Question High gaming latency issues

[Therow]

My issue is connecting to an online gaming server where when I initiate ping tests, are resulting in about 250ms on average which is causing issues for other people (sliding around, teleporting, among other things).

The specific IP I am ping-testing is 51.89.234.64 and I understand that I wont have 5 ms to this server since it's somewhere in Germany (or there-abouts) but getting my ping down to something like 100 would be preferable. I live in the Bay Area of California. A friend of mine who lives in Southern California is getting about 100 ms to the server. I don't know if it's gear or ISP related but I thought I'd reach out and see if the community has any ideas.

To my knowledge the modem/router should handle my 300-down and 5-up Comcast connection. A speed test recently was showing 262.9-down and 5.98-up. It doesn't look like I am losing packets either (using ping -t shows a pretty stable connection just a slow one).

Below you can find all the pertinent info from the "how to post" thread (keep in mind I'm not an expert and I might have put "NA" on something I might have the info for but just don't know anything about). If anyone needs more info let me know. I really hope I can get this issue resolved once and for all.

• Router - Netgear Model R6700v3
• Modem - Tp-Link Model TC-7610
• PC Specs:
  
  AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core 3.69 Ghz
  AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
  32 Gig Ram
  ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING — BIOS - American Megatrends Inc. 3601, 3/5/2021
  EVGA 100-N1-0650-L1, 650 N1, 650W, 2 Year Warranty, Power Supply
  
  
• Make and model of USB or PCI Wifi adapter - NA
• Operating system - Windows 10 Pro
• ISP and connection type - Comcast — Bay Area of CA — LAN (~25-foot Cat-6 Cable)
• Number of devices connected to the router
  
  LAN: 2 Desktop PC's
  WIFI: 4 Google Smart Outlets, 3 phones, 1 IPad, Amazon Firestick
  
  
• Error messages - NA
• Make and model of switches and how many ports are on each switch - I'm not sure what this is.
• NAS (Network Attached Storage) or regular server is connected to the network -NA
• Whether or not a Wifi router is connected to the network and/or switch - Yes — Wifi router Netger as mentioned above
• If you are using the internal LAN connection on your motherboard, a USB dongle, or external PCI card -MOBO LAN port

 

[bill001g]

You have lots of info but the most important would be a tracert to that IP address.

In general you can do nothing about the path your data takes from your house to any server. You have only 1 option you send and receive data over the connection you pay your ISP for. Any issues would affect all servers not just 1.

Anything else in the path is related to how the different ISP in the path are interconnected. You have no ability to change any of that.

So I did some basic testing from what are called looking glass sites that let you run trace and ping commands from ISP routers around the world. I am having lots of trouble even getting a response and the path has lots of filtered IP addresses. From the few that respond it seems to go via london even if I test from a router in germany.

Not that this really matters a lot, you still can't change the path but you might be able to use a vpn service to open a vpn tunnel to a german data center and then try to go to the server. Something is very strange about that server and the data center provider that own the IP address.

 

[Therow]

I am having lots of trouble even getting a response and the path has lots of filtered IP addresses. From the few that respond it seems to go via london even if I test from a router in germany.

It very well may be that I was mistaken and the server is in London lol

 

[Therow]

You have lots of info but the most important would be a tracert to that IP address.

Would posting my tracert be helpful here? And which of the tracert IP should I omit so I don't end up doxing myself?

 

[bill001g]

Tracert does not show your IP at best someone would know what area of the country you were in maybe guess a city.

My guess it makes no difference. Unless you see a problem in hop 1 (which would indicate a issue inside your house ) or hop 2 which for most people is the connection between your house and the ISP there is not much you can do about it.

Hard to say everything I see shows the data cross over to a french ISP called OVHcloud either in new york or london. Hard to say you get different results when you test from different ISP. Its not likely you can call that ISP and complain. Maybe the person that owns the server could since it seems to be also hosted by that ISP. No way to say for sure since you can never really tell what companies or ISP own what since the registration information is not kept updated.

The only reason I even looked at this was to maybe suggest you try a vpn. I am suspecting that IP is some kind of virtual server that might exist in multiple physical locations. Got too messy for me to spend more time digging around.

You though have almost no options unless you get lucky and it is in your house or ISP. You in effect need to get a different ISP that has a different path...which kinda is what a VPN is. Which VPN you choose and if it works is still going to be trial and error I suspect.

 

[Therow]

You in effect need to get a different ISP that has a different path...which kinda is what a VPN is. Which VPN you choose and if it works is still going to be trial and error I suspect.

Thanks again Bill, I'll have to look into VPN then. Which I was hesitant to do. Some of my friends who play said they have similar issues and use ExitLag but I wanted to see if there was some other issue before I have to pay a monthly subscription just to not have lag... uugh