I recently started playing swtor less than a week and fell in love with the game. I usually hate tab targeting games but this one was different. I decided to spend 30$ for the 60 day subscribe just to test it out. And all of a sudden I'm getting MASSIVE lag spikes, the connectivity symbol on the minimap is red then basically x. Going up to 500k is ridiculous. I tried my internet connection on various things such as movies, other mmorpgs games and it was better than great. I cant even pvp because I just lag laglaglalgalg. What the hell is going on?

Which Server are you on? It could very well be an issue with that specific server.

I have issues with this from time to time (on Jedi Covenant) and from what I can gather, after talking to many many people including my ISP, it's some issue with my particular ISP and the servers connection..

 

Basic problem: Every so often I will see a huge lag spike (ranging from 10s of red X ((10,000 MS ping)) up to 200+ Sec of lag ((200,000 MS+ Ping)) ) Sometimes, but not all times, this results in a full disconnect. During my red X my TS will get choppy and won't be able to talk to people nor hear them, when results end with a full disconnect from the SWTOR server, my TS will usually disconnect at the exact same time, then between 30s and 10 min later the lag will be done. Most of the time i can get back on within 1 min (about how long it takes to restart the game and log in..) but sometimes I log back in to more red X.. and this can continue for a few min or longer..

This problem is completely inconsistent, random, and has no factor that induces it (happens in 8 man raids, just sitting in my SH, or whatever... nothing specific)

 

The major indicator of WHY it is happening, I only see the issue when running off of Bright House Networks cable. Yes i'm running it on WiFi because I absolutely have to, there is no way that I CAN connect wired (an issue with router/modem placement...) but I get thee same issue when wired (i've tried it, just cannot play from that spot..) I use an external high gain WiFi antenna to connect and get amazing speeds and connection off of SWTOR (netflix streams HD without a hitch... speedtest and pingtest testing abounds, 25-30Mbps speed constant, ~30-35ms ping, 0% packet loss, ~2-4ms jitter)

The problem is much worse when I use my comps internal wifi, as is expected... BUT, heres the kicker..

If I go to my place with Comcast cable, where I can pull 60mbps speeds ~10-15ms pings (fiber to house as far as I know..), I can play without any sort of lag spikes what so ever even on my comps internal wifi adapter (tried it wired/wifi internal/ and external.. just to be thorough).. So as far as I can tell it's an issue in connection between my ISP (Bright House Networks) and the SWTOR server (i'm playing on east coast server, from an east coast location..)

Now, when the connection is good, it's good... run a ~25-35 (sometimes 40-50ms when server use is heavier during prime times) ping with no spikes... but then randomly, spike.. 30s+ of lag.. D/C or maybe it comes back.. deal with this for a while.. come back all good.

So should I try switching servers?

it happens to me when gree event landed , so i change from router to direct cable modem to pc yesterday and with yesterday patch seems now ok but i need to see again today and the rest of the day

i think after they patch gree event the problem lag is so severe , i dc every 5 min!

 

so i think you dont need to change server if you already wired then have you try after the yesterday patch is it improving or now

Try running some network diagnostics to search for packet loss.

 

Packet loss hits SWTOR harder than most other internet applications because of the nature of how the client communicates with the server (the same issues happen with a number of other MMOs and multiplayer games). Most notably, the effects are going to be distinctly different than what you'd see in most FPS games or streaming video, since those applications are built to handle packet loss gracefully and quickly. (Note: the reason for the different handling has a purpose. Its not just laziness or a mistake.)

 

The vast majority of packet loss occurs between a client PC and the ISP gateway... ie: Your local connection. Some can occur later, particularly when packets are being moved from one major network provider to another. It very, very rarely occurs at the game server. When it does, you'll see everyone on the server complaining (not "most", all).

 

The biggest cause of packet loss (for mere consumers) is noisy wires in the local network drop, however, I had some issues with 11% packet loss which were caused by a cracked wire conduit that was letting water pool up around a connection outside my house. Wireless routers can also cause packet loss, but they have some of their own methods for retransmitting packets that are blasted out of the air by crappy microwaves or other interference.

 

Try running PingPlotter to your ISP gateway to check for long-term packet loss on your local network. To check the connection all the way to the server, you'll want to open up resmon.exe to track down exactly which IP you're connecting to.

Hmm, I never thought to try and look at long term packet loss... Perhaps i'll try and monitor that for a bit.. see what's happening when I hit a lag spike..

 

I've tried just about everything to stop what mine does and changing servers didn't do a single thing (I have toons on west coast and east coast servers, multiple ones of each...) It just always happens when i'm on this ISP (Bright house..) and never happens when i'm on my good (and yes I seem to be one of the few who get good service on COMCAST!!!!) ISP..

 

I've just come to terms with it and know that at any time I may get huge lag spikes and be basically unable to play for anywhere from 10min up to 2 hours... Sometimes i'm golden for like 3 + days at a time with no issue. Whenever I run HM I just go to my comcast...

There are many with the same problem. I am wired to my router, and can't keep full bars for the life of me. I am the only one connected to this line, so there is no piggybacking (pw protected). It's worse at night, when I'm trying to play of course.

 

I reset my modem and router once to try and fix the issue, and that actually helped.....for a little while. But, I'm not resetting my crap every couple days to fix an issue that seems to be originating from BW's end.

it happens to me when gree event landed , so i change from router to direct cable modem to pc yesterday

 

This should only help if your router is going bad. It's not a bad thing to do as a test, but if it is actually giving you an improvement then you probably need to replace your router, or at the very least look more closely at what your router is doing to cause the problem.

 

There are many with the same problem. I am wired to my router, and can't keep full bars for the life of me. I am the only one connected to this line, so there is no piggybacking (pw protected). It's worse at night, when I'm trying to play of course.

 

I reset my modem and router once to try and fix the issue, and that actually helped.....for a little while. But, I'm not resetting my crap every couple days to fix an issue that seems to be originating from BW's end.

 

So restarting your local hardware fixes the problem (temporarily), but it's BW's fault? You realize that makes no sense right? Or are you suggesting that BW is causing the problems with your router/modem? But that would make even less sense.

I reset my modem and router once to try and fix the issue, and that actually helped.....for a little while. But, I'm not resetting my crap every couple days to fix an issue that seems to be originating from BW's end.

 

If it helped when you reset your router, then the chances that there is any problem at Bioware's end are very, very small. Tiny. Virtually insignificant.

 

I've helped a couple dozen people with these sorts of problems. Almost everyone says that they checked stuff and that it has to be a problem with the server. They insist that their local PC runs fine and their internet connection is great, and that the problem has to be with Bioware's server.

 

...and in every case the problem was with the local internet connection.

 

Now, that's not saying that there aren't server problems, or that we haven't seen disconnects caused by server/datacenter issues in the past. However, in those cases, the effects were felt by the vast majority of players on the server. Unless everyone you see in game is complaining about the same issues, the first place you should look for network problems the the stretch of networking that occurs between your PC and your ISP's closest router. Only after you have network diagnostics prove that that link is reliable should you start looking any farther down the line.

This should only help if your router is going bad. It's not a bad thing to do as a test, but if it is actually giving you an improvement then you probably need to replace your router, or at the very least look more closely at what your router is doing to cause the problem.

 

This.

 

I actually had pretty crappy network performance in SWTOR for the first couple months of this year. Random disconnects, lag spikes, quality dropping so low that I couldn't make it through a single fight without having some sort of stutter. Other times it was fine and I'd have 11-18ms latency for hours.

 

It wasn't SWTOR.

 

And I never suspected it was. I know my network hardware. I know what to expect from it, and my router has been running for five years with constant use. Doing some checks showed that it was starting to see memory errors. These sorts of things happen with older routers, especially if you ask a lot of them. After replacing the router, I'm back to my solild connection with low latency.

 

Check your local connection. Check your local hardware. Check for interference or bad cables or ISP hardware that needs maintenance.