high minecraft ping

[Guth]

Hi guys, I've recently started playing minecraft and I'm having issues connecting to any server at all. The pings are incredible, my ping to the neowin server justnow is 2000ms.

I can play any other online game with a ping usually no higher than 100-200. My ping is so high with minecraft that I cant log in to any servers. Except 1 that I found which is UK based and gives me a decent ping time.

My gran lives a few doors down and has a different ISP, with my long range wifi I can just pick up her connection and if I use hers I can login to any server and my ping is usually around 100.

the issue is that she only turns her router on when she needs it so its not practical for me to use her router.

the issue seems linked to my ISP or my router? I cant understand what's wrong and wondered if anyone had any advice. If I ping mc.neowin.net from cmd it gives me 150ms but I know that its sending a different type of ping from the actual game. (well I think it does)

edit: Tracert to mc.neowin.net

C:\Users\James>ping 192.168.0.1

Pinging 192.168.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 2ms

C:\Users\James>tracert mc.neowin.net

Tracing route to mc.neowin.net [207.36.27.103]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms SkyRouter.Home [192.168.0.1]

2 29 ms 30 ms 29 ms 027fef73.bb.sky.com [2.127.239.115]

3 42 ms 42 ms 43 ms 5adfcf28.bb.sky.com [90.223.207.40]

4 45 ms 67 ms 44 ms 5adfcf00.bb.sky.com [90.223.207.0]

5 53 ms 61 ms 45 ms 5adfcf00.bb.sky.com [90.223.207.0]

6 46 ms * 47 ms 195.50.122.113

7 * 153 ms 149 ms ae-52-52.csw2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.120]

8 150 ms 150 ms 149 ms ae-56-221.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.153.129]

9 150 ms 150 ms 149 ms ae-41-41.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.66]

10 150 ms 154 ms 151 ms 4.69.201.62

11 150 ms 148 ms 150 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.143.213]

12 148 ms 150 ms 148 ms ae-6-6.ebr1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.148.105]

13 156 ms 149 ms 149 ms ae-1-100.ebr2.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.132.34]

14 150 ms 148 ms * ae-2-2.ebr2.Miami1.Level3.net [4.69.140.141]

15 150 ms 152 ms 150 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Miami1.Level3.net [4.69.151.253]

16 155 ms 148 ms 150 ms ae-3-5.bar1.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.148.214]

17 154 ms 186 ms 197 ms ae-5-5.car1.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.133.13]

18 150 ms 149 ms * ae-13-13.car3.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.133.18]

19 149 ms 149 ms 149 ms level3.co1.as30217.net [4.71.0.30]

20 169 ms 149 ms 151 ms 84.40.24.82

21 154 ms 150 ms 149 ms mc.neowin.net [207.36.27.103]

22 * 150 ms 150 ms mc.neowin.net [207.36.27.103]

[+BudMan]

So that server is in florida, your in Scotland - you can not change the laws of physics! Its going to take a specific amount of time for the packets to move between you and there, even at the speed of light ;)

Lets see a trace from your grans connection, yes its possible that a different ISP might have better path to where you going, and shorter time - still can only be so fast - your going across the atlantic ocean. Can you not find a server in scotland to play on? I am quite sure there are servers much closer to you than the US.

[The_Decryptor]

2 seconds of latency points to something being wrong though, I've played on servers in the US (from Australia) and I've never had over 1s of latency.

[+BudMan]

His trace did not show 2 s, it showed about 150 ms - which is not great, but its not all that bad either for across the atlantic.

[The_Decryptor]

Sure, 150ms is fine (great actually), but the issue is that in game it's apparently 2s :p

[+BudMan]

Where in the game do you ping?

From this mincecraft site your just doing a normal ping

http://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/how-to-find-out-if-your-lagging-check-your-ping/

[The_Decryptor]

You get it by hovering over the "signal bars". And apparently I'm having the same problem (The other server is in the US too, but it only has 940ms of latency)

[Crisp]

I can sometimes get about 2-3 second ping to the Neowin server, but it's been stable recently.

I just blame Java.

[Guth]

Thanks for the help guys, I guessed that it was probably the distance I just thought it was strange that minecraft reported a much higher ping than cmd. I felt if my ping was really 150 then I could play.

whenever I connect to the server, It loads for 2 seconds then I get a time out error.

I will try a trace from my grans connection when her router is on. My ISP does slow the network at night times (until 1 am) but I didnt think that would effect ping. However I just connected to the server justnow and have no lag at all. Maybe It is because they throttle?

I still have the same 150ms ping from cmd but minecraft now reports a 1000ms ping which is playable.

Lastly I guess I could find a uk server its just that i liked it since it was neowin and i already "know" some people.

[Guth]

update:

I found a uk server, minecraft reports a 150ms ping with full green bars, however I am still lagging and getting the same time out error.

Very strange.

Think the problem is my crappy ISP, had nothing but problems and whenever I connect to my grans router its fine. Thankfully we will be changing to the same ISP as her soon.

Think ill just have to put up with it until then

[Guth]

updat2: (sorry for all the double posts, wont let me edit)

Here is a tracert from grans connection. dont know what this all means but I dont se much difference. Cant understand why this connection lets me play fine but mine doesnt

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]

? 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\James>tracert mc.neowin.net

Tracing route to mc.neowin.net [207.36.27.103]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 5 ms 5 ms 192.168.1.1

2 34 ms 34 ms 35 ms host-92-2-112-1.as43234.net [92.2.112.1]

3 40 ms 43 ms 43 ms host-92-31-246-117.as13285.net [92.31.246.117]

4 45 ms 45 ms 68 ms host-92-31-246-112.as13285.net [92.31.246.112]

5 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms xe-10-2-0-scr002.log.as13285.net [78.144.2.129]

6 61 ms 85 ms 45 ms xe-7-0-0.edge4.London2.Level3.net [212.187.192.1

09]

7 154 ms 152 ms 150 ms ae-3-3.ebr1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.141.189]

8 150 ms 149 ms 151 ms vlan101.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.143.86]

9 150 ms 150 ms 153 ms ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.74]

10 150 ms 152 ms 154 ms ae-10-10.ebr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.148.

50]

11 150 ms 150 ms 150 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.143.

213]

12 162 ms 150 ms 150 ms ae-6-6.ebr1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.148.105]

13 153 ms 153 ms 150 ms ae-1-100.ebr2.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.132.34]

14 154 ms 152 ms 153 ms ae-2-2.ebr2.Miami1.Level3.net [4.69.140.141]

15 150 ms 150 ms 162 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Miami1.Level3.net [4.69.151.253]

16 157 ms 149 ms 151 ms ae-3-5.bar1.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.148.214]

17 184 ms 152 ms 232 ms ae-5-5.car1.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.133.13]

18 201 ms 178 ms 149 ms ae-13-13.car3.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.69.133.18]

19 169 ms 151 ms 150 ms level3.co1.as30217.net [4.71.0.30]

20 152 ms 149 ms 150 ms 84.40.24.82

21 164 ms 155 ms 152 ms homegardenandpatio.com [207.36.27.103]

22 186 ms 150 ms 152 ms homegardenandpatio.com [207.36.27.103]

Trace complete.

Also WTF with homegardenandpatio haha

[+BudMan]

yeah that is what the PTR is ;) Someone made a bit of a mistake in updates i would think.

[Guth]

yeah that is what the PTR is ;) Someone made a bit of a mistake in updates i would think.

whats a PTR?

Also is there any big differences between my two tracers you can see? Anything that would explain why I can play fine on this connection but not on my own. The actual ping seems roughly the same to me?

edit: i googled tracert explained and it says "If tracert finds a server that is not responding, then every piece of information that it cannot supply will be replaced by an asterisk ( * )"

the tracert from my connection has a * in it. Is that the issue?

[+BudMan]

No all that means is that IP did not return a PTR record.. Its common. Maybe not one set, maybe timeout to retrieve it, etc. etc.

a PTR is a pointer record, used in DNS for looking up IP to name, you know how you use dns to lookup IP of say mc.neowin.net - that would be a A record, when you have the IP and you want to look up the name you look up the PTR record.

http://en.wikipedia....erse_DNS_lookup

These are controlled by who owns the network, look up your public IP for example..

; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> -x 24.13.xx.xx

;; global options: +cmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17126

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:

;xx.xx.13.24.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:

xx.xx.13.24.in-addr.arpa. 7200 IN PTR c-24-13-xx-xx.hsd1.il.comcast.net.

;; Query time: 18 msec

;; SERVER: 192.168.1.253#53(192.168.1.253)

;; WHEN: Mon Apr 8 10:33:36 2013

;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 91

Above is example of mine using DIG, but you can use nslookup as well.

budman@ubuntu:~$ nslookup 24.13.xx.xx

Server: 192.168.1.253

Address: 192.168.1.253#53

Non-authoritative answer:

xx.xx.13.24.in-addr.arpa name = c-24-13-xx-xx.hsd1.il.comcast.net.