Inconsistent Connection

[AKHog]

Skuzzy and all,

I'm having a problem with a new internet connection. We only have wireless service where I live, so I get my internet service from an 2.4gig antenna on my roof that shoots to another antenna about 5 miles away on top of a mountain.

I played AH for a while at my old house, and while my computer was slow, I never really had connection problems.

Now I moved just 100 yards down the street, and I have the same internet provider. I upgraded to a 1meg connection from my 500k I had at the old place. I also have a new quad core desktop running windows 7.

Now my game play is great and the computer is performing flawlessly, but I have a lot of complaints from other players that I am warping badly, and I get discoed once an hour or more. Everything looks smooth on my end except for the disco, I don't see others warping but I know I am.

I ran pingplotter to 206.16.60.38. If I let ping plotter run for several minutes after a disco I get a mix of average pings that look like the following 2 screen shots.

[Skuzzy]

More than likely, it has to do with doubling your speed.  The faster you push wireless, the more bit errors will occur.  It cannot be helped.

[AKHog]

So would I be better off going back down to the slower speed?

[Skuzzy]

For the sake of reliability it could make a difference.

[AKHog]

For the sake of reliability it could make a difference.

Is there a way I can reduce the speed just for AH and keep my faster connection for browsing and downloads?

[Tigger29]

Is there a way I can reduce the speed just for AH and keep my faster connection for browsing and downloads?

Nope.. this has to be 'capped' at the ISP's level.

Another option which may or may not be feasible for you is to get a dial-up internet service to use only for Aces high...

[AKHog]

Here are my ping and speed test results. I think they both look good, along with the ping plotter results.

Is there another test I can do to show the "bit errors"? I'm looking for something I can take to my ISP or at least use to compare before and after to see if a change in service is fixing anything.

[AKHog]

Today was worse than ever. Usually I can play and I only get a few complaints about warping and maybe a disco or 2.

Today though when I log into the main arena and up a plane I fly for less then a minute and get a disco. I did this several times throughout today.

Why is it so much worse today? Anybody else noticing any problems?

This is getting SUPER frustrating, and I am 2 seconds from just canceling my account.

[Tigger29]

AKHog you have to keep in mind that things get iffy and unpredictable with wireless networks.  I understand that you may have no other options, but gaming just does not play well with wireless.

It could be a change in temperature... it could be the alignment of the clouds.. it could be an upgrade to the local airport's radar system.. a neighbor playing on his HAM radio... heck it could be bird farting in a tree nearby.. there just isn't any telling.

It could also be an issue with your ISP's servers or their networks, but based on how flaky things are I think you have some kind of interference nearby.

It would be unfortunate for you to cancel your Aces High account over this, but if this isn't working and you have no other options, then you've got no other options.  You could try calling your ISP and having them drop your speed back down and that might help with the stability, but it's really just a guess.

This is definitely something you're going to need to take up with your ISP and also keep in mind with Aces High, speed isn't the issue.  You can play this game perfectly well on an old-school dial up internet connection, so that may still be an option for you as well.

[Skuzzy]

That ping test does not mean anything.  It is going to another server which has nothing to do with the game servers.  You have to run PingPlotter (or some other traceroute tool/utility) to 206.16.60.38 for a few minutes in order to get an actual snapshot of what your data path to/from the game servers is like.

Keep in mind, it may not show a problem at all, then on the other hand, it could show a mess of problems.  Post the data up, or send it to me (ASCII Text version please) and I will be happy to interpret it for you, if you cannot make anything out of it.

[AKHog]

Edit: see new ping data below.

[AKHog]

Ok Skuzzy, I have more data that I think might help.

A few minutes ago I logged onto the main arena. It was as bad as ever. Nothing in the game responded for several minutes then I got the disco message. I couldn't even move out of the tower or to another field. This morning I have been surfing and listening to internet radio with not a single dropout, so I thought my connection was good. The skies are mostly clear and I have solid lights on my antenna indicating a good connection.

I quickly ran ping plotter after I was discoed. For several minutes everything looked normal, like in the plots I posted above. Then as I was getting ready to post this, I noticed a major change. All of the sudden everything is dropped. I think this is the problem? What is going on?!

Everything normally looks like this:


But then for just one ping I see this. BTW obviously this is a 50 ping average, but the huge pings and packet loss are only happening for 1 ping. Could this cause a disco?

[Skuzzy]

You need to get that second plot to your ISP and ask them if they know there is a problem going on there.

[AKHog]

Y9ou need to get that second plot to your ISP and ask them if they know there is a problem going on there.

I was just on the phone with my ISP tech support. That is the one good thing I will say about my ISP, I can get live support almost right away and they are very knowledgeable.

He said on this specific system upping from 512k to 1Mbps should not effect the reliability at all. He looked at the ping plotter data I posted above and said the biggest red flag he sees is the 1.2 second ping time from my computer to the router. He said he also ran some tests on his end and can see some strange things going on that shouldn't be happening between my antenna and router.

So he is sending out a new router that should be here in the next few days. We'll give that a try and hope it works.

[AKHog]

New router and still the same problem.

Tonight started off ok but as the evening went on I got discoed more and more. By the end it was all I could do to get a plane out of the hanger before I discoed. AHHH!! 

Here is my ping plotter right after my last disco.

What the heck is going on? Could it be anything on my computer causing this? A squadie mentioned disabling some graphics card accelerations or something... I don't even know where to start.