UPC high latency and Steam

jumbobreakfast

I've been getting high latency to Valve's game servers lately. These servers are located in france and when I run a traceroute, it looks like I'm being routed across to the uk, then to New York, Boston, back to the uk and then into France where the server is located. This leaves me with 200+ ping time which is no good for gaming.

I've noticed this in Carlow and Limerick with UPC

tracert 79.141.174.32

C:\Users\******>tracert 79.141.174.32

Tracing route to 79.141.174.32 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     9 ms     9 ms     8 ms  ************
  3     9 ms    10 ms     8 ms  ************
  4    12 ms    13 ms    13 ms  ************
  5    96 ms    94 ms    95 ms  uk-lon01b-rd1-xe-1-2-0.aorta.net [84.116.134.134]
  6   127 ms    96 ms    95 ms  84.116.132.226
  7    94 ms    95 ms    97 ms  us-nyc01b-rd1-pos-10-0.aorta.net [213.46.160.154]
  8    95 ms    95 ms    96 ms  us-nyc01b-ri1-ge-0-1-0.aorta.net [213.46.190.178]
  9    95 ms    96 ms    94 ms  xe-8-3-0.edge1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.78.164.221]
 10    96 ms    94 ms    93 ms  COGENT-COMM.car2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.68.111.46]
 11    95 ms   102 ms    96 ms  te0-0-0-4.mpd21.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.7.13]
 12   173 ms   173 ms   173 ms  te0-0-0-1.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.1]
 13   175 ms   175 ms   174 ms  te7-3.mpd02.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.30.130]
 14   174 ms   175 ms   195 ms  te1-7.mpd01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.2.25]
 15   174 ms   174 ms   173 ms  te1-1.ccr01.lon07.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.48.30]
 16   175 ms   175 ms   173 ms  149.6.184.106
 17   180 ms   181 ms   180 ms  eurotransit.te1-2.cr1.ams2.nl.euro-transit.net [193.34.48.37]
 18   194 ms   194 ms   192 ms  eurotransit.te9-1.cr1.fra1.de.euro-transit.net [193.34.48.249]
 19   194 ms   193 ms   193 ms  79.141.174.32

Trace complete.

anyone else seeing this with UPC?

preytec

have you rang UPC about it?

docmol

I'm on UPC in dublin and fine atm. I do get a slowdown at peak but nothing I can't handle (from 35ms average to 75 ms) On occaision the same thing happens though and the routing goes mad. Email their customer services and explain, address on their site, and give it a few days. Put all your info in the mail and be nice : ). Less hassle and better results then their phonelines.

jumbobreakfast

I cant really contact UPC as the connection is under my Landlord's name and he has enough on his plate atm. My mate in Carlow is going to call them about it (not till tomorrow I'd say).

I found this link last night which suggests that it happened before as well and was fixed the last time but the problem has returned. It seems to be happenening to european UPC customers only:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1785620

Oh yeah, the server is actually in Frankfurt (fra) not France but I shouldnt be routed over to NewYork regardless. It appears to be affecting Left4Dead2 servers only.

Perhaps other UPC customers could run the tracert 79.141.174.32 command if they have a spare sec?

watty

[B]Tracing route to 79.141.174.32 over a maximum of 30 hops[/B]

  1     2 ms     1 ms     3 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    21 ms    12 ms    10 ms  83.147.171.1
  3    80 ms    23 ms    54 ms  gi-5-1.dub-deg-br1.net.digiweb.ie [83.147.162.22]
  4    17 ms    25 ms    19 ms  inex.eth1-1.cr1.dub1.ie.euro-transit.net [193.242.111.69]
  5    41 ms    36 ms    42 ms  eurotransit.te1-4-697.cr1.ams2.nl.euro-transit.net [193.34.48.214]
  6   102 ms   215 ms   210 ms  eurotransit.te9-1.cr1.fra1.de.euro-transit.net [193.34.48.249]
  7    58 ms    45 ms    67 ms  79.141.174.32

Trace complete.


[B]Pinging 79.141.174.32 with 32 bytes of data:[/B]

Reply from 79.141.174.32: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=59
Reply from 79.141.174.32: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=59
Reply from 79.141.174.32: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=59
Reply from 79.141.174.32: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=59

Ping statistics for 79.141.174.32:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 44ms, Maximum = 56ms, Average = 50ms

So should be about 60ms or less on UPC, as Metro Wireless DOCSIS is about 10ms more latency than UPC cable DOCSIS.

Intermediate routers usually de-prioritise ICMP traffic directly pointed at them to avoid DDOS attacks.

Nollog

Tracing route to 79.141.174.32 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms N-Router [192.168.0.1]
2 27 ms 10 ms 19 ms 10.94.64.1
3 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms 089-101-174206.ntlworld.ie [89.101.174.206]
4 102 ms 97 ms 93 ms uk-lon01b-rd1-xe-1-1-2.aorta.net [84.116.132.45]

5 101 ms 96 ms 113 ms 84.116.132.230
6 93 ms 152 ms * us-nyc01b-rd1-pos-10-0.aorta.net [213.46.160.154
]
7 93 ms 92 ms 94 ms us-nyc01b-ri1-xe-3-1-0.aorta.net [213.46.190.94]

8 198 ms 103 ms 114 ms xe-8-3-0.edge1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.78.164.221
]
9 97 ms 99 ms 99 ms COGENT-COMM.car2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.68.111.4
6]
10 95 ms 93 ms 102 ms te0-3-0-5.mpd22.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54
.3.165]
11 171 ms 173 ms 187 ms te0-4-0-7.ccr21.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54
.44.26]
12 176 ms 189 ms 199 ms te1-1.mpd02.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.1
62]
13 176 ms 180 ms 185 ms vl3493.mpd01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.2
.17]
14 249 ms 183 ms 182 ms te1-1.ccr01.lon07.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.48
.30]
15 192 ms 183 ms 172 ms 149.6.184.106
16 177 ms 177 ms 189 ms eurotransit.te1-2.cr1.ams2.nl.euro-transit.net [
193.34.48.37]
17 193 ms 212 ms 193 ms eurotransit.te9-1.cr1.fra1.de.euro-transit.net [
193.34.48.249]
18 200 ms 212 ms 190 ms 79.141.174.32

Trace complete.

Slow as poopie this morning even google is slow.

Spear

This sounds very similar to all this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056099653

essentially UPC route Limerick to the world via the odd choice of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Nollog

Spear wrote: »

essentially UPC route Limerick to the world via the odd choice of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Yummm, sure is cheap.

jumbobreakfast

Spear wrote: »

This sounds very similar to all this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056099653

essentially UPC route Limerick to the world via the odd choice of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Great, thanks for the link. I think the two problems are related but I dont think the latency that I'm seeing is due to an issue in Limerick specifically as other European UPC customers have the same problem. The speedtest servers can be a bit dodgy

Thanks for the traceroutes Vollog and Watty, looks like it might be UPC alright. I wonder do they (or one of their transport providers) know what's going on? Somebody has to be paying for this return fare to NewYork via JFK/Boston lol

ps The thread you linked to there was dated november 2010 which might correspond to when this was fixed last december as stated by an Austrian UPC customer here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1785620

Perrin2040

Hey interesting to see this thread created just yesterday.

I have been trying to play L4D2 on steam and am getting ping of 250-280.

Basically horrible, lowest i got was about 220, Just wondering how do you go about doing this trace? How do you find out the server address to trace in the first place? I usually just join some friends online, and they usually set things up so I'm a bit of a newb with this stuff.

Anyway its a terrible ping, and I would like to ring UPC about it (or email whatever) but I would like to actually have this trace done first.

Nollog

In windows vista or 7 in the start menu search bar type "cmd" without quotes, then in the black box type "tracert 79.141.174.32" again without quotes.
In other windows you click run from the start menu, then type cmd.

79.141.174.32 can be replaced with google.ie, boards.ie 192.168.0.1 etc.
The address to trace is in your recent servers list in About Server or something similar, not sure of the wording.

Perrin2040

Well did the tracert to steam.com and these aorta servers seem to be killing me:

Tracing route to steam.com [69.36.241.237]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms 79.97.231.1
3 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms 188.141.126.225
4 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms 089-101-174190.ntlworld.ie [89.101.174.190]
5 181 ms 183 ms 181 ms uk-lon01b-rd1-xe-1-1-2.aorta.net [84.116.132.45]

6 179 ms 178 ms 179 ms 84.116.132.230
7 161 ms 161 ms 160 ms us-nyc01b-rd1-pos-12-0.aorta.net [213.46.160.242
]
8 177 ms 176 ms 177 ms us-sjo01a-ri2-gi-3-0-0.aorta.net [213.46.190.102
]
9 179 ms 178 ms 180 ms g5-2.core3.sv1.layer42.net [206.223.116.39]
10 181 ms 194 ms 181 ms po3-vl903.sw2.mtv.layer42.net [69.36.239.226]
11 183 ms 182 ms 183 ms a66-109-98-50.mtv.toaster.net [66.109.98.50]
12 176 ms 176 ms 177 ms lazlo.netaggregate.com [69.36.241.237]

Trace complete.

Wondering is this a problem with UPC redirecting me around the world, or Steam only letting me access it through this route?

Is there anything UPC can do (theoretically even) if I ring them up or am i boned?

Nollog

steam.com is just the website, if you're talking about gaming then you need to trace the server you play on, not the steam website.

jumbobreakfast

To find the ip address:
in left4dead, go to options-->keyboard/mouse and make sure developer console is enabled

go back to main menu and press tilde `(the key above tab)

type openserverbrowser (all one word) and the server browser should appear

go to the history tab and right click on the server you had problems with and click server info. You can copy or write down the ip address but leave out the port number so you should only have 4 sets of numbers separated by dots.

Then go back to windows and bring up the command prompt by typing cmd under start-->run then type the tracert xx.xx.xx.xx command where x denotes the ip address.

rgfuller

I also have this problem at the moment from Dublin to most of my favourite uk based CSS servers - jumbobreakfast - I see your and other posting on steam forums so hopefully we'll see something sorted again soon. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1785620
I think it's worth mailing UPC locally to complain about the routing/latency issues anyway.

Nollog

Most servers probably use OVH, which UPC are still limiting traffic to.

LiutenantDan

/\/ollog wrote: »

Most servers probably use OVH, which UPC are still limiting traffic to.

What does OVH mean?