TF2 Server high ping

[thatdudehop2it]

Hey it's ThatDudeHop2it from the TF2 server lately I've had a high ping problem whenever a new TF2 update comes out, however I decided to trace route and take a picture of it here is the picture.

[markg]

i have no idea whats going on.

your ping to the server itself is good, about 82-90ms, with not much variance. not sure where you live (close to seattle i would guess from the nodes), but anything in that range is good, as long as the variability is low, which yours is.

but....there is something going on with some of the intermediary hops, with some wide variation in ping times. this isnt everything, but its just strange to see that.

it appears you are getting residential internet service from centurylink.net. and the initial hops look high; anyone in the house on the internet at the same time? could account for this. or are you downloading file sharing stuff? or you might have a virus downloading a lot of data.
do a scan at one of these:

http://www.google.com/search?q=on+line+s...urceid=ie7

use a couple of those to check your computer for malware. if not that, check to see that no one else is sharing the internet connection.

i just tried a tracert from the server to your house, and i got a nice smooth set of numbers, max of 25ms with no variability.

what i would do next if i were you:

go to www.dslreports.com. they have a lot of nice tools for diagnosing this type of problem
the one i would start with would be smokeping, which will ping your computer for about 24 hours, and record the ping every second or so, showing you if you have any particular high traffic or switch problems to look out for.

if that shows ok, try the line quality/ping test.

and one thing i forgot; if you are NOT on windows 7, use their tweak tool to make sure your internet options are set correctly. DONT use it if you are on windows 7, it wont help and may hurt.

one caveat with all these tools; you will temporarily have to make yourself pingable if you have a hardware firewall, but no big deal. and i suspect you will find out what is going on - might not be able to do much though, but at least you will know what the problem is.

and one last thing; you said it happened whenever there is an update. im going to start monitoring the connection from the server. MAYBE (unlikely, but who knows) they are getting a bit overloaded with all the servers trying to update at the same time. but they are running a gigabit internet pipe, so i doubt it. (but stranger things have happened).

good luck, let me know how it goes.

mark

[thatdudehop2it]

Ok thanks I will try the things you have explained, I also learned from my brother that the connection must be going through the century link servers too.