ISP connection tests for EU request.

[Tekkie]

It seems we have quite a few people on this forum that know alot about computers/isp/connections/tweaks... and so on.

Could somebody write a guide that can be used for people to test their connection to EU, it needs to be so good that 711 may consider it as a sticky and needs to have links to tools and be easily explained as to what is being tested and what should be expected from the results.

Keep it simple in the explanations so a computer nub can follow the guide but be indepth enough so users can collect the data and send it to thier ISP if performance sucks.

In the event that a post does get a sticky, ill donate 50,000 EFD to the author.

 

[Zap]

Interesting suggestion

If i have too much time in my hands will give this a try.

 

[Nor Alien]

Great idea!!! Would use this tool if it was created... Would love to see how much my Isp throttles me down!!

 

[LeeYap]

Not A Guide but Tips.

MA used to recommend a program called Ping Plotter. And I've found that ISP's love it. It can be used for free for 30 days and can be downloaded from www.pingplotter.com It can be used for free forever with a few "nag waits".

It is very easy to use, all you have to do is to enter the IP Address or the url you want to check. Use the IP for MA it is 64.125.26.73 That's pretty much all you need to do, just use the default settings.



Use the average Ping Time it should be less thaen 250 MS but I wouldn't raise a stink it it were a bit over. The packet loss for each connection is shown to the right of the connection name. It should be less than 10%.

Double clicking a connection will produce a graph at the bottom, showing ping time and packet loss. The scale of the graphs can be changed by right clicking the graph area.

The longer you let it run the more data you can collect. If you have a problem I'd suggest recording in at least 1 hour blocks, make sure you change the graph scale to reflect the length of time you recorded data, before taking the picture.

If there are problems with your connection, make a picture of it under the File menu item and send it to your ISP NOT MA!

Explain to your ISP that you are playing a game that is packet loss sensitive and ask them to correct the problem.

Worked for me

 

[Tekkie]

Thx LeeYap, I downloaded "PingPlotter" and monitoring my connection now. I'll run it all tonight so it might return some results that show my connection dying-like-a-bitch at around 18.00 until 00.00

One question... im testing the ip you stated 64.125.26.73 and it shows as ten-gige-1-1.mpr1.ams2.nl.above.net

Why is it not a dns name for mindark?

 

[Ancient]

There are different kinds of DNS records. The DNS name you are picking is the HOST A record for the router/firewall at MA. You can also use stuff like Alias records for websites.

Also, who was it that gave you that IP? It could be that MA has multiple data centres, everyone might not go in through the same pipe.

 

[Tekkie]

There are different kinds of DNS records. The DNS name you are picking is the HOST A record for the router/firewall at MA. You can also use stuff like Alias records for websites.

Also, who was it that gave you that IP? It could be that MA has multiple data centres, everyone might not go in through the same pipe.

Im using the ip address LeeYap suggested. I'll send a support case to see if there are other ips to check.

 

[onyx oZ Zombie]

Not sure you can hold your isp responsible for anything after the hop from your place to their router...

 

[Tekkie]

Not sure you can hold your isp responsible for anything after the hop from your place to their router...

True, but my ISP is shite for everything during evening hours so the problem is almost certainly the ISP, I just want to prove it.

 

[Ancient]

Once you have the IP's, one thing you can do is, do a trace route to one of the IP's using your computer and then go to ure friends house who has a different ISP to you and do a trace route to the same IP and compare how many hops there are between the 2. Some ISP's have very inefficient routing and seem to route traffic through a bunch of nodes that they dont need to. Once you find a good ISP which routes traffic using less hops, use them

 

[Tekkie]

Once you have the IP's, one thing you can do is, do a trace route to one of the IP's using your computer and then go to ure friends house who has a different ISP to you and do a trace route to the same IP and compare how many hops there are between the 2. Some ISP's have very inefficient routing and seem to route traffic through a bunch of nodes that they dont need to. Once you find a good ISP which routes traffic using less hops, use them

Mine uses 15 hops to the ip quoted - is that good or bad?

12 seem to be within BT network, 3 are Above.net

 

[LeeYap]

Thx LeeYap, I downloaded "PingPlotter" and monitoring my connection now. I'll run it all tonight so it might return some results that show my connection dying-like-a-bitch at around 18.00 until 00.00

One question... im testing the ip you stated 64.125.26.73 and it shows as ten-gige-1-1.mpr1.ams2.nl.above.net

Why is it not a dns name for mindark?

I'm sure MA doesn't want to give out the actual number. The IP given is close enough for testing i'm sure.

 

[LeeYap]

There are different kinds of DNS records. The DNS name you are picking is the HOST A record for the router/firewall at MA. You can also use stuff like Alias records for websites.

Also, who was it that gave you that IP? It could be that MA has multiple data centres, everyone might not go in through the same pipe.

The IP came from an old support case from MA.

 

[LeeYap]

Not sure you can hold your isp responsible for anything after the hop from your place to their router...

Probably not, however ISP's get many complaints about bad connecetions with no proof. When you send them a pingplot now then have concreate evidence and can take some action. Here is the corispondexce between my ISP and I. Notice the change after i sent the pingplot. I got results too, my connection went from total shit to almost golden in about 3 days. Maybe Embarq LV is just super awsome.

I think they respondeded this way because they finally had ammo to stop a bunch of complaints.

Original Complaint:
Hi, I hope you can help with this. I play a game called Entropia Universe. The company and servers are based in Sweden. The game is kind of "picky" about packet loss. I started noticing a problem with the game about 6 months ago, and believe I have narrowed the problem down to a packet loss issue. Using a program called PingPlotter, the problem would seem to be located in the San Jose, CA on Level3 hops. The server name changes from week to week, but it is always a problem with Level3 in San Jose. It also seems to be the hop just before it hands off to Above.com. Today the primary problem is ae-2ebr3.SanJose1.Level3.net (IP 4.69.132.9). This hop's packet loss has been between 30% to 90% packet loss all day. The next hop is also having some problems with 10% TO 30% packet loss throughout the day. All the hops before the San Jose one have less than 10% packet loss. As do the hops after the San Jose hops. MinkArk, the company that makes this game recommends less than 10% packet loss to avoid issues with the game. I have over 3 years and more than several thousand dollars invested in this game, and i'm not happy about not being able to play it, or playing it at a greatly increased price, due to this packet loss problem. Thank you for your time,Don
Submission date: Sat Aug 01 23:45:27 CDT 2009
Reply:
Dear Don

Thank you for contacting the High-Speed Internet Support department at EMBARQ, your Home Communications company.

Unfortunately, the issue is past the Embarq hops in your connection. You may want to try to contact the vendors where the packet loss is occurring.If you need additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Thank you for choosing EMBARQ,

Miss Billie Jo
Reply:

Dear Miss Billy Jo,


Unfortunatly I am not a customer of Level3. I believe they are your ISP. However, I would be happy to contact them if you would give me your login so i can register a complaint. To register a complaint they require an account. Since you are their customer, I had hoped you could register a complaint on my behalf, since I am your customer. If you can't I am left with few options, leaving things "as is" is not one of them.

I'm attaching an image file of the currrent situation.

Thank you for your prompt response,

Don
Billy Jo gets dropped out of conversation.

Reply:

Dear Don Short:



Thank you for contacting the High-Speed Internet Support department at EMBARQ, your Home Communications company.


I sent level 3 a email, since this is a well documented problem with quite a few different people. Hopefully we will see some results from Level 3.If you need additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Thank you for choosing EMBARQ,





Here is my contact info bud, hopefully I will get you some better connectivity from level 3, feel free to call my mobile or send a email to me.

 

[LeeYap]

Mine uses 15 hops to the ip quoted - is that good or bad?

12 seem to be within BT network, 3 are Above.net

Less hops is always better, but round trip ping time is the the thing that matters most.

 

[Ancient]

I am with Sky broadband. I have got 7 hops. If you type netstat at a command prompt while you have got the game running then that should give you a few more of MA's IP's. Also try typing it when you go to different tp's cause as we know there are different servers.

It is hard to say what a good hop count is because it depends on the speed of each link in between you and the destination. But the fewer hops the better

 

[aridash]

i think you need to get IP info from MA, they might have changed thing, certainly the login server is a different one : 94.31.61.21

 

[Bluewing]

Let me just point something,

Depending on your location (different location can be different server), the ips may shift.

But as the servers carrying twin have more trafic, it will probably dump to kluster.

 

[Tekkie]

I have submitted a support ticket regarding the ip(s) to test, ill post the answer when I get one.

 

[endermigne]

I don't know why you need a special program for this that actually costs something. The right tools are already installed on your Windows:

- look at your Windows desktop
- at the bottom left click "Start"
- select "Run"
- enter "cmd.exe" (no quotes)
- you see a window with a black area come up
- enter "ping -t 64.125.26.77" (no quotes)
- enjoy the show

The time should be in ms (milliseconds) and rather close to 0 (zero), the lower the better.

No need for a graph as it's pretty straight forward.

And if you are interested in the path of the data do as above but don't write the ping-stuff but "tracert 64.125.26.77" (no quotes) and wait until it's finished.

 

[LeeYap]

I don't know why you need a special program for this that actually costs something. The right tools are already installed on your Windows:

- look at your Windows desktop
- at the bottom left click "Start"
- select "Run"
- enter "cmd.exe" (no quotes)
- you see a window with a black area come up
- enter "ping -t 64.125.26.77" (no quotes)
- enjoy the show

The time should be in ms (milliseconds) and rather close to 0 (zero), the lower the better.

No need for a graph as it's pretty straight forward.

And if you are interested in the path of the data do as above but don't write the ping-stuff but "tracert 64.125.26.77" (no quotes) and wait until it's finished.

The Ping command gives no way of telling which one of the connections is bad, it only shows round trip time. It's a good place to start, but if you do have a problem your isp has no way to tell how to fix it.

i'm pretty sure PP is just runing a trace route command over and over and displaying it in a graphical format. The advantage i see is that you can see a problem right away, you don't have to analize an endless run of text.

the graph i sent my ISP ran for 48hr

Anyway, that is how i solved my bad connection problem, gl with yours should you have one.

 

[Zap]

True, but my ISP is shite for everything during evening hours so the problem is almost certainly the ISP, I just want to prove it.

Problem is know, all points to Above.net, ISP that is responsible of connections of rest of the world to Entropia Universe servers. They dont have the needed capacity to connect major isp's. Altleast not in rush hours when some idiot is doing an DOS-attact to some server or service in their network.

Issue been around fro years... One of the thread here about this crappy issue:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/technical/125027-high-packet-loss-mindark-servers.html

On of the brush off mails

Email_Message : Hello,

The issue that you were seeing was due to an DOS attack that we had and now has been resolved.

thank you,

Abovenet

Regards
Zap

 

[jdegre]

the most appropriate address to do the pingplotter test should be:

rp.entropiauniverse.com

that's the stable address used by the EU client to resolve the IP address of the EU servers. the only thing is that the address is not reachable by ICMP packets (used by ping or traceroute/pingplotter) so you'll see a "destination not reachable" message in the last hop, but you can simply ignore it.

the last reachable hop will be an IP address similar to what leeyap posted (possibly different in the last byte) but, this way, you're safe in case of DNS changes.

for whatever is worth, i just changed ISP (and therefore, international carrier) recently, and i'm having 0% packet loss in pingplotter and very very consistent ping times (80-90 ms.), but i'm still having the same problem i've always had with missed shots.

 

[Falagor]

Well thanks too LeeYap for explaining where might be a problem. Actually i have one level that i loose some packets (10-30%) - strange is that its in one of my net provider hops (so probably i will call them).
Round trip is ok: ~60-65.
I just have two questions:
1) could those lost packets be in any way connected in huge fps drop when there are many people on my screen in Entropia? I have tried many different settings and the problem is definetly crowd on my screen.
I have set everything on "Safe mode" (before last up - on "Low") and i get +60 fps when i am alone (no GDts) - i have tried many different locations and it does not matter where i am or how much things my GPU has to draw. When i see +30 ppl it gets down to ~15-20 fps.
Tests on "Very high" on everthing when alone and i get +35 fps and crowdy place gives <10 fps.
Of course i do not wan't to play on high settings (i usually set those to be ~40+ fps when alone) but it seems that main problem is crowdy places. (I use Fraps to measure fps in game).
2) MurMet got this respond from MA about bad packet loss connected to Bahnhof.

same here. bahnhof too, got this from support

Please access your network card properties and check the following:

- Click on Start.
- Click on Control Panel.
- Double click on the System icon (in Windows XP, you may need to click Switch to Classic View on the left hand side of the screen).
- Select the Hardware tab.
- Click on Device Manager.
- Expand the section labeled Network Adapters.
- Right click on your network card and select Properties.
- Click on the Advanced Tab at the top

Check if you have the options in your Network Card properties listed below. If these options are available, please follow the instructions for each:

Checksum Offload:
This may also be named Hardware Checksum, Checksum RX, or Receive Checksum
Please change this setting to 'DISABLED' if you have it.

Speed/Duplex settings:
If this option exists, please try changing the Speed/Duplex to Force 100 Full Duplex.
This has shown to fix these types of issues as well.

Flow Control:
Please change this setting to 'Disabled/off' if you have it.
Once these changes have been made, Please click the OK button. This may disconnect you from the internet for a brief moment. You should automatically reconnect, if not restart your machine.

You may want to try different combinations of the settings above as different Network cards will perform differently. Also, if you are using a router all this information do not apply. You have to disconnect your router and connect your computer directly to the internet first.

Kind regards,
Entropia Universe Support

Of course the problem is not connected with me because i live in another country but i would like to know if mayby turining off those Checksum could help me too? And what bad consequences it may have?

Thank you in advance if anyone have patience to read all of this and respond . Also occasion to bump this good thread.

@edit:
My comp specification:
System: Windows XP
CPU: Intel IV 3.0 Gh
GPU: GeForce 8800 GT
RAM: 2.5 GB

Falagor