Gaming lag and disconnects! - Packet loss on IS backbone

So this intermittent packet loss on the IS back-bone (so bad sometimes it drops most of my TCP connections - online games, ssh sessions etc), it's been going on for over a week now.

IS, fix your international upstream providers please! MyBB gamers (international servers), if you use afrihost, openweb or any other IS reseller, that is why you are getting frequent DC and lag. An example of said packet-loss (as you can see, hop 6 mi-za-rba-p6-gi3-0-2-102.ip.isnet.net is dropping packets and not forwarding them as it should):

Target Name: eve.battleclinic.com
IP: 207.150.203.82
Date/Time: 2011/01/08 12:26:49 AM to 2011/01/08 12:29:04 AM
1 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms 28 ms 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms [192.168.2.1]
2 124 ms 16 ms 143 ms 32 ms 18 ms 18 ms 15 ms 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms
196-210-138-129.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.138.129]
3 86 ms 16 ms 106 ms 19 ms 18 ms 19 ms 16 ms 18 ms 18 ms 15 ms cdsl1-rba-vl2253.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.181]
4 48 ms 53 ms 104 ms 19 ms 17 ms 17 ms 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms 17 ms cdsl1-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.17]
00:41 -!- Irssi: Pasting 9 lines to #rapresent. Press Ctrl-K if you wish to do this or Ctrl-C to cancel.
5 20 ms 20 ms 67 ms 20 ms 18 ms 19 ms 19 ms 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms core2b-rba-te2-0-0.ip.isnet.net [196.26.0.182]
6 222 ms 222 ms 266 ms 224 ms 223 ms 222 ms 223 ms 221 ms 223 ms 223 ms mi-za-rba-p6-gi3-0-2-102.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.13]
7 * 365 ms 235 ms 219 ms 218 ms 219 ms 217 ms 217 ms 217 ms 219 ms mi-uk-dock-p2-po3-0-2.ip.isnet.net [168.209.163.3]
8 * * 216 ms 215 ms 214 ms 214 ms 215 ms 214 ms 214 ms 215 ms core2a-dock-gi1-0-19-102.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.56]
9 * * 221 ms 220 ms 219 ms 218 ms 219 ms 220 ms 217 ms 219 ms [168.209.246.1]
10 N/A N/A 223 ms 219 ms 214 ms 215 ms 215 ms 217 ms 217 ms 215 ms linx.lhrx.hgtn.net [195.66.224.194]
11 N/A N/A 301 ms 299 ms 298 ms 298 ms 299 ms 300 ms 301 ms 300 ms e1-5.pr0.nycx.hgtn.net [66.113.197.13]
12 * * 312 ms 313 ms 314 ms 312 ms 317 ms 314 ms 315 ms 313 ms [66.113.197.58]
13 * * 337 ms 337 ms 338 ms 338 ms 337 ms 338 ms 339 ms 338 ms e4-3.pr0.lhrx.hgtn.net [66.113.197.101]
14 * * 404 ms 372 ms 370 ms 370 ms 370 ms 369 ms 371 ms 370 ms e1-2.pr0.ausx.hgtn.net [66.113.197.78]
15 * * 364 ms 350 ms 352 ms 352 ms 349 ms 351 ms 350 ms 349 ms [66.113.197.122]
16 N/A N/A 351 ms 350 ms 351 ms 352 ms 350 ms 351 ms 351 ms 349 ms xe-1-2.brdr-rtr-01.aus.us.siteprotect.com [216.139.253.77]
17 * * 353 ms 352 ms 350 ms 350 ms 352 ms 350 ms 350 ms 349 ms xe-3-3.dist-rtr-01.aus.us.siteprotect.com [216.139.253.66]
18 * * 346 ms 348 ms 347 ms 347 ms 348 ms 347 ms 346 ms 348 ms xe-3-1.dist-rtr-02.aus.us.siteprotect.com [216.139.253.246]
19 * 492 ms 353 ms 354 ms 351 ms 350 ms 355 ms 352 ms 351 ms 353 ms xe-49.core-fesx-01.tc.aus.us.siteprotect.com [216.139.253.234]
20 * 489 ms 414 ms 349 ms 348 ms 348 ms 350 ms 346 ms 347 ms 349 ms eth-0.shfw03a.tc.aus.us.siteprotect.com [216.139.240.98]
21 * * 383 ms 352 ms 351 ms 351 ms 352 ms 350 ms 351 ms 352 ms 207-150-203-82.aus.us.siteprotect.com [207.150.203.82]
Ping statistics for eve.battleclinic.com
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 8, Lost = 2 (20.0%)
Round Trip Times: Minimum = 350ms, Maximum = 383ms, Average = 355ms

I have been trying to get assistance from Afrihost for the last week with this issue, first I was told it is my ADSL line and then proofed to them it was international bandwidth. I was then told on a daily basis it has been sorted out. I have complained on a daily basis and Afrihost does not seem to escalate it in IS.

It is one thing having a problems but another thinking customers is stupid and a week to sort out the problem when they advertise on their websites their is no problems.

Support. Been going for about a week now, today was really bad - getting serious packet loss every 15-20mins.

I have the same problem -Ping plotter shows packet loss on IS and Telkomsa. yes there are no network problems found according to isp. Sigh.

I am getting this too, strangely I have similar issues on SAIX. However I have noticed considerable improvements during the evenings, but then during the day there are some serious issues.

I'm with Afrihost and I'm also getting random disconnection from Xbox Live and EA servers. Is this a problem with SEACOM or a general problem with all ISP?

benitok said:

I'm with Afrihost and I'm also getting random disconnection from Xbox Live and EA servers. Is this a problem with SEACOM or a general problem with all ISP?

Click to expand...

Also with Afrihost and same ongoing problems. Ticket opened - Yesterday saw endless authentication issues. That appears resolved but intermittent disconnects are occurring (every 15-20 minutes). No issues with Webafrica.

I've brought Afrihosts attention to this thread in the hope that it will assist.

Same here

I thought it was me. Glad you all dropped this here to make us all aware of the issue. I play LOTRO on the EU servers and it's been fine for the past 5 months (barring the normal undersea cable issues)

Suddenly I get lagged out and die leaving friends online that are a little annoyed because I dropped them in the middle of some thing. Well ... IS ... I'll just drop you if this persists, Telkom wants my business and bad service is a good reason to switch. My account is a capped one specifically so that I have unshapped service mainly for my gaming.

For some reason this is the first time since I switched over to ADSL that an inland issue has happened over more than one day. Does IS think that mainly gamers being affected makes the issue a lower priority? Ohhhh ... they better learn fast about gamers, how gamers view bad service and how quickly the cash flow will switch to some one else.

Put pressure on your ISP to make waves with IS ... EVERYONE who is affected should do this. Is we all send an e-mail then some thing may happen more quickly. I have mailed my isp already (right after reading this and one other thread), have you?

I do get dc from xbox live but I must say I get quite good latency in games on IS. I have tested like 4 ISP's and FOR ME IS is the best for xbox 360. So I can deal with the VERY few dc I get.

It may not be specific to IS. I'm getting the same problem on SAIX where by I disconnect from Xbox LIVE every 30 minutes or so, but my connection doesn't actually drop.

I'm getting this problem as well. So glad to hear that is not just me.

Writing a ticket to Axxess right now.

Ah I also thought it was just me and it was driving me nuts.

Got a reply from Afrihost (Not at home so I cannot test the connection)

"Thank you for your email
All Issues on our side have been resolved. If you can just test the connection again and monitor that as all issues on our side have been resolved.
Have a great day & please feel free to let me know if I can be of further assistance.."

I got this back from Axxess:

"Hi
We are aware of this issue and we have escalated this fault to IS they are investigating the cause. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. "

@Benitok - will test again this afternoon and report back.

yeah.. lost my frigate in eve online to a fail fit dramiel because of this. Been having the same issue last night as well. Logged a call with afrihost so will see when I am back home if issue persist.

Having the same issues on WoW. Constant disconnects, lag spikes and random drops.
Started about a week ago so I am assuming it is the same problem, I'm also with Afrihost.

Will try my WA tonight to see if it fixes the problem.

acidman1 said:

Having the same issues on WoW. Constant disconnects, lag spikes and random drops.
Started about a week ago so I am assuming it is the same problem, I'm also with Afrihost.

Will try my WA tonight to see if it fixes the problem.

Click to expand...

Yes, same here also started about a week ago. (Afrihost)

Relieved to see I am not the only one with this problem

Lets hope that will all these tickets been logged with the different ISP's that the problem is resolved soon

Same issue over the weekend as well. Afrihost, AxxessLite and FNB Connect.

Cancelled my AxxessLite account while I was at it, seeing that it has NEVER performed well for gaming for me. Rather get something like BattlePing or so.

skatch said:

I got this back from Axxess:

"Hi
We are aware of this issue and we have escalated this fault to IS they are investigating the cause. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. "

@Benitok - will test again this afternoon and report back.

Click to expand...

I am with Axxess as well... Been experiencing this disconnects while playing Black Ops.. It will either disconnect :twistedr the latency is so heavy that the game is just not playable:twisted: