothing you can do but find a different server.

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toejam316

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#1938801 14-Jan-2018 21:51

Longstanding issue with Vodafone, part of their legacy TCL infrastructure IIRC.

The easy solution? Don't use Vodafone if you game.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

yitz

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#1938803 14-Jan-2018 22:00

Vodafone should have plenty of room for Internet traffic on their new Tasman Global Access cable system between Sydney and Auckland.

While not ruling out possible issues at Vodafone's end, looking at the traceroute I'd say it's more likely the problem is with the destination network as that is where the latency goes up (what if you compare latency to other Australian destinations), as you have noted if it is stable and sitting at 166 ms it could mean traffic is being routed back via North America. There could be many reasons for this.

hio77

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#1938806 14-Jan-2018 22:13

Based on that traceroute, it looks possible it's actually the return path that is messed up.

ixp is currently in maintenance so can't pull a return route.

i permanently route these ranges away from my vf link for this very reason, It's just too much effort to get a network team to resolve this (although peering at equinix would be an easy solution...)

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gaddman

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#1939288 15-Jan-2018 18:54

We're aware, and waiting on the other end to fix their routing back to us. See also http://community.vodafone.co.nz/t5/Broadband-services/High-Ping-while-Gaming/m-p/217063#M22585

hio77

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#1939289 15-Jan-2018 18:56

gaddman:

We're aware, and waiting on the other end to fix their routing back to us. See also http://community.vodafone.co.nz/t5/Broadband-services/High-Ping-while-Gaming/m-p/217063#M22585

Great job chris, looks like things are onto a better road on the red side in terms of resolution times for these issues :)

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gaddman

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#1939291 15-Jan-2018 19:08

Yeah, it's an ongoing pain trying to keep the internets routing how we'd like them to. We actively monitor a few known gaming servers (mostly AU/US/SG), but finding and updating a list of popular gaming servers (IPs/FQDNs, not just 'BF4') is difficult. Always happy to hear recommendations!

hio77

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#1939293 15-Jan-2018 19:15

The likes of Steam datagram relay will help with this a tad.

Would expect less public IP space to be in use, thus hopefully they sit on the same static spaces...

There is no telling when X and Y will buy offload or switch ipspace though, Your right; a Total pain!.

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yitz

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#1939350 15-Jan-2018 20:04

Vodafone aren't the only ISP affected.

That 203.98.81.x 'dedicated servers' IP range has been around for at least 10 years and routing has always been somewhat funky. Last I was aware they insisted on some complicated inter-state hand off domestic routing setup (that range is physically in Brisbane) that ends up causing issues in other places.

gaddman

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#1939593 16-Jan-2018 10:34

Should be all sorted now. Yell out if you still have any issues.

Batman

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#1939595 16-Jan-2018 10:36

Can i just ask ,

If a game's Australian server reads a ping of 44 ms, is that the expected result?

Thanks

hio77

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#1939598 16-Jan-2018 10:42

Quick testing here,

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 62 ms 13 ms 14 ms 10.57.88.1

2 48 ms 25 ms 27 ms 218-101-111-254.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz [218.101.111.254]

3 112 ms 36 ms 23 ms 10.200.12.113

4 55 ms 157 ms 52 ms 10.123.38.146

5 47 ms 48 ms 48 ms 56106.syd.equinix.com [45.127.172.43]

Seems to be all working well again (exclude the increased base ping, this is via vpn from office back home and back out again)

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gaddman

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#1939641 16-Jan-2018 11:35

Batman: Can i just ask ,

If a game's Australian server reads a ping of 44 ms, is that the expected result?

Thanks

All depends on where in NZ you are and what your internet connection is (ADSL, fibre, etc). From Auckland to Sydney is 25ms, so 44 could be OK for Hamilton VDSL or Christchurch HFC, but a little high for Auckland UFB. Ping your first 2 hops and subtract those (assuming first is the router in your home and the 2nd is the BRAS/BNG you're connected to).

yitz

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#1939683 16-Jan-2018 12:34

Hmm my bad the server is actually in Sydney.

I'm getting about 45 ms when I ping now from the South Island.

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#1940050 16-Jan-2018 18:01

ok thanks. I'm in Dunedin, that sounds about right.