Packet loss after 5pm

Technical Support
1

Good evening.
For the past two months i’ve noticed that after 5pm connection to Blizzard servers (EU Overwatch, EU Heroes of the Storm), has become unstable. There’s a noticeable packet loss every evening as can be seen in WinMTR
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
SkyRouter.Home - 0 1267 1267 0 0 16 1
97e7fe8c.skybroadband. com - 0 1267 1267 2 7 63 3
be451.pr3.hobir.isp.sky. com - 1 1252 1248 10 13 65 11
195.66.238.234 - 99 259 3 0 12 14 11
ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net - 4 1111 1074 16 116 3789 180
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
137.221.65.77 - 9 904 824 16 353 4901 4783
137.221.78.55 - 1 1260 1258 15 21 125 52
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
No response from host - 100 256 0 0 0 0 0
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

Hop 5 ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net has a 4-5% packet loss and Hop 7 137.221.65.77 has a 9-10% packet loss. Only happens after around 5pm and lasts well past bedtime. Is there anything i can do to help resolve the issue? My desktop is connected to Ethernet.

Regards,
Avid Overwatch player

2

Hello

These are the two nodes where the problem seems to start:

You will need to contact your ISP and ask them what’s happening. If possible provide them the WinMTR trace and sort with them. Those are some congested network nodes that your ISP uses to reach the game servers.

3

Thanks alot for your reply. To me the problem node seems to be ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976 which is part of the blizzard network, as can be seen from the WinMTR there’s a 4% packet loss and ping fluctuates in its 100’s with worst being 3789 and when it reaches the 137.221.65.77 which has a 9% packet loss with average 353ms with worst being 4901. That IP is also part of the Blizzard network. I switched to American server and there were no packet loss issues. Current WinMTR data does not provide enough evidence for my ISP to take action and all fingers are pointing at Blizzard.

4

Hello Libirissx,

195.66.238.234 - 99 259 3 0 12 14 11

You have 99% packet loss here which is possibly generating the problem.

However the other node:
ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net - 4 1111 1074 16 116 3789 180

Is also giving problems which may or may not be caused by the previous one

Both nodes are not related to the Blizzard network which means your ISP needs to sort. However in general these issues are resolved over time by those network nodes Admins.

5

Thanks alot for your reply.
195.66.238.234 is giving 99% packet loss because ICMP echo requests for that IP have either been disabled or set to a very low priority. You should disregard that reading as i’ve asked a friend to ping it and it doesnt return pings either.
As for ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net, here’s a little more information:

Technical details

IP address 137.221.79.33
Hostname ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net
Type Public
CIDR 137.221.79.33/24

ASN and ISP for IP address 137.221.79.33

General traits like organisation, autonomous system number (ASN) and ISP associated with the IP address 137.221.79.33.

ISP Blizzard Entertainment, Inc
Organization Blizzard Entertainment, Inc
User type residential
Autonomous system number (ASN)57976
Autonomous system organization Blizzard Entertainment, Inc

From the data above it does show that it is part of Blizzard network. I will keep monitoring 137.221.79.33 ( ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net) through WinMTR and will update topic soon with results.

EDITED:

After running WinMTR to the 137.221.79.33 ( ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net) there was not packet loss, however, Latency spikes were off the charts with it spiking up to 200ms every 2 seconds. That has to be the problem node.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |

Host - % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
SkyRouter.Home - 0 111 111 0 0 1 0
97e7fe8c.skybroadband. com - 0 111 111 3 6 49 34
be451.pr2.enlba.isp.sky. com - 0 111 111 18 22 67 47
No response from host - 100 22 0 0 0 0 0
ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976. net - 0 111 111 31 155 359 251
________________________________________________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
6
WinMTR Statistics

WinMTR statistics

Host % Sent Recv Best Avrg Wrst Last
FREEBOX_SERVER 0 145 145 0 0 2 0
194.149.164.66 1 141 140 10 10 12 11
amsix-6k-1.routers.proxad.net 1 141 140 24 24 31 25
80.249.208.83 3 133 130 25 29 98 26
ae1-br02-eqam1.as57976.net 14 82 71 42 769 4187 237
ae1-br01-eqld5.as57976.net 1 141 140 31 68 344 97

Same issue here. Every evening, i get 2 to 7% packet loss on overwatch, making the game unplayable; despite a 8Gbps fiber connection and a 10Gb home network… This has lasted for many months already…

This is seriously driving me mad. Is Blizzard aware of this issue ?