[SOLVED] Weird latency issue while hosting local private server

[hassan3]

Hi,
We have a really weird latency issue while hosting a private game using either steam (in-game lobby creation without port forwarding) or creating a server using dedicated server files and port forwarding. The thing is, when i host, some of my friend gets 250+ latency even when we are in same country while others get 5ms. All the people who have same ISP gets 5ms ping, if not then 250+. even when they live couple of kilometers away. Weird thing is that one of my friend that lives 800km away from me and have the same ISP as me but when everyone joins him then we all get below 50ms pings. i get the same ping (30ms) as the guy who live 5km from him. Another weird thing is that another friend that lives few kilometers away from me, has a very bad internet and when he hosts we all get 200-300+ latency but some days we all get below 100 latency (latency is very unstable) not always. It's like his ISP changes routing everyday or something.Is there any way to fix this? how can i explain this to ISP, we have to call that one friend to play locally.

 

[Ralston18]

Computer ---home network --- ISP --- multiple servers, switches --- another ISP--another home network ----server.

You and your friends respective computer's all use different routes to reach the server.

And those routes can and do change. Even while online and playing.

Even if some of you happen to be using the same ISP.

How are you determining/discovering latencies? That discovery process in itself can be problematic.

Are you using some speed test app?

You mentioned ping: pathping and tracert may help narrow down the possible reasons.

Overall, geography, weather, network traffic, interim devices, gaming servers, and cable/fiber wires combine to create multiple conditions and situations that can increase latency.

Most of such conditions are out of your control and, to a slightly lesser extent, beyond control of your respective ISPs as well.

 

[hassan3]

Computer ---home network --- ISP --- multiple servers, switches --- another ISP--another home network ----server.

You and your friends respective computer's all use different routes to reach the server.

And those routes can and do change. Even while online and playing.

Even if some of you happen to be using the same ISP.

How are you determining/discovering latencies? That discovery process in itself can be problematic.

Are you using some speed test app?

You mentioned ping: pathping and tracert may help narrow down the possible reasons.

Overall, geography, weather, network traffic, interim devices, gaming servers, and cable/fiber wires combine to create multiple conditions and situations that can increase latency.

Most of such conditions are out of your control and, to a slightly lesser extent, beyond control of your respective ISPs as well.

We are hosting csgo matches from in-game hosting. We just simply create lobbies. I think steam uses some kind of hole punching technique so that port forwarding is not required. I have tried port forwarding as well and creating server using csgo dedicated server files. All people connected to server get same latency, so we just use the in-game lobby to host. We check latency from in-game scoreboard. Last night, only one of our friend was getting 200+ latency who doesn't have the same ISP say S. i have P ISP. while my other friend who also have P isp, if he hosts, everyone would get similar latency as they would get to my server but the guy with S ISP will also get lower latency. I would have to enable ICMP on my network to allow ping/tracert to my IP, but im not able to enable it so far and i also don't want to mess with settings to much because i don't have much network knowledge. I tried tracing route to any random ip and there is always this one ip which i go though. I gave this ip to other friend to test latency and they also get lower latency to that IP as well. I think it might be my ISP's ip for my city.
Could it be that some ISP just don't allow direct connections to other ISP even in same city?
What i have found so far is that ISPs using same backend fiber (international fiber) usually get lower ping b/w each other. If there is latency >200 then its definitely being routed outside the country, maybe because there is no routing for that ip in the country.

 

[bill001g]

It likely is something similar to what you say in your last statement. The connection between ISP is a result of contractually agreements more based on money than performance. Things like international fiber and the ability to place routers in hosting centers all cost money.

This is partially why very large company use multiple ISP and multiple data centers. This site for example is not just one central server it has multiple IP addresses located in different areas. Hard to say exactly what they do since what you see is different based on where you come from.

You have no ability to affect the path the data takes. Your only choice is where you host your server and there will never be a place that makes all sites run the best.