Every night at midnight (Adelaide Time) the game stops. I watch for a few minutes while my ship gets yo-yoed or rubberbanded often with a 'Server Not Responding' message and then I'm disconnected. I log back on, start up my ADSL-2 again, switch to my wireless ISP, play at a friend's place who is on a different ISP but it's always the same.... things are fine at 23:00 to 23:55 and then the game goes wonky and stops.
Has anybody else had this problem? The only other game I play sometimes is DDO and it doesn't have this problem.
Every night at midnight (Adelaide Time) the game stops. I watch for a few minutes while my ship gets yo-yoed or rubberbanded often with a 'Server Not Responding' message and then I'm disconnected. I log back on, start up my ADSL-2 again, switch to my wireless ISP, play at a friend's place who is on a different ISP but it's always the same.... things are fine at 23:00 to 23:55 and then the game goes wonky and stops.
Has anybody else had this problem? The only other game I play sometimes is DDO and it doesn't have this problem.
Well since you are playing from Australia do you happen to be using satellite internet? Can you copy/paste the results of the following diagnostic tools during the trouble times?
Run a trace route:
* Click on Start
* Click on Run, or if using Windows Vista just skip to the next step
* Type cmd into the dialog box and press Enter.
* In the window that opens type "tracert patchserver.crypticstudios.com"
* Check the speed listed on the return
If you see any hops over 180ms, this could be the cause of the rubber banding.
How to acquire, run and read the Nettest tool:
Go to http://files.champions-online.com/nettest.exe
Download the application and run it (Windows 7 and Vista users make sure to right click the icon and run as admin if you are having issues with the tool running.)
The Nettest tool checks that the ports required for patching and playing Star Trek Online are not blocked or filtered. Good values returned from the Nettest tool look like:
Column 1 and 3 have values around 500 kb/sec (outgoing/incoming), column 2 has values around 20 kb/sec (transfer rate). If the values in these columns is less than what is expected you may have filtering or blocked ports either on your personal network or from your ISP.
My Fairy Godmother hates me. It's 18 hops and the last 10 are from 200 - 500 ms.
The port test thing was all around 50kbs.
Why does it only happen after midnight?
The drop on the tracert starts at hop 8 at 203.208.192.201
it then gets bounced around at 154.54.24.x
How can I copy and paste all this info for you or would it make a difference?
To copy and paste in a command prompt widow right click on the boarder and select edit->Mark. Highlight the section you want copied and then go back to the header right click and select Edit-->Copy. Navigate to a window to post in the forms and paste there.
What type of ISP do you happen to be using? Satilight, cable, DSL?
1 3 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 17 ms 18 ms 16 ms lo5000.bras7.adl1.adnap.net.au [122.49.191.22]
3 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms g3-25.cor1.adl1.adnap.net.au [219.90.143.201]
4 19 ms 16 ms 16 ms te9-3.cor1.adl4.adnap.net.au [219.90.143.238]
5 18 ms 16 ms 17 ms te1-4.cor2.adl4.adnap.net.au [122.49.143.254]
6 19 ms 16 ms 16 ms vlan369.55drc76fg.optus.net.au [59.154.0.49]
7 40 ms 39 ms 38 ms 61.88.221.71
8 204 ms 201 ms 201 ms 203.208.192.201
9 204 ms 202 ms 201 ms 203.208.153.46
10 201 ms 200 ms 198 ms te7-3.ccr01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
61]
11 322 ms 234 ms 234 ms te9-8.ccr01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.0.2
38]
12 249 ms 360 ms 255 ms te3-2.ccr01.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
17]
13 332 ms 261 ms 352 ms te0-1-0-6.ccr21.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54
.24.153]
14 375 ms 270 ms 343 ms te0-0-0-2.ccr21.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.
4.125]
15 506 ms 274 ms 339 ms te2-2.ccr02.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.2
42]
16 364 ms 274 ms 338 ms te4-2.ccr01.bos06.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.25
4]
17 361 ms 278 ms 335 ms 38.104.187.150
18 362 ms 275 ms 339 ms patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.25]
Trace complete.
At 11:00 everything was working perfectly. Now, it's completely unplayable.
OP says he's in Australia, specifically the city of Adelaide.
So, is 300ms ok for someone that far away?
Not entirely. With a latency of 300ms you are going to be experiencing a fair amount of lag. The game may be playable, but you can try the proxy option in the launcher.
What is the proxy server address and how does it work?
Basically you click on the link labeled options at the top of the launcher and you should find the proxy option in there. Here is a link for a screenshot so you can see if for yourself.
Comments
Well since you are playing from Australia do you happen to be using satellite internet? Can you copy/paste the results of the following diagnostic tools during the trouble times?
Run a trace route:
* Click on Start
* Click on Run, or if using Windows Vista just skip to the next step
* Type cmd into the dialog box and press Enter.
* In the window that opens type "tracert patchserver.crypticstudios.com"
* Check the speed listed on the return
If you see any hops over 180ms, this could be the cause of the rubber banding.
How to acquire, run and read the Nettest tool:
Go to http://files.champions-online.com/nettest.exe
Download the application and run it (Windows 7 and Vista users make sure to right click the icon and run as admin if you are having issues with the tool running.)
The Nettest tool checks that the ports required for patching and playing Star Trek Online are not blocked or filtered. Good values returned from the Nettest tool look like:
Column 1 and 3 have values around 500 kb/sec (outgoing/incoming), column 2 has values around 20 kb/sec (transfer rate). If the values in these columns is less than what is expected you may have filtering or blocked ports either on your personal network or from your ISP.
The port test thing was all around 50kbs.
Why does it only happen after midnight?
The drop on the tracert starts at hop 8 at 203.208.192.201
it then gets bounced around at 154.54.24.x
How can I copy and paste all this info for you or would it make a difference?
To copy and paste in a command prompt widow right click on the boarder and select edit->Mark. Highlight the section you want copied and then go back to the header right click and select Edit-->Copy. Navigate to a window to post in the forms and paste there.
What type of ISP do you happen to be using? Satilight, cable, DSL?
Here is the trace at 00:45
1 3 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 17 ms 18 ms 16 ms lo5000.bras7.adl1.adnap.net.au [122.49.191.22]
3 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms g3-25.cor1.adl1.adnap.net.au [219.90.143.201]
4 19 ms 16 ms 16 ms te9-3.cor1.adl4.adnap.net.au [219.90.143.238]
5 18 ms 16 ms 17 ms te1-4.cor2.adl4.adnap.net.au [122.49.143.254]
6 19 ms 16 ms 16 ms vlan369.55drc76fg.optus.net.au [59.154.0.49]
7 40 ms 39 ms 38 ms 61.88.221.71
8 204 ms 201 ms 201 ms 203.208.192.201
9 204 ms 202 ms 201 ms 203.208.153.46
10 201 ms 200 ms 198 ms te7-3.ccr01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
61]
11 322 ms 234 ms 234 ms te9-8.ccr01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.0.2
38]
12 249 ms 360 ms 255 ms te3-2.ccr01.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.
17]
13 332 ms 261 ms 352 ms te0-1-0-6.ccr21.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54
.24.153]
14 375 ms 270 ms 343 ms te0-0-0-2.ccr21.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.
4.125]
15 506 ms 274 ms 339 ms te2-2.ccr02.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.2
42]
16 364 ms 274 ms 338 ms te4-2.ccr01.bos06.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.25
4]
17 361 ms 278 ms 335 ms 38.104.187.150
18 362 ms 275 ms 339 ms patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.184.25]
Trace complete.
At 11:00 everything was working perfectly. Now, it's completely unplayable.
unable to allocate performance buffer
contacting nettest server..
Local IP: 115.166.18.165
Ping: 300.1 msec
Port: 80: 55 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 80: 52 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 443: 54 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 443: 50 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7255: 41 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7255: 50 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7003: 55 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7003: 51 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7202: 50 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7202: 41 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7499: 52 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 7499: 51 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Port: 80: 53 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 0 KB/sec 500
Idle NIC bandwidth Send: 0 KB/sec Recv: 0 KB/sec
hit return to exit
300ms is pretty high, but are you playing in the US?
OP says he's in Australia, specifically the city of Adelaide.
So, is 300ms ok for someone that far away?
Not entirely. With a latency of 300ms you are going to be experiencing a fair amount of lag. The game may be playable, but you can try the proxy option in the launcher.
Basically you click on the link labeled options at the top of the launcher and you should find the proxy option in there. Here is a link for a screenshot so you can see if for yourself.
http://yfrog.com/edlauncherpp
There are two proxy options US and EU. I would suggest trying them both out and see if they make the issue better or worse.