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Bit of quick background, this problem is related to the game Rocket League. My ping has been high on some servers (160-200ms), but fine on others (~20ms). This problem is related to me, and only started a few weeks ago. For the past 1-2 years I've never gone above 60 ping in this game. It's also related only to Rocket League, no other game or service has high ping for me.

I've gotten the IP's of a few of their servers, both good and bad ones. I did some traceroutes to a good and a bad server. (Bad on the top, good on the bottom). So at hop 7, the ping jumps from 14, to 160. I then tried another bad server, and it also has a high ping at hop 7, and it is the same servers (sydnau).

I have no idea what causes this, but I decided to do a traceroute to the server that first causes the ping to jump. I found surprisingly, the route goes through San-Jose (hop 8). I live in Australia, and the server I am trying to get to is in Sydney, so this just doesn't make any sense that it goes around the world. I'm not sure if this is related or not, but I assume it would be.

I also got a friend to do a do a traceroute to the 'bad' server, and his goes through the exact same sydnau servers, but does not have the huge jump in ping. When he tracerouted the sydnau server like me, his didn't go to San-Jose. So that appears to be the only difference.

Is there anyway I can fix this? Or is it going to be an ISP issue or something?

Edit: Just found out my friends traceroute to the sydnau server does go to America as well, just not San-Jose. His also goes to Hong Kong before going to America... So now I'm really confused (I would post a picture but It wont let me do more than 2 links). His routes to hong Kong on the 7th hop, then proceeds to America till hop 17 (All the hops between 7 and 17 are 160+ ms). Then comes back to the server for hop 18.

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  • Good catch!! +1 for me, this is what is meant when the site encourages users to do some research before posting questions. Jun 6, 2017 at 6:23
  • @MariusMatutiae Thanks! I do try to solve these things myself, but this one is a bit beyond me. I only recently found out also that Rocket League hosts 2 kinds of servers, unnamed (Bunch of numbers) and named servers (actual string title). I think they've moved to a new host for their servers, and for some reason my internet doesn't like the unnamed servers anymore. Lately (I think because of RLCS) they've had more unnamed servers, meaning it's about a 1 in 10 chance I'll have good ping in a game.
    – Lolop
    Jun 6, 2017 at 6:40

1 Answer 1

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This is an ISP related problem/issue, and the first step would typically be to show them the tracroute, highlighting the issue of the hop via San-Jose, and providing your IP address and the IP addresses of the servers with the latency issues.

I'm speculating here, but my guess is there is either a failed link and the ISP is using a backup or more likely someone has erroneously advertised the wrong IP routes in the BGP routing table.

This is not something you can fix. You may be able to work around it to some extent by finding a VPN provider in Aussie and connecting via them - this could cause the packets to take a different path. In theory your ISP should normally be able to provide a lower latency then using a VPN provider, so the latency won't be as low as via your ISP's best result, but it would be a lot better then traversing the Southern Cross cable twice.

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  • Actually, looking at the traceroute, the problem would seem to me to be quite widespread (at least for 129.250.8.113). I'm in NZ, and I'm seeing 200ms latencies, but I'm seeing trans-pacific latencies from Sandiego as well (195ms) I expect that ntt have stuffed up the routing for the server.
    – davidgo
    Jun 6, 2017 at 6:06
  • I am getting 40ms latencies to 109.200.215.75 from Auckland and <1ms from Sydney - so its probably btween AAPT and ntt.net - interestingly enough, ntt is the common point of error in the traceroutes for 129.250.8.113 - my traffic to 109.200.215.75 does not go through ntt - I assume there is some peering going on between my provider and this IP in Australia.
    – davidgo
    Jun 6, 2017 at 6:10
  • I'm calling my ISP now, gonna see if there is anything they can do. Should I just tell them the Ip's I'm experiencing problems with? Or is it looking less likely to be an ISP problem now?
    – Lolop
    Jun 6, 2017 at 6:10
  • Turns out my friend was also getting routed through America... And Hong Kong... And a few other countries. His goes to 200+ ping, whereas mine stays 160 once it goes to America. But that's only when he trace routes the sydnau server. If he trace routes the Rocket League server, he doesn't get the spike like me.
    – Lolop
    Jun 6, 2017 at 6:27

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