[Lag] Traceroutes please!!

[Xalin]

Erivoss has been VERY busy working closely with Opentransit and they are now well aware of the lagproblems our customers are facing. They have plenty of Pingplots and have asked us to provide them with Traceroutes to further narrow down the problem.

We thank you for sending in all those Pingplots. They have made the difference in convincing Opentransit to see the problem. And now that they're working on it we hope that you will not relent in your effords to help us solve this problem!

What we ask from you:

While you are playing have a Dos prompt open. Every version of Windows has this. Open it by going to Start --> Run and type in 'cmd' in Windows 2k and XP and 'command' in Windows 98.

When you experience lag or shortly after do 'tracert [ipadress] > c:\tracert[date].txt' (where [ipadress] is the ip adress of the server you are playing on and [date] is the date and time if you plan on making several traceroutes on the same day)

Server IPs:
Prydwen: 193.252.123.177
Excalibur: 193.252.123.33
Camlann: 193.252.123.147

This will do a traceroute to the ipadress and dump the results in a textfile on your C: drive. Send those textfiles to Erivoss! (erivoss (at) goa (dot) com or RightNow it under 'Life on your server').

Although Traceroutes mostly show the same information as pingplots, Opentransit have specificly asked us to provide traceroutes and no more Pingplots.

We realise very well that this is asking for more help from you, our customers. We also realise a lot of people will think this is crasy and weird and will flame this thread. Please don't get discouraged by this. We know there is plenty of you that understand we are trying our hardest to solve this problem and that you are happy to help us. It's you that have made the difference so far and it's you that will help us solve this problem soon!

 

[scorge]

We also realise a lot of people will think this is crasy and weird and will flame this thread.

I dont think its crazy,but by the time i have realised i have Lag, ALT-TABed to windows, then typed in "tracert 193.252.123.33 > c:\tracert2012041800.txt"

the lag might have gone by then

Also

...... [date] is the date and time if you plan on making several traceroutes on the same day)

What DTG ( date time group ) do you wish to use, CET, GMT, Zulu time? otherwsie you will be getting results that differ by -/+ 1 hour?

Zulu time maybe the best DTG (Zulu time is the same as GMT, except you add a z to the end of the time e.g. 1800z) this lets the person reading the report know that the four numbers before the z is the time)

this stops you making amess when you try to analyse differant reports from multiple time zones. Military reports and signals are usually expressed in zulu time, this stops bad things happening

 

[Xalin]

I dont think its crazy,but by the time i have realised i have Lag, ALT-TABed to windows, then typed in "tracert 193.252.123.33 > c:\tracert2012041800.txt"

the lag might have gone by then

We realise that but it's better then nothing at all.

Also

What DTG ( date time group ) do you wish to use, CET, GMT, Zulu time? otherwsie you will be getting results that differ by -/+ 1 hour?

It's not that important we get the exact time ... adding a time is just so you can make several of these a day.

 

[Daedalus]

OpenTransit asked for traceroutes instead of pingplots?

That doesn't make very much sense. Traceroutes are useless when trying to find lagspikes. Be prepared that OT might take the "But the traceroutes don't show a problem" route.

 

[Xalin]

OpenTransit asked for traceroutes instead of pingplots?

That doesn't make very much sense. Traceroutes are useless when trying to find lagspikes. Be prepared that OT might take the "But the traceroutes don't show a problem" route.

Nah Opentransit asked for Traceroutes on top of all the pingplots they already got from us.

 

[Tesla Monkor]

Don't the screenshots with pingplots also double as traceroutes?

 

[Xalin]

Trust me we had this discussion with OT. They want Traceroutes.

Lets give them traceroutes!

 

[Daedalus]

Lets give them traceroutes! The sound they'll make rattling their cage will serve as a warning to the rest.

We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again, a new age. Aquinas spoke of the mythical City on the Hill. Soon that city will be a reality, and we will be crowned its kings.

 

[scorge]

Trust me we had this discussion with OT. They want Traceroutes.

Lets give them traceroutes!

Like i said i have no problems with traceroutes,but there are better ways of finding lag, what is their rational for using traceroutes?

 

[Tilda]

Is it possible to make a .bat file that you can alt tab to click it, and it open a cmd window, type the thing and output it to a file so you only have to click, no typing?

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

I've written a small program that will install itself in C:\CamelotTrace and will also dump the .txt files there.
It'll create three icons on the desktop, one for each english server.
It should be possible to run from location without actually downloading it, anyway, give it a try, and lemme know what you think of it


CamelotTrace.exe

 

[Frostor]

the setup.bat:
will only work for ppl with an english version of windows. since you force the .lnk files into \Desktop\ map. Other Language windows will make a new map.
the camelot trace.bat:
didn't even work here, i'll edit the file to see whats wrong

//aussie

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

the setup.bat:
will only work for ppl with an english version of windows. since you force the .lnk files into \Desktop\ map. Other Language windows will make a new map.
the camelot trace.bat:
didn't even work here, i'll edit the file to see whats wrong

//aussie

You're completely right about setup.bat... didn't think about other directorynames in other languages well.. have to figure out then how to change it...

and about CamelotTrace.bat, Wouldn't know why it don't work. It just calls for tracert.exe and directs it to the ip of the server. It does need 1 variable, exc, pry or cam
Perhaps something goes wrong in the environment variables It calls.
What errormessage does it give? can you run it from commandline?

btw, gonna get some sleep now, so I'll prolly won't fix it untill tomorrow

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

changed the setup.bat a bit so if the desktop directory doesn't exist, he'll just pop up a .txt message, and opens c:\CamelotTrace with explorer

 

[Frostor]

ok problem with the camelottrace.bat is the %CTDATE%

the format in which my computer is showing this is with the "/" seperator which is not allowed in Windows XP. once i remove that parameter out of the outputfile
it works fine. I guess yours has "-" as spererator and then it'll work fine

the only solution i can think of is changing it to >> "Excalibur TRnumber: %CTCOUNT%.txt". and move the date into the txtfile itself. or change CTDATE to day-month-year. no idea if it'll work. Dunno which DOS commands there exists
Or extract the day/month/year out of CTDATE .

hf

//aussie

edit: doh, ":" not allowed either

 

[Frostor]

some more hints !

1. Maybe put those .txt files you make in 3 different folders (excal,pryd,cam) , so the .txt files aren't in same dir like your bats
2. Remove some ECHO's before the tracert command so it starts directly. more chance to catch the lag.
3. Download [this]. It's a windows Interface for your batch program. Makes it possible to do serval tracerts. & Include it to your setup xD

(those 3 links you make from setup.bat have to be in C:\CamelotTrace otherwise it doesn't work!)

//aussie

 

[Worfen]

Made a small c program that calls GetTimeFormat() and GetDateFormat() to name a textfile it places in C:\
here's an example output:

C:\>daoctrace.exe exc
Executing: tracert 193.252.123.33 >C:\trace_2004-12-21_08.54_exc
Please be patient...

C:\>

Hope u guys will enjoy it and that in the end it will help OT get these lagissues under control (the traceroutes, that is.. not my program )...

daoctrace.exe

Lemme know if it works, etc

 

[Darzil]

Sorry to say I won't be helping with this unless the lag gets much more constant. The only problems I've seen in recent weeks are isolated packet loss or errors on OpenTransit routers (Mainly a London router - which has 1% packet errors on average, mainly stopping after 9-10pm), which are on about the 10th Hop. A traceroute will take 15-20 seconds to get around to tracing that part of the route. Even assuming I'm running a second computer (so I don't have to alt tab out), the traceroute would only have a chance to catch the next lag, not the current lag.

If it gets much worse, I might have a chance to catch it. In the meantime, I may keep pingplotting for my own benefit. If nothing else, I can always try to work out a way of writing pingplotter output to a text file to look like a DOS tracert. Probably a much better use of my time !

NOT, obviously, a complaint about GOA. OpenTransit, yes. <grin>

Darzil

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

some more hints !

1. Maybe put those .txt files you make in 3 different folders (excal,pryd,cam) , so the .txt files aren't in same dir like your bats
2. Remove some ECHO's before the tracert command so it starts directly. more chance to catch the lag.
3. Download [this]. It's a windows Interface for your batch program. Makes it possible to do serval tracerts. & Include it to your setup xD

(those 3 links you make from setup.bat have to be in C:\CamelotTrace otherwise it doesn't work!)

//aussie

Very nice interface I suck in interface programming
Can you make it so that it just calls for the mainprogram with variable, so there is no need for the .lnk's? and if they don't start from your desktop there is probably something wrong in the properties under the Target field, or Start in field. perhaps somehow that information is lost while transferring it over the internet?
About the ECHO's.... they are nigh instant, even on an older pc so that shouldn't delay the tracert command much, but I'll see if I can optimise it a bit

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

New version posted

(version 0.8)

 

[Frostor]

ok, updated mine(same download link) with parameters so you don't need the .lnk files anymore.

just put the camelottracer.bat & my exe file in C:\camelottrace\ and it should work

 

[[GOA]Erivoss]

If any of you DO have ping plots (or are carrying on doing them) then please send those too. I know they haven't asked for it but I'd like to be prepared just the same, and the network techies here would like to have a look at them to.

 

[Darzil]

Will do !

Darzil

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

New version posted

(version 0.9)

 

[Frostor]

sorry made small fix, my Interface gave the impression of 'not responding' when he's busy doing the tracert. fixed that. same dl link

//aussie

 

[Xalin]

To the people making the programs to run the traceroutes: Thanks for your efford!

To the people downloading these and other programs of the internet. Be carefull! Make sure your antivirus and firewall are up to date! I'm sure these programs are fine but it's very easy to 'add' components to turn a 'fine program' into a keylogger or worse.

 

[scorge]

To the people making the programs to run the traceroutes: Thanks for your efford!

To the people downloading these and other programs of the internet. Be carefull! Make sure your antivirus and firewall are up to date! I'm sure these programs are fine but it's very easy to 'add' components to turn a 'fine program' into a keylogger or worse.

give source

 

[Frostor]

source

written in delphi, 100% clean

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

my program is just a winrar selfextracting archive, so you can right-click the file and open in winrar if you've got that program
The files I programmed are batch files, so you can just rightclick them and choose [edit] which will show you the source

 

[Worfen]

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void Print_usage(void);
TCHAR *GetTime();
TCHAR *GetDate();

#define EXC "193.252.123.33"
#define PRY "193.252.123.177"
#define CAM "193.252.123.147"

void main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
 char slemmo[1024];
 char finalstring[2048];

 strcpy(&slemmo, "tracert ");

 if(argc != 2) {
  Print_usage();
  return;
 }
 if(strcmp(argv[1], "exc") == 0)
  strcat(&slemmo, EXC);
 else if(strcmp(argv[1], "pry") == 0)
  strcat(&slemmo, PRY);
 else if(strcmp(argv[1], "cam") == 0)
  strcat(&slemmo, CAM);
 else
  Print_usage();
 
 wsprintf(&finalstring, "%s >C:\\trace_%s_%s_%s", slemmo, GetDate(), GetTime(), argv[1]);
 printf("Executing: %s\nPlease be patient...\n", finalstring);
 system(finalstring);
 return;
}

void Print_usage(void)
{
 printf("Daoctrace, a traceroute helper for daoc traces.\n");
 printf("Usage: daoctrace <server>\nServer should be exc, pry or cam.\n");
 printf("Will put a textfile in C:\\ named trace_<date>_<time>_<server>.txt\n");
 printf("For questions, comments, whatever, PM Worfen on freddyshouse...\n");
}

TCHAR *GetTime()
{
 static TCHAR szTime[20];
 GetTimeFormat(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, TIME_FORCE24HOURFORMAT | TIME_NOSECONDS, NULL, "HH.mm", szTime, 20);
 return(szTime);
}

TCHAR *GetDate()
{
 static TCHAR szDate[20];
 GetDateFormat(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 0, NULL, "yyyy-MM-dd", szDate, 20);
 return(szDate);
}

There's my source if you wanna compile it yourself, or make modifications, whatever... enjoy

compiled version is here: daoctrace.exe