Latency issues whilst Gaming (Path Of Exile)

[#1]

Hi all.

On the back of this thread  we'd like to see if there are any other Path Of Exile players experiencing lag or other connectivity problems while gaming.

So far a couple of our customers have reported that using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) resolves the issue and they're able to game with no issues. With this in mind we'd like to investigate this, but we need your help.

If you think you're experiencing an issue similar to this and you've done the usual troubleshooting like plugging your PC into the router using an ethernet cable, please can you run a traceroute to the gaming server with and/or without the VPN?

WinMTR is a good free tool to do this.

Don't worry if you haven't tried a VPN, we still want to hear from you.

Just let us know you're having issues by replying to this thread and post up a traceroute.

In addition, do you experience the problem at any particular time of the day?

Also, if you do use a VPN can you go here: http://pingserverstatus.com/poe.php when the problem is particularly bad and let us know if the numbers change between the VPN off and on.

Cheers.

[#2]

Moderators Note.

Topic pinned

[#3]

Hi,

I'm also getting intermittent latency issues with Path of Exile.  Game runs fine 80% of the time but can lag (stutter) or freeze for a few seconds then recover (your character speeds up like crazy to perform the keyboard inputs from when the screen froze).  You can still press F1 to access stats within the game, and if you move, use pots, etc, then the client catches up when the freeze is over.  This is the only online game I have any issues with on Plusnet broadband.

Ethernet connection to hub, have tried disabling antivirus, closing all background apps, etc, but still get intermittent lag.  The background apps (usually Youtube) continue to work fine whilst Path of Exile has has problems (have also checked other websites during freezes and internet is working fine at the time).  Have checked all event logs, etc, but no issues and my PC is miles above minimum spec for Path of Exile (and works fine fine running it most of the time until the intermittent lag occurs).

Logged a support call with Plusnet (178876691) but was told nothing could be done.  Ran WinMTR during latest lag/freezes to lon.login.pathofexile.com - copy below.

Host                                                   %   Sent   Recv   Best   Avrg   Wrst   Last

dsldevice.lan                                      0     251     251        0         1        5       1

No response from host                  100       51          0        0        0        0       0

129.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk   99        51         1      29      29      29      29

be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net               0      251     251      10      11      35      11

core1-BE1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net    0      251     251      11      11      29      11

peer2-et-0-1-1.slough.ukcore.bt.net  0      251     251      11     13      33      12

No response from host                  100        51        0        0       0        0         0 

po96.net2.north.dc5.as20860.net     0       251    251      11     14      60       12

1718.g2.1ug.dc5.as20860.net          2       239    236      12     13      53       12 

87.117.210.61                                   5       215    206      13     15    134       14

109.169.19.133                                 0       251    251      12     13      28       13

Any suggestions would be welcomed as I've run out of thinks to check/try with no luck.

Many thanks,

OldGamer.

[#4]

Hi,

Worse lag/freezing today - 2nd WinMTR added for information (sorry for double post):-

Host                                                                       %            Sent       Recv      Best       Avrg       Wrst      Last

dsldevice.lan                                                         0              250         250          0              0              1          1

No response from host                                     100                51             0          0              0              0           0

129.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk                      99                51             1           0            12           12          12

be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net                                  0              250         250         11            13           63          11

core1-BE1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net                       0              250         250         11            12           64          11

peer2-et-0-1-1.slough.ukcore.bt.net                    0              250         250         11            14           66          12

No response from host                                    100               51             0            0              0             0            0

po96.net2.north.dc5.as20860.net                       0              250         250         11            18          190         12

1718.g2.1ug.dc5.as20860.net                            1              242         240         12            15            73         12

87.117.210.61                                                     3              230         225         13             16          114         13

109.169.19.133                                                   0              250         250         12            14            65        13

This was mid-afternoon on 17/07 so not at peak hours.  Have tried several other login servers also but I'm still getting intermittent lag on all those I've tried.

Regards,

OldGamer.

[#5]

I been having this issue for a while now, more or less since moving in and going to plusnet, which is a shame as PoE is one of my favourite games.

Here is my WinMTR Stats from this afternoon for a little. The packet loss freezes are horrendous and sudden lag spikes.

Host                                %        Sent    Recv    Best    Avrg    Wrst    Last
RT-N66U-3238                        0        435        435        1        2        11        1
No response from host                100        88        0        0        0        0        0
No response from host                100        88        0        0        0        0        0
be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net            0        435        435        11        13        64        12
core1-be1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net    0        435        435        11        13        65        13
peer2-et0-0-1.slough.ukcore.bt.net    0        435        435        12        15        67        12
No response from host                100        88        0        0        0        0        0
po95.net2.north.dc5.as20860.net        1        431        430        13        18        108        17
1718.g2.1ug.dc5.as20860.net            0        435        435        11        15        117        12
87.117.210.61                        3        392        381        12        17        119        15
109.169.19.133                        1        431        430        12        14        58        17

I did have a long test with ping plotter but the first hop to .plus.net failed with a very high packet loss, which continued every test I started on it.

Hopefully you can resolve!

Thanks

[#6]

Another WinMTR from this afternoon, roughly from 17:00 to 17:30.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

|                            RT-N66U-3238 -    0 | 2193 | 2193 |    1 |    1 |   13 |    2 |

|                   No response from host -  100 |  440 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |

|                   No response from host -  100 |  440 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |

|              be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net -    1 | 2182 | 2179 |   11 |   13 |   68 |   16 |

|       core1-be1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net -    0 | 2193 | 2193 |   10 |   13 |   69 |   12 |

|      peer2-et0-0-1.slough.ukcore.bt.net -    1 | 2178 | 2174 |   11 |   15 |   60 |   13 |

|                   No response from host -  100 |  440 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |

|         po95.net2.north.dc5.as20860.net -    0 | 2193 | 2193 |   13 |   19 |  267 |   14 |

|             1718.g2.1ug.dc5.as20860.net -    1 | 2156 | 2146 |   12 |   15 |  114 |   16 |

|                           87.117.210.61 -    4 | 1925 | 1857 |   12 |   17 |  149 |   16 |

|                          109.169.19.133 -    0 | 2193 | 2193 |   12 |   14 |   68 |   15 |

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|

I noticed on Monday, as I was not in work. It is fine until around 1pm and then as peak time comes around the issue worsens until it is unplayable.

Does anyone have any sort of idea on VPNs to use for this? As I didn't encounter a problem in the 5 years of playing PoE over 3 providers since Beta, but in less than a year on Plusnet, I have lost 5 characters to freezes and suddenly high latency.

[#7]

Thanks for getting in touch with us here @OldGamer and @TheFerret

Apologies for the delayed response, and sorry to see you're experiencing connection problems when trying to play PoE.

There may be a number of reasons behind this, I'd like to investigate this further but would need to wait until tomorrow when I'm back in the office. I'll post back shortly.

[#8]

Hi Gandalf,

Just to let you know that I've been using the Nord VPN free trial for the last 3 days and it does seem to fix 99% of the problems.  Only had the screen freeze once (for about a second) and the lag/stuttering has been totally absent on the VPN sessions.  Not sure why this is the case - theoretically a VPN should slow down performance as it adds more network hops plus the burden of encrypting and decrypting the traffic. 

WinMTR log below from a VPN session on 19/07 at 6.45pm to lon.login.pathofexile.com:-

Host                                                          %            Sent       Recv      Best       Avrg       Wrst      Last

10.8.8.1                                                    0              344         344         10           11           49           11

vlan40.bb1.lon7.uk.m247.com                 0              344         344         10           13           57           11

xe-0-1-1-0.core1.lon2.uk.m247.com        0              343         343         11           12           49           11

eth-11-1-0.pni1.lon2.uk.m247.com          0              344         344         10           11           47           11

be20.asr01.thn.as20860.net                    0              344         344         11           12           49           11

po112.net1.north.dc5.as20860.net          0              344         344         11           17           261         12

1717.g1.1ug.dc5.as20860.net                 2              324         319         17           21           119         19

109.169.19.133                                        0              344         344         17           18           55           18

Hope this helps and good luck with finding a fix.  I've actually signed up for the VPN service in the meantime just to avoid the frustration of suddenly lagging or freezing (which can often get your character killed in Path of Exile!), but I'll keep an eye on the thread.  

OldGamer.

Edited because I can't spell.

[#9]

Hey.

That's an MTR to  lon.login.pathofexile.com.  Is that actually the server you connected to for the game?  Or a login server which just handles the authentication.

It might be worth a netstat while you are connected and gaming and seeing what IP you are actually connect to? 

[#10]

Hi Kelly,

The "Consolidated Technical Issues and Guides" section of the PoE Support forums contains the only guide I could find regarding running WinMTR tests for PoE (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1377789), and this lists the login servers for performance testing, e.g. lon.login.pathofexile.com. 

The game client does create a log (client.txt - snippet below) of the actual servers it creates your instance on, but always seems to refer back to the login server for the instance details:-

2018/07/19 21:37:51 779490031 c2b [DEBUG Client 2644] Got Instance Details from login server
2018/07/19 21:37:51 779490046 c48 [INFO Client 2644] Just before calling client instance session
2018/07/19 21:37:51 779490046 d3 [INFO Client 2644] Connecting to instance server at 87.117.247.141:6112
2018/07/19 21:37:51 779490062 15b [DEBUG Client 2644] Connect time to instance server was 0ms
2018/07/19 21:37:52 779490531 a34 [INFO Client 2644] : You have entered The Docks.
2018/07/19 21:39:39 779597562 c2b [DEBUG Client 2644] Got Instance Details from login server
2018/07/19 21:39:39 779597609 c48 [INFO Client 2644] Just before calling client instance session
2018/07/19 21:39:39 779597609 d3 [INFO Client 2644] Connecting to instance server at 78.129.140.131:6112
2018/07/19 21:39:39 779597640 15b [DEBUG Client 2644] Connect time to instance server was 16ms
2018/07/19 21:39:40 779598312 a34 [INFO Client 2644] : You have entered Enlightened Hideout.

I'm well out of my depth here, but it appears that the login server authenticates you then stays in the chain to provide instance details to the instance servers (presumably for load balancing).  I'm guessing that's why the login servers are listed for WinMTR testing as they will remain constant, whilst the instance server you're connected to could change every few minutes (i.e. when you change zones, portal back to town to sell loot, etc)?  As I say this is pure guesswork, so take it with a big pinch of salt as I could easily be 100% wrong!

OldGamer.

OldGamer

[#11]

Hey @OldGamer

Trying something here by making a change to how your connection routes across our network, could you switch off your VPN and let us know how your next path of exile gaming sesh goes?

@TheFerret I've made the same change. Could you let us know too how it goes?

Cheers

[#12]

@OldGamer @TheFerret

Is the poor performance reliably happening at our evening peak?  I.e. around 6-8pm (or a bit either side) with decent performance before or after then?

[#13]

@Gandalf

Hi Gandalf,

I have just had a quick go, as I just got in from work and everything is looking really good for the 30 minutes that I played! Normally this would be a very bad time in terms of freezes/stutters and latency spiking all over the place but I have not seen any of this.

Hopefully this continues as I play over the weekend and let you know how it goes. Whatever you have done, seems to have worked so thank you so much!

[#14]

I've a suspicion that these PoE issues are caused by the issue we just fixed for WoW over on this thread: https://community.plus.net/t5/Gaming/Ongoing-World-of-Warcraft-issues/td-p/1551383

Did they start early June?  Around the 10th?

[#15]

Hi Kelly,

Wow - just played non-VPN for nearly 1.5 hours and performance was the best I've ever had - no lag or freezing and silky smooth animations/movement.  Unfortunately I didn't save the the WinMTR logs (clicked close by mistake - doh!), but the in-game latency monitor was around 6 to 8ms most of the time (and the lowest I've ever seen it) and "spikes" were 100ms at most (I've seen 1-4k spikes previously) I'll play again later and post a WinMTR, but it really feels like you've nailed it.

Many thanks and have a great weekend.  🙂

OldGamer.