18 replies to this topic

[LORD ORION]

Please stop using Akamai to route game traffic. These guys do not care what they are doing and often route the worst location.

For that matter, why are you running this website on these same servers as the game? :\

[B0oN]

PGI, please do all your players a favor and uncouple your website from your gameservers .
Also... kick Akamai out of your pipeline, you guys don´t really need them, dont´cha ?
See ?
We also don´t need them

[LORD ORION]

I give up

Hit reg is now completely out the window now that you're going through Akamai Technologies instead of OVN Hosting.
I can add 100ms ping from my normal 20ms just by changing to the wrong "fastest" dns server because Akamai doesn't care about how long it takes to route traffic, only that it routes 100% of the time. (just pick an open DNS or google server, works fine for everything on the internet except mwo thanks to akamai)

I spent a crap ton of time making hitreg passable with OVN, and was mostly happy... I go on vacation and now you are routing through akamai.
1/2 damage registration is normal. Invisible walls everywhere because the server is obviously out of synch (this is not the same issues as the terrible map meshes). My crosshairs flick to the right every few minutes because the server does not always know where I am.

Here is all the crap I had to do to make the game passable (only passable) when I was hitting OVN Hostings's network.

1) Disable Hyperthreading (I have a real i7-3770, not this 3770K toy crap) It gives me +20 FPS, and this should NOT be a thing.
2) Always set high priority to MWO after it is running: Task Manager -> Details -> MWOClient -> Right Click -> Set Priority -> High. This should not be a thing.
3) Did research and modified the living crap out of my OS and NIC settings for maximum packet handling peformance. If you meed real-time network performance for packets (like UDP or RTP) this is the best you will likely do.

[OS]
AutoTuningLevelLocal=normal
ScalingHeuristics=disabled
CongestionProvider=ctcp
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server=8
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server=8
MaxConnectionsPerServer=8
MaxConnectionsPerServer=8
LocalPriority=4
HostsPriority=5
DnsPriority=6
NetbtPriority=7
NonBestEffortLimit=0
Do not use NLA=1
NetworkThrottlingIndex=-1
SystemResponsiveness=0
Size=3
LargeSystemCache=1
MaxUserPort=65534
TcpTimedWaitDelay=30
TCPNoDelay=1
DefaultTTL=64
EcnCapability=disabled
Chimney=disabled
Timestamps=disabled
EnableDCA=disabled
MaxSynRetransmissions=2
NonSackRttResiliency=disabled
InitialRto(ms)=2000
MinRto(ms)=300
[Ethernet]
MTU=1492
TcpAckFrequency=1
TcpDelAckTicks=0
TCPNoDelay=1
Receive-Side Scaling State=1
NetAdapterRsc=2
Large Send Offload=2
Checksum Offload=-5

Note on MTU: I have a specific dsl type, hence the need for an MTU of 1492. (And no, I only recently switched from cable to this DSL to see if that helped with MWO hitreg, hitreg issues have been going on for years)
Note on Max ConnectionsPerServer=8: Since PGI does a very funny thing, running its website on the game servers, having Internet Explorer open in the background to http://mwomercs.com/ will improve your ingame serverside packet performance because there is always an established network connection for game traffic. I **** you not, I've measured it with performance counters, and that is the most insane thing in the network universe I've run across. (dont use firefox though, for some reason Firefox wrecks your performance in MWO for the same reason, website on game server)

[Network Settings]
Interrupt Moderation: Disabled
Jump Packets: Disabled
Large Send Offload V2: Disabled
Adaptive Inter-Frame Spacing: Disabled
Flow Control: Disabled
Interrupt Moderation Rate: Off
Energy Efficient Ethernet: Off

No surprises here for most gamers, don't let the NIC take any shortcuts processing packets.

4) Modified the crap out of my user.cfg thanks to the MWO community. (this really did help, there is much less overall "its not smooth right now" ingame performance problems as you play. (you'll need to adjust some of these setting values based on your CPU and GPU)
r_DepthOfField = 0
r_HDRGrainAmount = 0.0
r_colorgrading = 0
d3d11_TripleBuffering = 1
r_MultiThreaded = 1
r_MultiGPU = 0
sys_physics_CPU=3
r_WaterUpdateThread = 2
sys_TaskThread1_CPU = 0
sys_streaming_CPU = 2
sys_TaskThread5_CPU = 1
sys_budget_videomeme = 2048
e_GsmCache = 1
q_ShaderWater = 0
r_FogShadows = 0
r_fogShadowsWater = 0

5) Kept ingame video settings in the realm of reasonability to make sure my fps is mostly 60-> 80, and rarely 45 when lots of crap is happening, while also never dipping below that 45 number.
All superfluous stuff off, like cockpit glass, HUD dooddads etc... because poorly coded HUD causes performance problems in a real game.
All video settings are low, except Object Detail = Medium and Textures = Medium (Sometimes I put them on high, and it doesn't make any difference, but they should be on medium most of the time to eliminate settings as a performance problem)

So ultimately,
After all these years of trying to make the game play properly, I am tired.

PGI, it is obvious you really don't give a crap, or you would have answered the latest network questions I had open in a support ticket (no longer pertinent since they were OVN Hosting related, not Akamai Technologies related)
I've spent money on the game, and have done a crap load of work to make sure the problem is not on my end.

The problem is that you're cheap PGI, and you'll never spend a few extra bucks to make sure the game plays mostly OK over the network like all the other average games out there. (what did you do, spend a bit of money for good network and servers building up to steam launch, and then put it back in the crapper after all the new players spent some cash?)
Everyone seems to know except you. Transverse should be taken as a warning, people know how you operate as a business, and they only put up with it because of the battletech IP.

Edited by LORD ORION, 10 January 2016 - 10:01 PM.

[Wing 0]

im confused... huh? what? Can you explain this in detail please?

[ShinVector]

Wing 0, on 10 January 2016 - 10:08 PM, said:

im confused... huh? what? Can you explain this in detail please?

UHHHH......

Same here... Akamai is a CDN and people normally use them to host stuff that needs huge download bandwidth eg. game installers, patch files...

That how the 'redirect you to closest Akamai CDN via your dns query' works..

On the other hand the technology does work for game servers that needs to be in real time not cache servers farms.

--

Best bring up a trace route to explain what you are talking about OP.

PGI NA routing has been lousy to most just because it is hosted in Canada.

--

This has something to do with a tweet Russ made ?

https://twitter.com/...312406352412672

Edited by ShinVector, 10 January 2016 - 10:21 PM.

[LORD ORION]

If you don't know what the F you are talking about or don't have anything helpful to add, then stay the F out of this thread.

You can't tracert the route once you are terminated through AKAMAI, AKAMAI is not a Canadian company, MWO is not hosted in Canada.

[ShinVector]

You are one aggressive little troll aren't you:

C:\Users\>tracert www.mwomercs.com
Tracing route to www.mwomercs.com [192.99.109.192]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1	<1 ms	<1 ms	<1 ms  router.asus.com [192.168.0.138]
  2	 2 ms	 3 ms	 4 ms  1.224.197.116.unknown.m1.com.sg [116.197.224.1]
  3	45 ms	 4 ms	 3 ms  129.245.65.202.unknown.m1.com.sg [202.65.245.129]
  4	 2 ms	 3 ms	 2 ms  130.245.65.202.unknown.m1.com.sg [202.65.245.130]
  5	 2 ms	 2 ms	 2 ms  9.246.65.202.unknown.m1.com.sg [202.65.246.9]
  6	 3 ms	 2 ms	 2 ms  37.246.65.202.unknown.m1.com.sg [202.65.246.37]
  7	 2 ms	 2 ms	 2 ms  21.246.65.202.unknown.m1.com.sg [202.65.246.21]
  8   214 ms   162 ms   163 ms  ovh.as16276.any2ix.coresite.com [206.72.210.214]
  9   223 ms   222 ms   222 ms  nwk-5-a9.nj.us [198.27.73.193]

10 231 ms 231 ms 231 ms bhs-g2-a9.qc.ca [192.99.146.101]
11 231 ms 231 ms 231 ms bhs-g5-a9.qc.ca [198.27.73.233]

12   230 ms   230 ms   231 ms  mwomercs.com [192.99.109.192]
Trace complete.
C:\Users\>

Going to shut you up a bit to prevent you from spouting misinformation on your silly thread.

Simply traceroute to MWO's web server.
Notice the .CA that you start to see at hop 10 and 11, I wonder WHAT THAT MEANS...

Nvm... Let's do a simply whois on the webserver's IP address.

http://whois.arin.ne...lse&ext=netref2

http://whois.arin.ne.../C05284765.html

Customer
Name Piranha Games Inc
Handle C05284765
Street 2065 - 88 W. Pender StreetVancouver BC V6B 6N9Canada
City Vancouver
State/Province BC
Postal Code V6B 6N9

Country CA

Registration Date 2014-09-04
Last Updated 2014-09-04
Comments
RESTful Link http://whois.arin.net/rest/customer/C05284765
Network Resources
OVH-CUST-765597 (NET-192-99-109-128-1) 192.99.109.128 - 192.99.109.255
See Also Upstream network's resource POC records.
See Also Upstream organization's POC records.

Again !! Guess what CA Means !?!??
Stop being an a-hole when some is trying to teach you something...

And it common knowledge that MWO NA is in Canada, Euro is somewhere near Germany/France and Oceanic is in Singapore.

Edited by ShinVector, 11 January 2016 - 07:22 AM.

[LORD ORION]

I've reported you for trolling, please GTFO of this tread.

You can start here
http://rothmanshore....always-dynamic/

and maybe get a degree in network engineering, programming and build enterprise telecom applications for various fortune 500 companies for 10+ years before you can speak to me about this subject n00b.

[ShinVector]

LORD ORION, on 11 January 2016 - 08:45 AM, said:

and maybe get a degree in network engineering, programming and build enterprise telecom applications for various fortune 500 companies for 10+ years before you can speak to me about this subject n00b.

LOL... I do have some of those qualifications.

And since Akamai also hosts in my data centre... As they often to put up their caching servers farms in ISPs all over the world..
I do have to know what they actually do and how they work...

Also want to learn when Akamai is being used ??
Let's educate the public rather than self-troll here...

C:\Users\>nslookup
> server 8.8.8.8
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8
> download.microsoft.com
Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	e3673.dspg.akamaiedge.net
Addresses:  2406:3000:35:89::e59
		  2406:3000:35:8f::e59
		  173.222.146.39
Aliases:  download.microsoft.com
		  download.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
		  main.dl.ms.akadns.net
		  download.microsoft.com.edgekey.net

Notice Microsoft's download page is pointing to Akamai servers based on their Reverse DNS ? Yeah... Microsoft uses Akamai services...

Depending on the DNS servers you use. Different people will get different results points which should point them to the Akamai cache servers closest to them.

Learn something before making yourself look silly infront of people who know better.

It is not trolling when I am ON TOPIC... Silly person.

Edited by ShinVector, 11 January 2016 - 09:07 AM.

[Hydrocarbon]

Stop fighting and meet on common ground: admit that PGI doesn't read their forums. They're all twitts - or whatever you call people that use only twitter.

[LORD ORION]

ShinVector, on 11 January 2016 - 08:56 AM, said:

LOL... I do have some of those qualifications.
And since Akamai also hosts in my data centre... As they often to put up their caching servers farms in ISPs all over the world..
I do have to know what they actually do and how they work...

I seriously doubt it based on your posts that have nothing to do with MWO hitreg issues, or my issue in general, just a bunch of pointless blather about how awesome you are with no suggestions.

ShinVector, on 11 January 2016 - 08:56 AM, said:

Also want to learn when Akamai is being used ??
Let's educate the public rather than self-troll here...

C:\Users\>nslookup
> server 8.8.8.8
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8
> download.microsoft.com
Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	e3673.dspg.akamaiedge.net
Addresses:  2406:3000:35:89::e59
		  2406:3000:35:8f::e59
		  173.222.146.39
Aliases:  download.microsoft.com
		  download.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
		  main.dl.ms.akadns.net
		  download.microsoft.com.edgekey.net

Notice Microsoft's download page is pointing to Akamai servers based on their Reverse DNS ? Yeah... Microsoft uses Akamai services...

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Congratulations, you can insert random facts to prop up your non-argument?

ShinVector, on 11 January 2016 - 08:56 AM, said:

Depending on the DNS servers you use. Different people will get different results points which should point them to the Akamai cache servers closest to them.

Congratulations, you've almost at the absolute beginning of the problem.
If you actually knew what you were talking about this fact would have presented itself to you you in my original post and there would be no need for you to say anything so far.

ShinVector, on 11 January 2016 - 08:56 AM, said:

Learn something before making yourself look silly infront of people who know better.
It is not trolling when I am ON TOPIC... Silly person.

You should go make a new post called "This game works great for me"
Fill it with no technical information about what you've done to make it work great.
and GTFO of this thread noob.

[Wing 0]

LORD ORION, on 11 January 2016 - 08:45 AM, said:

I've reported you for trolling, please GTFO of this tread.

You can start here
http://rothmanshore....always-dynamic/

and maybe get a degree in network engineering, programming and build enterprise telecom applications for various fortune 500 companies for 10+ years before you can speak to me about this subject n00b.

with this quote, you might as well learn to grow up like a man because you might get a forced vacation. all we asked was an explanation of what you are talking about. I know Akamai net session programs are and all but what you are talking about is something you should've gave briefing about.

[ShinVector]

Hydrocarbon, on 11 January 2016 - 11:16 AM, said:

Stop fighting and meet on common ground: admit that PGI doesn't read their forums. They're all twitts - or whatever you call people that use only twitter.

Hmmm... Honestly I think they do read them but reply selectively.
Been like that since the beginning.

I rather not encourage this dude to send his deranged tweets Russ and waste Russ's time though.
Probably 1-2% of MWO players are IT Network professionals and we see that this dude has no clue what he is talking about.. I certainly hope others players realise that based on his replies so, far.

Sometimes people humbly take in the information we can provide and explain... Other times the posters go all ballistic childish on a public forum.

[Wildstreak]

[Ironwithin]

Wildstreak, on 11 January 2016 - 09:08 PM, said:

[Ano]

This might be considered "poking the bear", but: do Akamai actually do application server hosting or get involved in any part of the MWO client-server traffic that is transferred during matches?

I thought Akamai were fairly specialised as a CDN, and a quick read of the "products" section of their website suggests the same -- they focus on caching (for web acceleration and content delivery), with additional products for enterprise networking (which sounds like cloud-based WAN to me) and various support services.

I'd be entirely unsurprised to see that mwomercs.com was using Akamai for web CDN purposes and checking a traceroute to static.mwomercs.com, that appears to be the case. They might also use Akamai for distribution of patch files downloaded via the launcher.

From what I've read, though, there doesn't seem to be an Akamai service available that they could use to deliver any part of the connection between the MWO client and the MWO game server(s).

Also, I *very* much doubt they're running their web stack on the same hardware that the NA gameservers run on -- even assuming both the gameservers and the web stack are running virtualised. Obviously both the gameservers and the webservers are "speaking" to the same backend database server, but AFAIK there's no way to infer exactly how those connections are made, or even whether the website is talking to the actual backend server or an abstraction layer that selectively routes requests to a DB cache without someone from PGI spilling the beans.

Edited by Ano, 11 January 2016 - 09:57 PM.

[ShinVector]

Ano, on 11 January 2016 - 09:56 PM, said:

From what I've read, though, there doesn't seem to be an Akamai service available that they could use to deliver any part of the connection between the MWO client and the MWO game server(s).

That's the thing Akamai is most famous for its CDN services. Never heard of them deploying 'Game Servers' and games servers in particular need realtime lowest latency possible sessions between game server and client and everyone in respective regions needs to be connected to the same set of game servers of the respective 3 regions (NA, EURO, SEA.)

From understand of the history PGI game servers:

• Initially NA servers which was managed by IGP was hosted with INTERNAP.
  
• PGI split with IGP and move their servers over to OVH.
  
• PGI implements EURO game servers and it hosted in OVH datacenter somewhere near the german/french border, if I recall correctly.
  
• PGI implements Oceanic game servers in Singapore. Since OVH does not have a datacenter there. They got the hosting services from a company called Vodien.

Ano, on 11 January 2016 - 09:56 PM, said:

Also, I *very* much doubt they're running their web stack on the same hardware that the NA gameservers run on -- even assuming both the gameservers and the web stack are running virtualised.

There are centralised links I believe... Eg. Login/Authentication, Database for mechs and statistics tracking.. etc..

That why when certain hardware and the internet link goes down in NA.. Eg. Like the recent Earthquake or Faulty RAM problem... All game servers are impacted including EURO and Oceanic.

Edited by ShinVector, 11 January 2016 - 10:34 PM.

[Ano]

ShinVector, on 11 January 2016 - 10:29 PM, said:

There are centralised links I believe... Eg. Login/Authentication, Database for mechs and statistics tracking.. etc..

That why when certain hardware and the internet link goes down in NA.. Eg. Like the recent Earthquake or Faulty RAM problem... All game servers are impacted including EURO and Oceanic.

Sure, of course I just mean that I'd be relatively surprised if the website is even *accessing* the true backend database directly (rather than via an intermediary server) let alone is hosted on the same hardware.

[ShinVector]

Ano, on 11 January 2016 - 11:14 PM, said:

Sure, of course I just mean that I'd be relatively surprised if the website is even *accessing* the true backend database directly (rather than via an intermediary server) let alone is hosted on the same hardware.

Well our personal details and credit numbers hasn't been leaked to the internet yet... *Knocks on wood..
Joking... PGI.. Just Joking...