User talk:Magill/Interesting thread by Turbine Technical Support -- explains certain game/networking mechanics

There is apparently a "new" problem for Time Warner Cable subscribers playing WB's LOTRO :) Time Warner, RoadRunner, Brighthouse players please read.

The explanation: "What is going on?" is a very interesting description of the game mechanics. (However, it is also a bit of a red-herring, as you will discover if you read the full forum. Turbine blaming the ISPs when

Posted on 25 June 2012:

Beginning on 6/20 or about, players on these ISP's began encountering issues with accessing specific worlds, specific characters or during transit of game areas, this thread is an attempt to clarify what we know is happening, what we suspect might be occurring and other why's/who's and what's and hopefully clear up some misconceptions about the issue.

"What is going on?"

Okay to clarify what we believe is happening is that somewhere in your connections transit across the internet (specifically on your provider or providers affiliated networks), the UDP packets your game client is trying to send to the server, or the ones it is trying to receive back from the server are not reaching their respective destination. It appears to be related to ports in the 9000 to 9010 range but may not be specific to just those ten, there may be wider ranges of ports similarly affected.

When you connect to the game after the game launcher (which uses http/https not UDP) the game's 3d client connects to the world server on a specifc port in that range and they vary based on whichever world you're selecting (which is why sometimes you can connect to one but not another) additionally each character on that world will also open a different pair (inbound/outbound) ports to communicate as well which is also why some characters appear to load/stay connected but others can't.

When the data sent on these ports is being dropped like this or not routing correctly between your client and the server it manifests in but is not limited to just one of the following:
-Inability of the client to connect to a specific world
-Inability of the client to connect to a specific character or characters
-Loss of connection on transit from one game area to another

What is occurring is similar to an issue encountered by players on a different ISP some time ago, that one stemmed from a network switch at one of their third-party backbone connection providers network locations not correctly handling packet transitions for UDP on ports 9000 to 9010 and resulted in a similar behavior in the games.

"Why can I still connect to the internet/other games but only AC/DDO/LOTRO are affected?"

We believe that the games communication on port 80/8080 (http/https via the game launcher) is not affected, instead UDP packets on ports 9000 through 9010 as it transits across these providers networks are being affected.

"What do you mean it's my ISP?"

The servers themselves are up, to date almost all reports of this specific behavior beginning on the 20th have been from players on this specific network path using the ISP's listed.

"Why can't you fix it?"

Simply put, the issue is with routing of UDP packets on those ports on a network outside of our own. To even determine an exact location of where it's happening on that path means we would have to do very involved network connection testing on a regional ISP's network, which we simply cannot do for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it's not our network to be running tests like this on.

"What can you do to fix this?"

At best we can provide players with information, as well as try to follow up with the ISP somewhat since in this case we are tangentially affiliated with the affected ISP, but despite that the best means of contact is for the players to follow up with their ISP about what's happening and provide the information detailed in this thread, which helps to illustrate to them commonality of network pathing, what geographic areas seem to be most/least affected et al. We can only provide general information about what we think is occurring, you can provide much more in-depth detail on the actual occurrences.

"Do you know where the drops are occurring?"

Right now simply put no and we do not have the resources or access to make a definitive "Here" statement, that said though we do believe it is potentially as the connections transit through the eastern US section of RoadRunner's backbone, which is affecting all players connections as they transit that network. However that is at best a 'guess' and at worst incorrect, again the ISP's affected need to make a more clear determination, to do that they need information provided to them by their customers.

"What kind of things should we tell them?"

Start with how the games connection appears to be affected, point out that it appears to be somewhere in the connection chain (the full chain, not just locally). Let them know your connection path by doing a 'traceroute' to gls.lotro.com (I'll paste the steps below) and show them how your connection is pathing, with enough reports from enough affected players they can make a more informed list of path commonalities to help pin down where the drop might be occurring and possible why's.

"Okay how do I do a traceroute?"

Click on the Windows "Start" button and choose "All programs" > "Accessories" > "Command Prompt". In the command prompt window type "tracert gls.lotro.com" (no quotes) and press enter.

"How can I 'copy paste' from that?"

Right-click on the command prompt window anywhere, choose "Select all". When you right-click again, this time on the white highlighted area, it will copy this data into the 'clipboard' which you can now paste this into an email, chat, notepad file etc using "Ctrl" and "V" to paste.

Things to keep in mind: Trace Route is not an accurate reflection of this specific issue since it does not use the same ports/protocols as appear to be affected, but it does give your ISP's support team a look at how your connection is transiting to the game servers in general. Also results in the trace of "* * * [Request Timed Out]" do not always indicate an error with the connection, they often simply mean that the particular server was not configured to respond with its identity when handling a traceroute request, it still sends the trace onward but just is not telling you 'who' it is.

"What about changing which port the game uses?"

Some players have found that going into their "Userpreferences.ini" file (Found in Documents/My Documents > "The Lord of the Rings Online") and under the [Net] section changing "UserSpecifiedPort=" to a different port of the 9000 to 9010 range appears to correct this, however most have pointed out it is temporary since the issues then begin showing up again, which points to an issue more so as noted above with a potentially wider swath of ports or alternately with UDP packet routing in general.

"Turbine's Tech Support told me to restart my modem/router, reboot my computer and do a "flushdns" but that didn't work?"

Yes a full connection reset like that can in these instances sometimes help, simply because it can often cause your connection to re-route, the problem though may return since it stems from the backbone path that your connection specifically takes through your ISP and its related networks takes. Even common workarounds like using a VPN or internet 'proxy' may not correct this since their connections may still tunnel through the same affected areas.

"So should I still be contacting Turbine Technical Support?"

Certainly you can but I want to set the expectation to be aware that their assistance is somewhat limited in these types of issues because of their nature and where the cause typically is. Still the best option is following up with your ISP about this and what is occurring.