2 Degrees - WoW Latency issue escalation

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2 Degrees - WoW Latency issue escalation

SloBash

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#320175 14-Jul-2025 22:32

Why is it that decades go by and ISP tech support is still the same?!

I've been with 2D for about 8 years I think for Broadband and they've been great, speeds are great, service is great, good price deals etc.

Since March/April my WoW ping has jumped from 20ms to 200ms consistently. 185-205 all the time except randomly some nights between 10 and 11 it'll spike to thousands just for fun.

Tracert shows me that it's a Vocus thing, it's 2ms until the hop before the WoW server where it jumps to 185+

Initial contact with 2D got me "I have done a little looking into this and there have been quite a few complaints about Lag from NZ for WoW since March."

Promising? Not so much, all downhill from there. Passed on to front line tech support to run through the usual speed tests, factory resets etc.

I'm now butting heads with them because they are asking for a line test with my PC directly cabled to the modem. My modem is in a cabinet a long way from my PC. That said, I dragged out a long ethernet cable and did it anyway but now I get some "Request Entity Too Large" error when running the speed test software which they seem unable to resolve. And I'm not doing it again, it's an absolute pain and totally pointless, the original speed test which ran successfully showed now issues at all, speeds are fine, ping times are fine. The only noticeable issue is the latency to WoW servers which they've admitted is an issue.

But, the techs I'm emailing flat out refuse to escalate this further without a direct cabled line test.

Does anyone have any other contacts, suggestions, hope they can breathe into me. I actually do like 2 degrees but honestly, the same shpiel from the first line of tech support makes me want to punch a wall...

PS: new account here but only because I can no longer access old account's email :(

Also, I play on Jubei'thos, Oceanic server. Tracert is to 103.4.115.248

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#3393991 14-Jul-2025 22:54

Does your connection have a static or dynamic IP?

By any chance is it CG-NAT causing issues?

SloBash

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#3393992 14-Jul-2025 22:59

Dynamic, and yes cg nat but this hasn't changed in 6-7 years

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#3393993 14-Jul-2025 23:01

A good test is request a static IP for free for testing and see if that helps

Ragnor

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#3393998 14-Jul-2025 23:57

I used to play WOW and ran into this issue with various ISPs in the past, give them a month to fix it (likely won't happen) then change provider.

Skinny (Spark) or QUIC are probably your best bet for non vocus routing currently.

Behodar

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#3394061 15-Jul-2025 08:29

My guild had four 2degrees users and this would happen to all of them at the same time. We now only have two 2degrees users :)

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#3394063 15-Jul-2025 08:41

@aspired Can you add any value here?

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bensmithnz

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#3394514 16-Jul-2025 09:20

I dont think WoW is the only affected game here OP

I play Elder Scrolls Online, and have noticed an increase in my base latency. ESO has 'Mega Servers' and auth servers in the US so a 'normal' latency for me in NZ was somewhere around 181-210ms. Now I am somewhere in the realm of 250-280ms in game. Below is a smokeping graph I have a ping to the ESO servers over time.

Like you, if you look at early March there is a sharp increase - possible upstream routing? I have run a tracert, however you cannot actually see the detail of the hops, it goes into a vocus pipe and doesnt surface any IP or addresses, just a terminating latency number.

We know that routes can be dynamic and prone to change but just surfacing that you probably arent the only person whose noticed a change in latency as of late.

I am on a static IP myself with 2D, and long for the older days when for ESO the latency was 50-60ms less.

SloBash

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#3394517 16-Jul-2025 09:52

You're seeing exactly what I am, I suspected it would be happening across the board but WoW is the only game I pay any attention to latency for.

I have had great experiences with 2 Degrees and don't really want to change ISP (contracted till November anyway) so am hoping this gets resolved.

Managed to get the ticket escalated to a fault which is a step in the right direction so we'll see what happens from here.

irpegg

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#3394520 16-Jul-2025 10:12

We had the same thing start of this year on Skinny/Spark network. Multiple people submitted tickets about it, but still took a month to fix.

If you need a quickfix for raid while you wait, use a VPN/exitlag

yitz

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#3394652 16-Jul-2025 18:01

irpegg:

We had the same thing start of this year on Skinny/Spark network. Multiple people submitted tickets about it, but still took a month to fix.

If you need a quickfix for raid while you wait, use a VPN/exitlag

The problem is peak time bulk traffic like streaming impacts on real time sensitive traffic, in the above example Spark did an upgrade to 100 Gb ports and shuffled around some traffic:
before - https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/c790ab66455c4e332cd2795c78af0564.jpg
after - https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/2e5a64447ac34a35cbedadaa2bbc995e.jpg

I reckon Chorus should set up a layer 3 gaming VPN service so people can opt to re-purpose the real time queue of UFB currently used for landline voice into a dedicated gaming channel. Establish handovers with the content / DDoS mitigation providers who are already engaged by gaming providers for a single hop direct connection. Yes I know they are strictly layer 2 for UFB but hey I'm sure the minister for regulation won't mind carving out an exemption 😃

Talkiet

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#3394708 16-Jul-2025 19:35

yitz:

I reckon Chorus should set up a layer 3 gaming VPN service so people can opt to re-purpose the real time queue of UFB currently used for landline voice into a dedicated gaming channel. Establish handovers with the content / DDoS mitigation providers who are already engaged by gaming providers for a single hop direct connection. Yes I know they are strictly layer 2 for UFB but hey I'm sure the minister for regulation won't mind carving out an exemption 😃

LOL. I applaud the creativity, but in essentially all cases, any problems today wouldn't be solved by this (There's little to no congestion in the networks that the L3 VPN service would cover). On top of that I doubt that even the famously spendy gamer market would cover the costs of paying another provider on top of their ISP to build and operate a new network. (Note 1)

Cheers - N

1) Gamers aren't spendy at all.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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michaelmurfy

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#3394710 16-Jul-2025 19:59

Talkiet:

1) Gamers aren't spendy at all.

They’re willing to buy a $1000 ASUS router or a $3000 TP-Link mesh, CAT8 cabling, a $300 6 port 2.5Gbit switch with RGB (seriously) and use an ISP that has a gamer plan whilst in reality only having a PoP up in Auckland.

Think you don’t even need to go to that extent. Just add a “Peak time gaming priority” add on for $50/mo that does nothing apart from charge an extra $50 and many gamers will see improvement in their gaming latency straight away.

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yitz

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#3394715 16-Jul-2025 21:45

A gaming ONT with RGB... think of the extra revenue that would bring in... a fast track to Chorus employee of the month... don't have to say you read it here 😉

quickymart

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#3394717 16-Jul-2025 21:58

yitz:

A gaming ONT with RGB... think of the extra revenue that would bring in... a fast track to Chorus employee of the month... don't have to say you read it here 😉

I think the market for such a service would be so small it wouldn't be worth the outlay.

yitz

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#3394720 16-Jul-2025 22:52

quickymart:

I think the market for such a service would be so small it wouldn't be worth the outlay.

Ignoring the facetious elements of the gaming ONT concept I think with more people downgrading their connections to 500/100 and in particular 100/20 will result in more latency problems caused by network saturation so why not make use of the CIR capacity that is already built into UFB and route traffic via that? Chorus already have the EdgeConnect brand which is about connecting Chorus customers directly to Internet exchanges. Gaming providers like ESO already engage the likes of Akamai to scrub their traffic for DDoS and attacks - I'm sure they won't mind receiving a low bit-rate policed stream of traffic being handed over to them. That way customers can get exactly the performance they are after and there is none of the endless blaming of upstream providers that come with RSPs. I think Freeview was looking at delivering direct to ONT so like it or not content will be delivered more directly in the future.

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