Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
Mx41
Enthusiast - Level 2

I've been promised several callbacks on this issue, not one has happened. I've been more than patient, sat through more than a reasonable amount of GoToAssist Tech Support sessions and it seems that Verizon could care less. Speculation could lead one to assume that's it's due to a recent business deal, or perhaps it's just the fact that they know they're giant in the communication's game and they just don't care.

Either way, nothing justifies what's going on here, if there's a problem for your customer it's your problem, end of story. I shouldn't be the one having to call Blizzard or AT&T, that's your job. So quick to ask for your monthly fee yet so slow to act on identified problems. It's a joke really, it really is.

I'll be cancelling my services with Verizon, no...they won't care but I'll know that I took action and got rid of an unwanted headache. Yes, I'll probably move on to another company and have similar headaches, but I've given Verizon an ample amount of time to at the very least get back to me with some form of information and I've gotten nothing, as a paying customer that's just unacceptable.

In the meantime I can verify that WTFast works, no disconnects, no loading screen drops, no instances not found, no transfers aborted and no jumpy MS, I've been steady holding at 10-15ms in game for the past 2 days. Back to PvP and PvE and loving it, no thanks to anyone at Verizon/AT&T/Blizzard either. 

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
WilliamB
Newbie

It's unfortunate, that this problem has gone on for so long. Talking to Verizon Tech support will get you no where because of the the nature of this technical problem and their residential tech support is not equiped to deal with how their traffic is routed. This will require someone from the Verizon FIOS network team to care and deal with or respond to. I have been a Verizon customer for over a decade and this will cause me to reconsider remaining with them if it continues to be ignored. *IF* in fact they are actually working to address it, then someone from their team should post as much. Maybe with a pending sale, they don't care that much about a few thousand customers in the region.

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
inktomi
Enthusiast - Level 2

I'm having the same issue. High latency and making games unplayable. 

+1 

=\

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
DanielCeregatti
Enthusiast - Level 1

I left Time Warner for this exact reason. They refused to acknowledge that one of their peer nodes with AT&T was saturated, causing many customers to not be able to play online games with servers on the other side of that node. Latency was never less than 400ms and this went on for months. Complaints made to their highest levels of support went unanswered.

As a network engineer, I fully understand how to diagnose such issues and given what I've read on the battle.net forums plus my own tests, it's easy to conclude that this is the same exact problem here: A saturated peering node. I'm hopeful that Verizon is looking into this and that perhaps it's not actually a capacity issue, but something that can be readily fixed. I'd also like to see some official acknowledgement of this issue.

Time Warner is still an option where I live. Thing is, given that this has happened there before too, I'm not too keen to jump ship again. I've been with Verizon for over 5 years now and have been very happy with their internet...up until about 5 days ago.

Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
inktomi
Enthusiast - Level 2

I don't see how WTFast can solve this, as the problem is a peering node between socal verizon and the handoff to ATT. In order to connect to a VPN, you'd still need to get off Verizon's network somewhere - unless you're going way out and then back (slow) it isn't going to skip that peering node, and so it won't be any faster. 

For blizzard games in specific, their servers are in LA. We're in LA. In theory, we should have the fastest possible connection - it's almost a direct line into Blizzard - except we have a broken/overloaded/something peering node between Verizon and ATT (the provider that blizzard's datacenters use). 

Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
syntaxx
Enthusiast - Level 2

Exact same issue, I am in long Beach, california, and i cannot even play, lag is so bad.  😞   SAVE ME TOM CRUISE!!

Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
GJMa1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Actually, and I can confirm this: It is way faster. The reason is that your not being bounced onto/off of the bad node.

I confirmed this the other day by tracing my connection from home to Blizzard (CA) and also from home using my company's VPN and it doesn't go anywhere near the bad node (alter.net) while using VPN. Fortunately, my company blocks access to gaming on their network, so I'll just use the 3rd party VPN to make my life sane again.

My wife, on the same network, different machine was seeing 1500+ MS latency from Temecula, CA to the Borean Tundra server, which is in the SoCal DC. After installing WTFast, latency has been at a steady 10/11 MS. I'd say that was a verifiable improvement. Wouldn't you?

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
GJMa1
Enthusiast - Level 2

And yet another piece of the puzzle. While hooked up through the WTFast VPN, I checked the routes being used. The route is STILL going through the ALTER.NET node, however there are no AT&T nodes after that in the trace.

Not wanting to subscribe to any consiracy theories, but could it be possible that the actual problem lies not with Verizon but with AT&T. Is AT&T purposefully slowing down traffic out of the Verizon network???? Maybe it's not intentional, maybe just coincidence?

Could this be our real issue, we're whining to the wrong company?

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
inktomi
Enthusiast - Level 2

AT&T is the provider Blizzard contracts with in their datacenter for connectivity. If AT&T was slowing down traffic into their datacenter, Blizzard would (rightfully) throw a fit. 

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Re: SoCAL FIOS issue (Gamers)
Irockhound
Newbie

I am yet another of Verizons "Valued Customers" getting the run around.  I have had the same issues with latency and the tracert showing lax1.attens.net being part of the problem.  We are currently paying 150. per month for fios services and we can't use it for it's main purpose for us playing warcraft.  The Game is unusable with this performance drop. 

I find it funny that I spent a long time the other night with Verizon support who tested "everything" and came back that it is all working great but on the latency "my network support specialist has said it is because you have too many wireless devices at your home and if you upgrade to 50mb service it will solve the problem"  Really?  People play the game on 1mb connections, heck when another providers service went south when the game first came out I played over Modem Dialup with an AOL connection and you think that 35mb isn't enough?

Now I am stuck 150 a month for Fios, 13.999 a month for Blizzard and can't play.  I can cancel my game subscription and that puts pressure on Blizzard to force Verizon to deal if enough people did it for that reason.  I am under a 2 year with Verizon so I can see if they will release me to get another ISP. 

I can tell you I am fed up with Verizon.  When we signed up for Verizon they were supposed to run all new cables but no.  The tech shows up and they just want to run a single cable outside the house under the eave into the attic.  Hook it to a splitter to the old cables in the house (OLD cables) and then run one new line from the splitter down the furnace shaft to the bottom floor, thru the furnace air box, into the wall of a closet exposed across the closet and then drill a hole in the wall to the office and just stick the cable thru the hole, connect to another splitter and then connect the router and tv off that.  The cable dangling out of my wall is 8 inches away and 4 inches below the actual cable jack in the wall plate, seriously.  Then they put in a G router on a 35mb line?  I spoke to the guy about the cables and router and again, I can change out the router, it is a really old unit but only if you upgrade to 50mb.  As for the cables I can send a tech out but they will charge you if there is not a problem with the Verizon line.  They also haven't cared when I have complained that on a fiber connection that watching your digital TV pixilate while watching shows is not appropriate when we pay this much for service.  Not once have they offered to send a tech to fix that.

Verizon doesn't care about any of us, they are making bank on our monthly, all we have is the ability to take that away from them if they don't fix the issues.  I have a ticket in with Verizon now to try and get the contract terminated early so I can leave. 

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