Sonic and Online Multiplayer Gaming - aaaargh!!!

[Wastedspacer]

For general internet use and even streaming SD videos our Sonic connection has been ok.

OTOH gaming appears to be a total non-starter as connecting to Valve's Steam system causing game status to sometimes not be saved or even getting corrupted. We also have found it next to impossible to play any online games as the connection frequently gets dropped in mid-session. In particular for us, World of Tanks, Borderlands 2 (Steam) and Star Wars the Old Republic are all badly affected to the point of being unplayable.

World of tanks  for example constantly reports on ping times and I noticed it would frequently spike to over 1000 ms eventually losing the connection. 

I did some investigation on the connections and network routing using the PingPlotter tool.
World of tanks (West Coast) uses login-p2.worldoftanks.com  - a first 2 hop (slightly redacted Tracert)shows as:
  1     3 ms     4 ms     1 ms  homeportal
  2    22 ms    30 ms    21 ms  Sonic/ATT FTTN
3    21 ms    26 ms    34 ms  71.148.149.38
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5    23 ms    31 ms    22 ms  12.83.39.197
  6    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  gar23.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.114.5]
  7    25 ms    29 ms    25 ms  192.205.32.222
  8    24 ms    38 ms    24 ms  gcore-ic-301984-sjo-b21.c.telia.net [80.239.193.182]
  9    33 ms    27 ms    26 ms  92.223.120.164
 10    25 ms    25 ms    48 ms  sv4-sl-b57.fe.core.pw [162.213.61.57]

If I try enough times or use the PingPlotter tool, hop 4 eventually resolves the timed out details as an ATT Node 71.145.1.32 in Richardson TX with a frequent 90% or worse packet loss.

Ironically, going to the East Coast server is actually slightly better but still unplayable. As a Sonic customer this would seem to be an unacceptable QOS situation from ATT? I wonder if ATT puts its own customers down this backwater channel? I see other posts alluding to similar ATT shenanigans.

The 192.205.32.222 node is ATT's Deep Packet Inspection service that also drops into a black hole periodically with 100% packetloss :(

Going to what is usually recommended as the ideal "local" West Coast CA MMO server (EA in Redwood City or Wargaming in Emeryville) it seems that ATT routes all over the US first - From California to Texas - New Jersey, Indiana, Colorado and then back to CA !!!! Why?

Any other gamers out there with similar frustrations?

[amayfield]

That traceroute looks fine. If there was real trouble at hop 4 then all subsequent hops would have loss / high latency. What kinds of results do you get on speed tests? It may very well be that something is impacting your connection (such as an impairment on the wiring or a faulty modem) - FTTN is provisioned at 20Mb/s for x1 and 50Mb/s for x2 so if you are seeing considerably slower speeds then there is likely a problem that we'll need to address.

If your speed test results are normal you can try out our VPN and see if that improves your experience any. The VPN will nullify any weird routing AT&T is attempting to do. You can learn more about the VPN here: https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/VPN_Service. It's included with your service at no additional charge.

[Wastedspacer]

Thanks for the quick response. I don't think it's my end - I do still have a Comcast connection - same system, same wiring when connected to the other network - no problems. Same wire moved to the Sonic box = problems.

[Wastedspacer]

FWIW - Speed Test shows 1 up and 2.6 down :)

[amayfield]

The results of your speed test are pretty poor - the upload rate is fine but the download rate is well below what you should be getting. You'll definitely want to reach out to Support to troubleshoot - if you are on WiFi it could be wireless interference impacting your connection or if you are on Ethernet then it would likely be a physical wiring problem or bad modem. Support can be reached at 888.766.4233. Or you can PM me your contact phone number and I'll arrange for a Support rep to call you.

[Wastedspacer]

FWIW - Speed Test shows 1 up and 2.6 down :)

I got a response from support that they want to do some diagnostics - so it might be the ATT Uverse rig after all. Interestingly the ATT installation tech couldn't get the "Used" unit he head working so had to break open a new sealed ATT unit - I wonder if that may have been pre-canned as an "enterprise" offsite box which (I have heard) may be preconfigured to have certain sites (Gaming/gambling) blocked ? Total speculation but seems odd that just gaming is affected so badly?

[adame]

I got a response from support that they want to do some diagnostics - so it might be the ATT Uverse rig after all. Interestingly the ATT installation tech couldn't get the "Used" unit he head working so had to break open a new sealed ATT unit - I wonder if that may have been pre-canned as an "enterprise" offsite box which (I have heard) may be preconfigured to have certain sites (Gaming/gambling) blocked ? Total speculation but seems odd that just gaming is affected so badly?

If the problem isn't fixed yet, you could test this out by installing our VPN, connecting to it and then launching your game.

[psychicb]

The results of your speed test are pretty poor - the upload rate is fine but the download rate is well below what you should be getting.

Out of curiosity, what exactly is considered within the range of what we should be getting? The reason I ask, is I signed up for 50mbps, when in reality I'm getting 40 down and 5 up - That might be due to me moving from a triband router to AT&T's dualband modem/router, but since the technician that came to my home to set up my new internet didn't really tell me how to have the modem/router just be used as a modem, and I'm not quite geeky enough to figure it out on my own... I'm a bit disappointed having gone from Comcast's 150mbps tier... :-/

[amayfield]

Your FTTN x2 service is provisioned at 50Mb/s so the modem should be connecting at anywhere between 45Mb/s - 55Mb/s. You can check the speed the modem is connected at by logging into the modem's interface - open a web browser and navigate to 192.168.1.254 should get you there. Regarding what speeds you should be getting on your devices - 40Mb/s is definitely a good number. On WiFi you may experience slightly slower speeds as it's more susceptible to loss.

[psychicb]

Excellent

Since the speeds that I got with my preferred router when I was paying for Comcast(which I officially dumped today) were 25mbps over what I was paying for when I had their 150mbps service, does that mean it's a percentage thing, or is that due to phone lines being old school and/or my preferred triband router vs AT&T's dualband router/modem combo?