Diagnosing game server disconnections

[DT4K]

I am on cable modem service and have a very fast connection. When I play games online I sometimes have a problem with getting disconnected from game servers. I join a game, play for 5 or 10 seconds, then lose my connection to the server. During the times this is happening, it doesn't matter which game I try to play or which server I try to connect to, the same thing happens. In Quake 2, I can sit and watch my ping and it will be under 50 ms most of the time, but will jump to over 1000 periodically. I'm not sure how to diagnose this problem. My ISP says the connection is fine, but I had the problem with my old system, and again with a new system I just built with a new network card, so I doubt that it has anything to do with my system. I am frustrated that I am paying for cable and can't play games when I want to. Anyone else have this problem? What can I do to try to track down the problem? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Jonathan93]

Try pinging their equipment with a -t flag (ping -t <IP Address> you may need to ping an Interface such as the far end of their connection, because this could be a congestion problem). To stop pinging you'll have to hit CTRL + C. Watch it, does it spike at all? I figure you are right on your problems. They are probably running their routers too hard and whenever something big comes across (Like an update to BGP tables), it causes a spike in CPU usage, which results in the horrible ping.

Honestly, I don't think there is much you can do to get your ISP to change their ways. I agree that it isn't your problem. Our Cable Modem service is absolute crap here. At 4 AM in the morning my first hop pings can range from 7 ms to 200 ms (The average 20, but still). During the day, the first hop is about 50 ms and it jubs from 40 to 100 a lot. I'm not sure why you are being disconnected though, it could be anything from excessive lag, to out of order packets, but I don't think the problem is on your end (You may want to check your cables, and switch just to be sure).

 

[DT4K]

Thanks, I will try your suggestions when I get home tonight. I don't get completely disconnected. In Quake2 and 3, my game screen freezes up and I get the broken connection symbol. If I wait 10-20 seconds, I can continue playing but it will then happen again after a few seconds. In counter-strike it is the same thing, but you get a message that says "Connection problems". There may actually be a better chance here of getting the isp to improve because we have two choices for cable service. I'm in Ashland, Oregon and we have a city run system called Ashland Fiber Net. The city operates the network but we then have to subscribe through one of about 6 ISP's that buy their bandwidth from the city. We also have the option of Charter Pipeline here. I'm using Ashland Fiber Net, and I get about 1-2 Mbits / sec. I've thought about switching to Charter, but I've heard very mixed reviews of their service. I know the bandwidth would be lower, but if they had a more reliable connection it would be worth it. Thanks again. I'll check it out tonight and post back with results.

 

[Jonathan93]

You might need to find some tracert tools. If you are running Windows 2000 use the command "Pingpath" from the command prompt. Your problem may not be the first hop out from you, so I'd suggest getting a program to do Tracert'ss for you. One such program is called Ping Plotter and you can get a 30 day trail from here.
I wish it was as good as MTR (Matts Traceroute)for Linux, but it isn't too bad. I'd suggest using that to a couple of differents hosts (ISPs can have multiple Internet connections, and your problem could come from 1 link. If you are going to use the "tracert" command from the command prompt, try using the -d flag (tracert -d <IP address or DNS Name>). That will keep it from doing reverse lookups on every host between you and them and will speed up your tracerts some.

If you have a cable/dsl router, I'd take it out of the equation (Plug your PC directly into the Internet and check your ping). I have CharterTN, and they suck! They are better than they used to be, but it is still pretty bad. Then again, I hear other people who have charter (Not TN, but charter in a different part of the country), and they say it is pretty good. I'd probably find someone who has it, and try it out, before you make the decision to switch.