Frequent Latency Issues

[mph5050]

I get frozen frequently while in-game either in a starbase or out in the galaxy. I can tell it is server side because the client allows me to click targets but does not select them, and if I'm in the sector and try to warp, I get an error message that says, "Warp path not finished. Press warp again" or something to that effect."

I think it is due to some kind of packet loss. I believe it to be server-side.

The main reason I'm pushing for server stability is because every time I log into the game I have to re-update using enb-up.exe AND LaunchNet7.exe before I can launch successfully. You can imagine it can get a little frustrating to get disconnected for me. ;-)

If you have any ideas or suggestions, throw a reply.

[kokushibyou]

I'd like a dev to contact me about this issue - I don't have any issues running 2k and have an idea as to what this issue is being caused by, but would to prefer to pm about it. We were having a very very similar issue at my office and I was able to solve it, so Id like to provide my suggestions.

Love the game and want to give back to make sure its around a long long time.

[mph5050]

I think this is a very important issue for the Dev team to focus on; Think about the following analogy:

The editors of a commercial create a commercial to be flashy yet still grab the attention and focus of the consumer. The editors focus on transitions and the layout and storyboards. They make the commercial concrete and well-designed.

The consumer views the commercial because it is flashy and entertaining. They think about the commercial because it is well-designed and makes sense.

The editors are the game devs while the consumers are the general gameplay individuals.

I would love to be able to help in any way possible. I hope my (in-the-making) A+ certification is helpful to the dev team. Keep me informed.

[mph5050]

Update: While I was frozen with the "online manual" open, i was able to surf the net.

This means I was still connected to the internet. I was able to browse a bit to verify that my internet connection *through the game* was not compromised. It HAS to be something server-side.

[mph5050]

Update: Many times when I get frozen during a conversation with an NPC it happens with a vendor (go figure huh ). When I get stuck with them, I notice that when i close the trade window with them, it goes back to the <Done><Trade> window.

When I'm at the <Done><Trade> window, nothing happens. Nothing at all.

When I click <Done> from the <Done><trade> window, nothing happens.

When I click <Trade> from the <Done><Trade> window, the trade interface opens up.

[mph5050]

Update: I was travelling doing a trade route from Earthcorps High Command to Earth station while doing some race/class quests when I entered the Earth from Luna.

I was able to enter warp just fine entering the gate from Luna to Sol.

By the time I got to Earth Station, I must have had a disconnect because when I registered then docked to Earth Station, the client closed (not froze) on me.

That was the first time this has happened to me.

[posfordfan1220]

I noticed a little bit of lag in Antares when we were having all the login issues, but not that bad. Not nearly as bad as over Christmas break.

[Numiah2]

In December there was an announcement on why we all experiencing lag related troubles. (for some reason someone decided to remove it)

One of the servers crashed, so they had to move everything to one server.

As long as the new server isn't running we will have latency issues.

[Daywolf]

I haven't experienced any the past couple of weeks. Have you tried a trace rout yet? On my old ISP I had constant trace rout problems. The more hops you are going through the more likely those systems you are passing through are going to cause problems.

[Drakefyre]

I've been having latency freezes as well... but my bro doesn't have any of them.

Those happens, most of the time, in stations while talking to npcs, doesn't happen too much in space.

What my bro and I noticed, is that when I'm latency frozen, my comp can still send packets to the server, but the server can't send them to my comp.

For example:

I write ''test'' in local chat, my bro can see it, but I can't.

I tried online trace routes, everything seems fine... tracert from windows doesn't seem to work correctly on my comp, it stays open for 0.1 sec.

[Daywolf]

You have an AV resident shield running? Your problem sounds like your system isn't keeping up, something slowing your video render or whole system. Could have malware or just need a serious system cleaning. I had malware a couple weeks ago, my video was thrashed, system lagging, some stupid ad-banner automatically downloaded and installed malware/rootkit/trojan using a new adobe exploit. Took all evening to reverse the damage, and having a compy-tech cert I'll say it was no walk in the park, almost just reformatted. OP is probably reading this and saying "oh no!" heh but that looked to be purely network problems by the description.

[Tienbau]

Daywolf is right, the problem is most likely something on your PC. Just because you can browse a random site, doesn't mean that you've got a good connection to the server. The internet isn't just in one place.

I suspect you are having problems either with software you have installed on your PC, either unknowingly (virus/trojan) or knowingly (bittorrent, P2P, firewall). And if you're not running a firewall, that's your problem right away.

If it was server side, more people would be affected. All MMO's are affected by geography, it's just the more lucrative ones (ie WoW) have servers near you, whereas if you're in the US, your linked by many, many hops to the actual server in Hamburg. I recall the red broken telephone appearing in live E&B many times, but I guess we were less likely to just 'blame the server' back then.

If you're interested in fixing this problem, I would suggest looking closer to home.

hope this helps,

TB

[Drakefyre]

Got tracert to work, one of my hops is timing out.

I'll be checking that out...

At least I have another clue of where the problem might be at.

Thank you!

[mph5050]

I don't think I mentioned this: When I get these freezes, its not just a hiccup... It locks the client down. I can't do anything, and it doesn't recover from it. I have to close the client. The client doesn't close with the Esc menu correctly. Then when I try to log in again, I have to clear the updates and repatch.

I have McAffee firewall up. I run monthly scans with McAffee and before this post, I ran another scan.

The only programs I have set to run at startup are as follows:

laptop touchpad program

Mouse driver program

Sound controller

Keyboard driver program

iTunes

McAffee siteadvisor

McAffee SecurityCenter

I prevent anything I don't regularly use to stop from running at startup.

I have uTorrent on my computer but like I said I've run scans since the last time I opened it and it does not launch at startup.

What would you recommend I use for a system cleaning?

>> Update: I was having problems logging in earlier. When I succussfully logged in, the client would close. I was able to resolve that problem.

A nice side-effect of solving that problem is that now when I get these freezes, the game actually responds to the Esc menu options. It closes the game down or goes to character selection. It might be linked somehow but I don't know how.

>> >> Update on the update: Now when I get these hiccups the game can recover and I can keep doing stuff. (Yay)

Thanks.

[Drakefyre]

On my side, my router was blocking some packets from the server, wich was making my client to latency freeze.

Allowing EnB and the server's ip full access fixed the issue.

[Thelvyn]

I think I'm having the same issue - and while the root cause is the internet dropping a few packets every so often ultimately I believe it's the server not being able to cope with a couple of packets being dropped that's causing the hang/disconnects.

Today I've been losing connection quite regularly - for some reason only while solo (no idea if that was coincidence or not - but considering I was in a group tour around Aragoth and didn't d/c in 2hrs but apart from that seem to be d/cing every half hour or so...)

Trying to work out why this was happening I was fortunate to be pinging play.net-7.org as I was disconnected once and when it happened a single ping packet also got dropped (pings after that were no problem but I was d/c'd from enb). This suggests to me that the network code is not very robust at all to drop me so easily.

The other side of it is that there is no indication that you've been disconnected to the player - I'm guessing that's how it was coded originally and nothing can be done there, but I also noticed that net7proxy.exe didn't throw any errors/messages either which perhaps you could do something about, I'd rather have enb be terminated with a "you have been disconnected" message of some sort from net7proxy that the current hang, especially as if it hangs whith a vendor open it cannot be closed through the escape menu and I'm forced to close it through task manager.

I'm running Win XP sp2, on a core 2 6600 with 2gb ram. ATI 5750 video with 1gb. As far as I can tell it's not a local issue with the odd packet being dropped but I'm in the UK so depending on the server location we might be more prone than elsewhere.

[Guest Bigheals]

I too am having these latency probs the past two days. I haven't changed anything software, hardware, or network. I too am getting these same hangs. It seems to have just started past two days and has gotten much worse today. Was anything done that could have caused this?