Hello,
recently came across a very nice article written by Ultrasonic2 who has authorised to publish in RSR.
Article Summary aka TLDR:
“When you connect to WOT you get assigned any one of many servers/backbone connections. ( In this topic I only talk about 7 but I believe there are much more )
For some users, the servers return Vastly different Pings.
These vastly different pings account for the sometimes you have a good ping and others don’t.
Since the server assignment is random “Fixing” your ping might be as simple as restarting your client and thus connecting to a different server.
This topic is not about people’s pings going up and down during the game that is a given. This is about if your ping in game varying from say 130- 150 or 160 -190
This is not just an NA west thing, East has the same oddity too. I would also suspect that other regions would experience the same thing.
At this point the cause is unknown. Since some users are affected and others aren’t I’m not sure who is to blame for this. I can not say this is a WOT problem or not but I would like someone to take me seriously.
It seems to be a networking issue since using a VPN tool like Mudfish can result in all the servers returning pretty much the same ping.”
The Wot Ping lottery
First off I live in Auckland New Zealand and Play Wot on the West servers Via the ISP Spark (now) with an ADSL2+ connection with Interleaving off.
I have always struggled with the odd pings I get when playing Wot, sometimes it will be 135 others 170 and on the odd occasion 200.
In the past, I have spent a lot of time investigating this. I’ve changed routers a few times and changed ISPs but yet my strange pings continued.
Through my testing, I was able to reduce my ping from the high ones to a lower one by sometimes.
- Restarting my computer
- Restarting my router
- Restarting the game client.
However performing the above might result in the ping decreasing or increasing.
After speaking to others (NZers) I have found some of them too performed similar black magic attempts to fix their pings.
Since the above changes are all things we can perform it’s no wonder I believed the problem lay at my end.
At this point, I gave up.
However recently my son has started to play WoT with me and the strange ping situation became even more perplexing.
We live in the same house and thus are using the same internet we have found that while platooning together one of us might have a good ping (135) while the other could have a bad (180).
Some days we would both have good pings other days we’d both have bad pings and sometimes one of us would have a good one and the other bad, but never the same person.
Since the most common cause of bad pings is the same for us (isp router..) I got back on the case, as this disproved most theories as to why the ping variance might occur.
It was still true that if one of us had a bad ping it might be fixed by restarting something to get a better ping, but not the router anymore because we knew that it couldn’t be that because one of us had a good ping at times.
Since then I’ve stumbled across some of these apps that claim to reduce pings like WTFast and Mudfish. Like all other claimed miracle ping fixes I was very sceptical cos most of these fixes simply don’t work (and I can prove it).
The question became since my pings are randomly good or bad how would I know if any program was fixing my random pings. At this point, I’m not looking for a ping reduction just ping stability (138).
Well I wrote this:
From this, I can ping 10 addresses at the same time.
Also, if I click on the address it will perform a trace. A trace tells you which routers devices your traffic is passing through to get from your machine to the WoT servers. Bad pings may be a result of hardware problems with one of the routers (overloaded) or your traffic may simply be get routed via different devices depending on a number of factors.
In my quest identify some of these factors I have been for years now performing a tracert to 162.213.85 every hour and keeping a record of this. It has helped to identify the exact time-ish when the ping increased or if the routing changed.
However, the ping of 162.213.85 (one of the WoT West servers) is not necessary related to my in-game ping.
Now getting back to my app, the question is what addresses should I ping. Searching the web showed a variation on what the West servers IP was , so in integrated Wireshark into my app. I can simply run my app while connecting to WOT and it will tell me where my data is going too.
To my surprise I discovered that the server you communicate with changes most of the time if you log out and back in again.
More interesting than that is the fact that the differing servers have significantly different pings and these servers pings were the ones I got in the game.
Now it’s also very interesting that the servers with bad pings are not always the same servers today on that short list it’s 162.213.61.59, 162.213.61.60 however I’m actually connected to 162.213.61.61
If I disconnect WOT and try again, this time, I got 162.213.61.58
And for the last try, I got 162.213.57 which is currently one of the bad ones !
Here is a trace to the best and worst servers at the moment.
i
In short the ping you get depends on which one of the MANY WG servers you connect to and it’s true that restarting the game client may make the problem better or worse.
FYI 162.216.XX.XX are East servers and as you can see they also have a ping variance.
FYI Disconnected is not referring to a connection to WOT but to my other APP
EDIT :
Has issue
Private
NZ based ISP Spark over adsl2+ x2 people
NZ based ISP BigPipe over VDSL (BigPipes parent ISP is SparK)
JAPAN User has an issue
Businesses
NZ based ISP Spark over fibre, In theory, this machine is located at Spark !!!
Does not have issue
Businesses
NZ based ISP maxnet over fibre x2 people
NZ based ISP Orcon over fibre (my work)
US East based customer of mine does not show any noticeable ping variation between servers to the west servers.
NL based customer of mine does not show any noticeable ping variation between servers to the west servers.
For a simple test ping these ,and let me know what you get and what connection type you have(VDSL) business/Private and what ISP you’re on.
162.213.61.XX
63,62,58,55,57,59,60
Thanks to Ultrasonic2.
On the SEA server we are getting the ACIV/E1 on June 3.
Maybe EU gets T-34-88
Except that tank is not in the game files.
If we are lucky we will get the Ram II or the TOG II*.
This news pleases me greatly, although I can’t help but think it’s too under powered for tier 6
I may have to start an SEA account… can’t wait for it to reach EU…
I’m regularly getting top 5 results in the AC1, it’s a crap gun, but it’s FUN!
woo hoo my post 🙂
I have issues with ping 2, on server 2 it’s fu*ked and unstable, while on server 1 it’s always stable. While with patch 9.15 i used to switch between servers allot, with no issues at all. How can this not be a WOT issue? lol..
Well based on my testing and others only some users are affected by this ..
You can ping those 7 servers and find out if your part of the ping lottery or not
Used to play 56k 2002…
150ping is the border. If you are any higher, it aint fun.
Even if you are used to it, it can screw you anyway.
So if you are above that… get other internet.
If you use wlan… lmao… get a freaking cable buddy.
Wlan aint for gaming.
btw. check your connections for PACKET LOSS…
even a good ping is no use, if you got a high loss rate. (google for tests+help, duh!)
WLAN here and 15ms ping in csgo…. dont talk crap 😉
I’m in France, EU server. I use VDSL2, and the WoT lobby is always showing 130~135 ping, but in-game and in garage I have 20~30.
Well this is all too technical and complicated for me but because I am a stupid sheep I will believe it without checking any of it 😀
aww dont say that. <3
Well I was being sarcastic and implying that this is what most people do these days. Unfortunately no one bothers to verify facts and check sources but will believe every bit of garbage on the TV and newspapers….
But also tbh I didn’t understand most of this article xD
Bravo !
I have been television (programing) free for almost 10 years, good to see others detoxing from the propaganda.
It is funny when you breakaway from the groupthink, It is like everyone around you still believes in Santa Claus and anything otherwise is conspiracy theory.
Rita in all my games my ping is 15ms 5ms and 30ms inwot its 170-490ms Its WG not your computer and i play wow and other kinds of games Its Wargaming lieing to us as usual
Im living in EU and I have 30-35 ping.
Never more, never less 🙂
I had a connection of about 3.5Mb/ and had a constant ping of 80 or so. Now I have a 50Mb/s connection with BT Fiber (sic) and my ping is a dead steady 35. I’m convinced that the ISP is the culprit in bad ping scenarios.
Had 60/60mbit for last couple of years. The other day they turned it up to 250/250 mbit at no extra cost!!! Ping avg. at 20-30 always.
Best thing about Fiber internet is in my opinion the reliability. I can game with the same ping, even when having 2 file servers running in my home with tons of active connections every second.
Differences between servers and internal networking at Wargaming’s end can cause ping delay and packet loss. (Wargaming should be doing quality control tests on a regular basis) That being said, most internet issues happen between the end user’s computer and the server’s network. Your router/modem asks the ISP’s routers for the fastest route to the server’s network. Depending on the internet load and equipment problems your ping will vary. I use a cable modem with Time Warner. This means I share the bandwidth with other customers. I have found them to be mostly stable. My biggest issue was the difference between using wireless and using an ethernet cable direct to the router. The cable has always been the better choice.
DAMN and yesterday I just opened a complain to my ISP because I have good ping in the morning and in the afternoon over 200-300, I suspect now it is related to this more than my ISP, I already have a good router an ASUS RT-AC88U with WTFast included on it….
its just as likely that your ISP throttles connections at busy times, usually its more of a bandwidth issue than ping but it could also affect it.
yeah that sounds like network contention issues.ANDRES STURM
Nothing of the OP mentions port forwarding
I wrote on this subject back when WoWS was in CBT
http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/36080-tech-tip-%E2%80%93-port-forwarding-and-other-items/
WG has a outgoing and incoming server connections to your client workstation.
Always go LAN wired and never Wi-Fi when playing WG products.
Your firewall and anti-virus could also have bottleneck delays happening too. Check to make sure they exempt WG software programs.
Note: The two mention items below in the above link are not a concern if using Windows 10. Others you can disregard these settings.
Setting Process Priority
Setting CPU Processor Affinity
Other commands to try using the Windows CMD as a system administrator as suggested by WG tech support
===
Enter the following commands one at a time pressing the Enter after each one
ipconfig /flushdns
arp -d *
netsh int ip reset c:\log.txt
netsh winsock reset
shutdown -r -t 0
The system will now do a reboot and a new local IP will be assigned to the client workstation if DHCP setup. If static IP, then the IP will not change. Any questions look up the commands on the internet.
The OP mentions nothing of port forwarding tried.
thats cos it’s not relevant… If it’s something like that it should affect all servers the same..
i noticed a huge jump in ping around new year … I’m in Aus, was sitting on 170 – 220 ping before the new year. since the new year it sits around 350 – 450. nothing on my end changed. talked to WOT and ISP, they had me delete DNS Cache, reboot every device, setup forwarding rules, all of which did nothing to improve. depending who you talk to in WOT, you will get different fqdn of machines to trace to,
I’ve done full trace runs on both USE and USW, WOT and the ISP account for the high pings, but neither wants to do anything about it, they all look at the user pc and connection.
WOT know there is issues with connections outside the US, to the US servers, but don’t care and aren’t inclined to do anything about it.
SEA server appears to have 120 – 150 ping – maybe better to play there
So… 100ms less ping to west server from the middle of the South Pacific than me in South America to east server, and you’re complaining why exactly?
im not complaining about anything im just making the point that if you get a bad ping if you restart your client you might get a better one or worse depending on if your a winner or not.. Im also saying that for some people there is no lotto involved and they get a similar ping to any of the servers regardless..
Ha, I live down in Christchurch New Zealand and down here we get less than 200 ping on a good day. After the newest patch came out my pings been staying at like 220+. Like wtf the ASIA server is the only server that we could thinkably use but the players are shit and the ping is still horrible compared to you lucky fuckers in the rest of the world
your meant to be playing on NA if you play in NZ ..
IMHO it’s not supposed to be a problem for SEA server since all the servers are crammed into the tiny island of Singapore
i’ve love to test that i’s my gut feeling that all regions will be affected by this, but i can’t confirm that
you’re welcome to test it. just remember that in WOT SEA server listing, there is only one server on the list, unlike other regions which have 2 or more. prolly due to the lower player population (Koreans have their own server, and the Chinese gets theirs licenced to a moneymilker)
maybe a routing problem? Did you check the routes to the different servers?
WG servers are RNG based =P
I remember some weeks ago to play a match where me and half my team where having lag issues, with lag spikes 999ms, and we are all ppl that have normally 100-180ms in general, and the enemy team having zero lag issues.
The fun part was that since MM have battles already decided, even with us not being able to drive or even hit something, we won.
Hi Ultrasonic2,
nice to see such a well written analysis of the issue.
I feel I have some thoughts to add:
You mention, and you sound a bit surprised by it, that the IPs that WG published as the “server IPs” are actually not the IPs you are connected to, when you are logged in. This is true and normal behaviour. The IP addresses WG published are their login servers, your game client contacts them and they negotiate with your client and the server farm’s loadbalancing mechanisms which game server you will be sent to. As soon as the login process is done ( from your point of view: when you are in the garage ) you are not communicatiing with the login servers anymore. This is eg. the reason why sometimes people experience login problems like server not available but other people are still able to play the game perfectly.
This is a good article and some nice information about how the server farms work: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/12/24/how-wargaming-servers-work/
I don’t have anything to add regarding your ping issue though. Sorry.
I’d be interested in your multi-server- ping tool, though. What language did you write it in and have you considered publishing it open source?
Best regards,
a humble IT Storage Systems Architect
from Germany
Another bit of information that leaves many people confused:
What XVM displays as ping is the ping to the login servers.
Wargamings implementation of latency (the three colored bars next to the server name when you are in garage) seems to be the latency to a different server, very likely the server that you are actually logged in on.
ciao!
yes the newly add ping seems to be completely useless ping numbers , well it is for me in NZ
the game clearly needed more rng
yuo see ivan, when you are of havings more RNG, competiting company cannot into predict and copyings of yuor product, they are not of able into understand randomness
lol i guess thats what this ping RNG
you get RNG with the connection to the WG server pings as well. The approach used in this post is far from scientific and it really shows the lack of knowledge of the guy actually testing the stuff. more correct would be to do a wireshark/tcpdump while playing to see what servers the UDP packets are coming from that relay the battle information to you. it is totally irrelevant what server you sign in on, since you will not notice the difference between 20ms and 120ms in the garage. It is just the battle information that needs a stable and reliable ping and that is nothing you measure by just logging on and off again.
err what are you talking about i id just that the information provided is wire sharked.. i just built a UI around wireshark to make it simpler ( only bring back wot info )
oh well, sry then for not reading the whole shenanigan post.
i guess you know already, that icmp-packets will traverse the internet differently than regular UDP-packets. So pinging the corresponding server ip addresses might result in different latencies than the actual packets WoT uses to keep you updated on the games progress,
so if you really want to check the connectivity, you will need to sample the packets send by your client and for instance “forge” those packets and check how fast the server replies. you could do this by using ostinato, which is a network traffic/packet generation tool that lets you forge packets very easily, you just need to run wireshark simultaneously to gather the answer and if you can do this over a bigger period of time you would see the real life connectivity you would experience while playing.
just noticed last night that both USE and USW were giving me wild fluctuations in ping at prime time on west coast. don’t know if that is happening on both sides or country wide.
Funny is that in EU2 (located in Amsterdam, where I live) I have more Ping than in EU-1 (Bavaria, Germany)
Thank you very much for the nice review. It was very interesting and informative.
http://www.battleping.com/
lol i play with 300ms, be happy if you get 100ms+- or below…