I have spoken to engineering about that very site and they assure me that while there is a spike in the trace it has no effect on gameplay. You can ping that site directly and you'll see that it responds just like any other in the route.
Regards, Tek Specialist Game Master Perfect World Entertainment"
As you can see from the pinging information below the ping is good till the cryptic studio IP..BUT when it tries to get to the cryptic patch server IP it fails completely..So what happens is that the games launcher is contacting the patch server first to patch the whole game and then launch, and NOT the cryptic game server first thereby causing the launcher to fail completely..
==================================================== IP address 198.49.243.253 belongs to Cryptic Studios.
C:\Windows\System32>ping 198.49.243.253
Pinging 198.49.243.253 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=244 Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=251ms TTL=244 Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=242ms TTL=244 Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=241ms TTL=244
Ping statistics for 198.49.243.253: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 241ms, Maximum = 251ms, Average = 244ms ==================================================== IP address 208.95.185.41 belongs to crypticstudios.com, patchserver.
C:\Windows\System32>ping 208.95.185.41
Pinging 208.95.185.41 with 32 bytes of data: Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 208.95.185.41: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Is there is another way to manually bypass the patch server IP 208.95.185.41, and go straight for the game IP 198.49.243.253 by changing code lines in the config files of the game?? OR is there some way of getting the patch in the form of a download and then manually applying it so that the launcher doesn't fail when it attempts to reach the patch server??
I have spoken to engineering about that very site and they assure me that while there is a spike in the trace it has no effect on gameplay. You can ping that site directly and you'll see that it responds just like any other in the route.
Regards,
Tek
Specialist Game Master
Perfect World Entertainment"
Listen to that engineer because he knows what he's talking about. Everyone's willingness to provide traceroute outputs is praiseworthy but remember that the game and tracroute interacts with the routers in very different ways.
The game uses a network protocol called TCP and creates data packets destined directly for the game server. Any router on the path will simply forward such a packet to the next router on the path. This is what they're optimized to do and on modern enterprise routers this is even performed in hardware and is very effective.
Traceroute uses a network protocol called ICMP by default (*nix based versions can be forced to use TCP/UDP/SCTP/GRE) and crafts three ECHO REQUEST packets destined to each and every router on the path to the game server. This means that every router on the path has to process the actual data in the packet, send it to the appropriate software in its operating system, create a response and send it back to you. Compared to simply forwarding packets, this is a very costly procedure CPU wise. Enterprise routers should be configured to use a lower priority on such tasks which will result in a high latency for them, which is exactly the behaviour you see from 198.49.243.253. Some routers are even configured to not respond to ICMP at all which will result in a "Request timeout..." message. That router will however forward actual data traffic with no problems.
To summarize: Traceroute is not constructed to do what people in this thread believes it can do. Traceroute doesn't generate the same kind of data traffic that the game does and it has no way of knowing how a particular router on the path is configured to respond to its requests, thus it's impossible to draw any conclusions from the responses it receives. Traceroute does have a purpose in figuring out what physical path your data is using although this is becoming more and more unreliable with all virtualization going on on the network layer these days.
I have spoken to engineering about that very site and they assure me that while there is a spike in the trace it has no effect on gameplay. You can ping that site directly and you'll see that it responds just like any other in the route.
Regards,
Tek
Specialist Game Master
Perfect World Entertainment"
Listen to that engineer because he knows what he's talking about. Everyone's willingness to provide traceroute outputs is praiseworthy but remember that the game and tracroute interacts with the routers in very different ways.
The game uses a network protocol called TCP and creates data packets destined directly for the game server. Any router on the path will simply forward such a packet to the next router on the path. This is what they're optimized to do and on modern enterprise routers this is even performed in hardware and is very effective.
Traceroute uses a network protocol called ICMP by default (*nix based versions can be forced to use TCP/UDP/SCTP/GRE) and crafts three ECHO REQUEST packets destined to each and every router on the path to the game server. This means that every router on the path has to process the actual data in the packet, send it to the appropriate software in its operating system, create a response and send it back to you. Compared to simply forwarding packets, this is a very costly procedure CPU wise. Enterprise routers should be configured to use a lower priority on such tasks which will result in a high latency for them, which is exactly the behaviour you see from 198.49.243.253. Some routers are even configured to not respond to ICMP at all which will result in a "Request timeout..." message. That router will however forward actual data traffic with no problems.
To summarize: Traceroute is not constructed to do what people in this thread believes it can do. Traceroute doesn't generate the same kind of data traffic that the game does and it has no way of knowing how a particular router on the path is configured to respond to its requests, thus it's impossible to draw any conclusions from the responses it receives. Traceroute does have a purpose in figuring out what physical path your data is using although this is becoming more and more unreliable with all virtualization going on on the network layer these days.
Thanks..But please check out the NW forums where one of the moderators has said the team found something wrong at 198.49.243.253, plus the players there are also pretty upset with whats going on..I worked on these types of servers with codemasters and globalstep gaming companies and with Lufthansa..to put in perspective..When you ping the ip at any distance from any route you should be able to get a 100% return..so in the case of the cryptic patch server its a 100% loss as compared to the cryptic studio server which is 100% normal..Hence the problem with STO lies in the way the launcher interacts with the patch server which inadvertently causes it to fail..
My opinion, instead of giving the patch server a higher preference to the launcher instead of the game server eventually locks everyone out at some point because it needs to go thru the patch server first rather than the game server..So whatever is at 208.95.185.41 needs to be fixed if the order in which the launcher accesses the game stays the same..
BTW whats the game IP???? can ping and see if that is good then what I expect about the patch server IP 208.95.185.41, being the culprit will be confirmed..Anyone??
When you ping the ip at any distance from any route you should be able to get a 100% return.
I agree with this and it would be true if bandwidth was never an issue and every operator respected RFC 792. But RFC:s are only recommendations and operators can chose to completely disable ICMP handling on any of their devices or chose to shape that traffic differently than other IP protocols. A traceroute provided earlier in this thread clearly shows that the latency to patchserver.crypticstudios.com was normal while at the same time the latency to the upstream router 198.49.243.253 was a magnitude higher. This can be explained as 198.49.243.253 (at least when that traceroute was performed) forwarded traffic through this node normally, without noticeable delay, but processed ICMP traffic destined directly to this router with a lower priority, i.e. traffic shaped.
BTW whats the game IP???? can ping and see if that is good then what I expect about the patch server IP 208.95.185.41, being the culprit will be confirmed..Anyone??
Ping uses the ICMP protocol too. What I try to explain in my previous post is that tools using the ICMP protocol can't automatically be assumed to work as a proxy for real game server traffic based on the TCP protocol.
just so happen to look in support to see if there was any mention of massive lag and found this thread and decided to run a tracert myself. i wasn't surprised when i noticed the same issue as everyone else. i really hope they fix this because its driving me bonkers
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 13 ms 13 ms 11 ms 223-1.graceba.net []
3 12 ms 10 ms 8 ms 204-1.graceba.net [216.47.204.1]
4 31 ms 61 ms 65 ms 201-162.graceba.net [216.47.201.162]
5 18 ms 22 ms 15 ms 24.96.194.117
6 22 ms 17 ms 21 ms 67.106.215.25.ptr.us.xo.net [67.106.215.25]
7 50 ms 60 ms 49 ms vb2001.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.13.5
0]
8 52 ms 63 ms 51 ms te-11-4-0.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.1
2.201]
9 53 ms 55 ms 56 ms 207.88.12.98.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.98]
10 51 ms 51 ms 51 ms te-3-0-0.rar3.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [207.88.12.73]
11 50 ms 51 ms 71 ms ae0d0.mcr1.cambridge-ma.us.xo.net [216.156.0.26]
12 51 ms 49 ms 49 ms ae1d0.mcr2.cambridge-ma.us.xo.net [216.156.1.14]
13 50 ms 53 ms 50 ms 209.117.103.10
14 51 ms 49 ms 50 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.4
1]
15 52 ms 48 ms 49 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.
61.78]
16 54 ms 53 ms 55 ms 198.49.243.250
17 742 ms 780 ms 959 ms 198.49.243.253
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 49 ms 49 ms 49 ms xboxpatchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.4
1]
Today tried to fire the game up the launcher ran to my excitement..Game started patching for about a hour then boom it cloaked into space..Then the patcher throws up an error "server timed out"!!
Here is the first tracert when running..
30/11/2015 9:41 IST
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 19 ms 20 ms 20 ms 59.94.52.1
3 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms 218.248.164.106
4 43 ms * * 218.248.235.161
5 42 ms 42 ms * 218.248.235.162
6 43 ms 41 ms 45 ms 125.17.180.233
7 257 ms 255 ms 247 ms 182.79.245.53
8 247 ms 248 ms 266 ms 213.242.116.161
9 252 ms 252 ms 252 ms ae-4-90.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.199]
10 252 ms 268 ms 253 ms ae-4-90.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.199]
11 249 ms 249 ms 249 ms ae0.mpr1.cdg11.fr.zip.zayo.com [64.125.12.113]
12 276 ms 276 ms 275 ms ae27.cs1.cdg11.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.4]
13 275 ms 274 ms 276 ms ae0.cs1.cdg12.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.84]
14 281 ms 276 ms 274 ms ae5.cs2.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.93]
15 275 ms 302 ms 278 ms ae0.cs1.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.186]
16 270 ms 269 ms 270 ms ae27.cr1.lga5.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.30.251]
17 275 ms 274 ms 275 ms ae7.mpr3.bos2.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.21.225]
18 275 ms 276 ms 276 ms 208.184.110.70.IPYX-072053-002-ZYO.above.net [208.184.110.70]
19 292 ms 275 ms 299 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.41]
20 280 ms 366 ms 274 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.61.78]
21 275 ms 275 ms 278 ms 198.49.243.250
22 1046 ms 802 ms 998 ms 198.49.243.253
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 275 ms 281 ms 276 ms patchserver2.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
Tracing route to patchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms 117.195.96.1
3 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms 218.248.164.110
4 44 ms 43 ms 45 ms 218.248.235.161
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 47 ms 51 ms 48 ms 125.17.0.97
7 238 ms 238 ms 236 ms 182.79.245.14
8 239 ms 282 ms 240 ms 213.242.116.161
9 249 ms 249 ms 248 ms ae-3-80.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.135]
10 249 ms 248 ms 249 ms ae-3-80.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.135]
11 249 ms 250 ms 249 ms ae0.mpr1.cdg11.fr.zip.zayo.com [64.125.12.113]
12 245 ms 245 ms 242 ms ae27.cs1.cdg11.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.4]
13 244 ms 242 ms 242 ms ae0.cs1.cdg12.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.84]
14 241 ms 242 ms 241 ms ae5.cs2.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.93]
15 242 ms 243 ms 242 ms ae0.cs1.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.186]
16 236 ms 236 ms 236 ms ae27.cr1.lga5.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.30.251]
17 243 ms 241 ms 242 ms ae7.mpr3.bos2.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.21.225]
18 242 ms 242 ms 242 ms 208.184.110.70.IPYX-072053-002-ZYO.above.net [208.184.110.70]
19 241 ms 248 ms 240 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.41]
20 240 ms 240 ms 240 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.61.78]
21 240 ms 260 ms 240 ms 198.49.243.250
22 * 986 ms 918 ms 198.49.243.253
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
basically there is something screwy happening after 198.49.243.253!!
Anyone from support care to comment??
If you capture the actual network traffic and analyze it you can see the devices directly behind 198.49.243.253 (traceroute itself will not display them though). You will see replies from several different IP numbers here (eg. 178.88.144.64, 178.219.244.160). All of them owned by telecom companies registered in countries like Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Remember that the owners of these IP addresses can be registered anywhere geographically but the devices actually holding the IP addresses can be located elsewhere.
A wild guess is that these are companies providing firewall and anti DDoS services to Cryptic. The IP address 198.49.243.253 is registered by Cryptic but most likely the device using it is located at a service center owned by one of these companies and thus outside of Cryptic's network and control. It's clearly configured to artificially respond slowly to ping requests. An old school DDoS technique is to flood servers and routers with ping requests and limiting the rate of ping replies is a way to counter this. The hidden routers behind this device are configured not to respond to pings at all and since there are many IP addresses here, it looks like a layer to provide load distribution.
I repeat what I wrote in an earlier post: Despite your good intentions - traceroute is NOT a tool designed to do the kind of troubleshooting you're using it for.
You will see replies from several different IP numbers here (eg. 178.88.144.64, 178.219.244.160).
I need to correct my own statement quoted above. My logging was tainted with traffic from other connections and the listed IP numbers are unrelated to Cryptic. The device between 198.49.243.253 and patchserver.crypticstudios.com doesn't reveal anything about itself.
Yes, those threads are just more examples of several misconceptions. I will limit my effort to educate people to the STO forums. Let's see if I will succeed eventually.
1) The IP address 198.49.243.253 is registered to Cryptic Studios. This isn't the same thing that this IP address is used on a physical server owned by Cryptic or even located on Cryptic's physical network. Personally I don't know and there are no public records to verify this.
2) The threads are avoiding to explain why the ping is normal when it reaches patchserver.crypticstudios.com. It's only abnormally high on 198.49.243.253. This behaviour means that pings targeted to devices BEHIND 198.49.243.253 are forwarded THROUGH 198.49.243.253 properly and without delay just as would be expected. But pings targeted TO 198.49.243.253 has their reply delayed almost consistently with almost a second. This to me looks like intentional protection from a simple form of DDoS. As long as this device is forwarding packets without delay to the game servers, there's no cause for alarm.
3) Lag is referred to frequently but there's no consensus on the definition. Presumably the thread should be about network lag, i.e. your data packets are delayed abnormally in transit due to some bottleneck on the path. This could manifest itself in-game as rubberbanding and delays in power activation but not be limited to this. But lag also comes in other variations, like FPS lag where your computer can't keep a steady frame rate causing stuttering in the graphics. It could also be UI lag where powers don't activate, activate late or just display a weird and unexpected behaviour. Finally it could also mean server lag where the server's CPU is overloaded meaning it can't process all game data in the amount of time required. I think we all know how this lag manifests itself if we've been in a large instance with people spamming Kemocite + Neutronic torpedoe. The point is that I can see people referring to every type of lag and blame it on 198.49.243.253 simply because the ping times to this device is high and this is simply an absurd conclusion.
4) Traceroute uses ping in a clever way to figure out the IP address of every node on the path to the destination. Ping uses an IP protocol called ICMP by default. The game uses another IP protocol called TCP for its data communication. Just because traceroute and ping shows a certain behaviour doesn't automatically mean that the same behaviour applies to TCP. In the case of a bandwidth bottleneck it probably would but in the case where a router is configured to prioritize TCP and ignore ICMP you will see a different behavior. I repeat again that there's no way for traceroute to know how the routers on the path are configured, nor can it tell if Cryptic's servers are overloaded.
I apologize for the wall of text but hopefully it will gradually help people to understand the complexity of this problem. From a professional perspective I would very much like to know what kind of device 198.49.243.253 is and what purpose it has. I'm always interested in how companies build their network environments to support tens of thousands of simultaneous users while also protecting themselves from malicious network traffic. If Cryptic shared that information I believe Cryptic would benefit from it by having a reduced number of angry customers blaming them for faulty equipment.
I still believe the block is somewhere on your ISP's end. When I look up your IP range (101.63.42.*) I see no bans or blocks whatsoever. Since you were able to connect briefly you might want to see if there is a way that the ISP can raise the priority for connections to our server.
Regards,
Tek
Specialist Game Master
Perfect World Entertainment
I was wondering why there were problems for me. Worked fine last night. Did a tracert command. Had 818ms when the tracert was at that address.
Can you explain your argument here? The game isn't running on this device so its latency is irrelevant so long as it doesn't delay actual game traffic. Are you experience the same high latency while checking your ping in-game with /netgraph 1 ?
Comments
Update from support..
"Hello,
I have spoken to engineering about that very site and they assure me that while there is a spike in the trace it has no effect on gameplay. You can ping that site directly and you'll see that it responds just like any other in the route.
Regards,
Tek
Specialist Game Master
Perfect World Entertainment"
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
====================================================
IP address 198.49.243.253 belongs to Cryptic Studios.
C:\Windows\System32>ping 198.49.243.253
Pinging 198.49.243.253 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=244
Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=251ms TTL=244
Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=242ms TTL=244
Reply from 198.49.243.253: bytes=32 time=241ms TTL=244
Ping statistics for 198.49.243.253:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 241ms, Maximum = 251ms, Average = 244ms
====================================================
IP address 208.95.185.41 belongs to crypticstudios.com, patchserver.
C:\Windows\System32>ping 208.95.185.41
Pinging 208.95.185.41 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 208.95.185.41:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Listen to that engineer because he knows what he's talking about. Everyone's willingness to provide traceroute outputs is praiseworthy but remember that the game and tracroute interacts with the routers in very different ways.
The game uses a network protocol called TCP and creates data packets destined directly for the game server. Any router on the path will simply forward such a packet to the next router on the path. This is what they're optimized to do and on modern enterprise routers this is even performed in hardware and is very effective.
Traceroute uses a network protocol called ICMP by default (*nix based versions can be forced to use TCP/UDP/SCTP/GRE) and crafts three ECHO REQUEST packets destined to each and every router on the path to the game server. This means that every router on the path has to process the actual data in the packet, send it to the appropriate software in its operating system, create a response and send it back to you. Compared to simply forwarding packets, this is a very costly procedure CPU wise. Enterprise routers should be configured to use a lower priority on such tasks which will result in a high latency for them, which is exactly the behaviour you see from 198.49.243.253. Some routers are even configured to not respond to ICMP at all which will result in a "Request timeout..." message. That router will however forward actual data traffic with no problems.
To summarize: Traceroute is not constructed to do what people in this thread believes it can do. Traceroute doesn't generate the same kind of data traffic that the game does and it has no way of knowing how a particular router on the path is configured to respond to its requests, thus it's impossible to draw any conclusions from the responses it receives. Traceroute does have a purpose in figuring out what physical path your data is using although this is becoming more and more unreliable with all virtualization going on on the network layer these days.
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS
Thanks..But please check out the NW forums where one of the moderators has said the team found something wrong at 198.49.243.253, plus the players there are also pretty upset with whats going on..I worked on these types of servers with codemasters and globalstep gaming companies and with Lufthansa..to put in perspective..When you ping the ip at any distance from any route you should be able to get a 100% return..so in the case of the cryptic patch server its a 100% loss as compared to the cryptic studio server which is 100% normal..Hence the problem with STO lies in the way the launcher interacts with the patch server which inadvertently causes it to fail..
My opinion, instead of giving the patch server a higher preference to the launcher instead of the game server eventually locks everyone out at some point because it needs to go thru the patch server first rather than the game server..So whatever is at 208.95.185.41 needs to be fixed if the order in which the launcher accesses the game stays the same..
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
I agree with this and it would be true if bandwidth was never an issue and every operator respected RFC 792. But RFC:s are only recommendations and operators can chose to completely disable ICMP handling on any of their devices or chose to shape that traffic differently than other IP protocols. A traceroute provided earlier in this thread clearly shows that the latency to patchserver.crypticstudios.com was normal while at the same time the latency to the upstream router 198.49.243.253 was a magnitude higher. This can be explained as 198.49.243.253 (at least when that traceroute was performed) forwarded traffic through this node normally, without noticeable delay, but processed ICMP traffic destined directly to this router with a lower priority, i.e. traffic shaped.
Ping uses the ICMP protocol too. What I try to explain in my previous post is that tools using the ICMP protocol can't automatically be assumed to work as a proxy for real game server traffic based on the TCP protocol.
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS
Support has cloaked..
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\User>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 192.168.1.1
2 13 ms 13 ms 11 ms 223-1.graceba.net []
3 12 ms 10 ms 8 ms 204-1.graceba.net [216.47.204.1]
4 31 ms 61 ms 65 ms 201-162.graceba.net [216.47.201.162]
5 18 ms 22 ms 15 ms 24.96.194.117
6 22 ms 17 ms 21 ms 67.106.215.25.ptr.us.xo.net [67.106.215.25]
7 50 ms 60 ms 49 ms vb2001.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.13.5
0]
8 52 ms 63 ms 51 ms te-11-4-0.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.1
2.201]
9 53 ms 55 ms 56 ms 207.88.12.98.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.12.98]
10 51 ms 51 ms 51 ms te-3-0-0.rar3.nyc-ny.us.xo.net [207.88.12.73]
11 50 ms 51 ms 71 ms ae0d0.mcr1.cambridge-ma.us.xo.net [216.156.0.26]
12 51 ms 49 ms 49 ms ae1d0.mcr2.cambridge-ma.us.xo.net [216.156.1.14]
13 50 ms 53 ms 50 ms 209.117.103.10
14 51 ms 49 ms 50 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.4
1]
15 52 ms 48 ms 49 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.
61.78]
16 54 ms 53 ms 55 ms 198.49.243.250
17 742 ms 780 ms 959 ms 198.49.243.253
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 49 ms 49 ms 49 ms xboxpatchserver.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.4
1]
Trace complete.
Here is the first tracert when running..
30/11/2015 9:41 IST
C:\Windows\System32>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 192.168.1.1
2 19 ms 20 ms 20 ms 59.94.52.1
3 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms 218.248.164.106
4 43 ms * * 218.248.235.161
5 42 ms 42 ms * 218.248.235.162
6 43 ms 41 ms 45 ms 125.17.180.233
7 257 ms 255 ms 247 ms 182.79.245.53
8 247 ms 248 ms 266 ms 213.242.116.161
9 252 ms 252 ms 252 ms ae-4-90.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.199]
10 252 ms 268 ms 253 ms ae-4-90.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.199]
11 249 ms 249 ms 249 ms ae0.mpr1.cdg11.fr.zip.zayo.com [64.125.12.113]
12 276 ms 276 ms 275 ms ae27.cs1.cdg11.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.4]
13 275 ms 274 ms 276 ms ae0.cs1.cdg12.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.84]
14 281 ms 276 ms 274 ms ae5.cs2.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.93]
15 275 ms 302 ms 278 ms ae0.cs1.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.186]
16 270 ms 269 ms 270 ms ae27.cr1.lga5.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.30.251]
17 275 ms 274 ms 275 ms ae7.mpr3.bos2.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.21.225]
18 275 ms 276 ms 276 ms 208.184.110.70.IPYX-072053-002-ZYO.above.net [208.184.110.70]
19 292 ms 275 ms 299 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.41]
20 280 ms 366 ms 274 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.61.78]
21 275 ms 275 ms 278 ms 198.49.243.250
22 1046 ms 802 ms 998 ms 198.49.243.253
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 275 ms 281 ms 276 ms patchserver2.crypticstudios.com [208.95.185.41]
Trace complete.
This is now!!!
C:\Windows\System32>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 192.168.1.1
2 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms 117.195.96.1
3 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms 218.248.164.110
4 44 ms 43 ms 45 ms 218.248.235.161
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 47 ms 51 ms 48 ms 125.17.0.97
7 238 ms 238 ms 236 ms 182.79.245.14
8 239 ms 282 ms 240 ms 213.242.116.161
9 249 ms 249 ms 248 ms ae-3-80.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.135]
10 249 ms 248 ms 249 ms ae-3-80.edge4.Paris1.Level3.net [4.69.168.135]
11 249 ms 250 ms 249 ms ae0.mpr1.cdg11.fr.zip.zayo.com [64.125.12.113]
12 245 ms 245 ms 242 ms ae27.cs1.cdg11.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.4]
13 244 ms 242 ms 242 ms ae0.cs1.cdg12.fr.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.84]
14 241 ms 242 ms 241 ms ae5.cs2.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.93]
15 242 ms 243 ms 242 ms ae0.cs1.lga5.us.eth.zayo.com [64.125.29.186]
16 236 ms 236 ms 236 ms ae27.cr1.lga5.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.30.251]
17 243 ms 241 ms 242 ms ae7.mpr3.bos2.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.21.225]
18 242 ms 242 ms 242 ms 208.184.110.70.IPYX-072053-002-ZYO.above.net [208.184.110.70]
19 241 ms 248 ms 240 ms border11.te7-1-bbnet1.bsn.pnap.net [63.251.128.41]
20 240 ms 240 ms 240 ms perfectworldent-4.border11.bsn.pnap.net [216.52.61.78]
21 240 ms 260 ms 240 ms 198.49.243.250
22 * 986 ms 918 ms 198.49.243.253
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Anyone from support care to comment??
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
A wild guess is that these are companies providing firewall and anti DDoS services to Cryptic. The IP address 198.49.243.253 is registered by Cryptic but most likely the device using it is located at a service center owned by one of these companies and thus outside of Cryptic's network and control. It's clearly configured to artificially respond slowly to ping requests. An old school DDoS technique is to flood servers and routers with ping requests and limiting the rate of ping replies is a way to counter this. The hidden routers behind this device are configured not to respond to pings at all and since there are many IP addresses here, it looks like a layer to provide load distribution.
I repeat what I wrote in an earlier post: Despite your good intentions - traceroute is NOT a tool designed to do the kind of troubleshooting you're using it for.
IMPORTANT EDIT: I need to correct my own statement quoted above. My logging was tainted with traffic from other connections and the listed IP numbers are unrelated to Cryptic. The device between 198.49.243.253 and patchserver.crypticstudios.com doesn't reveal anything about itself.
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS
http://ns.sharefilesonline.org/r/sto/comments/3q6lo6/is_there_any_end_to_this_lag/?sort=qa
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
1) The IP address 198.49.243.253 is registered to Cryptic Studios. This isn't the same thing that this IP address is used on a physical server owned by Cryptic or even located on Cryptic's physical network. Personally I don't know and there are no public records to verify this.
2) The threads are avoiding to explain why the ping is normal when it reaches patchserver.crypticstudios.com. It's only abnormally high on 198.49.243.253. This behaviour means that pings targeted to devices BEHIND 198.49.243.253 are forwarded THROUGH 198.49.243.253 properly and without delay just as would be expected. But pings targeted TO 198.49.243.253 has their reply delayed almost consistently with almost a second. This to me looks like intentional protection from a simple form of DDoS. As long as this device is forwarding packets without delay to the game servers, there's no cause for alarm.
3) Lag is referred to frequently but there's no consensus on the definition. Presumably the thread should be about network lag, i.e. your data packets are delayed abnormally in transit due to some bottleneck on the path. This could manifest itself in-game as rubberbanding and delays in power activation but not be limited to this. But lag also comes in other variations, like FPS lag where your computer can't keep a steady frame rate causing stuttering in the graphics. It could also be UI lag where powers don't activate, activate late or just display a weird and unexpected behaviour. Finally it could also mean server lag where the server's CPU is overloaded meaning it can't process all game data in the amount of time required. I think we all know how this lag manifests itself if we've been in a large instance with people spamming Kemocite + Neutronic torpedoe.
4) Traceroute uses ping in a clever way to figure out the IP address of every node on the path to the destination. Ping uses an IP protocol called ICMP by default. The game uses another IP protocol called TCP for its data communication. Just because traceroute and ping shows a certain behaviour doesn't automatically mean that the same behaviour applies to TCP. In the case of a bandwidth bottleneck it probably would but in the case where a router is configured to prioritize TCP and ignore ICMP you will see a different behavior. I repeat again that there's no way for traceroute to know how the routers on the path are configured, nor can it tell if Cryptic's servers are overloaded.
I apologize for the wall of text but hopefully it will gradually help people to understand the complexity of this problem. From a professional perspective I would very much like to know what kind of device 198.49.243.253 is and what purpose it has. I'm always interested in how companies build their network environments to support tens of thousands of simultaneous users while also protecting themselves from malicious network traffic. If Cryptic shared that information I believe Cryptic would benefit from it by having a reduced number of angry customers blaming them for faulty equipment.
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS
Hello,
I still believe the block is somewhere on your ISP's end. When I look up your IP range (101.63.42.*) I see no bans or blocks whatsoever. Since you were able to connect briefly you might want to see if there is a way that the ISP can raise the priority for connections to our server.
Regards,
Tek
Specialist Game Master
Perfect World Entertainment
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
There is no Kolkata, where IP 101.63.* is and belongs to reliance communications!!
Adu-Uss Firefox NCC-93425-F (LVL 65 FED AoY ENG) UR/VR MKXV Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser (July 2016)
Jean-Uss Seratoga Ravenna (LVL 60 FED Delta ENG) UC/R MKVI Bajoran Escort (April 2018)
Dubsa-RRW Mnaudh (LVL 50 FED allied ROM Delta ENG) Warbird (May 2018)
Marop-IKS Orunthi (LVL 50 KNG Delta ENG) BoP (May 2018)
Kanak'lan-TRIBBLE (LVL 65 DOM Gamma ENG) TRIBBLE (June 2018)
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS