Warning Speedtester and RPGs blocked!!

[Nilrem]

Is it happening when just one of the PC's connected to the router is playing?

It's not something i've ever even heard of as being down to an ISP's deliberate action (as I think i've said before online gaming uses absolutely minimal amounts of bandwidth, so would be about the last thing any ISP would deliberately block*).

As for routers, at number of different makes use the same basic parts, so router A might be made by Belkin, but have the same chipsets or networking chips as routers B and C made by Netgear and Linksys.
I know for example a couple of years back World of Warcraft had an issue with (I think) the drivers for Broadcom chips used in a number of routers for the WAN Connection, you would connect fine, then after a few minutes you would stop being able to interact with anything (but the connection wouldn't drop) - the answer in that case was to try different firmwares for the routers (to either earlier or later ones that used different drivers).

I've also seen a similar problem with Ultima Online where out of 3 computers in the same house, running off the same router one would "stall" whilst playing, but not lose connection - but only on the one Server (all the servers are meant to be near identical hardware), it turned out a change in the hardware at the location of one of the servers was locking out Marvel Yukon 10/100/1000 network devices, but only on the one server location (a change to another server, or fitting a very cheap realtek network card would fix it - although it was fixed at the server end after a while).
If I hadn't been able to test the connection with other machines, servers and network cards I would probably have blamed NTL (as was) for it.

Changing ISP can result in either avoiding the problem point, or because you get a different router (or ASDL modem).

I guess what i'm saying is don't be too fast to blame Virgin, as the common point of failure can still be a component of the routers (especially if you're not getting the problem at all when not using the router**), even when the routers are sold under different brands (there are only a very small number of companies that actually make the chipsets used).


*I suspect they would all prefer users to play a week of WoW than 15 minutes of full speed downloading (you're talking something under 5-10mb per hour for online gaming, unless there is a patch)


**That might even be down to a game server not being able to perform some check on your machine (punkbuster sometimes has fun with home networks).

[EvilJeff]

Thanks for the info, most of which I agree with, however if it's a router problem, how come the trail stops 3 hops in at a VM/NTL IP?

If it's a router problem, you'd expect the trail to stop at the router.

If it's a server problem, you'd expect the trail to stop one hop before the server.

I still suspect that VM can detect if you are using a router and block the site accordingly, however absurd that may seem !

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by EvilJeff

Thanks for the info, most of which I agree with, however if it's a router problem, how come the trail stops 3 hops in at a VM/NTL IP?

If it's a router problem, you'd expect the trail to stop at the router.

If it's a server problem, you'd expect the trail to stop one hop before the server.

I still suspect that VM can detect if you are using a router and block the site accordingly, however absurd that may seem !

There have been cases of calls from India ending in "It's all down to that wireless router i see you have". Which is odd. IIRC i think a company did come up with a way to determine if a router was in use though...

[EvilJeff]

Overdue a dropout now by 10 mins... unfortunately bedtime for me.
Will leave the plot running overnight & let you know in the morning!
It has been known to go 2 hours at a time between dropouts.

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by EvilJeff

Overdue a dropout now by 10 mins... unfortunately bedtime for me.
Will leave the plot running overnight & let you know in the morning!
It has been known to go 2 hours at a time between dropouts.

Ok, cool Let me know in the morning.

[EvilJeff]

Less than normal, but still 2 10 min blocks overnight at 4:07 and 6:47.

[MoroccoMole]

EvilJeff - Which make and model of router are you running?

Cheers,

MM.

[EvilJeff]

It's a Netgear with Wireless, about 3 yrs old. Can't remember the exact model & since I'm at work, and seem to have lost my remote connection, can't find out till I get home.

Will post the model then!

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by EvilJeff

Less than normal, but still 2 10 min blocks overnight at 4:07 and 6:47.

So it may well be something to do with the router crapping out at certain periods then, although why this happens will probably remain a mystery.

[EvilJeff]

The biggest mystery is why a friend gets identical dropouts at exactly the same time !

My router is a Netgear WGR614 v4

Btw, although is seemed improved to start, things have turned worse!
Almost continuous block since about 11:15 this morning till now!

[Toto]

Originally Posted by EvilJeff

The biggest mystery is why a friend gets identical dropouts at exactly the same time !

My router is a Netgear WGR614 v4

Hi EvilJeff.

I looked at your ping plotter, and the higher latency times start with abovenet, and seem to continue inside their subnet range. Why that should not be the case when you connect directly to your modem is a mystery to me, but it does appear to be a peering issue.

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by EvilJeff

The biggest mystery is why a friend gets identical dropouts at exactly the same time !

My router is a Netgear WGR614 v4

Btw, although is seemed improved to start, things have turned worse!
Almost continuous block since about 11:15 this morning till now!

Have you got the latest fimrware? Available form the Netgear site IIRC.

Set everything back to how it was, the routers PSI firewall is useful, and we know it's not that causing it now.

---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

Originally Posted by Toto

Hi EvilJeff.

I looked at your ping plotter, and the higher latency times start with abovenet, and seem to continue inside their subnet range. Why that should not be the case when you connect directly to your modem is a mystery to me, but it does appear to be a peering issue.

You appear to be spot on. VM's peering again being the cause? tut.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Druchii

You appear to be spot on. VM's peering again being the cause? tut.

Certainly looks that way.

[EvilJeff]

@ toto

This isn't a question of latency, the game plays quite happily with a ping of 200 or more.

More a question of the traffic being completely blocked !

Today has been particularly bad, I'll see if I can post a plot to demonstrate.

---------- Post added at 22:32 ---------- Previous post was at 22:16 ----------



---------- Post added at 23:26 ---------- Previous post was at 22:32 ----------

@ Druchii

Have installed latest firmware on router from Netgear site (V5.0_07)... see if it makes any difference now

[MoroccoMole]

As you're getting intermittent ping and intermittent game timeouts, me thinks it looks like a simple routing problem somewhere in VM/Abovenet's networks rather than an effort by VM to control your access to your game.

MM