[SOLVED] Random heavy ping spikes for all players

skynet

Hi there,

I've successfully set up a NS2 server on my linux machine and on my gaming one (specs below) but I have this annoying issues I can't seem to fix: when the server has around 16 people the ping of everyone but me ('cause I'm in lan/localhost) spikes to 999. The spikes last from a couple of seconds to a full 2 minutes and occur about every other minute. This seem to happen constantly and on both machines.

What I found so far:
- Doesn't seem to affect the tickrate of the server
- I'm immune to the spikes because I'm in lan/localhost
- During the spikes and for all their duration the upload speed jumps from the standard 140-170 KB/s to 360-400 KB/s
- This thread suggests a fresh install -> done multiple times, issue still occurs
- This thread suggests not to use webadmin while people are playing on the server -> done, ping still jumps to 999
- According to several other posts, both my processing power and my upload speed are more than enough to handle 20-24 players

Any idea what's going on?


My Hardware follows

Windows Machine:
i5 3570k @ 4.4 Ghz
8 GB 1600 Mhz RAM
2x SSDs in raid 0
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Linux Machine:
AMD Phenom II x6 @ 4.0 Ghz (4 cores, 2 are off)
8 GB 1600 Mhz RAM
SSD
Arch Linux 64bit

Mods installed:
Shine Administration
[Shine] NS2Stats
Badges+

My connection:
FTTC dsl connection

GhoulofGSG9

Hmm, try to disable the Statusreport of ns2stats (config/shine/plugins/Ns2Stats.json) and see if it gets better. Otherwise disable the ns2stats plugin completly (shine/baseconfig.json) for a while and see how things change.

NS2Stats uploads a 250 kb large logpart from time to time (never heard that it causes lagspikes, and that is around every 2-5 mins).

skynet

Thanks for the reply

I disabled NS2Stats and Badges+, leaving only Shine Administration running: still experiencing the frequent ping spikes

GhoulofGSG9

skynet wrote: »

Thanks for the reply

I disabled NS2Stats and Badges+, leaving only Shine Administration running: still experiencing the frequent ping spikes

Badges+ doesn't really increase the network traffic (<1kb/min total) .

evilmaniac

Just to be thorough. What you could do in an attempt to narrow down the issue while you wait is install both 'iftop' and 'mtr' on your server. You can then execute an 'mtr' on one of the clients playing on your server (with their approval of-course) and see if any of the hubs between you and them is misbehaving (this will be seen if massive lag spikes occur on any of those hubs; if packet loss occurs this may be an intentional result of your host disabling pings to the hub). If no such thing happens, you could further attempt to diagnose the issue by checking if a lag spike does indeed occur. This can be done using the 'iftop' tool. Iftop will provide you with live information on each connection to a designated port and/or network card.

This link provides a nice and easy tutorial on how to use it.

Omega_K2

It more sounds like your connection can't handle this. 2.8Mbit/s Upload equals ~0.35MBytes/s upload, plus you are unaffected in, which seems to make this more likely.

GhoulofGSG9

Omega_K2 wrote: »

It more sounds like your connection can't handle this. 2.8Mbit/s Upload equals ~0.35MBytes/s upload, plus you are unaffected in, which seems to make this more likely.

Yeah could be the issue if the server is used for anything beside the one ns2 server.

evilmaniac

Omega_K2 wrote: »

It more sounds like your connection can't handle this. 2.8Mbit/s Upload equals ~0.35MBytes/s upload, plus you are unaffected in, which seems to make this more likely.

Yea this might be very likely.
On my 24 slot server; the machine's average bandwith usage has increased by ~3 mbps since I launched the server and the maximum bandwith spike has increased by 3-4 mbps. Using iftop as I mentioned earlier will show you if you are capping your connection.

skynet

evilmaniac wrote: »

Just to be thorough. What you could do in an attempt to narrow down the issue while you wait is install both 'iftop' and 'mtr' on your server. [...]

Yup sounds like it's an issue with my connection, I'm running the suggested monitor tools.

GhoulofGSG9 wrote: »

Yeah could be the issue if the server is used for anything beside the one ns2 server.

The servers are not used for much of anything aside from a few very low bandwidth processes.

Omega_K2 wrote: »

It more sounds like your connection can't handle this. 2.8Mbit/s Upload equals ~0.35MBytes/s upload, plus you are unaffected in, which seems to make this more likely.

I'm curious what the minimum upload requirements are then, I thought ~170 KB/s was fine for 16 players, figured I could get at least 20 players with ~345 KB/s

duvel

- set the ns2server as high/highest priority
- set the ns2server to use x cores and only use those cores for ns2server

just an idea

- traffic shaping giving ns2server highest priority

mmm yeah

the_tick

Yeah you're connection is the problem, I don't know how many players your hosting but if you're hosting 2 servers on a 2.8 mbit line you won't get very far. You will need a higher upload bandwith.

the_tick

I mean, I have the same hardware as you on my servers, I5 3750K running 2 servers on it, 28 player and 26 player slot, but I have a 100mit up / down connection, this makes it unlikely it is an hardware issue. you're hardware is more then capapable to handle the 16 slots server.

Maybe do some interval checks, is you're bandwith also up to spec in the evening? a lot of ISP's throttle back connections in the evenings. I would recommend speedtesting in the evenings to check you're true connection speed.

Also, you're required to have a buffer, the amount of data that a server sends can spike in example of big fights,

NedStar

the_tick wrote: »

I would recommend speedtesting in the evenings to check you're true connection speed.

Use Ping Plotter to properly debug your line.

skynet

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I've solved the issue: turns out one of my routers was acting weird and now that I replaced it, I can host an 18 players game without everyone's ping spiking every minute ^^