MW3 taking ages to find a game

[#1]

Hi,
Playing MW3 on xbox, NAT type open, using ethernet cable via homeplugs. All other COD's work fine.
When go to search for a game it tries at the various ping levels starting at <50. (According to speedtest my ping is 21). The search maxes out at 100% and does not find a single lobby. It then increases the ping and tries again, with the same results.
Eventually it gives up and puts me in my own lobby and i have to wait for people to join, which takes ages (5+ mins sometimes) for some reason (maybe only a few people get put in this lobby if they are similarly suffering).
If i join a friend's party, who can normal find a game instantly, then we are both similarly effected when searching. Also once a game begins the connection is normally pretty good and subsequent games proceed with no further searching issues (unless i switch to a diff game type).
Anyone else similarly suffering? Posted on xbox forums and other seem to have to same problem. No one has a solution yet. Posting here to see if anyone has been able to fix, or if it is purely an activision server issue.
Cheers

[#2]

Unfortunately it seems like this is having the same issues that affected MW2 with the Peer-2-Peer matchmaking on consoles. I'm a PC gamer and if I try to find a game through that system I can end up having the same problems.

[#3]

Think Black Ops had the same/similar searching/matchmaking issues when it first came out so hope it's something that can be patched. Never have an issue finding games on MW2 or BO.

[#4]

Its so annoying i bought mw3 last nite and im very dissapointed as cant find a match on xbox live as my nat is strict and dont know how to change this spoke to some one from plusnet and they said to look on ere,so annoying though paid all that money just to play career lol  pls help me sort this out i would be very grateful xx
jim:red all caps removed as per Forum rule mod:end

[#5]

@LiamJones
Take a look at the link below for information on this:
http://community.plus.net/library/gaming/increasing-gaming-compatability-with-the-thomson-tg585v8-xb...

[#6]

I'm a MW2 PC gamer.....
I launch game, then click search, and it takes 3 mins 56 seconds average (timed each time) before it finds a game (normally the host is on the moon or katmandu or timbuktu)
I'm on Fibre too.....
Ironically never had this issue when on o2 legacy, and when switched to o2 'all rounder' which squeezes/throttles/restricts/routes, started to find it taking 2 mins to find a game..........
Then joined PN Fibre, with PRO, and it takes a minimum of 3 mins 56 seconds (say 4 mins) before finding the laggiest game it can find...... (always open, never strict)
I dont use happy shopper routers either (thomson/belkin).......
When i am searching for games in MW2, i never play with UK players since joining PN.  It is eastern europeans down to asia and arab states.
However, when my neighbour switches on his router (he is on Sky),  i sometimes pick up his wifi and connect through that... MW2 finds games after about 30 to 35 seconds of searching then... very strange.... get to play with UK gamers then whic is cool mind!
Same as playing L4D2, searching for games shows me lobbies which are always europeon (german, french, retards, spanish, etc)....  But then that could be a case of nobody in the UK plays Left For Dead 2 on the PC apart from me
oh well, only 16 months to go of this!  

[#7]

Interesting tale Stuart, i have also noticed in the past that i often got connected with French speaking players rather than UK (despite having "local" search only selected on Black ops). Strange how when using your mates connection it's much improved in terms of both speed and locale. Also shows it's not a platform specific issue either.
PlusNet got any idea as to why this is happening?
(p.s. just to confirm Stuart that you did mean MW2 rather than MW3?)

[#8]

MW2
I wont buy MW3 unless it drops to its worth, IE:  £1.99
I will obtain a copy of the game 'otherwise' though, but for single player only...
Why ? MW2 provides no option for kicking cheating prlcks, and that really does my head in... The fact they used a P2P protocol for the game, which is being cheapskates in terms of providing hosts is another annoying thing....
and i believe MW3 uses the same as MW2 so wont be long before you click to find a game, enter, and then some retarded nukes within 2 mins......  useless!!
As for the routing, i cant figure it out, nor can PN......  My neighbour give me his WPA key so i can connect through his Sky router, but he's one of these that turn it on only when he wants to read the news, etc etc!
Would be nice to see a graph or print, of how routing works, etc via ISP's......
Games i presume lock onto Master browsers.... master browsers show games for those locations does the IP range were given play a part ?  last week my IP started with 46.xxx.xxx.xxx
Now, its 62.116.130.xxx
Such a bizarre range!  yet my business PN sticks on the 84.92.26.xxx range! hmmmmmmmmm

[#9]

Hi Stuart,
So far haven't noticed any hackers. Infinity seem to be on the case of patching issues much faster than they were in MW2. Am also annoyed about them using P2P instead of dedicated hosts, even on consoles. The excuse it will cost too much is rubbish, given the amount of money they have raked in on the product.
What you saying is interesting, unfortunately i can't see the IP info, due to playing on xbox. Could it be due to not having a static IP?
@ Chris - do you have any info for us on routing and why this may be occurring?
Cheers.

[#10]

No idea how the routing works for this....
MW2 = Auto Host selection, works on a principal of finding the host with the highest upload speed.  The Peer protocol sends out a signal to find games/auto hosts, but where its nailed is, my machine is only searching hosts on the euro front...
Getting alot of Russians i find these days, sweedes, Finland and some other places which give an average ping of around 250+  (not what you want when on a 33mb fibre pipe).......
With Counterstrike Source, you can limit the 'host' search to Euro locations with pings under certain 'MS'.... ie: filters, but filters applied still query a master browser, and in return give you the results..... (for hosts, not peer gaming).....
I've come to the conclusion that its only me that plays MW2 in the UK (guess that makes me Number 1!)   , hence the game never finding any UK hosts......
and as to IWnet doing anything about 'Cheats', useless networking, etc etc etc.......  Never gonna happen... why ?  Cos make a game that everyone buys and plays, etc etc, keep it patched and blah blah blah, whose gonna want to buy your next release ?  So keep annoying issues in place, so when you make a new game in the same franchise, your gonna make money with buyers thinking old issues get sorted in new games..... which it doesnt!

[#11]

I don't think it's anything to do with routing to be honest. I'm on a Plusnet connection and am often the host or the host is someone else UK based. Infinity Ward have admitted there are problems with game selection and lag at the moment and they are working on resolving these as a matter of urgency.

[#12]

Thanks for the reply Chris.
Just out of interest which Plusnet package are you on and what router do you use? Which system are you playing on?
I figured it probably was an IW issue, but was keen to rule out ISP as that's who they'd blame in the first instance, before accepting responsibility for a fault. Hope they get this fixed soon as its getting annoying now.
Cheers.

[#13]

I'm on the Extra package profile, using a Netgear router playing on PC.

[#14]

I am also on the Extra package profile, using a Netgear router playing on PC. And I don't get any problems finding games even uk players I sometimes get lag but I think this is a problem with the game I play with players from all over the uk most are on virgin 50 meg plus and they are still having problems with mw3

[#15]

This has now been fixed due to the latest title update patch (not too sure of the version no. but it downloaded on Friday last week). Think the patch loosened the search by region parameters.
Can now find games in < 5 seconds and at under 50ms of lag, which is what i expect since my ping is ~20ms according to pingtest.net.
Thanks infinityward!
Hope this fixes it for everyone else with this issue, particularly the smaller European countries, where the issue was more prevalent.