Support NeoGAF

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Update 3: #WeBACK!
Hoorah! No more high latency warning on my FFA playlist. Jumped on just now to check the game connection held up from the two games being good last night and it's still good!!! So happy. I'd recommend fellow Aussies/Kiwis give things a try again.

Now the grind from Gold team wins only after all that, oh noes. At least y'all don't have to see my thread anymore

Update 2:
I had two polar opposite experiences yesterday, hopefully a sign of things being fixed:

1. Same problems loading playlists for Arena or Warzone or Customs. Just could not play the game. This was around 9.30PM AEST. So I didn't play.

2. I tried again later before bed and the problems appeared to be fixed by midnight. I could now see the new Arena preview playlist so something was updated. I played two games that loaded fast and they felt soooo much BETTER. The first felt like Aussie dedis and I was back to my old self killing fools. The second game I had USA players chatting away in a party but the game still felt soooo much BETTER, like 75% better.

I thank the powers that be and I'll understand there will be ups and downs with the nature of online gaming. This thread had to be done though, it was crazy out of hand. We'll see how tonight goes after work too and I hope I don't have to post more issues and can just keep enjoying this great Halo game.

Update 1:
So here's the KotakuAU article about my Halo saga:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/05/halo-5-is-having-online-issues-in-australia/

Here's MS Australia's reply to Kotaku

We continuously collect and study data regarding our online performance, and regularly fine tune the game to ensure the best experience for players worldwide. When changes are made to improve performance for certain users, it can sometimes have a detrimental impact for other users. We are currently investigating performance in Australia and will make all efforts to make improvements. Additionally, in this month’s “Memories of Reach” content update, we’re adding matchmaking search preferences to give players more options to find online matches.

Original Post
Anyone following HaloGAF would see how badly I've been affected for weeks now. It's not just me either, 10+ friends are not playing Halo and haven't for some time. We try Halo weekly and it's the same issue since region locking was opened up in a previous update approx. 6 weeks ago.

I also have two ISP connections that use totally different lines and technology; a coax cable connection with Telstra and a phone line connection with iiNet, the #1 and #2 ISPs in Australia. Here's the connection quality for both (yes Australian Internet is slow but more than enough for an online FPS game).

Currently sitting at 205ms response time to Melbourne Azure Datacentre:

Currently sitting at 223ms response time to Melbourne Azure Datacentre:

What pisses me off is the game is fantastic but the servers, matchmaking, consistency and communication/support is severely lacking. It's clearly not my connection whatsoever due to totally separate lines at my premises, types of line technology (cable DOCSIS 3.1 vs ADSL2+), 2 x ISPs, 2 x routers/modems, different DSLAMs owned by each ISP at the exchange level and I certainly understand how to configure everything and the tech involved from end to end.

There is no avenue for real support nor an official statement from Azure/MS/343. I have also dared to call Xbox Live support twice, routed to call centres overseas (not in Australia) and as I suspected just scripted call centre staff without knowledge of local Azure datacentres at all. I live less then 35Km (approx. 22 miles) away from the Melbourne Victoria, Australia Azure datacentre that opened after the Titanfall launch but prior to Halo 5.

Some history and tech in case any Xbox/MS/343 reading actually decide to look into this. If any authors or editors on GAF want to write an article about this I have tons of screenshots, videos and more that highlight the issues firmly at the feet of MS/343.

I decided to play the Overwatch beta (also whenever I play Destiny)...and...my connection, chat and partying up with 2 other mates is near perfect with zero latency issues noticeable in game. Surprise surprise. A Blizzard beta on day one does what Azure/MS/343 still can't get right for Australia through H4, MCC and H5. I hate be forced to make a thread and trash a platform, game and developer I love but I have literally zero options left.

The sustain from 343 have been fantastic and the best in the Halo franchise history, the matchmaking and servers for Australia have been unacceptable. It's been years now since Australia open 2 Microsoft Azure datacentres and they're yet to deliver for Australian gamers IMO.

Overwatch & Destiny performance points:

• Works perfectly fine on both my ISP/types of connections.
• Fast matching, check.
• Australian matches, check.
• No party chat break up, check.
• Near zero latency impact in game, check.
• Zero UI bugs or game loading issues, check.
• Fast loading in game menus and customisations, check.
• No profile errors or playlists with high latency, check.

I always cold boot the X1. I don't use instant on at all and I'm not in the preview program either. My NAT is open, I've released my MAC address, my router runs 10+ other devices/systems without issue. I've reconfigured DMZ, alternated to port forwarding, updated static IPs and even tested QoS. Our Wii U runs perfectly fine for online games. Destiny has great latency in game. Either of my connections run all this just fine very consistently. I can watch Netflix or Xbox TV/Films in full HD without missing any frames at all. I downloaded the Overwatch beta in about 12minutes. I have 16ms response to my own servers hosted in a different Melbourne datacentre and never have issue with latency there on either of my ISP connections.

So what do I do? Quit Halo? What for the update for regional/datacentre player choice? That's not going to cut it, I can see in the Xbox One dash > network > advanced settings both connections are 200+ms response time. Even when the update drops the servers here in Aus are total shit for Halo gaming with 200+ms. It's not going to make a difference if they don't fix the root cause of the issue locally.

I imagine Overwatch and Destiny aren't using Azure servers and therefore don't have the issues inherent with the Australian Xbox/Azure framework at present. I implore MS/343 to do something here and get the official word out. Honestly I've definitively proven the tech behind two connections having the same issues.

*feel free to contact/use me to remote profile your Victorian/NSW Azure DCs.
**Did MS/343/Azure upgrade the NextDC with ExpressRoute to reduce VIC/NSW DC latency last FEB2015? Are there any tech talks or docs regarding H5/Azure/Australia implementation?

This creates huge issues is MCC and H5 when trying to game, some things I've experienced in the last 2 weeks alone:

• Halo profile sync error.
• Two playlists have a warning of high latency, why are they different to other playlists without warnings?
• When searching I/we get no matches found.
• When searching solo I receive a fireteam joining error, I wasn't joining anyone, just searching to play solo.
• Some games don't get recorded on Waypoint or Halotracker game history or the API.
• I can't load REQs in game and I'm forced to use basic weapons all game.
• REQ points and cards don't load prior to the game.
• REQ score shows as 0 due to loading issues.
• The latency is near unplayable, certainly not competitive in any way, shape or form.
• Party chat drop outs.
• Some friends can't join a fireteam.
  

 

[SmartWaffles]

It has been like this for quite a long time for the entire Asian+SEA region as well, both FFA and Warzone Turbo show as high latency for me which doesn't make any sense.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

It has been like this for quite a long time for the entire Asian+SEA region as well, both FFA and Warzone Turbo show as high latency for me which doesn't make any sense.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. The exact same playlists I have high latency marked. Time to speak up 343/Azure.

 

[Jessie.Bristol]

I have been experiencing some latency issues recently on Halo 5 as well, I am on East Coast US. I had been lagged out of some games here and there over the past couple of months or so (which never happened in the first four months or so). The last couple of times I was on was April 29th and 30th, and many games (not all, but a good portion) just felt off to me. I could tell some of my shots didn't seem to be connecting properly and some of it I attributed to playing nearly a solid two weeks of Gears of War 4.

But something definitely felt off to me, especially coming off of 7 butter smooth matches of Overwatch on Xbox One today.

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

HaloGAF, I ask a favour. Please help me keep this on the front page of GAF. I don't want to bump to get attention and banned but I'll do what I need to raise awareness. This is bullshit at this point and I'm calling it out.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215681

Bumping per your request so you don't get banned for bumping your own thread

 

[LowSignal]

I remember when Titanfall came out there was issues

 

[Demojay13]

I don't think the regions aren't locked anymore as I have been getting games with Americans the last few weeks. Which has made it a lot easier to get games but has increased lag.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Tried looking for latest update on region search parameters, as others are reporting relased now, nothing in my copy of Halo or Xbox reboots either.

 

[justsomeguy]

Have you postd on halo and xbox subreddits?

 

[jizzlobber]

I'm a fellow aussie halo player and I'm just confused by the whole thing really... When region lock was on my games are so smooth but I could only ever consistently find games in warzone and team arena but I'm assuming that's a population thing.

Now I'm being matched with Americans mostly and I'm noticing the odd lag some and close encounters can be weird with a rocket not working if it's just before I die out I'll die to a sword when it looks like my shotty killed the guy before the lunge/animation.

Signs of latency but very payable on general.
But I'm on the best fibre/nbn available.
Seems normal, any checks I can do?

 

[SaylorMan]

I've been having similar latency issues (Halo 5, in New Zealand) in the last 3 weeks as well. I haven't had issue with the REQs or joining games, but every single game I join is lagging, which makes keeping Diamond hard.
I'm also finding lots of Americans on the mic, which has never been the case.

My internet is running 100mps down, 50mps up. I've had no issues with lag before these last 3 weeks, and I have no issues with any other games.

Only plus seems to be I'm finding games a lot faster.

What do we do??

 

[Walshicus]

The two speed tests you posted show 12 and 17ms?

 

[kami_sama]

The two speed tests you posted show 12 and 17ms?

That's to the s testing servers, not the azure ones.

 

[Trup1aya]

Any update on this? How long has your ping to azure been so high? Not sure how big azure is for businesses in Australia but I can't imagine MS would live with this issue for long, as it would impact more than just Live, right?

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Have you postd on halo and xbox subreddits?

Will do that on Monday.

I'm a fellow aussie halo player and I'm just confused by the whole thing really... When region lock was on my games are so smooth but I could only ever consistently find games in warzone and team arena but I'm assuming that's a population thing.

Now I'm being matched with Americans mostly and I'm noticing the odd lag some and close encounters can be weird with a rocket not working if it's just before I die out I'll die to a sword when it looks like my shotty killed the guy before the lunge/animation.

Signs of latency but very payable on general.
But I'm on the best fibre/nbn available.
Seems normal, any checks I can do?

Check your latency in dashboard > settings > network > advanced > detailed check > what is the latency number there?

Any update on this? How long has your ping to azure been so high? Not sure how big azure is for businesses in Australia but I can't imagine MS would live with this issue for long, as it would impact more than just Live, right?

Web stuff manages far better at 0.2 of a second (200ms). Gaming on the other hand and that figure is just crazy for being so local to the DC.

Overall Azure has been more like 18-25ms with my connections and work/gaming. I work with Azure daily and it has not been great in our Aus region recently but Halo is just off the charts fucked for me.

I agree MS wouldn't keep it this way and generally they have great performance but there's nothing in the Azure dev circles about our local DCs going shite as such. MS are always tight lipped though, which is bloody frustrating.

 

[AxeMan]

Azure has poor, very poor, performance in Aust and has for some time. I keep trying to tell our developers that but they keep wanting to put everything in 'the cloud'. Not very smart

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Azure has poor, very poor, performance in Aust and has for some time. I keep trying to tell our developers that but they keep wanting to put everything in 'the cloud'. Not very smart

I find initial response a little slow but post that it's solid dev wise. Config and maintenance can get things really responsive.


As for friends, had 4 on tonight and each checked their advanced settings for latency...not one of us had under 190ms from 3 different ISPs. All from the same state of Victoria.

Y'all got problems in your datacentres.

 

[Neuromancer]

That's shitty. I hope it gets sorted out for you.

 

[NOKYARD]

This creates huge issues is MCC and H5 when trying to game, some things I've experienced in the last 2 weeks alone:

• Halo profile sync error.
• Two playlists have a warning of high latency, why are they different to other playlists without warnings?
• When searching I/we get no matches found.
• When searching solo I receive a fireteam joining error, I wasn't joining anyone, just searching to play solo.
• Some games don't get recorded on Waypoint or Halotracker game history or the API.
• I can't load REQs in game and I'm forced to use basic weapons all game.
• REQ points and cards don't load prior to the game.
• REQ score shows as 0 due to loading issues.
• The latency is near unplayable, certainly not competitive in any way, shape or form.
• Party chat drop outs.
• Some friends can't join a fireteam.
  

Within the past 2 weeks i have experienced the bolded items as well. Likely not nearly as often, or as extreme as you have encountered, but my experience has been similar. I have also been kicked out of Forge sessions while simply rotating an item (that's not counting the times i was booted while manipulating grouped items which is a known bug).

There should be a way to determine which list items are ping related, or due to what seems to be an extremely fragile ecosystem. Sometimes when i am Forging i feel like i am building a house of cards on a windy day. This forces me to save after every item is placed, which makes map iteration nearly impossible since everyone who has Bookmarked my maps (over 20,000 players) is forced to play on possibly broken maps if they happen to load the WiP while i am editing it.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Within the past 2 weeks i have experienced the bolded items as well. Likely not nearly as often, or as extreme as you have encountered, but my experience has been similar. I have also been kicked out of Forge sessions while simply rotating an item (that's not counting the times i was booted while manipulating grouped items which is a known bug).

There should be a way to determine which list items are ping related, or due to what seems to be an extremely fragile ecosystem. Sometimes when i am Forging i feel like i am building a house of cards on a windy day. This forces me to save after every item is placed, which makes map iteration nearly impossible since everyone who has Bookmarked my maps (over 20,000 players) is forced to play on possibly broken maps if they happen to load the WiP while i am editing it.

I totally forgot about Forge being on dedis these days, thanks for sharing and that's a large audience you've got to account for. Good analogy on the house of cards and I imagine your frequency of saving slows your forging down immensely too.

The bolded issues seem to be in every region with varying degrees impacts.

 

[NOKYARD]

I forgot to mention that i am located in Canada and my ping to the North Central Illinois server is around 35ms-40ms.

 

[Easy Breezy]

Isn't the connection test in settings connecting to the Seattle server? Pretty sure that's what I was told.


I haven't played H5 since December, but even then it was impossible to find games after certain times.

 

[JumPeRJumPzZ]

The European servers arent that great either when you even get on a EU server lol... EU players just got the middlefinger in Halo 5. No Data Centre selection for no reason etc

 

[tuna_love]

im fairly positive the connection settings test doesn't go to local data server, have you ever seen it lower from that test? mine has always been super high

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

im fairly positive the connection settings test doesn't go to local data server, have you ever seen it lower from that test? mine has always been super high

Perhaps, it would be quite silly to have regional dedis and not code a response time to your local servers though. At any rate here's a breakdown of every datacentre, which was also checked.

http://www.azurespeed.com/

So for the last two weeks both my ISP connections have been 200+ in the xbox dash and this website tool. Just now my cable connection is ranging as 115-137ms, but it's Mother's day on a Sunday down here so their traffic load is likely very low.

H5 still shows as high latency on FFA playlist with this lower ms response.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Titanfall 2 is coming soon dude. We won't need Halo anymore.

You sure you're on DOCSIS 3.1? With those speeds I really doubt that. Pretty sure 3.1 isn't starting until some time in 2017. All fibre right now I'm fairly sure is still on 3.0.

I think the ping to the data centres that you're seeing is for our dashboards, which rather stupidly don't connect to the Australian servers. I've tweeted both Microsoft and Azure about this and neither replied. Basically, they don't give a fuck. It's why our menus are so laggy.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Yeah 3.1 for equipment and exchange but the plan from Telstra hobbles the whole thing down. What I wouldn't give for a 1Gb upload.

Can't wait for Titanfall 2. What does your connection say on the AzureSpeed.com site to Vic/Melb DC? (That's away from the dashboard funny biz).

EDIT: Misses is awake now, commence Mother's day festivities.

 

[Seth]

Whats a traceroute look like to the server, if you know the ip? Does the latency start with a Microsoft owned IP, or is it still in your ISPs network?

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Whats a traceroute look like to the server, if you know the ip? Does the latency start with a Microsoft owned IP, or is it still in your ISPs network?

I'll run some tests tomorrow when I'm back off mobile, anyone who wants to traceroute to the Azure datacentres can look up the series of public IP addresses here (for example mine is AustraliaSouthEast):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/confirmation.aspx?id=41653

 

[HD Duck Pics]

Whats a traceroute look like to the server, if you know the ip? Does the latency start with a Microsoft owned IP, or is it still in your ISPs network?

Here's mine: http://pastebin.com/7q1mJ8xT

Jumps from 11ms on hop 7 to 193ms on hop 8.

I've been trying to contact people and been getting the run around. Azure sent me to Xbox. Xbox wasn't any help. Telstra sent me back to Azure.

165.228.19.162 looks to be a Telstra IP address.

 

[Tyrus]

I've been pretty lucky with Halo 5 all-round as an Aussie. Rock-solid connections, against both Australian community and Americans when they opened up their region-locking, with the occasional match of lag (maybe once every 15 or so Arena matches) that usually don't last the whole match. Maybe twice I had to drop out due to terrible connection. I'm on NBN at the moment.

Sorry OP you're experiencing difficulty as well as others in Australia/Asia/Oceania region, even with Azure datacentres up. Sometimes I wish our Internet caught up with everybody else, argh.

Edit: Thinking about it longer, the most consistent connection issue I've had is actually REQs loading. I've had to wait/reboot several times to get REQs to load which has been very, very irritating. Once I'm in a match and come out of it, it usually loads normally, though.

 

[Seth]

Here's mine: http://pastebin.com/7q1mJ8xT

Jumps from 11ms on hop 7 to 193ms on hop 8.

I've been trying to contact people and been getting the run around. Azure sent me to Xbox. Xbox wasn't any help. Telstra sent me back to Azure.

165.228.19.162 looks to be a Telstra IP address.

So do things work fine when you use the VPN?

So this actually looks like Telestra's problem and not Microsoft. So calling microsoft might not be the right direction. In your non VPN trace, the "problem"is on either hop 7 or hop 8. You can see that because the latency starts on hop 8 and continues to be high throughout the rest of the trace. Either the router at 7 has a bad route to the destination (13.70.64.0) or hop 8 has a bad route back to your computer's public IP address. It appears that hop 7 and 8 are both telestra owned routers so you may be able to call telestra and explain what you see and specifically ask if they can check those two devices to see if there is any way to optimize the routing. The reason I put problem in quotations is that its possible telestra doesn't have a better route to take. In that case, there may be nothing they could do that doesn't cost them money putting a new connection in.

I'm unsure how receptive the ISPs will be in Australia to go into this detail for a residential customer, but it may be worth a shot. May just have to call over and over until you get someone who can help. In the states, I would call and specifically ask they put in a ticket to their NOC with the details I described above and ask that they have an engineer call me so I can explain.

On hop 9, the router name APPEARS to still be in melbourne (ae0-0.mel01-96cbe-1a.ntwk.msn.net) judging from "mel01". So its a little strange to jump up to nearly 200 ms between 7 and 9 when both appear to be in melbourne. Hop 9 also looks to be the first hop into Microsoft's network. So your ISP most likely has a direct link to microsoft between hop 8 and 9, which is a great thing, but judging from the trace and my experience, they have routing screwed up somewhere. As far as Telestra sending you back to Azure, this is pretty typical ISP bullshit. They don't want to deal with the problem, but I think that trace clearly gives evidence that its their problem. In my opinion they either need to look into what I said about hop 7 and 8, or specifically explain why thats not the problem so that you have more information to go on.

Hopefully that makes sense, I don't know how much you know about networking, but i know all that can get confusing.

Ill also be looking for a trace from ozzy on both of his ISPs. Its possible iiNet dumps their traffic into telestra at some point and is hitting the same issue. We will see when he has time to post.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

That's nice and all but now explain the same timeout drop offs with my traceroutes on iiNet ADSL vs Telstra cable. They aren't using the same routers nor the same DSLAMS at the exchange nor the same IPs in the traceroutes when it drops.

For me I read the same timeout issues on both my ISPs as either:

1. Azure is fucked for latency in AustraliaSouthWest.
2. Azure blocks trace route for the public IPs of XBL.

I'm inclined to say WhyNotBoth.gif.

No way two ISPs have the same issue at the exact same time for the same service being the only one with issue. The common denominator here is Azure. All other services on both ISPs perform responsively e.g. remote desktop, file uploads, videos, SQL, blag blah. It's definitively their issue IMO.

I'll leave a 0.00001% chance it's the Australian infrastructure having issue but again my OP really shows totally different line and exchange tech having the same issue. The process of elimination continues to point at XBL/Azure locally.

Also my Xbox dash has dropped to 185ms and 180ms for my two connections, down from 205ms and 223ms averages. A marginal improvement but nowhere near gaming levels required.

A wild stab in the dark has me placing this connection as the root issue currently:
http://www.nextdc.com/news/nextdc-delivers-private-connectivity-microsoft-azure-using-expressroute

MS don't officially acknowledge they use NextDC but everyone knows it. Perhaps it's a NextDC issue, without XBL/Azure support we'll never know or have a path to resolve or even identify the root cause.

*Note I have also used both tracert and Hypertrace as some ISPs block the default Microsoft ICMP.

EDIT: I just ran a couple of traceroutes from one of my servers in one of Australia's largest Melbourne datacentres (Vocus) and the same issue, timeouts after 5 hops. This DC has 6 redundant connections from Telstra to Optus and Macquarie to their own 1,600Kms of Fibre network the own directly. Come on it's Azure/NextDC/MS/XBL.

 

[Seth]

Its common for some routers to not respond to traceroutes, for a variety of reasons. It can make troubleshooting difficult but a timeout in a traceroute doesn't necessarily indicate a problem, especially since the service works, even though its not working well. But yeah, Azure could just be fucked up there. If you want to post them, we can take a look and see if they show anything different than the other guys did.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Its common for some routers to not respond to traceroutes, for a variety of reasons. It can make troubleshooting difficult but a timeout in a traceroute doesn't necessarily indicate a problem, especially since the service works, even though its not working well. But yeah, Azure could just be fucked up there. If you want to post them, we can take a look and see if they show anything different than the other guys did.

Sure, thanks for taking a look or caring by the way. Cheers. as you can see iiNet don't dump their traffic to Telstra. iiNet was formed to knock Telstra off its monopoly of our network infrastructure. Also my server DC never goes anywhere near the iiNet or Telstra IP addresses.

iiNet ADSL2+

Telstra Cable with speed boost

I'll keep my server stuff private but it's the same exact traceroute, the last IP hop timeouts with larger latency. Basically Azure/XBL are blocking traceroute.

 

[Seth]

Wow yeah, you really can't see shit with iinet huh. The last hop in the iinet trace has an IP belonging to Western Australian Internet Exchange. Unfortunate we can't see just a bit past that to see where the latency begins. Looks like thats a peering point in a carrier hotel for multiple entities. I was trying to find a list of what companies are connecting there on their website https://www.ix.asn.au iinet probably connects to microsoft through that IX. I know we don't see it in the trace since it seems to be blocked, but since its hitting an IX I wonder if iinet might use telestra as a backhaul. that IX sounded like a CNF so its possible they have a handful of routers, allow companies like iinet, microsoft, telesta, amazon etc. advertise routes to them and let the routing protocols take place.

I still think telestra has something weird going on, it shows the same in your trace too. Hop 6 and 7 are concerning, especially since it hasn't even left telestra's network. Not saying something isn't wrong at azure also, but thats definitely a problem as well.

So Im just saying MAYBE youd have better luck yelling at telestra to at least look into those two devices and see if they can do something better there. Microsoft might be hard to reach with an issue like this. If telestra did find a problem there and fixed it, maybe youd see some amount of improvement.

 

[Seth]

Found their list... https://www.ix.asn.au/peering/

WA-IX seems to be where your iinet trace goes. The list does have iinet and microsoft, but no telestra.

Could maybe attempt to email the IX people and see if they would be willing to give you the time of day.

 

[Dash Kappei]

FYI the connection test in the Xbox's settings actually connect to MS main servers in Seattle.
If I go by that I've had a 300ms ping since day1 lol
It's useless really. Of course that doesn't mean you aren't experiencing problems because of MS/Azure's own fuck ups, just that you can't rely on that test to know what/how are you pinging when in-game.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Amazing, likely someone rebooted or fixed something without any public acknowledgement of it today.

iiNet averaging 130ms response to AustraliaSouthEast.
Telstra averaging 100ms response to AustraliaSouthEast.

I can live with that, ideally it should be sitting between 20-40ms max but I'm happy to see more than 50% improvement. We'll see if it keeps improving or returns to poor performance.

So Im just saying MAYBE youd have better luck yelling at telestra to at least look into those two devices and see if they can do something better there. Microsoft might be hard to reach with an issue like this. If telestra did find a problem there and fixed it, maybe youd see some amount of improvement.

I'll yell at any link in the chain

Hopefully there is some feedback coming from iiNet, Telstra and Microsoft as I've reached out across the board where I can.

FYI the connection test in the Xbox's settings actually connect to MS main servers in Seattle.
If I go by that I've had a 300ms ping since day1 lol
It's useless really. Of course that doesn't mean you aren't experiencing problems because of MS/Azure's own fuck ups, just that you can't rely on that test to know what/how are you pinging when in-game.

This links moves away from that dashboard/Seattle confusion.
http://azurespeed.com/

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Game is fucked again, can't even load playlists:
http://xboxclips.com/Ozzy+Onya+A2Z/e480c6a4-1669-4e89-a730-fe977ec2f740

Latency now 200ms again.

Load up Overwatch beta again and no issues at all. Fast games and great connections.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Anyone having similar issues with H5 here's an official 343 Waypoint support post you could post in:
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...cy/dd4134ee-f308-41cb-baa2-baea494847ac/posts

 

[Resilient]

This is why I stopped playing Halo months ago. But they have my money already so what do MS care.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

This is why I stopped playing Halo months ago. But they have my money already so what do MS care.

It's a common story I hear since H4, unfortunately.

 

[JaggedSac]

This is why I stopped playing Halo months ago. But they have my money already so what do MS care.

Well, I'm sure they'd like you to stay and buy some REQs.

 

[Computer]

Its not just Australia. I live in the middle of the United States with a 100 mb down and have been having issues the last few weeks. Players jumping around on screen eating shots. This just started a few weeks ago. Before then it was fine. Something is broken for sure.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Crosspost from H5/HaloGAF.

So here's the KotakuAU article about my Halo saga:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/05/halo-5-is-having-online-issues-in-australia/

Here's MS Australia's reply to Kotaku

We continuously collect and study data regarding our online performance, and regularly fine tune the game to ensure the best experience for players worldwide. When changes are made to improve performance for certain users, it can sometimes have a detrimental impact for other users. We are currently investigating performance in Australia and will make all efforts to make improvements. Additionally, in this month’s “Memories of Reach” content update, we’re adding matchmaking search preferences to give players more options to find online matches.

Ah, PR fluff at its best. How about the laundry list of issues outside of simple latency delays?

Video dedicated server problem and the high latency FFA playlist warning

Screenshot version of the playlist warning

Screenshot of dedicated server issue

Screenshot of unable to join (I was just searching solo and not joining anyone, this weird error was just trying to search slayer)

Screenshot of Warzone Turbo not loading REQs, a known bug when joining a game in progress

Screenshot of profile sync error, only happens with Halo5

Screenshot of emblems for matched players not loading, also REQ points and cards not loading in the same shot

Screenshot of post game stats not loading correctly

----------------

I urge any Australians to post in this Waypoint thread about their issues:
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...34ee-f308-41cb-baa2-baea494847ac/posts?page=1

EDIT: I've done all I can; from my end and tech support channels to community forums and anything I can think of really. I'll try the new update for search preferences but I fear this laundry list reflects a state of the game in Australia that won't be rectified. If that occurs it may very well be time to say good bye to Halo multiplayer. My son would be crushed, as would I.

 

[HD Duck Pics]

Ah, PR fluff at its best. How about the laundry list of issues outside of simple latency delays?

The worst part is that it doesn't even acknowledge the real issue. Azure was screwed and that was causing problems for any Azure hosted game (Rainbow 6, Halo, Titanfall etc.).

Luckily/coincidentally everything seems fixed now though.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

The worst part is that it doesn't even acknowledge the real issue. Azure was screwed and that was causing problems for any Azure hosted game (Rainbow 6, Halo, Titanfall etc.).

Luckily/coincidentally everything seems fixed now though.

I had two polar opposite experiences yesterday, hopefully a sign of things being fixed:

1. Same problems loading playlists for Arena or Warzone or Customs. Just could not play the game. This was around 9.30PM AEST. So I didn't play.

2. I tried again later before bed and the problems appeared to be fixed by midnight. I could now see the new Arena preview playlist so something was updated. I played two games that loaded fast and they felt soooo much BETTER. The first felt like Aussie dedis and I was back to my old self killing fools. The second game I had USA players chatting away in a party but the game still felt soooo much BETTER, like 75% better.

I thank the powers that be and I'll understand there will be ups and downs with the nature of online gaming. This thread had to be done though, it was crazy out of hand. We'll see how tonight goes after work too and I hope I don't have to post more issues and can just keep enjoying this great Halo game.

EDIT: Just for reference neither ISP has changed data in their trace routes from my end. Fix appears to be at 343/MS server end, which is great.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

#WeBACK!
Hoorah! No more high latency warning on my FFA playlist. Jumped on just now to check the game connection held up from the two games being good last night and it's still good!!! So happy. I'd recommend fellow Aussies/Kiwis give things a try again. Games are being matched quick, latency feels low and I'm not feeling like I've lost cheaply again. Just like Halo should be played.

Now the grind from Gold team wins only after all that, oh noes. At least y'all don't have to see my thread anymore