Question Strange disconnect issue while playing ESO

[Perseidit]

Hello tom's hardware !

I have a very strange problem concerning while playing Elder scrolls online.

I keep getting random and very frequent disconnects not related to any specific time or thing going on in the game. This problem occurs only while playing this particular game. Any other games that I play, no problems.

I am using fast 5G connection (600M theoretical speed) and I live in Finland which has 5G connectivity covered pretty good. I share this connection from my oneplus nord phone via usb cable. My gaming rig is fairly new with rtx3080+i7-10700k+32gb memory and running windows 11.

I have tried everything to solve this problem on my own. Updated everything, reinstalled everything, same problem with both win10 and 11. I went through the long list of troubleshooting tricks provided by game company but nothing seems to help. And when ever I get these disconnects my internet connection seem to be fine and I can always relog right away.

Just lately I tried one more thing and that is to use VPN. I found good free VPN called Proton and it seems that while I use it, no more disconnects. But as soon as I drop the VPN off, disconnects come back. I would settle with the fix by using VPN and let it be a mystery, but using VPN gives much higher ping and drops my UP and DOWN stream very heavily so now I have problem with lag. Feels stupid to change one problem to another.

My question is: What on earth might cause this. Why is it different with VPN than without. Why I get disconnected while running my internet on its own, and manage to stay online while using VPN? Looking for any ideas what to try related to this phenomenon so I could have it fixed without using VPN. I want to think there is something I can do to mimic the fix that using VPN provides.

I thank for any help anyone can offer because I am facing a really high wall here. Hope I provided with enough info and explained it reasonably.

 

[Lutfij]

I have tried everything to solve this problem on my own. Updated everything, reinstalled everything, same problem with both win10 and 11. I went through the long list of troubleshooting tricks provided by game company but nothing seems to help. And when ever I get these disconnects my internet connection seem to be fine and I can always relog right away.
If you could state what you've done, it'd hep alleviate any steps we would be stating that resulted in the creation of this thread.

As for your specs, please list them like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
including the age of the PSU, apart from the make and model of the unit.

BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[bill001g]

Higher ping times on a game like elder scrolls should not be that big a issue as long as it is consistent higher latency. It would be more a issue say on CSGO if it was above say 200ms.

For your download issue see if the vpn client has the ability to run what is called split tunnel. You should be able to rig it so only elder scrolls traffic goes via the vpn and all other traffic goes directly to the normal internet connection.

Hard to say what would be different. The VPN might bypass other software installed on your pc. Look for any software that claims to accelerate gaming traffic or favoring one kind of traffic over another.

In general this is kinda a expect condition when you use mobile bradband internet. It is designed for the mobile user where small disconnects are common switching cell towers. These ISP tend to rebalance their cell towers based on load so maybe one tower you normally use gets a higher load from say cars driving by and they move your traffic temporarily to a different cell tower causing a outage. This though does not explain why vpn prevent this issue. Many times the vpn itself will drop and reestablish when you move between cell towers but you would tend to notice it.

 

[Perseidit]

Sure thing I will list more info about my PC but I don't think this is hardware related issue since this problem occurs only while playing Elder scrolls online and every other game is totally fine and my computer is totally fine otherwise.

CPU: I7-10700K
CPU cooler: coolermaster masterliquid ml360r
Motherboard: msi mpg z490 gaming carbon wifi
Ram: g-skill trident z rgb 3200 32gb kit
SSD/HDD: samsung evo 970 1tb x2 + samsung 870 1tb x2
GPU: asus rog strix rtx 3080 12gb
PSU: corsair rm750x (2 years old)
Chassis: coolermaster mastercase h500m
OS: windows 11
Monitor: samsung 32" 1080p , Lg 32" 1440p
AMI BIOS7C73v1C2022-06-14 (latest)

 

[Perseidit]

Higher ping times on a game like elder scrolls should not be that big a issue as long as it is consistent higher latency. It would be more a issue say on CSGO if it was above say 200ms.

For your download issue see if the vpn client has the ability to run what is called split tunnel. You should be able to rig it so only elder scrolls traffic goes via the vpn and all other traffic goes directly to the normal internet connection.

Hard to say what would be different. The VPN might bypass other software installed on your pc. Look for any software that claims to accelerate gaming traffic or favoring one kind of traffic over another.

In general this is kinda a expect condition when you use mobile bradband internet. It is designed for the mobile user where small disconnects are common switching cell towers. These ISP tend to rebalance their cell towers based on load so maybe one tower you normally use gets a higher load from say cars driving by and they move your traffic temporarily to a different cell tower causing a outage. This though does not explain why vpn prevent this issue. Many times the vpn itself will drop and reestablish when you move between cell towers but you would tend to notice it.

High ping and latency is also an issue while playing ESO. Many battles, pvp most of all really needs quick reactions and while you are having lag issue you will greatly fall behind and be killed. Also a problem while doing veteran arenas. High ping and latency should never be tolerated even if you only play tetris since we live in 2023. The proton VPN that I am now using as a test is free and thus it is not very much configurable, I am not willing to pay for a VPN at the moment since I would like to find some other fix to this issue. And using mobile internet should bot be a problem. I did not always have this problem and as I said, any other game that I play has no issues. I can play battlefield, world of warcraft, pubg, modern warfare, guild wars 2 all without any disconnect at all. So this is why I said that this is a strange problem. If the problem would be just with the mobile 5g connection timing out every now and then while changing cell tower or something, I would face this problem in every other game too. But I don't.

 

[Perseidit]

The only reasonable difference that I can come up with while using VPN or not is that the data is encrypted with VPN on. But this could then mean that I am under some hacking influence, or I am being monitored by ISP or some government agency who deliberately mess up with my connection or something else that can mess with unencrypted data. Sounds wild but why else would VPN fix disconnect problem, because what VPN does is that it secures my data by encrypting thus giving me anonymity among all the data processed by ISP and cell towers.