UK servers worked for me last night. Tried US today and it was working for several hours, now im getting severe lag and disconnects again. Didnt mention last time, but also a Comcast user.
and I just saw that this was said about an hour and a half ago:
Update, 2015-08-30:
Hey folks! I just got an update. It's not what we want to hear but at least it means they have found the issue! The connection issue has been pinpointed to being an issue on the Internet Service Provider that the Cryptic Servers connect to and through. Alas, this means the Tech Team and Developers cannot resolve the issue, so we are now waiting for our ISP to correct the issue. We do apologize it has taken so long to find the cause but at least now the wheels are in motion to get this resolved.
So yeah it's confirmed to be an ISP issue, not ours but theirs.
It's always been an ISP issue. It's been happening for years. This is nothing new, it's just particularly severe this time. We've been told (or at least I have) that it was our ISP when in fact it's been theirs. Most of us knew it, and knew the excuses like "complain to your ISP" or "reboot your router" were bullplop.
Do a simple search for "Cogent" on the forum and see for yourselves just how far back these problems with them stretch.
I don't know what other ISP may be available to Cryptic but they have to look into switching providers.
EDIT: I do wonder though why people outside the U.S. aren't affected. I don't know nearly enough about how internet traffic is routed but it's weird to me that traffic from within the country is affected by their ISP but not from outside. Can someone shed some light on to why that is?
I'm on a VPN right now. The end point happens to be in London and actually on Cogent's network. I'm not having an issue right now getting in, where I was before. The VPN's just routing around the issue.
My guess is that it's not Cogent's network itself, but probably some of their peering points where they connect with other networks that are the issue. I've never had a lag problem like this (i.e., not being able to log in) before Friday. Comcast -> Cogent seems to be a common factor in many of the traceroutes, but I'm not experiencing any other issues with Comcast's network, so my best guess is something is broken where those two networks connect. Probably with some other peers as well.
I must have gotten lucky so far today. Yesterday, I couldn't log in without the built-in EU proxy. Today, I switched the proxy off and zero problems. Completely random and absolutely no rhyme or reason.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
I'm on a VPN right now. The end point happens to be in London and actually on Cogent's network. I'm not having an issue right now getting in, where I was before. The VPN's just routing around the issue.
My guess is that it's not Cogent's network itself, but probably some of their peering points where they connect with other networks that are the issue. I've never had a lag problem like this (i.e., not being able to log in) before Friday. Comcast -> Cogent seems to be a common factor in many of the traceroutes, but I'm not experiencing any other issues with Comcast's network, so my best guess is something is broken where those two networks connect. Probably with some other peers as well.
and these breaks always occur with Cogent. Every few months something like this happens. It's always a Cogent issue and I'm wondering why Cryptic puts up with them. They may have no choice but I'm hoping they do and someone in charge decides to change providers.
I'm on a VPN right now. The end point happens to be in London and actually on Cogent's network. I'm not having an issue right now getting in, where I was before. The VPN's just routing around the issue.
My guess is that it's not Cogent's network itself, but probably some of their peering points where they connect with other networks that are the issue. I've never had a lag problem like this (i.e., not being able to log in) before Friday. Comcast -> Cogent seems to be a common factor in many of the traceroutes, but I'm not experiencing any other issues with Comcast's network, so my best guess is something is broken where those two networks connect. Probably with some other peers as well.
and these breaks always occur with Cogent. Every few months something like this happens. It's always a Cogent issue and I'm wondering why Cryptic puts up with them. They may have no choice but I'm hoping they do and someone in charge decides to change providers.
Absolutely, it does seem to be a problem with Cogent. I changed my VPN tunnel to one that pops out in the eastern US. Back to the same issue, and it's not touching Comcast's network once it leaves the VPN tunnel:
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 47 ms 47 ms 46 ms 10.1.1.1
2 45 ms 48 ms 48 ms [REDACTED]
3 57 ms 48 ms 155 ms ethernet20-1-br1.pnj1.choopa.net [108.61.2.197]
4 44 ms 44 ms 55 ms ae-35.r06.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.249]
5 49 ms 49 ms 50 ms be3037.ccr21.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.12.145]
6 44 ms 45 ms 48 ms be2057.ccr42.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.80.177]
7 52 ms 51 ms 50 ms be2096.ccr22.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.30.42]
8 53 ms 53 ms 54 ms te0-0-0-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.130]
9 54 ms 59 ms 53 ms 38.111.40.114
10 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms 198.49.243.253
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
Trace complete.
So yeah, definitely something with Cogent's network / peering. I guess I'll have to use the VPN through London if I want to play STO. Ah well, I paid for 30 days....
i started playing this game when it first came out. I even bought a new PC to play it. i quit because all of the issues were sucking the fun out of it. I picked it back up and this happens. It was buggy before, but at least it was playable.
I ran a packet dump of an attempted STO session and poked through it a bit. As near as I can tell with a quick look-over of the TCP headers, the packets outbound from the server are getting lost a fair amount of the time. So it's not the server being just slow/overloaded.
(Technical details: My machine is doing a lot of selective ACKing, which means it's gotten some packets that are further ahead in time than the next one it was expecting from the server; i.e., the packet in the middle got dropped or mis-ordered in the net somewhere. From the durations of the ACKing periods, it looks like "lost" rather than "out of order", but I didn't look that closely.)
I still don't know why some characters were affected more than others in my and my wife's sessions yesterday. It might be some "fairness" algorithm in the router affecting higher-traffic STO servers more than lower-traffic ones at a congestion point, trying to get the higher-traffic server to back off. Routers don't usually note source IP addresses when deciding what to drop, but there's all kinds of crazy "fairness" stuff in routers, usually badly configured, so who knows...?
The trouble seems to be with 3M Cogent Communications, Inc.
They are having all kinds of problems. They are being sued by the US government for not living up to contract specs on facial recognition software. Their stock price has dropped almost 15% over the past few weeks as a result. According to affidavit to US Attorney General, their server farms are outdated. The Software does not work and Cogent is accused of lying about their hardware profile (they said they were updated, but they are updating).
A Cogent release said they are working "day and night" replacing old servers.
Comcast is not the problem.
My money says that the big problem (being sued by the US Government) is being placed as a priority and their other commercial clientele are being seen as a secondary concern. I would not doubt it if every available asset they have is directed towards this end. They bit off more than they could chew and now they are in a fight for their life.
Internet traffic is routed not by some random method, but by techs who specifically define 'traffic patterns.' Those techs get their marching orders from bosses who signed contracts for services. Cryptic can and should seek another partner. Cogent has too much on their plate. Cryptic is a small fish in the big pond where 3M Cogent is fishing. They are an afterthought, a drop in the bucket, etc... They should seek a vendor/provider who values their business. With facial recognition software expected by Forbes to be a $2+B dollar emerging market and Cogent throwing most of their eggs in that basket...I doubt that Cryptic Studios will be a priority.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Interesting trace route. Either the route is changing rapidly during the trace or there's an intermittent loop in their network. Notice hops 8 & 9, 11 & 12, and 13 & 14 are the same server. Also there is some partial packet loss indicated in the hops that only sometimes respond to the ping requests. For those not familiar with traceroutes - the first "Request timed out." is just a server that's set to ignore ping requests, not a problem with the network.
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 37 ms 37 ms 37 ms 10.1.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 40 ms 38 ms 38 ms xe-0-1-0-5.r05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.207.209]
4 38 ms 38 ms 39 ms ae-8.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.222]
5 40 ms 39 ms 39 ms be2216.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.201]
6 39 ms 39 ms 47 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
7 58 ms 46 ms 58 ms be2009.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.89]
8 58 ms 57 ms 62 ms be2299.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.9]
9 62 ms 61 ms 61 ms be2299.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.9]
10 61 ms 78 ms 63 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.134]
11 62 ms 72 ms 62 ms 198.49.243.253
12 62 ms 61 ms * 198.49.243.253
13 62 ms * * accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
14 62 ms 73 ms 62 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
Trace complete.
Before I posted this I decided to run another trace route. Completely different route, also seems to have a server sending traffic to itself. Cogent's network is hosed...
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 38 ms 39 ms 37 ms 10.1.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 38 ms 38 ms 45 ms xe-0-1-0-5.r05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.207.209]
4 38 ms 39 ms 38 ms ae-8.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.222]
5 38 ms 39 ms 38 ms be2216.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.201]
6 117 ms 56 ms 77 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
7 59 ms 46 ms 54 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
8 61 ms 61 ms 59 ms be2009.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.89]
9 68 ms 63 ms 62 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.134]
10 72 ms 62 ms 61 ms 38.111.40.114
11 61 ms 60 ms 62 ms 38.111.40.114
12 * * 61 ms 198.49.243.253
13 * 62 ms 61 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
As I mentioned in another thread, on my end I've not found a ny problems regarding logging in/ lag/rubberbanding these past few days etc...
here's my tracert.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Jrobl>tracert patchserver.crypticstudios.com
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.3.1
3 60 ms 14 ms 16 ms 10.57.100.1
4 42 ms 23 ms 16 ms core.azc.airebeam.net [199.66.168.1]
5 16 ms 14 ms 20 ms 209-193-107-37.mammothnetworks.com [209.193.107.37]
6 38 ms 35 ms 48 ms 10.1.31.4
7 74 ms 67 ms 69 ms te0-0-2-2.nr11.b006467-1.den01.atlas.cogentco.com [38.122.114.17]
8 57 ms 102 ms 62 ms te0-0-1-3.rcr11.b006467-1.den01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.24.1.153]
9 60 ms 55 ms 54 ms te0-1-0-3.ccr21.den01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.83.29]
10 56 ms 56 ms 55 ms be2128.ccr21.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.174]
11 71 ms 67 ms 66 ms be2156.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.86]
12 74 ms 77 ms 73 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
13 80 ms 79 ms 87 ms be2009.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.89]
14 84 ms 87 ms 82 ms be2299.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.9]
15 89 ms 107 ms 93 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.134]
16 91 ms 101 ms 86 ms 38.111.40.114
17 84 ms 119 ms 82 ms 198.49.243.253
18 92 ms 86 ms 94 ms 10.251.192.21
19 83 ms 88 ms 82 ms patchserver2.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
Trace complete.
C:\Users\Jrobl>
The only problem there in increased ms is cogentco,
Plus i'm on the west coast.
This is getting old Cryptic. I would suggest you add time to the CC event as a fair way to show you value your customers. 3 days of not being able to play.
"If everyone used Macs, we'd be working on how to get to Alpha Centauri rather than how to get to Mars."
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
.....
8 34 ms 100 ms 33 ms be3001.ccr21.atl04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.13
.197]
9 95 ms 32 ms 31 ms be2034.ccr41.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.
113]
10 55 ms 56 ms 55 ms be2112.ccr41.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.7.
157]
11 60 ms 60 ms 83 ms be2148.ccr41.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.31
.118]
12 79 ms 66 ms 65 ms be2094.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.30
.14]
13 71 ms 66 ms 67 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.c
om [154.54.46.134]
14 75 ms 67 ms 68 ms 38.111.40.114
15 67 ms 69 ms 77 ms 198.49.243.253
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 73 ms 67 ms 67 ms patchserverrebirth.crypticstudios.com [208.95.18
5.41]
Just for fun I decided to try one.
That's horribly screwball.... the pings along cogent's route are almost random. I think that each ping that tracert sent got redirected differently as it went through their network.
Comments
I'm on a VPN right now. The end point happens to be in London and actually on Cogent's network. I'm not having an issue right now getting in, where I was before. The VPN's just routing around the issue.
My guess is that it's not Cogent's network itself, but probably some of their peering points where they connect with other networks that are the issue. I've never had a lag problem like this (i.e., not being able to log in) before Friday. Comcast -> Cogent seems to be a common factor in many of the traceroutes, but I'm not experiencing any other issues with Comcast's network, so my best guess is something is broken where those two networks connect. Probably with some other peers as well.
and these breaks always occur with Cogent. Every few months something like this happens. It's always a Cogent issue and I'm wondering why Cryptic puts up with them. They may have no choice but I'm hoping they do and someone in charge decides to change providers.
Absolutely, it does seem to be a problem with Cogent. I changed my VPN tunnel to one that pops out in the eastern US. Back to the same issue, and it's not touching Comcast's network once it leaves the VPN tunnel:
C:\Windows\system32>tracert accounts.crypticstudios.com
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 47 ms 47 ms 46 ms 10.1.1.1
2 45 ms 48 ms 48 ms [REDACTED]
3 57 ms 48 ms 155 ms ethernet20-1-br1.pnj1.choopa.net [108.61.2.197]
4 44 ms 44 ms 55 ms ae-35.r06.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.249]
5 49 ms 49 ms 50 ms be3037.ccr21.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.12.145]
6 44 ms 45 ms 48 ms be2057.ccr42.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.80.177]
7 52 ms 51 ms 50 ms be2096.ccr22.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.30.42]
8 53 ms 53 ms 54 ms te0-0-0-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.130]
9 54 ms 59 ms 53 ms 38.111.40.114
10 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms 198.49.243.253
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
Trace complete.
So yeah, definitely something with Cogent's network / peering. I guess I'll have to use the VPN through London if I want to play STO. Ah well, I paid for 30 days....
I'm glad someone is offering a bit of intelligence to how servers interact with traceroute commands.
In the meantime I can at least play some laggy CCA va the EU proxy, since I don't know anything about setting up a VPN.
(Technical details: My machine is doing a lot of selective ACKing, which means it's gotten some packets that are further ahead in time than the next one it was expecting from the server; i.e., the packet in the middle got dropped or mis-ordered in the net somewhere. From the durations of the ACKing periods, it looks like "lost" rather than "out of order", but I didn't look that closely.)
I still don't know why some characters were affected more than others in my and my wife's sessions yesterday. It might be some "fairness" algorithm in the router affecting higher-traffic STO servers more than lower-traffic ones at a congestion point, trying to get the higher-traffic server to back off. Routers don't usually note source IP addresses when deciding what to drop, but there's all kinds of crazy "fairness" stuff in routers, usually badly configured, so who knows...?
They are having all kinds of problems. They are being sued by the US government for not living up to contract specs on facial recognition software. Their stock price has dropped almost 15% over the past few weeks as a result. According to affidavit to US Attorney General, their server farms are outdated. The Software does not work and Cogent is accused of lying about their hardware profile (they said they were updated, but they are updating).
A Cogent release said they are working "day and night" replacing old servers.
Comcast is not the problem.
My money says that the big problem (being sued by the US Government) is being placed as a priority and their other commercial clientele are being seen as a secondary concern. I would not doubt it if every available asset they have is directed towards this end. They bit off more than they could chew and now they are in a fight for their life.
Internet traffic is routed not by some random method, but by techs who specifically define 'traffic patterns.' Those techs get their marching orders from bosses who signed contracts for services. Cryptic can and should seek another partner. Cogent has too much on their plate. Cryptic is a small fish in the big pond where 3M Cogent is fishing. They are an afterthought, a drop in the bucket, etc... They should seek a vendor/provider who values their business. With facial recognition software expected by Forbes to be a $2+B dollar emerging market and Cogent throwing most of their eggs in that basket...I doubt that Cryptic Studios will be a priority.
.. and jinxed.
yep
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 37 ms 37 ms 37 ms 10.1.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 40 ms 38 ms 38 ms xe-0-1-0-5.r05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.207.209]
4 38 ms 38 ms 39 ms ae-8.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.222]
5 40 ms 39 ms 39 ms be2216.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.201]
6 39 ms 39 ms 47 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
7 58 ms 46 ms 58 ms be2009.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.89]
8 58 ms 57 ms 62 ms be2299.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.9]
9 62 ms 61 ms 61 ms be2299.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.43.9]
10 61 ms 78 ms 63 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.134]
11 62 ms 72 ms 62 ms 198.49.243.253
12 62 ms 61 ms * 198.49.243.253
13 62 ms * * accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
14 62 ms 73 ms 62 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
Trace complete.
Before I posted this I decided to run another trace route. Completely different route, also seems to have a server sending traffic to itself. Cogent's network is hosed...
Tracing route to accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 38 ms 39 ms 37 ms 10.1.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 38 ms 38 ms 45 ms xe-0-1-0-5.r05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.207.209]
4 38 ms 39 ms 38 ms ae-8.r06.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.222]
5 38 ms 39 ms 38 ms be2216.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24.201]
6 117 ms 56 ms 77 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
7 59 ms 46 ms 54 ms be2351.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.86]
8 61 ms 61 ms 59 ms be2009.ccr21.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.89]
9 68 ms 63 ms 62 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.46.134]
10 72 ms 62 ms 61 ms 38.111.40.114
11 61 ms 60 ms 62 ms 38.111.40.114
12 * * 61 ms 198.49.243.253
13 * 62 ms 61 ms accounts.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.165]
Trace complete.
here's my tracert.
The only problem there in increased ms is cogentco,
Plus i'm on the west coast.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\mhm>tracert patchserver.crypticstudios.com
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
.....
8 34 ms 100 ms 33 ms be3001.ccr21.atl04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.13
.197]
9 95 ms 32 ms 31 ms be2034.ccr41.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.
113]
10 55 ms 56 ms 55 ms be2112.ccr41.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.7.
157]
11 60 ms 60 ms 83 ms be2148.ccr41.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.31
.118]
12 79 ms 66 ms 65 ms be2094.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.30
.14]
13 71 ms 66 ms 67 ms te0-0-1-0.rcr11.b002133-1.bos01.atlas.cogentco.c
om [154.54.46.134]
14 75 ms 67 ms 68 ms 38.111.40.114
15 67 ms 69 ms 77 ms 198.49.243.253
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 73 ms 67 ms 67 ms patchserverrebirth.crypticstudios.com [208.95.18
5.41]
Just for fun I decided to try one.
That's horribly screwball.... the pings along cogent's route are almost random. I think that each ping that tracert sent got redirected differently as it went through their network.
My character Tsin'xing