Hi,
For the past few days now I have had high pings in LFS.

When I refresh the server list all the servers are above 500 and if I join a server I lag badly. All my other online games haven't been affected some I'm wondering if its LFS or my ISP.

I'm based in the UK and my ISP is plus.net, I've never had a problem with them before so I just don't know where to start!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Andy.

I ve the ve the same problem... Its so rare. I ve got another pc and i can play in it without problems using the same network.

Please can anybody help us. Lot of thanks!

I recommend searching around in this section. I have my own thread on a similar sounding problem. If you can't find the relevant threads ill have a look later and link them for you.

try these:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=6940
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=9320

note: they will only be relevant if you have the same problem. I suggest phoning your ISP anyway. Try following some of the steps I outlined in my thread also, i.e. use Ping Plotter.

Right, I read through your posts (and thanks for that!) and I see that LFS uses the same ports as P2P software. My friend who is also on plus.net said his P2P has been running really slow, if at all. So it must be something to do with that!

So i don't really know what to do now. But thanxs for the help it's very much appreciated!

Andy.

Quote from AndyC :

Right, I read through your posts (and thanks for that!) and I see that LFS uses the same ports as P2P software. My friend who is also on plus.net said his P2P has been running really slow, if at all. So it must be something to do with that!

iirc, you cannot have two connections through one port. (or is it that you can't listen on the same port? which would not affect the client of a server)

I'm Plus net and just came here to search for high ping problems - they must have included the same ports as LFS recently or something, I'm not very technical but if anyone works it out it would be great!

I don't think it is unfortunatly. I think they were starting to upgrade people to 8mg a month or 2 back so maybe they are doing maintainance on the lines? Hopefully!

woo, hey Andy, how ya doing? long time no see

My understanding of plus.net is that they have one of, if not THE, most active traffic shaping/Big Brother policies of any ISP, anywhere outside of China. It's aggressive, to say the least. I'd be VERY surprised if the problems plus.net customers are experiencing were NOT the active and deliberate result of plus.net's aggressive limiting of traffic on ports in the range often used by P2P software.

The best thing I can suggest is to have a look on the plus.net forums for an answer - which I suspect will give you a much more accurate idea of whether this activity is impacting your game-play than interrogating one of their tech guys.

I still recommend phoning you ISP to clear up the problem. There is no point in hoping it will just go away, and it will only take 5mins.

IF the LFS port has been resticted because of P2P software you can ask to have it unblocked. Sometimes (if you have a static IP for instance) the ISP can completely unblock all your ports to allow you access to anything, however this usually requires you to acknowledge that you are entirely responsible for all illegal downloads etc. At least I know this is the case with my new ISP that I have on order - Vispa. P1lot recommended them to me and I have asked them about this stuff over the phone. So your own ISP might not do the same thing.

edit: This 'traffic-shaping' and P2P blocking is becoming more and more common, so much so that I fear for the future of some online games that use port numbers within the P2P ranges. Ports can always be moved, and Im sure P2P users move ports too, but I am really starting to think that the LFS devs should look into making LFS work on a more accessible port. I know its not a LFS problem, but being an online game the risk of being choked by these policies is high. Are there any other strategies other than shifting port?

Right I think I will phone my ISP up when I get back in from work. My only worry is, is that my dad likes to download the odd tune here and there, do you think this will be a problem.

It is a shame that LFS is affected by this problem. I would understand if it was going to use a lot of bandwidth would it be a big job for the Devs to do this? Or is it a simple case of just allocating a different port and just notifying all server uses etc?

Thanxs
Andy.