Bad Ping! Please Help!

[AlexHankins]

Hey guys so I've recently been having a problem with my connection to the league of legends servers and some other servers. When I speed test to a server about the same distance away in Pennsylvania I get about 35 ping and 18.xx down which is really good considering we have 20 down speeds through our isp and I'm on wifi so I don't believe that the wifi or our network setup is the problem. When I speed test to any Chicago server I get between 140-180 ping which is what I'm getting on league of legends although it can actually be even higher sometimes. What is causing me to get such high ping? I'm pretty decent on computers, but my internet knowledge is limited so some help would be much appreciated.

[Samfisher]

Hey guys so I've recently been having a problem with my connection to the league of legends servers and some other servers. When I speed test to a server about the same distance away in Pennsylvania I get about 35 ping and 18.xx down which is really good considering we have 20 down speeds through our isp and I'm on wifi so I don't believe that the wifi or our network setup is the problem. When I speed test to any Chicago server I get between 140-180 ping which is what I'm getting on league of legends although it can actually be even higher sometimes. What is causing me to get such high ping? I'm pretty decent on computers, but my internet knowledge is limited so some help would be much appreciated.

Your ISP decided to route your region through who knows where to get to Chicago.  Do a traceroute to the server in question and see where your data goes through.

[comefightme]

Let me guess, comcast or AT&T?

 

Also the internet connection within USA is just bad

[AlexHankins]

Let me guess, comcast or AT&T?

Also the internet connection within USA is just bad

Actually we have fioptics through cincinnati bell. Was always fine until about 2 weeks ago. My grandparents have att and it's just terrible.

[AlexHankins]

Your ISP decided to route your region through who knows where to get to Chicago. Do a traceroute to the server in question and see where your data goes through.

If I find out they send it to like Jamaica or something first is there a way to contact them and see what they can do or am I just screwed? Also I'll do the traceroute when I get home today.

[Samfisher]

If I find out they send it to like Jamaica or something first is there a way to contact them and see what they can do or am I just screwed? Also I'll do the traceroute when I get home today.

Yeah, most ISPs care if their customers can find out if they are doing something stupid like a half way round the world route At least where I'm from, they can help to change and optimize the route.

[AlexHankins]

Yeah, most ISPs care if their customers can find out if they are doing something stupid like a half way round the world route At least where I'm from, they can help to change and optimize the route.

Yeah hopefully this is the problem and the solution will be pretty straightforward. I've been messing with all different kinds of stuff thinking it was maybe my computer or the router or their servers. So since the game that I'm having problems with connecting to is league of legends. When I do the traceroute, should I use their website?: na.leagueoflegends.com/en/ Or is there a different website to use because it's a game. 

[Samfisher]

Yeah hopefully this is the problem and the solution will be pretty straightforward. I've been messing with all different kinds of stuff thinking it was maybe my computer or the router or their servers. So since the game that I'm having problems with connecting to is league of legends. When I do the traceroute, should I use their website?: na.leagueoflegends.com/en/ Or is there a different website to use because it's a game. 

You can play a game and grab the IP from the Performance Monitor in task manager if you want, or use CurrPorts.

[AlexHankins]

You can play a game and grab the IP from the Performance Monitor in task manager if you want, or use CurrPorts.

Awesome Thank you! Will do all of this as soon as I am home and will reply back with my findings!

[AlexHankins]

You can play a game and grab the IP from the Performance Monitor in task manager if you want, or use CurrPorts.

Ok so I did the tests. And I believe the problem lies in my ISP.  Here are my traces that I did. (3 total)

 

1st Trace: na.leagueoflegends.com

 

1. My House -1ms

2. Cincinnati, OH (really close to where I live) comes up as fuse internet access which is what Cincinnati Bell ( my isp) used to be called -20ms

3. Ft. Thomas, KY a place right across the river from where I live, relatively close in internet distances ( still comes up as fuse internet access, ISP) -20ms

4. Ft. Thomas, KY  ( still comes up as fuse internet access, ISP) -20ms

5.  Ft. Thomas, KY  ( still comes up as fuse internet access, ISP) -172ms************* (first hop with bad ping)

6. Southaven, Mississippi (organization comes up as Equinix) -165ms**

7. San Fran, CA (organization is cloudflare. League of Legends is Cali based so it makes sense that this is the final hop.) -167ms**

 

2nd Trace: I did a route with an IP Address I obtained through the game

 

 

1. My House -1ms

2. Cincinnati, OH (really close to where I live) comes up as fuse internet access which is what Cincinnati Bell ( my isp) used to be called -20ms

3. Ft. Thomas, KY -20ms

4. Ft. Thomas, KY -166ms******

5. Ft. Thomas, KY -165ms******

6.  Wichita, KS ( comes up with an address that mentions "riotdirect". And Riot Games is the developer for League of Legends.) -163ms****

7. Santa Monica, Ca ( Organization is Riot Games. Did pull a star for first and second packet, but the third one had a ping of 166ms) -166ms***

8. Santa Monica, CA ( Riot Games still, all 3 packets are received and send back pings) -161ms

9. Private IP Address -168ms

10.-30. All stars for pings, every line says "Request timed out."

 

3rd Trace: Loaded up a new game of League of Legends which gave me a different IP Address so I used that new one.

 

Same exact results as above, except the high ping came on the 5th hop in Ft. Thomas instead of the fourth as in the previous trace. Pings also may differ by a few ms, but they are all similar. Still went through Wichita, 2 hops in Santa Monica, 9. was still private, and Request Timed out for 10.-30.

 

 

 

OK so I can obviously see that the ping soars at some point when going through the Ft. Thomas area. I haven't been in contact with Cincinnati Bell yet ( because I need to know exactly what is wrong in order to have them fix it, ore else they'll just try and tell me I'm getting the download speed i pay for which isn't even issue here. ( We get 20 download to our house and my computer gets 18.5 download over WiFi so I know that's not the problem.)), but I assume that maybe that's where their servers lie or something to that effect? I'm very alien to much of this so I could be completely wrong on my assumptions, but that's what makes sense to me. Now my question is what causes the ping to just go terrible all of the sudden? Something must have recently changed somewhere, because I only started having problems a few weeks ago, and I've been playing this game with the same exact setup for a year now. If this doesn't make sense to you or I just sound crazy thanks for your help getting here so far because I'd be lost awhile ago without you!

 

 

 

 

 

[Samfisher]

-snip

There is definitely something happening at that same hop in Ft Thomas that is causing the latency spike.  Did you check who owns that hop? Use iplocation.net and look up that IP.  You will at least have the ISP who owns that IP or exchange and have some direction to point the ISP techs in your call/complaint.  It's definitely out of the user control cos the spike doesn't happen inside your own home network.  Could always try to call your ISP and ask what's up with this particular route and get them to see what they can do about it

[AlexHankins]

There is definitely something happening at that same hop in Ft Thomas that is causing the latency spike.  Did you check who owns that hop? Use iplocation.net and look up that IP.  You will at least have the ISP who owns that IP or exchange and have some direction to point the ISP techs in your call/complaint.  It's definitely out of the user control cos the spike doesn't happen inside your own home network.  Could always try to call your ISP and ask what's up with this particular route and get them to see what they can do about it

So when I use IPlocation.net it gives me some latitudes and longitudes and tells me it's in Ft. Thomas, KY. And that it's owned by fuse internet access. (Just checked, Cincinnati Bell used to be called Fuse Internet Access.)  Is that would I would give the techs?