I'm assuming the reason for my terrible ping of late is due to Cogentco and not rogue garbage trucks. I normally have a ping of 250 which is quite playable. However in the last few weeks my ping has been fluctuating between 250 - 350 (which should be ok) but the lag I'm seeing is as though I have a 400 - 500+ ping.

Now I'm not paying $10 a month for stop motion warfare and I consider it a bit of an problem when I need to use a Prom to stand a chance and even then the GT is autoaiming about 5 metres off the target. I can't even use flares half the time because I can't tell which way the opponent is flying. It's warpmagic I tell you.

I'll be watching this thread but I'll be taking a break and playing another game until combat is again feasible for me in this game.

Oops I posted this in the wrong forum. Forum mod, would you be so kind as to put this in general or bugs for me.

Awww. But who will sponsor the Deneb runs, Martin?
And, BSOFH says "sunspots" is today's excuse.

Martin: perhaps you should complain to Cogentco. I don't have to go through Cogentco (at least, I don't think I do. I've never bothered to check), and I haven't had any ping problems recently. So in all likelyhood, the problems with Cogentco aren't anything the devs have any control over.

Perhaps you should get a petition from all players who have to go through Cogentco and submit that to Cogentco, in hopes that they will fix the problem. But it's not as if the devs can just walk over to Cogentco and make sure all their plugs are in properly.

[EDIT: Cogentco... Cogento.... however you spell the place]

Yeah possibly. I was just querying here because the devs were in talks with Cogent about the problem back in March. I was curious to see if there was any more news on that first. My post was a bit of a rant I'm afraid.

Good luck with cogentco. I had some breif communications with them concerning my lag, which appeared to be coming from them. They basically told me to go to hell, it wasn't their problem (in much nicer words mind you). But the petition thing sounds interesting.

Maybe a dev could respond to this, and let us know if it would be worth it to create one. I know they hinted before at being aware of the problem.

My connection goes through cogentco, and it adds between 10 & 50 ms to my latency (occasionally more), compared w/ what I was getting before all the ISP buyout stuff happened. Since I'm not going over the Pacific ocean like Martin, my latency is still playable, but I do notice it.

The best thing I can think of on getting the situation improved, would be for Guild Software to tell their ISP that the bad latency from Cogentco is having a negative impact on Guild Software's business, and asking for a discount off what Guild is paying for their connection until the issue is resolved. Threatening to take away money seems to be the best (possibly only) way to get anything done, and IMO in this situation is wholly warranted.

How could I determine whether my connection goes through Cogentco or not?

Run a traceroute to vendetta-online.com and look for cogentco.com in the hostnames. Here's mine:

dan@lewis ~ $ traceroute vendetta-online.com
traceroute to 204.11.209.34 (204.11.209.34), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 4.480 ms 1.787 ms 0.801 ms
2 adsl-66-72-39-254.dsl.bltnin.ameritech.net (66.72.39.254) 49.222 ms 48.173 ms 49.499 ms
3 dist2-vlan50.bltnin.ameritech.net (66.72.71.227) 50.213 ms 50.134 ms 51.897 ms
4 bb1-g8-0.bltnin.ameritech.net (66.72.71.118) 51.225 ms 49.372 ms 47.983 ms
5 bb2-p10-0.chcgil.ameritech.net (151.164.191.254) 54.164 ms 55.032 ms 54.408 ms
6 ex1-p3-3.eqchil.sbcglobal.net (151.164.40.30) 56.383 ms 55.509 ms 53.934 ms
7 asn174-Cogent-2.eqchil.sbcglobal.net (151.164.249.234) 55.632 ms 56.165 ms 57.844 ms
8 p12-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.237) 58.080 ms 57.750 ms 58.851 ms
9 p11-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.150) 56.909 ms 57.728 ms 55.617 ms
10 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 64.045 ms 59.731 ms 59.798 ms
11 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 59.829 ms 57.762 ms 57.856 ms
12 * * *

Mine is looking better then it did a few weeks ago. There's no big latency jump now. <shrug>

edit: I take it back. Using the correct address reveals there are still problems.

[frozen@frozen ~/traceroute-1.4a12]$ /usr/sbin/traceroute vendetta-online.com
traceroute to vendetta-online.com (204.11.209.34), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 d14-69-1-248.try.wideopenwest.com (69.14.248.1) 19.958 ms 10.002 ms 9.814 ms
2 172.31.14.38 (172.31.14.38) 11.071 ms 7.539 ms 8.139 ms
3 12.124.15.37 (12.124.15.37) 15.931 ms 18.493 ms 15.334 ms
4 gbr2-p70.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.123.139.26) 29.258 ms 14.786 ms 17.806 ms
5 tbr2-p012601.dtrmi.ip.att.net (12.122.12.181) 17.270 ms 15.992 ms 16.861 ms
6 tbr2-cl1.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.134) 23.115 ms 15.537 ms 16.483 ms
7 ggr2-p3120.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.69) 17.278 ms 16.543 ms 23.239 ms
8 p5-2.core01.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.11.205) 18.783 ms 15.450 ms 15.774 ms
9 p12-0.core02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.241) 16.949 ms 18.241 ms 15.550 ms
10 p12-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.154) 15.017 ms 16.380 ms 16.251 ms
11 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 21.125 ms 21.874 ms 19.181 ms
12 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 19.209 ms 20.970 ms 19.316 ms

I guess I'm at the whim of Cogentco too...

vendetta-online.com is the domain for the webserver, not the gameserver. For the gameserver, use majikthise.guildsoftware.com

traceroute -I majikthise.guildsoftware.com
traceroute to 204.11.209.42 (204.11.209.42), 30 hops max, 46 byte packets
<snip>
5 p9-0.cr01.bois.eli.net (207.173.114.65) 25.472 ms 31.884 ms 30.511 ms
6 srp3-0.cr02.bois.eli.net (208.186.20.178) 15.788 ms 15.554 ms 32.062 ms
7 p9-0.cr01.ptld.eli.net (207.173.115.37) 26.564 ms 26.553 ms 32.535 ms
8 srp3-0.cr01.tkwl.eli.net (208.186.21.3) 30.879 ms 31.236 ms 30.755 ms
9 so-0-0-0--0.er01.sttl.eli.net (207.173.114.2) 39.989 ms 36.061 ms 40.556 ms
10 eli-pni-peering-COGENTCO-COM.sttl.eli.net (209.63.173.26) 31.684 ms 32.047 ms 34.984 ms
11 p15-0.core01.den01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.102) 239.984 ms 113.959 ms 256.394 ms
12 p5-0.core01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.30) 71.214 ms 67.401 ms 66.948 ms
13 p6-0.core01.stl02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.70) 75.584 ms 66.550 ms 66.484 ms
14 p6-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.65) 74.465 ms 73.559 ms 79.759 ms
15 p15-0.core02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.62) 65.236 ms 65.242 ms 70.246 ms
16 p12-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.154) 64.961 ms 70.988 ms 65.507 ms
17 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 67.611 ms 74.930 ms 72.665 ms
18 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 69.668 ms 67.163 ms 69.940 ms
19 204.11.209.42 (204.11.209.42) 73.714 ms 66.514 ms 66.204 ms

hmm maybe cogentco is like that ghost in Supermario. When you are paying attention to it doesn't cause a problem. However when you aren't thinking about it the ghost sneaks up on you and causes harm.

More like the thief-bot in descent.

4 core1-fastether-0-0-12.adelaide.netspace.net.au (203.17.102.20) 61.809 ms 35.247 ms 38.082 ms
5 120.f10-0-0.gw2.adl1.alter.net (210.80.189.173) 19.149 ms 19.626 ms 26.735 ms
6 322.at-3-0-0.xr2.adl1.alter.net (210.80.32.161) 46.561 ms 28.030 ms 23.589 ms
7 0.so-7-0-0.xr2.syd2.alter.net (210.80.32.229) 43.627 ms 41.990 ms 43.618 ms
8 so-6-0-0.tr1.syd2.alter.net (210.80.51.249) 45.968 ms 47.455 ms 44.367 ms
9 0.so-3-1-0.ir1.lax12.alter.net (210.80.49.161) 204.803 ms 209.610 ms 206.098 ms
10 pos2-0.ir1.lax9.alter.net (137.39.31.222) 205.833 ms 208.039 ms 204.225 ms
11 0.so-5-2-0.tl1.lax9.alter.net (152.63.0.146) 207.683 ms 205.838 ms 206.541 ms
12 0.so-5-0-0.xl1.lax7.alter.net (152.63.116.249) 206.529 ms 213.605 ms 206.293 ms
13 pos6-0.br2.lax7.alter.net (152.63.57.105) 207.604 ms 202.821 ms 206.199 ms
14 p0-1.core01.lax05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.11.141) 214.599 ms 208.339 ms 210.243 ms
15 p6-0.core01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.209) 283.798 ms 226.696 ms 203.497 ms
16 p5-0.core01.san01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.78) 209.870 ms 211.751 ms 207.383 ms
17 p6-0.core01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.5) 261.535 ms 268.395 ms 266.664 ms
18 p13-0.core01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.106) 455.629 ms 374.691 ms 435.678 ms
19 p5-0.core02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.34) 332.550 ms 335.496 ms 338.755 ms
20 p12-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.154) 256.711 ms 257.252 ms 256.605 ms
21 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 256.288 ms 260.628 ms 259.502 ms
22 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 256.536 ms 257.623 ms 257.810 ms

hmmm

atlas.cogentco.com

Maybe TPG could chip in and upgrade them to a Type X.

4 man-bb-a-so-210-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.174.18) 8.962 ms 6.707 ms 9.606 m s
5 lee-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.194) 10.938 ms 28.576 ms 11.02 8 ms
6 * lee-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.187.185) 10.999 ms 9.128 ms
7 pop-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.238) 14.088 ms 13.319 ms 13.75 7 ms
8 tele-ic-1-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.82) 15.354 ms * 15.355 ms
9 212.250.14.62 (212.250.14.62) 14.865 ms 14.069 ms 18.592 ms
10 p10-0.core01.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.0.46) 134.452 ms 203.487 ms 120.099 ms
11 p5-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.110) 103.786 ms 102.567 ms 102.140 ms
12 p11-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.150) 101.848 ms 101.251 ms 105.940 ms
13 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 106.488 ms 284.452 ms 2 69.873 ms
14 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 104.242 ms 104.768 ms 105.203 ms
15 204.11.209.42 (204.11.209.42) 106.582 ms 106.698 ms 104.155 ms

Gutted, although my ping has been up n down, I havent noticed as much lag as I have in the past few days, its got so bad I actually logged out, funny really, as the server load is down too...

I love the random 250 - 450 ping times in some of these logs.

/me goes to look up the traceroute man page to refresh his memory how it works.

Is cogentco the reason I went from 10 ms ping to ~40ms ping?
/me shakes fist at Cogentco! Daaaaaamn You!

It's that first Cogentco relay in Chicago (this one: core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com - 154.54.2.237) that I think is causing the problems. It's probably overworked. :(

I wonder if there is another route that data can take from Chi to Milw instead of the CogentCo fiber? I know some folks from Ameritech (now SBC) who might be able to tell me...

3 srp1-0.ungvwiykvl-rtr2.wi.rr.com (24.160.224.98) 8.78 ms 9.115 ms 9.335 ms
4 srp14-0.milwwirtco-rtr1.wi.rr.com (24.160.225.1) 15.048 ms 9.845 ms 10.147 ms
5 so0-1-0.kscymol3-rtr1.kc.rr.com (24.94.160.17) 28.602 ms 26.717 ms 27.939 ms
6 so-4-0.hsa1.stlouis1.level3.net (63.208.56.5) 33.522 ms 32.43 ms 33.319 ms
7 ge-6-0-0.mp2.stlouis1.level3.net (64.159.0.69) 33.341 ms 32.841 ms 32.314 ms
8 so-6-1-0.bbr2.chicago1.level3.net (64.159.0.58) 37.405 ms 38.916 ms ae-0-0.bbr1.chicago1.level3.net (64.159.1.33) 38.256 ms
9 so-6-0-0.edge1.chicago1.level3.net (209.244.8.10) 37.732 ms so-7-0-0.edge1.chicago1.level3.net (209.244.8.14) 37.716 ms 38.672 ms
10 4.68.127.130 (4.68.127.130) 37.96 ms 37.155 ms 38.604 ms
11 p12-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.237) 143.265 ms 64.896 ms 37.874 ms
12 p11-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.150) 38.042 ms 37.008 ms 39.167 ms
13 p4-0.ca02.mke01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.154) 73.437 ms 40.627 ms 48.708 ms
14 38.112.26.190 (38.112.26.190) 41.51 ms 45.862 ms 40.467 ms

You will notice my route goes nowhere near Chicago, or contain the IP you are talking about, put it this way, my ISP have told me that Congent and them maybe facing a total disruption in service soon, OMG, I wont even be able to log onto the website soon without a proxy, please sort this out devgods!

Yoda, from your traceroute:
11 p5-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.110) 103.786 ms 102.567 ms 102.140 ms
12 p11-0.core03.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.150) 101.848 ms 101.251 ms 105.940 ms
Both of those are chicago-area relays.

I think that, unless you are in the Minneapolis area, in order to get to servers in Milwaukee, you HAVE to go thru Chicago in some way.

Damn FIBS.

If I get cut off, even for an hour I will cry, howzat?