I have been hearing from some players of connection issues and lag spikes on the CS:S server over the past couple of weeks. I have requested that MPUK look in to the matter and they in turn have requested some network trace results taken at the time of the lag/ping issues. Here is what they need and how to do it In order to try and determine the point at which your data is being affected, you will need to run a network trace to our server. Please complete the following instructions: ** Windows Users ** ******************* - Download WinMTR - http://www.fileplay.net/file/12395/winmtr-v09 - Unzip the file and run the WinMTR.exe file inside it - Set the host as your server's IP address and hit 'Start' - Continue to play with this running the in background for at least 20 minutes - When you have finished, stop the trace and export the results to TEXT Please note that it will only help if you run this during a period where you experience ping issues. If you do not, then the results will be meaningless and we wont be able to help. Be handy if a few of you can do this over the next week or so and either post results in this thread or send them to me via private message. Obviously the more results we can submit to MPUK the more chance of finding the problem if there is one at all. Thanks in advance for anyone that can help with this.
I've had plenty of ping issues lately but I suspect it's ISP issues for me, all steam servers ping at somewhere between 150 to 500 I am moving sometime next week and changing isp at the same time so I may not be on the server again until next weekend.
For those interested, a far more comprehensive tool and one I find myself using on many occassions for work is Wireshark. A kickass tool which I think MS has now tried to copy allowing you to essentially view the network conversation. Not something for the lighthearted though since unless you have some understanding it will all be giberish.
I concur, Wireshark is a great tool. I used it a few years back when a bunch of us were helping the QW:ET devs track down authentication issues. It's kind of like Task Manager but for network traffic
From the MPUK Clanforge News section Connectivity Issues from Virgin Media Customers Apr 19 2011 21:07:37 by Deehem We are seeing a large number of reports of lag / high packet loss this evening, all of which seem to be from Virgin Media customers. The few traces we have been sent so far suggest that the issue lies within the Virgin Media network itself and not on the wider internet (We see very high levels of packet loss from the very first hop of the trace beyond the customers own router). If you are a Virgin Media customer and are seeing issues connecting to your Multiplay service, please help us out by doing the following: * Download WinMTR - from Fileplay (All Windows) * Set the host as your server's IP address, and leave WinMTR running for at least 10 minutes while you are experiencing results * Send the text results to us in a ticket, with the subject line 'Virgin Media Trace' If the problem does turn out, as we expect, to lie within Virgins network, we also strongly suggest you contact Virgin Media support and tell them you are seeing high levels of packet loss, as we are obviously unable to resolve issues outside of our own network. As I am still getting some rumbles from players about connection issues, please follow the instructions above in the first post and pm me the results so I can forward them to MPUK, even if you are not on Virgin Media.
Everytime i go on i have lag spikes. I am with virgin media, talked to them and explained, but they did naff all grrr
Shameless plug for Plusnet's gaming service if anyone's looking to switch ISP. It's not cheap but it does guarantee a good connection....even in the middle of my field in Cornwall
below is one from some time today on UKMD server will post tonight from playing on our server. Just wanted to post below as i think is shows Virgn having troubles. |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | WinMTR statistics | | Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last | |------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | 192.168.1.1 - 5 | 2144 | 2041 | 0 | 13 | 272 | 29 | |cpc2-stre5-2-0-gw.1-1.cable.virginmedia.com - 3 | 2144 | 2089 | 4 | 15 | 252 | 6 | |bagu-core-1a-ae3-3299.network.virginmedia.net - 3 | 2144 | 2085 | 4 | 11 | 252 | 8 | |manc-bb-1a-as5-0.network.virginmedia.net - 4 | 2144 | 2074 | 4 | 15 | 267 | 8 | |manc-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net - 4 | 2144 | 2062 | 4 | 15 | 226 | 9 | | ae0.man11.ip4.tinet.net - 5 | 2144 | 2040 | 18 | 25 | 268 | 23 | | xe-1-0-0.lon14.ip4.tinet.net - 5 | 2144 | 2040 | 18 | 29 | 287 | 20 | | iomart-hosting-gw.ip4.tinet.net - 9 | 2144 | 1968 | 18 | 36 | 422 | 20 | | 62-233-127-174.as20860.net - 9 | 2144 | 1957 | 19 | 33 | 424 | 47 | | badwater.ukmandown.co.uk - 7 | 2144 | 2007 | 18 | 28 | 259 | 23 | |________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______| WinMTR 0.9 (c) 2010-2011 Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider
A tip for you Virgin Media subscribers but it only works if you have a separate router from the cable modem. Some router firmwares (eg. Tomato) allow you to specify a MAC address for your LAN interface into the cable modem, if you assign a new random one it can change your routing within the Virgin Media network as a differnt IP address is given to you. This effectively can make your packets go through a part of the VM subnet that has less spikes.
COuple of hours connected to our server |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | WinMTR statistics | | Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last | |------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | 192.168.1.1 - 4 | 5237 | 5060 | 0 | 10 | 289 | 0 | |cpc2-stre5-2-0-gw.1-1.cable.virginmedia.com - 3 | 5237 | 5085 | 4 | 14 | 256 | 7 | |bagu-core-1a-ae3-1645.network.virginmedia.net - 3 | 5237 | 5096 | 4 | 11 | 228 | 8 | |manc-bb-1a-as5-0.network.virginmedia.net - 4 | 5237 | 5035 | 4 | 16 | 312 | 8 | |popl-bb-1b-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net - 6 | 5237 | 4943 | 11 | 22 | 301 | 14 | |popl-tmr-2-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net - 5 | 5237 | 5001 | 11 | 20 | 251 | 11 | | tele-ic-2-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net - 4 | 5237 | 5055 | 11 | 18 | 243 | 12 | | 195.66.226.224 - 8 | 5237 | 4864 | 11 | 25 | 337 | 12 | | blade48-102-75.multiplay.co.uk - 4 | 5237 | 5033 | 11 | 19 | 440 | 15 | |________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______| WinMTR 0.9 (c) 2010-2011 Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | WinMTR statistics | | Host - Loss % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last | |------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | 10.154.120.1 - 13 | 2887 | 2521 | 6 | 44 | 323 | 234 | |shef-geam-1a-ge123.network.virginmedia.net - 21 | 2887 | 2296 | 7 | 40 | 362 | 81 | |barn-geam-1a-tenge74.network.virginmedia.net - 20 | 2886 | 2313 | 8 | 43 | 314 | 64 | |brad-core-1a-tenge71.network.virginmedia.net - 19 | 2886 | 2360 | 9 | 44 | 425 | 103 | |manc-bb-1c-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net - 18 | 2886 | 2393 | 8 | 47 | 370 | 18 | |manc-bb-1a-ae11-0.network.virginmedia.net - 18 | 2886 | 2387 | 8 | 44 | 357 | 208 | |glfd-bb-1b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net - 19 | 2886 | 2355 | 15 | 47 | 303 | 229 | |glfd-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net - 20 | 2886 | 2312 | 15 | 47 | 433 | 24 | | tcl5-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net - 22 | 2884 | 2261 | 16 | 46 | 318 | 28 | | linx1.multiplay.co.uk - 24 | 2884 | 2218 | 17 | 58 | 461 | 36 | | blade48-102-75.multiplay.co.uk - 8 | 2884 | 2660 | 16 | 52 | 440 | 26 | |________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______| WinMTR 0.9 (c) 2010-2011 Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider I am getting shocking amounts of loss it seems. I am in the process of taking it up with virgin!
