Terrible In Game Ping

[Girard8]

As of the last few days, the ping in online games is absolutely terrible. When I load into Valorant, I used to get about 40ms ping to Oregon server, now it appears that the routing has changed and I get around 100ms. What is going on and will this be changed back? Everyone I know on Telus does not have this issue so it has to be on Shaw's end. 

[DCvalo]

have this problem aswell. now I'm routed in US central all the way to their illinois server when I'm obviously closer to the oregon one. come on shaw

[mdk]

@DCvalo & @DCvalo -- the Internet has multiple paths to everywhere, just like having a choice of roads to use when driving from Edmonton to Regina.  So, Without telling us your physical location, and the IP-address of the Valorant game-server, it is not possible to explore the routing that Shaw is using.  Comparing Shaw's routes to Telus's routes is like comparing driving from Edmonton to Regina or taking Air Canada between the two cities -- totally-different routing. This is not a forum for chatting around the Telus routes.

Look what is happening in the Suez Canal -- over 300 cargo-ships are blocked from using that route, and the only alternative route is much longer -- all the way south from Egypt towards Antarctica, passing Cape Town, and then north to Gibraltar, and into the destination in the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually, this route will return to service. Maybe, your PING times are similarly affected by some "outages" on one of the "backbone" paths on the Internet.

More details, please.

[Girard8]

@mdk thank you for the response. So I'm situated in Calgary area. I understand how ping works and that just because Telus has something doesn't mean that Shaw is the same. I wrote this as a post because it has always had good ping to Oregon servers (like every other provider in the provinces of AB and BC). Three days ago now, everyone of my friends on Shaw have had this change, almost like Shaw's internet routing has changed. Now whenever we are online our lowest ping server is located in Illinois. The reason this is an issue is because every other internet provider in the area still has low ping to the Oregon servers, meaning it's very difficult for you to play with your friends without someone dealing with very high ping. So obviously something has changed on Shaw's end recently, and that is why it was posted here. 

[mdk]

@Girard8 -- obviously something has changed on Shaw's end 

Obviously, indeed. One question is whether Shaw did something "maliciously" or not.

Every router on the Internet has routing tables, identifying the "best" route to the destination.  Those tables change, dynamically, and sometimes change in reaction to a broken router, or due to accidentally-cut fiber-optic cables. For example, if Highway #2 from Calgary to Red Deer is closed (major traffic accident) north of Innisfail, take Highway #2A, with a lower-speed limit, to reach the destination. Same thing -- "alternate routing" -- applies on the Internet.

What is the IP-address of the game-server in Oregon? The one in Illinois?

Use the Windows command-line utility: TRACERT ip_address  to both sites, and post the output here. Without such "evidence", you'll never find a solution.

[mdk]

@Girard8 -- every other internet provider in the area still has low ping to the Oregon servers

There are only a very few "other" providers between Calgary and Oregon:

1. Shaw, probably routing from Calgary to Vancouver to Seattle to Oregon,
2. Telus, probably the same routing to Vancouver, and probably a different interconnect to AT&T,
3. CANET (Canada's research network -- www.Canarie.ca ), routing from Calgary to Vancouver, to "Internet2" (USA's research network -- www.Internet2.edu ) to research institutes (and colleges/universities) in Oregon.

Any "in the Calgary area" commercial Internet provider does not have their own private fiber-optic network to the USA. Instead, their business connects to the networks provided by Shaw Business or Telus Business -- commercial companies in Canada are not allowed to connect to CANET, except, for example, when the target IP-address is within the U. of Calgary's network.

It's a good question whether the fibre-optic cables between Calgary and Vancouver are completely physically separate -- did Shaw & Telus companies dig their own cross-province trenches, and then lay their own fiber-optic cable into their trench, or do Shaw & Telus just use separate strands of fiber-optic cable in the same trench? My guess is that the Calgary-to-Vancouver trenches were created by BCTEL/TELUS/BELL, as part of their nationwide telephone/Internet network, and that Shaw is just a "customer" of BELL.

[rstra]

@mdk My guess is that the Calgary-to-Vancouver trenches were created by BCTEL/TELUS/BELL, as part of their nationwide telephone/Internet network, and that Shaw is just a "customer" of BELL.

No. Shaw bought a stake in 360 Networks and built a coast to coast network, by purchasing space on their fibre. Shaw named the company Big Pipe, but now it just operates under Shaw Enterprise Solutions. 

[talios]

Just chiming in that my routing to *everywhere* went to **bleep** yesterday too and my latency to everything outside of Edmonton has at least doubled. US is definitely the worse with my route ping ponging all over the place with dropped packets everywhere

[mdk]

@talios -- my routing to *everywhere* went to **bleep** yesterday too and my latency to everything outside of Edmonton has at least doubled

It would be helpful if you used the Windows command-line utility -- TRACERT -- to show us some packet-traces to some of those "everywhere" locations.

Try www.ubc.ca and www.ucalgary.ca and www.usask.ca and www.uwinnipeg.ca -- these web-sites are hosted in Canada.

Post the output from each TRACERT here.

[mdk]

@Girard8 -- it seems that Valorant is operated by RIOT GAMES. Search within this discussion forum, for RIOT GAMES, to view previous discussions about their less-than-optimal connectivity issues.