Definative proof of an error7 caused by the servers.

Recently I've been having worsening connection problems, so I took out a support ticket. They suggested I run an active trace route with PingPlotter2, so they can try to find out where the problem lies. I'm sure they thought it was on my side. Unfortunately for them both my computer and my connection is rock solid on everything except GW.

For here on out things are going to get a bit technical, but it can't be helped.

So I'm messing around in tombs, and I error7. Classic story. I go look at the trace route, and what do I see?



God forbid, the playNC servers had stopped responding to ping at the same time that I error7-ed. No only that, but all the other servers on the route up to them didn't change ping at all. This is very strong evidence that the servers themself were the cause of the "Net Error 7" which Support keeps saying can only be caused by things that are out of thier hands.

I think they their servers are quite in their hands.

What does this mean? It means that many other people probably error7-ed at the same time I did. It means that NCsoft has some hosting problems and they are blaming the symptoms upon the users, and not taking responsiblility.

There are many people that have had worsing lag as the approach of Factions happened. MY theory is that they underspent on the servers for east US, thus making alot of players have sub par experience as the load starting getting up there.

Don't you think we pay enoght so that they shouldn't cheapskate us on hosting?

As for evidence, if you don't believe I'd suggest you go and download PingPlotter2 from here and load my trace route from the file here.

Want more proof? Run a continuous traceroute yourself to that IP(which was given to me by support), and when you error 7, go back and look at your log, see where the failure happened.

There's the IPs for each region:
Route for West US (206.127.149.36) 206-127-149-36.plaync.com
Route for East US (209.0.88.72) 209-0-88-72.plaync.com
Route for EU (206.127.145.228) 206-127-145-228.plaync.com

What Say You?

-Fal

Uh, it error 7s when your computer can't contact the server.

So you're saying that your computer can't contact the server when your computer can't contact the server. Brilliant!

Now, if you tried an off-site ping...

There isn't one single hosting place on the internet that has 100% reliability, if they promise that than they are false advertising unless they have some special clause to refund you for down time. If you expect packet switching to be as reliable as your old analog phone communication (not talking about dial-up) than you are wrong.

Yeah ANET can switch hosting companies, and they will run into the same problems. Even if there hosting services were 99.9% reliable, that would mean their servers are down for nearly 9 hours each year or about 1 1/2 minutes each day.

Ive started disconnecting 20 times per hour since the server update and sometimes every minute. I have verizon dsl. What isp do you have Falrow?
I am unable to play the game now and dissatisfied.

Yeah I pretty much had the exact same results running the log. After that I've been told to contact my ISP as it's apparently their fault that I can't connect to plaync.com. It was around this point that I decided that I'm done with GW until they decide to fix up their servers.

Regardless, for myself (and numerous others based on this site), I have gone from having a perfect GW connection prior to Factions to now being disconnected at least every hour, if not more as well as getting periodic lag spikes where the game just locks up for several minutes. Not exactly what I signed up for whan I bought Factions.

The strongest arguments to support the theory that the problem is on ANet's side are: 1) Most ppl report problem appeared/got worse when Factions went live; 2) Correlation to in-game actions, like changing areas; 3) 'Instant' loss of connection (ie no lag beforehand, which would indicate a poor connection.)

Also if you get an error7 and your on a voice chat like ventrilo, but it also doesn't disconnect that means the problem wasn't your connection.

Many people that have err7 durring GvGs know what I'm talking about. Thats the best proof of their server side problems, but it isn't very 'provable'.

This has been discussed at length in one of the other threads already (one that went to five+ pages).

Basically, alter.net is messing everything up. There's nothing much ANet can do about it (something about a service agreement), so it's basically a waiting game until alter.net decides to clean up their act.

edit: The thread is here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3030662

Isnt their a network maintenence scheduled soon? wont that.. help?

Whatever the case is, I think this post has a very good point. People of all kinds of ISP connections are getting the same problem. That says it all.

I understand that Arenanet does solve the problems, even if it takes some hours or a couple days. But I wish they wouldn't have people call their ISPs or check their computer video cards or whatever first. I'm sure there are ISP technical support people who are tired of hearing about Guild Wars, of Arenanet directing gamers to their ISP tech support. And the people who run the various ISP providers who don't like getting a bad rap for this.

[QUOTE=Linksys]Whatever the case is, I think this post has a very good point. People of all kinds of ISP connections are getting the same problem. That says it all.
QUOTE]

all it says is that the isps run through a main trunk which is losing packets like crazy

for those who didnt bother reading the link given here it is again

not Anets servers

It could be ANets servers, but even in the case of the OP, we can't tell if thats ANets fault or the last stop before ANet.

Err7 can be caused by you pulling the plug, or the first link going out.

Similarly err7 coul be caused by ANets server or the last link up to that server (not the server before ANet's, but the link between servrs) and it would give the same ping response time. If the ISP for ANet suddenly drops a lot of packets right before the server, you have no way of distinguishing that from the server dropping a lot of packets. You would still be on voice comm, you would still have everything else work fine, you just won't be on Guild Wars.

The fact that tech support with ANet combined with other reportings (keynote, etc._ of Alter.Net problems gives credence to the fact that it isn't ANet's servers. we haven't heard from Alter.Net, so its POSSIBLE they could be lying and the problem could be with ANet (technically playNC) rather than Alter.Net.

The fact that Alter.Net started acting up shortly before Factions, tends to discredit the "Its factions" blame. Could it be factions? Yes. Could it have nothing to do with ANet? Yes. In fact, I would be willing to bet there are cases where GuildWars/ANet/PlayNC are to blame (my guess is mostly on the side of software on your computer, and random disconnects rather than constant ones), and there are cases where other factors (Internet Backbone, or otherwise) are to blame.

In short, no proof seen here, nor even good evidence.

This is gonna sound rediculous but i have not been disconnected since i installed win98, i used to have terrible error 007 problems but no more.
And less lag too.
Just seems to me it runs better in win98, so if its possible to try running in win 98 i'd say do so and see if it makes a differance.

Probably more because you reinstalled then because you reinstalled win98.

Did you try a fresh copy of winXP? like with a drive format?

Oh, I'd like to point out my problem with Arena Net isn't that they have connection issues, whatever the cause, the problem is that they WILL NOT admit that it's their fault, even when they are aware that the problem is their side they still make the people suffering jump through every little hoop, when they could just as easily say:

"We have been have problems with our internet connection to the servers, people will experience random error 7s until we get the issue sorted out. We are doing our best to maintain quality but until then please bear with us."

Would that really hurt them so much to as admit your mistake? I'm taking business classes, and the first step in customer service when there is a problem is to take responsibility.

Same difference. We are responsible for our connection problems just as they are responsible for their connection problems. If it's the last hop before the server they should admit the problem is on their side not stand there and say:

"It wasn't me, it's YOUR FAULT"

Falrow, please be patient with the tech support. Many times, people at the bottom or in certain areas of the tech support tree do not know what's going in the other areas.

If you have read the thread linked above, you will find that they are actually very helpful in diagnosing the problem.

Your traceroutes and screenshot have already identified the problem; alter.net is causing massive packet losses. Note that server problems may manifest in many ways: disconnects, packet losses, or even unable to resolve the server (which is my symptom, by the way).

In summary, it is understandable that this situation is frustrating since there seems to be little or no progress towards a workable solution. ANet is working, to the best of their abilities and service agreements, on a solution, you can be sure of that. Until then, be patient. (And I've been waiting for almost a month now too.)

right.

SBC DSL (example) is the last hop from the GW servers before getting to your pc and the SBC system goes gown.

obviously you as the person next to that last hop are completely responsible for maintaining the connection

or would you say

*ITS NOT MY FAULT*

There has been a time where 7 of my 8 teamates in HA have err7ed at the same time. i think a problem does exist somewhere.

yes there is and here is where it is at along with a description of the size of the problem.

I would take the blame if my ISP was dropping connection, because there is absolutely nothing ArenaNet can do about the problem, thus I have to solve it.

But when it's there ISP droping, they CAN do things about just as I can do things about my ISP. Change ISPs for one. Or maybe pay for a better connection. At the very least I'd be complaining until I was blue in the mouth.

My theory on the problem is that they took there East Coast servers offline, and routed the trafic to the west coast servers, giving everyone on the east coast of US and Canada major lag and connection problems.

You would think we pay them enoght for quality servers and ISPs wouldn't you?

wow, i've err7ed 5 times in the last 5 hours. WTF anet? in each case Ventrilo has been working flawlessly in the background.

2 x HA err7
2 x TA err7
1 x Urgoz err7

this is complete bullsht.

Same with me in Alliance Battles.

I had about 10 error 7 yesterday, today I tried again and same situation, I cannot do a shXt now.

From somebody on the west coast (Las Vegas) with 4MB service from Cox, I can tell you that while it may be bad in the East, it isn't pretty out here either. Constant lag and ERR7 dropouts have made the game unplayable for me for the last three days. And, yes, come to think of it, it has gotten much worse since Factions.

I'm in europe and I'm getting the same lag as you are getting in america. It is kinda hard to believe that this global lag and disconnect issue is from individual ISPs.

Actually i tried reinstalling many times and tried changing everything i could. Installing win98 was a last resort just to see if it made any differance, and waddya know it did 8)

READ THE THREAD AND YOU WILL SEE THAT THEIR ISP IS YOUR ISP.

IT IS THE BIG BOY IN THE MIDDLE AND ANET IS STUCK JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.

TO REPEAT HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM IS

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3030662

and this is who they are and why Anet CANT fix it

I'm skeptical about this because problems started for me when Anet streamed Factions content to me. Before that, I had no disconnects or lag, EVER. Right after the Factions FPE, I started to experience noticeable lag, and have run into the disconnects that others have experienced.

Given that "every other ISP depends indirectly on [alter.net] for something", I'd imagine that if the problem was with alter.net, we'd be experiencing disconnects and slowdowns on all sorts of web sites and services, and that all sorts of businesses would be screaming for them to fix it. And when GW drops my connection with its silly "check your internet connection" message, I know it's not my internet connection because I can do everything else just fine. So I'm not sure I fully buy the alter.net story and that Anet can't do anything at all about it.

That's because their content servers may be different than their game servers. This makes logical sense for both bandwidth and update reasons.

Moreover, I would not be surprised if it was a certain set of hardware connections that went down which knocked out a certain number boxes which included some ANet servers. When those boxes went down, each of the other boxes got overloaded and progressively overloaded the hardware. I was experiencing exactly this symptom during the week before GW:F went down for me.

As the thread/custserv linked says, one major problem is that the performance is totally within alter.net's service agreement.

If you don't believe the alter.net story, get pingplotter2 and traceroute some of their connections. You can get the list that your computer is connected to by using netstat.

Dug around a bit more, and looks like Everquest and UO are having troubles too.

While i have had disconnects on my end due to my DSL dropping sync, SINCE the last update i heve started getting these error 007 drops also, usually bout 1 per 45min-1hr......the difference being when my connection drops on my end due to the modem the game action stops, i cant move then after a minute or so i get an 007. SINCE the update these NEW 007's are instantaneous dropouts to the login in screen, no warning of any kind......at least with my modem drops i know when its happening.

IT's the update.

Syphon Muir N/Mo
Irukandji Muir W/Mo
Alikia Muir Mo/W
Coell Muir Me/N
Mishu Irukaan Rt/Mo

aka Xusn96

Well I'm not going to point fingers....I've tried everything ever suggested on guru including some pretty radical stuff to try to reduce the amount of err 7s. My real question is then when will this stuff get better? is there some timetable for alternet? Can I expect lag for another month, then someone is going to have fixed the problem finally? We can all play the finger game....but really whos trying to do anything about it? I understand you cant give me for sure (of course) but mostly I wanna know who is trying to help people out?

What's gonna happen when half a team drops out in a serious GvG... When is Arenanet gonna get off it's collective backside and get to the source of the problem? This has been going on since ONLY the skill update.

If it's Alter.net then Arenanet needs to get on THEIR case.

LOL. Yeah, what do I want to spend my free time on? Playing games, or tracing connections...

To be honest, it doesn't matter to me whose fault it is. What matters is that there's a solution. Anet wringing its hands and pointing at alter.net accomplishes nothing.

dont keep us in suspence just tell us your marvelous all curing solution.

BTW i am in an area that does NOT go through Alter.net and guess what?

since the update you are blaming i have not had one single error 7, one disconnect, but i have had one period of slight lag that lasted all of 2 minutes

i have over 1000 hours and only 3 error 7 since starting chapter 1 and the last was in mission3 chapter 1.

LOL. Bad phrasing on my part. I meant that a solution needs to be found. That's what matters.

I'm not blaming the update. I stated that the problems started for me after the Factions FPE.

And again, it doesn't matter if it's Anet's fault or alter.net's fault. There's a problem. Someone needs to fix it. Or GW will lose those players who find the game unplayable under the present circumstances.

problem yes.

i think it is important to note that if Anet cannot prod the big boy to fix it Anet is a victem along with us and not the villan who refuses to fix it.

if Anet could fix it and refuses Anet=villan

if Anet CANNOT fix anothers problem Anet =victem .

well, the eneviatable conclusion is, you need to talk to the tech and guild wars, take a ticket, keep it going, get through the troubleshooting, then you will be able to find out where your problem stems from, if you are having ALTER.NET issues, that ping/trace test will tell it all. Just do the tech requests. End of story.

Noted. But who cares? You're failing to grasp the point that if the disconnects and lag continue, people will stop playing Guild Wars. Doesn't matter if Anet is the villain, victim, innocent bystander, whatever. Nobody cares who's at fault--they just want the problem fixed. You seem hell bent on protecting Anet's "honor". Well, they can have their honor, but they'll lose customers regardless unless the problem is fixed.

I haven't played GW for about 3 weeks now..I log on, start running across Lions Arch(rubber banding badly), get close to the storage, and DC. back to WoW for another month..until this is fixed. As was said in earlier posts, I dont care whos fault it is...if it doesnt get fixed, Im gone for good. I can go play 8 bit nintendo and have more fun than rubberbanding and DC'ing all day long