Trying to Understand Trace Route Issues

[luciddreams]

I've been getting some crazy high latency spikes playing Diablo 3. Everything will be find with a latency below 150 ms, and then it'll spike up to over 3000 ms. Extreme lag and d/c's too.

I did a Tracet to the Diablo 3 USA servers and got the following. As I understand, these numbers are high. But I'm still trying to understand these types of reports to identify the type of problem that I am experiencing.

Is there a problem with my route to the Blizz servers? Should I call my ISP? If so, what exactly should I tell them is going on? I'll include to reports below:

Tracing route to 12.129.209.68 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms 10.141.24.1
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms csw01jnvlwi-gbe-8-7.jnvl.wi.charter.com [96.34.20.212]
4 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms dtr03jnvlwi-tge-0-6-0-12.jnvl.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.4]
5 11 ms 11 ms 15 ms crr01ftbgwi-tge-0-1-0-7.ftbg.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.3]
6 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms crr01euclwi-tge-0-1-0-4.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.77]
7 20 ms 15 ms 16 ms bbr01euclwi-tge-0-2-0-1.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.1.40]
8 34 ms 34 ms 44 ms cer-edge-12.inet.qwest.net [72.166.170.245]
9 105 ms 57 ms 57 ms dcp-brdr-03.inet.qwest.net [205.171.251.110]
10 58 ms 58 ms 58 ms 192.205.32.29
11 100 ms 100 ms 98 ms cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.220.250]
12 97 ms 99 ms 96 ms cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.18.21]
13 104 ms 101 ms 99 ms cr2.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.122.31.85]
14 100 ms 99 ms 99 ms cr1.slkut.ip.att.net [12.122.30.25]
15 101 ms 99 ms 100 ms cr2.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.30.30]
16 98 ms 97 ms 97 ms gar29.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.129.241]
17 97 ms 100 ms 98 ms 12-122-254-238.attens.net [12.122.254.238]
18 98 ms 97 ms 98 ms mdf001c7613r0004-gig-10-1.lax1.attens.net [12.129.193.250]
19 * *

Tracing route to 12.129.209.68 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 7 ms 7 ms 8 ms 10.141.24.1
3 8 ms 7 ms 13 ms csw01jnvlwi-gbe-8-7.jnvl.wi.charter.com [96.34.20.212]
4 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms dtr03jnvlwi-tge-0-6-0-12.jnvl.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.4]
5 15 ms 14 ms 16 ms crr01ftbgwi-tge-0-1-0-7.ftbg.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.3]
6 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms crr01euclwi-tge-0-1-0-4.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.16.77]
7 17 ms 15 ms 16 ms bbr01euclwi-tge-0-2-0-1.eucl.wi.charter.com [96.34.1.40]
8 33 ms 35 ms 33 ms cer-edge-12.inet.qwest.net [72.166.170.245]
9 63 ms 57 ms 58 ms dcp-brdr-03.inet.qwest.net [205.171.251.110]
10 58 ms 58 ms 59 ms 192.205.32.29
11 97 ms 99 ms 99 ms cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.220.250]
12 98 ms 99 ms 99 ms cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.18.21]
13 99 ms 98 ms 100 ms cr2.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.122.31.85]
14 101 ms 100 ms 99 ms cr1.slkut.ip.att.net [12.122.30.25]
15 99 ms 99 ms 99 ms cr2.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.30.30]
16 97 ms 97 ms 97 ms gar29.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.129.241]
17 99 ms 98 ms 98 ms 12-122-254-238.attens.net [12.122.254.238]
18 96 ms 97 ms 97 ms mdf001c7613r0004-gig-10-1.lax1.attens.net [12.129.193.250]
19 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

 

[Fardringle]

Nothing over 101 ms. While that's not exceptional, it's not high at all and shouldn't even be noticeable in most situations. It is possible that there is something wrong, but there's nothing out of the ordinary in those tracert reports. It would be better to see one from the same moment(s) that Diablo is slow but that might be hard to do unless you just keep a Command Prompt open all the time with a tracert command ready to go then start it up the instant you get lag in the game to see if anything shows up.

 

[imagoon]

Latency spikes are nearly always the result of the "last mile" IE your home connection. Mostly because big companies like Blizzard generally have competent network people managing the various datacenters. I get spike like this and it is nearly always local. Same time I get a 3k ping, netflix will buffer etc.

 

[luciddreams]

Update: I ran a continous traceroute which logged packet loss, and captured a 60 second period during which I lagged and had a d/c. After seeing the following I called my cable compay to get a tech out here!

http://i48.tinypic.com/2f081gy.png

Thanks!

 

[Fardringle]

That's a lot of packet loss and would definitely have an effect on your online gaming!

It might be caused by your network adapter, your router, the cable modem, the wiring, or quite a few other things. Having the cable tech test the modem/lines is a good start to narrow down the possibilities.

 

[JackMDS]

The trace is Not so bad and according to the numbers what ever lag is far away from your system beyond your control (the lag between your Network and the first server of your ISP is only 8 msec.

This type of thing come and go according to the specific Routing of the moment and I doubt that there is any thing in specific you can do.

 

[badsign]

If you want to try and confirm this is a 'last mile' situation, use a 3rd party traceroute program when you get a lag spike and see if the tool does too.

Here's a few
http://www.unlocktheinbox.com/traceroute/
http://3Dtraceroute.com/

 

[JackMDS]

3DTrace - http://www.d3tr.de/index.html

This is an example of a trace.

So Hop 1 is within my network.

Hop 2 and 3 Within My ISP, i.e., if needed I can try to complain.

The rest is beyond personal control and basically up to the "All Mighty".