Personal Network Problems

[cathedralmaster]

I've been having a problem connecting to the servers lately. I seem to be getting insane lag spikes quite a bit and it's been only me. Was wondering what you guys think I should do about it. Tracert looks like this:


>tracert 216.144.214.116

Tracing route to ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]
 2    18 ms    17 ms    16 ms  clsm-207-7-187-1-pppoe.dsl.clsm.epix.net [207.7.187.1]
 3    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  g8-1-rtr01-lkst.epix.net [216.37.197.113]
 4    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  74.40.4.177
 5    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  74.40.4.129
 6    25 ms    26 ms    26 ms  so-6-0-0--0.cr01.mcln.va.frontiernet.net [74.40.4.118]
 7    26 ms    27 ms    26 ms  so-0-0-0--0.br01.asbn.va.frontiernet.net [74.40.3.130]
 8    26 ms    26 ms    27 ms  ber1-ge-4-4.virginiaequinix.savvis.net [208.173.50.241]
 9    27 ms    26 ms    27 ms  te-4-3.car4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.110.101]
10    29 ms    27 ms    27 ms  ge-1-3-0-79.bbr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.66]
11   107 ms    57 ms    56 ms  so-0-1-0.mp2.Detroit1.Level3.net [64.159.0.198]
12    53 ms    54 ms    62 ms  so-11-0.hsa1.Detroit1.Level3.net [4.68.97.222]
13    62 ms    68 ms    71 ms  DIGITAL-REA.hsa1.Detroit1.Level3.net [63.211.20.94]
14    68 ms    69 ms    76 ms  atm-5-1-0.4.0.annarbor.us.digitalrealm.net [216.144.206.90]
15    70 ms    74 ms    75 ms  ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]

Trace complete.

>tracert 216.144.214.116

Tracing route to ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]
 2    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  clsm-207-7-187-1-pppoe.dsl.clsm.epix.net [207.7.187.1]
 3    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  g8-1-rtr01-lkst.epix.net [216.37.197.113]
 4    19 ms    18 ms    18 ms  74.40.4.177
 5    20 ms    18 ms    18 ms  74.40.4.129
 6    25 ms    26 ms    26 ms  so-6-0-0--0.cr01.mcln.va.frontiernet.net [74.40.4.118]
 7    27 ms    26 ms    26 ms  so-0-0-0--0.br01.asbn.va.frontiernet.net [74.40.3.130]
 8    27 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ber1-ge-4-4.virginiaequinix.savvis.net [208.173.50.241]
 9    55 ms    26 ms    26 ms  te-4-3.car4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.110.101]
10    28 ms    27 ms    27 ms  ge-1-3-0-79.bbr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.66]
11    70 ms    65 ms    61 ms  so-0-1-0.mp2.Detroit1.Level3.net [64.159.0.198]
12    63 ms    60 ms    57 ms  so-11-0.hsa1.Detroit1.Level3.net [4.68.97.222]
13    58 ms    59 ms    52 ms  DIGITAL-REA.hsa1.Detroit1.Level3.net [63.211.20.94]
14    55 ms    54 ms    56 ms  atm-5-1-0.4.0.annarbor.us.digitalrealm.net [216.144.206.90]
15    58 ms    64 ms    71 ms  ip214-116.digitalrealm.net [216.144.214.116]

Trace complete.


[FunkySwerve]

That makes it look like its a system load issue, not a connection issue. You install any new programs, like antivirus, or charnge.update any drivers recently? Might want to CAD and look at the running processes, as well.
Funky

[illandous]

Not to mention spyware and adware getting on the system.

[cathedralmaster]

funkyswerve said:

That makes it look like its a system load issue, not a connection issue. You install any new programs, like antivirus, or charnge.update any drivers recently? Might want to CAD and look at the running processes, as well.
Funky

Checked that but due to the way the issue was presenting itself, namely I could sit in My Favorites in Gamespy and literally see the lag spikes coming by refresing the ping speeds, I was pretty sure that was not the issue. Also ran ad-aware and antivirus as my first reaction and neither pulled up anything. Haven't installed anything but Diablo in months, haven't updated anything in some time.

However got a lucky break this morning in the literal sense - yesterday, I checked to see if the cables were all tightly connected, had no new problems at the time, but today I turned my computer on, having changed nothing, and it informed the network cable was not attached. Only problem was it was, but I disconnected and reconnected it anyway, at which point it informed that though the network was now connected, I couldn't actually connect to anything (posting this with my other computer). So I played around with the cables to see if it was a router problem or cable issue or what, and narrowed it down to the actual network hardware in that computer as being the likely culprit of my problems.

So I'll be off awhile while I see what's what. I'm personally hoping it just something that got loose and a simple cleaning and making sure everything is actually connected will fix the issue. I'd bet it's a more fundemental problem though, the network interface is one of those that is integrated into the motherboard which is about 4 years old now, so I suspect this is a problem in the MB itself and it's on its last legs. If so, it probably means it needs replacing. I'll probably take the opportunity to replace the power supply and the fan as well since they probably need it, which will mean I'll be off (probably ) for at least a week or two at best if not more.

[FunkySwerve]

Sorry to hear that, hopefully it's not as serious as you suspect. As an aside, about a year ago, I had pretty much an identical problem, including watching pings spike in Gamespy, and it turned out to be the driver update from the last Windows update. I rolled it back and no more problems.
Funky

[cathedralmaster]

Called my ISP twice over the last week and on Friday the lag just dissappeared. Don't know why, not going to ask. I suspect it has something to do with a spikey haired green thing and the sun but that's just a guess. So I suppose I'll be around.

[dynneroth]

Found him!