Whirlpool

Should Westnet Provide a Proxy for WoW players? Based on there is a huge user base of the game. One would imagine there would be at least some sort of added bonus for those Gamers ;)

Now i know there has been threads in the past. And there is a thread on the 3fl Forums, But could we get the general Westnet Gamers opinion on this?

Cheers
Texiun

Texiun writes...

Based on there is a huge user base of the game.

...?

Based on...... 0.000001% of Westnet users being WoW addicts.. and the rest of their customers not even knowing what WoW is?

Yeah - that sounds like a really great added benefit to pump the price of the plans up even further.

Bonezﮱ writes...

0.000001% of Westnet users being WoW addicts..

And where did you get that Figure from?

WoW has over 10 million subscribers so one would presume there is a decent amount of WoW Players with Westnet as well as many other ISP's in Australia :)

Bonezﮱ writes...

Yeah - that sounds like a really great added benefit to pump the price of the plans up even further.

Why would it ever 'pump the price of the plans up even further'?

More hardware, more electricity, more bandwidth

I voted "NO"

Prefer resources are directed to the benefit of all Westnet customers than a few.

Bonezﮱ writes...

More hardware

You really think that an ISP the size of WestNet doesn't already have a bunch of spare / 'old' hardware lying around?

more electricity

LOL ... that's even more laughable.

Dear customers,
Due to the cost of having to power one extra computer, WestNet has been forced to raise the cost of our ADSL plans.

more bandwidth

How would it use any more bandwidth? It wouldn't.

bradp writes...

How would it use any more bandwidth? It wouldn't.

Er...

Please tell me you're joking. Or high.

Er ...

Please tell me you've got absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

How would a WoW proxy/gateway server generate any more bandwidth than what's already being used?

Tell me ... because I'd really love to know.

I am pretty sure that a proxy will not help you any and increase the game lag to boot... why?

because to get lower pings (which is what I am assuming you want to do) you need to be closer to the server (i.e. physical distance)

Since all the WoW servers are hosted in the U.S. then you should move there to get lower pings. simple :)

Note: I may be totally wrong here!

Bluntelk writes...

Note: I may be totally wrong here!

You are. Look at the thread(s) in the Internode forum.

I stand corrected...

They must have some sort of dedicated bandwidth that is tagged as a high priority stream (and thus does not get slowed down by bittorrent traffic!). It appears people are now seeing ping times that are actually as fast as the wire speed - the quest for lower latency at this point will mean moving :)

I voted yes, but it seems 2/3 people say no (probably because they dont use WOW and dont know how the proxy will affect them.

This being said, perhaps an optional premium of $5/mo for this feature? Surely it cant be that expensive to get up and running, and I'm sure there would be enough WoW playing nerds around Westnet to throw something together. Perhaps even the Internode guys might provide some advice if reqd?

Bluntelk writes...

They must have some sort of dedicated bandwidth that is tagged as a high priority stream (and thus does not get slowed down by bittorrent traffic!)

I was under the impression it was a netcode bug of Blizzards and the proxy somehow gets around/mitigates that, I could be mistaken though.

That's the general consensus. Blizzard did release some changes to their netcode around 2.4 however it only fixed one of the two identified problems so proxying will still have a noticeable affect.

There are a few pitfalls in proxying though. A few friends and I not being overly confident that the paid lowerping service was entirely legit decided to purchase a colo service in the US and proxy our traffic through it. We're all legit players, we don't engage in any action that should attract blizzard's attention. Unfortunately as a result of using the proxy about 60% of us have copped 1 week bans for supposedly interfering with the games economy.

These bans have been reversed when it is discovered that Blizzards automated abuse detection systems are misinterpreting our proxied traffic for something its not. Despite numerous conversations with GM's and CSR's we haven't had any luck in getting any guarantee that it won't happen again the future. For most of us 1 week of downtime has too big an impact on our respective guilds so we've since given up on proxying.

It definitely worth considering before you start proxying your wow traffic.

Swx writes...

I voted yes, but it seems 2/3 people say no (probably because they dont use WOW

Even though I voted "no" I certainly don't begrudge anyone requesting changes. In fact, I encourage people to ask for options that better their experiences with Westnet.

So regardless of the vote, those that would like to see a similar thing here like Internode, do your best to let those in charge at Westnet know. Send in those emails, conduct a campaign. :-)

Shay Rickman writes...

A few friends and I not being overly confident that the paid lowerping service was entirely legit decided to purchase a colo service in the US and proxy our traffic through it. We're all legit players, we don't engage in any action that should attract blizzard's attention. Unfortunately as a result of using the proxy about 60% of us have copped 1 week bans

That sucks, I'm sorry for your loss (of game time, I know how important this is to WoW players, my friends were in an elite guild).

But Internode have provided a solution and as yet, there are no reports of anyone being banned yet many reports of people getting much lower pings (there are isolated cases of individuals having problems of course).

WoW is the most popular online computer game in the world. Westnet/iiNet can only make their brand even stronger if they offered a similar service to that which Internode offers.

Even if Blizzard fix the issue (they haven't even with months and months of time and Internode reps dealing direct with their contacts in Blizzard) Westnet/iiNet get a great gaming rep.

</my 2 cents>

As pointed out by Shay above, there are inherent risks with utilising a service such as this that may result in people losing temporary access to their accounts, so this is the biggest risk that would be faced by providing a service such as this to customers.

When it comes down to it though, this really is a Blizzard problem that they should resolve (but they don't visibly seem to be doing anything further after the last change they made).

I'd be interested to know how many of the people who have voted yes to this poll already utilise (or have tried) using a WoW proxy service such as Lowerping?

Cheers,

Ben

If anyone know anything about a proxy you would know that a proxy's dercrease the bandwidth used so if enought bandwidth internationaly is use through wow it would be a benifit and decrease costs for westnet

Secondly it would not be a proxy it would be a server that tracks you and the other westnet wower which blizzard wont share.

It wont happen but not because it is a bad idea but because blizzard hold all the cards and arent going to come to the party.

Good idea but it cant be dont without wowers complaining enought to blizzard for them to care (not westnet)

piequat writes...

Please tell me you're joking. Or high.

Haha so you think moving traffic through a proxy uses more bandwidth than just sending it over Westnets pipes? Do i understand this right? Either way the traffic is going over Westnets network or am i seriously misguided here...

Ben Jensz writes...

As pointed out by Shay above, there are inherent risks with utilising a service such as this that may result in people losing temporary access to their accounts, so this is the biggest risk that would be faced by providing a service such as this to customers.

And as pointed out by myself after Shay, this hasn't happened to Internode's customers. Internode WoW service != lowerping in the way it works by the way.

When it comes down to it though, this really is a Blizzard problem that they should resolve (but they don't visibly seem to be doing anything further after the last change they made).

Indeed and Internode have been playing an active part in this, directly engaging Blizzard and providing data/assistance where they can (Helping not only their own customers but yours too in the process!) but in the meantime, they offered the service which works fine and doesn't carry the aforementioned risk.

It appears it's a no-go and fair enough, if you're not interested then you're not interested but claims that Westnet won't do anything similar because of risk are misinformed. Cheers.

Shay Rickman writes...

A few friends and I not being overly confident that the paid lowerping service was entirely legit decided to purchase a colo service in the US and proxy our traffic through it. We're all legit players, we don't engage in any action that should attract blizzard's attention. Unfortunately as a result of using the proxy about 60% of us have copped 1 week bans for supposedly interfering with the games economy.

Shay - this is the mistake. WoW's 'automated abuse detection system' does checks against a players' IP vs. their geographic location (as per their account). When these don't match - as they wouldn't when using a US-based proxy - it's going to raise issues. 'node has theirs in Sydney (ie. where their links head out) and therefore players haven't had issues.

Regardless though, disclaimers would be necessary because no one here can guarantee what Blizzard will or won't do. I can imagine a player getting a temporary ban could stir up a lot of trouble/bad rep for the ISP providing the proxy if they believed/said it was caused by using the ISP's service.

bradp writes...

more electricity

LOL ... that's even more laughable.

One cabinet will draw 30 amps @240vAC, if you consider dual feeds and HVAC load. That's the equivalent of ~6 kettles, running constantly :)

That's certainly a reasonable assumption as to why the systems might be picking us up and one we'd previously considered. Unfortunately Blizzard's policy prevents them from discussing the reasons behind why a ban is implemented. As I noted we've had lengthy conversations with various GM's/CSR's and there is basically nothing they can do. They are apologetic about the fact that its occurring but there is no system that they can use or change they can make to our accounts to prevent it from happening again.

On the other front I have a brother who lives overseas (in Mexico) and he hasn't had a problem yet despite his account being registered to an Australian address and playing on an Oceanic server, of course time will tell if he does get picked up. I should recommend he update his address details just in case.

I didn't mean to imply that Westnet hasn't done this because of the reasons I gave. I was just providing a personal account of my experience with proxying my WoW traffic and why I personally choose to not do it any more.

From a technical point of view, the closer the proxy is to Blizzards servers the greater the result. Obviously if placing the proxy in the US results in temporary bans this is a less than ideal solution. From memory isn't LowerPings service run out of the US?

I can't really add much to the technical side, but from a gaming point of view as an Internode customer it has been fantastic. I (And coincidently no one I know of), has been hit with the banhammer for using this service.

It would be great if Blizzard fixed it, but as that's probably not too likely, this is probably the next best thing.

And I think it'd be a good thing for another ISP to offer it, better for consumers (Having more options if something like this is that important to them), and if more ISP's start doing it maybe blizzard will pay more attention?

As a wow player myself i think blizard need to fix the relm lag problems before having Isp's do anything. I know for certain that the realm "proudmore" just falls over at the server end becuase there are so many transfers there and they have not shut transfers off and as a result it falls over 2 - 3 times a week so until thats fixed I don't foresee ISP proxies helping out very much.

Voted no.

Regards,
Anthony

Nakara writes...

I can't really add much to the technical side, but from a gaming point of view as an Internode customer it has been fantastic. I (And coincidently no one I know of), has been hit with the banhammer for using this service.

I've been using Internodes for a good solid month now, And I've seen such a dramatic improvement. Pings down from 500-800 to 200 constant And when everyone is is complaining about lag..I'm happily grinding away!

Based on the votes we have so far its not looking good.

But will talk to a few higher ups about the server. As its not that hard to get it operating.

Cheers
Texiun

Frisco writes...

I know for certain that the realm "proudmore" just falls over at the server end becuase there are so many transfers there and they have not shut transfers off and as a result it falls over 2 - 3 times a week so until thats fixed I don't foresee ISP proxies helping out very much.

Thats probably a separate issue experienced by alot on servers, highlighted in this short thread:
forums.worldofwarcraft.c...d=1&pageNo=1

Even with the Proudmoore issues (Which affect everyone on the server, regardless of ping or location), the latency has been rock solid outside of those specific times when the server is crashing, using such a proxy.

Is there any reason why using lowerping or a similar service wouldn't be an acceptable solution?

sof4king writes...

Is there any reason why using lowerping or a similar service wouldn't be an acceptable solution?

Cost would be the main factor, why pay when you can join an ISP offering it included.

Nakara writes...

Cost would be the main factor, why pay when you can join an ISP offering it included.

Fair enough. I guess it's personal preference. I don't think I'd bother going through the whole churn process just for that, but to each their own :)

So, just to be sure, there is no chance of a Westnet gateway within the next couple of months? I want to be entirely sure before I start looking at the Internode churn bandwagon.

Considering both companies broadband offerings are relatively equal, having double the ping for a game I play 50% of my gaming time on is a big deal for me (not Westnets fault I know).

I have been with Westnet since Telstra switched from unlimited to 3gb caps, and control 4 other family accounts with them, so I dont take this decision lightly :)

It certainly doesn't look that way, given the response here and on 3FL.

Swx writes...

So, just to be sure, there is no chance of a Westnet gateway within the next couple of months?

All that I can really offer to you as a response, is that we haven't been ignoring the requests for providing this service nor have we dismissed the idea of providing one for Westnet customers. But at the same time, this also does not mean that we will definitely be providing this service.

There are quite a number of Westnet staff who are avid WoW players (myself included), so we can directly relate to and understand how this issue does affect the game play of WoW.

Cheers,

Ben

You do know...that ANY of you can use internodes one? Thats what i do and i myself maintain a nice 200ping. Give it a shot!

I actually heard that WestNet was thinking about providing staff with a WestNet only one ;). Perhaps just hearsay I guess.

As for the reason accounts were banned. Its to stop powerlevelling services and power levelling accounts. If multiple high level and low level accounts log in at one time on the same account. The account is flagged to Blizzard. I have an American account on an American Server (Blackrock) with an American Address on an Australian IP with Australian billing information. I've had this set up like this for a few months on 2 different accounts and had no problems. People on well known services (LowerPing. GamePath.) have been unbanned since the Lower Levelled characters are known not to be Botted characters.

As for WestNet getting a service like this. It's probably a good idea? I don't know the cost involved in setting it up. But having a chat with the owner of GamePath, the profit to loss margin seems quite nice. I'd assume for someone providing an Internet Service the PTL margin would be higher.

Oooops Edit!:

If multiple people login on the same IP at one time. Not the same account.

Fixed typo! Sorry im at work trying to explain to 85 year olds how to enter their modem configuration page :<

That would be great if there was a WoW proxy!

I sometimes get 2,000ms!! Most of the time I am running 400ms so its not too bad but with a lot going on...

PS. What is an Elite Guild?

dogmatix writes...

Perhaps just heresy I guess.

Burn the heathens?

Luthor writes...

Burn the heathens?

I'm glad someone else picked up on that ;)

Wikipedia writes...

Heresy

For other uses, see Heresy (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Hearsay.

Yeah not really thinking about my typing. I'm busy trying to explain to 85 year olds how to type 192.168.1.1 into their browser... :<

dogmatix writes...

Yeah not really thinking about my typing. I'm busy trying to explain to 85 year olds how to type 192.168.1.1 into their browser... :<

You're going to love IPv6 ;)

iSage Internet have now setup there own wow gaming tunnel.

www.isage.net.au/support/wowtunnel.php

Surely Westnet can.

heh, I have contacted Internode Sales on Tuesday morning with a couple of questions and havent received a reply back yet. Not looking good. It also sounds like there might be huge downtime with their Naked DSL which is something I'm not willing to put up with, so I might be a Westnet guy for just a bit longer :)

Just an update, I bothered to look up the service called www.lowerping.com which is located in Adelaide. They have a free trial to prove that they can lower your ping.

So I tried it, and I went from my usual 450-600 range down to 220 constant.

You do have to pay for it, so its not free like Internode, but its makes an awesome difference.

Swx writes...

You do have to pay for it, so its not free like Internode, but its makes an awesome difference.

How much do they charge?

Oi³ writes...

How much do they charge?

1 Month $6.95
3 Months $18.95

Still using the Node one...@ 220 ping

Has anyone tested this from Perth to see what ping they get??

I usally get around 550 to wow servers I am so use to it now i can usally time it so i hit the next spell even before the cast bar completes on my screen taking lag into account :P But I would like to get rid of the lag just teh same. *shakes fist at those 75 ms Americans*

Frisco - have you tried making use of the registry changes to improve latency? They can have a marked effect.

I usally don't like playing in there. Its like programing language for windows, some small screw up cause heeps of headaches.

I don't know enough about it tbh. I am more a network man then a windows/software person :P

Give me a cisco device that will lower my latency and I am your man :P

Hi Frisco, I am from Perth so the results I posted should be the same for you. They let you try it for free (with 20 minute disconnects lol) so give it a try. It definitely make some classes so much more playable.

Awsome I might give it a shot.

Hi all,

We have setup 2 WoW proxies as a trial for users. One is located in NSW and the other in WA, so I suggest if you are in WA you use the WA one and if you are anywhere else you give the NSW one a go for best results (but you can access either one if you so choose).

The proxies are restricted to Westnet customers only and will not be counted as free traffic. It should be noted that these are purely for testing purposes and there is no guarantees on whether this will become a permanent service. As this is a trial, there may be periods during which this service is unavailable or not responding properly as we make changes to it or due to other factors.

This is not a supported service and as such we will not be providing any support for users utilising this service through any of our contact mediums.

This service should be used at your own risk. It should be noted that Blizzard do not support the usage of a proxy for accessing WoW, and there have been cases where users have received temporary and/or permanent account bans related to the usage of proxies, so please bear this in mind before using this service.

To utilise the service, it is suggested that you utilise a program such as Freecap to enable you to make WoW use a specific SOCKS proxy. Unlike some other proxies, we do not require you to utilise PuTTY to initiate an SSH connection. All you need to do is configure Freecap (or an alternative program) to use one of the following proxy addresses and add the World of Warcraft executable to Freecap.

The proxy addresses are as follows:

WA: wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au port 1080
NSW: wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au port 1080

We would appreciate feedback on this and we will make changes based on the feedback that we receive. There is a thread on the 3FL forums here www.3fl.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=690 that can be used to provide feedback or if you experience any issues accessing specific realms or just generally using the proxy.

Cheers,

Ben

Ben Jensz writes...

WA: wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au port 1080

I just tried it with Freecap and WoW kept just saying "Disconnected from server" every time I tried to login (whether the login is correct or not it still does it). The message comes up straight away.

Works fine without the proxy and through Lowerping as well :)

Edit: I can telnet to wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au 1080 and it connects, but WoW doesn't like it :|

Edit 2: Same thing with the NSW one as well.

Hmm will try it out on my connection now.

Giga writes...

I just tried it with Freecap and WoW kept just saying "Disconnected from server" every time I tried to login (whether the login is correct or not it still does it). The message comes up straight away.

Give it a go again now, it looks like they might do something slightly different during maintenance with auth.

Of course tonight won't be much use even if you do get past auth, as all the realms are now down for extended maintenance. :(

Cheers,

Ben

Dam extended maintainence.

Meh, going to bed...it's just not worth it

Hmm i don't know if its worth the risk of losing the wow account. :S. No one supports anything offically so baiscly you get banned game over man.

I've been using a proxy for a very long time. And the only reason those others where banned is because the proxy was situated in US not australia... Making the WoW Anti Hacker program go off its head.

Also the proxy is working awesome. (constant 200 ping nothing more! 1.5mb/256k)

Ben Jensz writes...

We have setup 2 WoW proxies as a trial for users. One is located in NSW and the other in WA

This is absolutely amazing news! Thankyou so much, I will be testing it out tonight :)

in that case I will give it a shot see how it goes.

it only cut mine down to 300 ms but 150 is better then nothing imo.

I'd be interested to know what you get without proxy vs using the proxy and vs any other proxies you may use to access WoW. Most of my comparison testing I've done has been sitting in Shattrath City for 10-15 minutes, which for me seems to be the place where I get the highest latency (and Silvermoon City being the lowest latency out of the Horde cities).

Let me know if you can't access any specific realms as well. At the moment the proxy is locked down to a list of IP ranges that most of the realms are known to sit on.

Cheers,

Ben

Ben Jensz writes...

I'd be interested to know what you get without proxy vs using the proxy and vs any other proxies you may use to access WoW.

I'll test it out again when I get home a bit later. Lowerping usually gives me about ~300ms which is fantastic compared to the 550-600+ I get without using that.

Let me know if you can't access any specific realms as well. At the moment the proxy is locked down to a list of IP ranges that most of the realms are known to sit on.

Hmm, perhaps that was my issue last night. I was testing this before maintenance started, and I was able to login fine without any proxy and even with Lowerping, but not with the Westnet one. I'll see if I get the same thing happen again tonight.

Horde

Good to see the Westnet staff knew the best team to choose :P

I am able to login fine now :)

Ben Jensz writes...

I'd be interested to know what you get without proxy vs using the proxy and vs any other proxies you may use to access WoW.

I was getting between 400ms and 450ms sitting still as a Horde in Stormwind (:P) with the WA one.

Just connected with Lowerping and it is hovering around 300ms.

Giga writes...

Good to see the Westnet staff knew the best team to choose :P

Of course! ;)

I tested it out last night and was getting about 295 from my normal 550 - 600 and thats a good day!

The following day when the relm was laggen i was seeing 700+ ms without the proxy. :S

*frisco suffers 700ms connection crit. Frisco Dies*

No good fellas.

Normally I get 500-600
lowerping.com I get 230ish
So far with your new gateway thing I get about 420ms (WA one)

So its a start :)

When I first logged on I was green and sitting on 250ms in Shatt, and very happy and started sending the joyjoy whispers to everyone. But it stabilised at around 420ms in bg's or Shatt.

Yeah mine was sitting on around 400-500 in Shatt. The internode one usually gives me about 200-300 for Shatt

Be aware that blizzard lags as well. I am not sure what realm you play on but i as i said above i was getting 700 ping a one point last night. I am going to test this accross a number of nights to see the difference between the two. See what the best ping i can get is =D

Now to figure out how to use IPTables to map that proxy in OS X. Fun fun fun.

Herbie writes...

Now to figure out how to use IPTables to map that proxy in OS X.

I don't think IPTables will do what it needs to to get WoW to work through a proxy. Might need to look at tsocks - I found a reasonable guide on how to get it to work.

Chris Atkins writes...

Of course! ;)

This could be reason enough to churn :)

Good to see this happened :). Hearing mixed reports from people in regards to it. Disconnects/latency, but for a free service who cares. Personally i love the 500 ping ;). I bought 3 months of lowerping and used it for 3 days.. but thats just me. Perhaps playing a Pally(horde ;P) is just that easy ;)

Dean Holland writes...

I found a reasonable guide on how to get it to work.

FYI - for anyone using the guide Dean linked - DarwinPorts is now called MacPorts.

As for the last step in the guide, I'd suggest turning it into a shell script so you can launch WoW without having to type that into Terminal.app each time :)

dogmatix writes...

Hearing mixed reports from people in regards to it. Disconnects/latency

There would've been a couple of disconnects late yesterday afternoon (early evening for Eastern States) as I made a couple of changes that required restarting both of the proxies.

Other than that, the proxies haven't been unavailable since then as far as I'm aware. I'd be interested if people are experiencing disconnects using the proxies that they haven't experienced before (other than yesterday).

I was using the WA one last night when raiding (BT) and didn't have any problems with disconnects. On average the WA proxy is wiping 250-300ms off of my in-game latency.

ok, I will be on for a few hours tonight and available for testing if you like.

I have just logged on, and started at 250ms, then after a couple of minutes it slowly crept up to 350ms ... and it is now sitting at about 380ms

A 150ms - 200ms improvement for me I reckon. Not as good as lowerping.com, but is still a healthy improvement.

yeah, now I'm sitting at 460ms :(

Swx writes...

yeah, now I'm sitting at 460ms :(

Do you get this sort of ping increase without using the proxy though? e.g. do you have say 500ms normally but times at night it increases to 600+?

I've noticed without using the proxy I get 550-600ms at nights most of the time (sometimes a bit higher), with the proxy that's 300-350. I do get lower than that during quieter times on the realm (I play on Thaurissan, one of the "Oceanic" realms) down to around 500ms constant non-proxied and via proxy less than 300ms (280ish).

Ben Jensz writes...

Do you get this sort of ping increase without using the proxy though? e.g. do you have say 500ms normally but times at night it increases to 600+?

Hey man, I was going to whim ya but I think you have it turned off? It is true that my ping can fluctuate as you suggested, but I dont htink thats whats happening here. I'm not getting anywhere near 300ms pings, so perhaps my configuration is incorrect. I am using Freecap.

With Proxy
When I first connect I am at around 230-250ms
Within 5 minutes it reports 340ms
It will then over the next half an hour go up to around 420ms

Netstat reports:
Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP antec1:1228 wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au:1080 ESTABLISHED

so I think I am connected properly, is there any setting I need to use in Freecap? I have set it for SOCKS v5 with no authentication. All other settings I have left as default. I have using Freecap v3.18.

Without Proxy
I sit around 500ms at the moment, can fluctuate up to 600ms

With Lowerping.com
I dont have time atm to test lowerping.com, but will do so when I find the time. I am pretty sure I will be sitting at around 250ms constantly (because I have tried it at work and thats what I was getting).

Dont get me wrong, I am definitely very thankful for the effort put in :) I'm just giving some feedback and perhaps trying to suss out if I have done something wrong.

Hey there, you's guys wanted some data on your proxy.
Here are my results.

Stock WOW connection : 500 – 700ms
Lowerping WOW connection : 250 – 340ms
3FL WOW connection (WA) : 430 – 600ms

While the difference only looks like a little bit, the 3FL proxy does hold at ~430ms most the time pretty well. Can't see myself going back to a stock WoW connection while I still have a lowerping subscription and a Westnet proxy to fall back on.

And if I get banned? Well, I guess that's one addiction it wouldn't hurt to have a break from anyhow.

Dean Holland writes...

I don't think IPTables will do what it needs to to get WoW to work through a proxy. Might need to look at tsocks – I found a reasonable guide on how to get it to work.

Thanks Dean. That information is very much appreciated.

Thanks for your work on this guys. Giving it a try now, although Frostmourne is up and down tonight, so no telling if it's really helping. Will update later on.

All tests done on Thaurissan realm in shattrah

Using W.A. Proxy from W.A. : ~410ms
Using wowtunnels.com proxy: ~240ms
Without proxy: ~580ms

I'm seeing mixed results, but Lowerping is always coming out in front.

Based on my usage over the past week:

3FL Proxy: ~450ms
Lowerping: ~300ms
No proxy: ~550ms (if I'm lucky)

The 3FL one is obviously an improvement over using no proxy at all, but Lowerping still performs better than the 3FL one.

Tested the NSW WoW proxy last night on US-Caelestrasz realm (using SocksCap) and got the following results:

- without proxy: ~450ms
- with proxy: ~250ms (went as low as 210ms for about a 5 minute period)

Although it was probably outside of peak Wow hours as I logged on at around 11pm server time.

I've played wow a few times, not really into it. Although I am interested in these proxy popping up and was wondering if anyone could explain how they work?

I can assume that some direct connection/tunnel is made to certain servers in the US but how does that lower pings substantially?

Thanks!

This is fantastic. Have dropped from 450 – 500ms ping to 190 – 290ms using the Sydney server. I'm in Brisbane.

Sprooty writes...

I've played wow a few times, not really into it. Although I am interested in these proxy popping up and was wondering if anyone could explain how they work?

They don't. It artificially lowers your ping by bypassing a protocol bug with WoW.

If Blizzard would fix the issue, there would be no need for anything.

Matteh. writes...

They don't. It artificially lowers your ping by bypassing a protocol bug with WoW.

It doesn't really artificially lower your latency, it actually lowers your in-game latency to closer to what it actually should be. The problem with the WoW net code artificially increases the latency you experience in-game.

If Blizzard would fix the issue, there would be no need for anything.

Amen to that.

Cheers,

Ben

Just a quick question. Do westnet plan to open this trial to iinet members now that iinet have acquired them?
Gave it a try last night and no go :)

Uradox writes...

Just a quick question. Do westnet plan to open this trial to iinet members now that iinet have acquired them?

No, we are holding it hostage until we get access to iiNet Dslams and Voip :-)

I'm on iinet and I've been using it fine?

nathrek writes...

I'm on iinet and I've been using it fine?

We added in the iiNet customer IP ranges a few weeks ago now so iiNet customers can use it as well.

One thing to note, the two WoW proxies aren't free traffic for either Westnet or iiNet customers, as you'll be using the same amount of international traffic that you would use if you were going direct without a proxy.

Cheers,

Ben

It still does not seem to allow me to use it.
Freecap using wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au 1080
Stuck on the Connecting phase.
My ip is 203.59.1**.* if that helps :(

Uradox writes...

It still does not seem to allow me to use it. My ip is 203.59.1**.* if that helps :(

It works for me – I'm on the 203.59 block as well, and a quick:
telnet wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au 1080
Trying 202.72.190.50...
Connected to wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au.

... also works. Have you tried powercycling your equipment & double checking the connection settings?

I'd suggest doing the former & then using the command prompt to telnet (as I have done) to ensure you can connect. If you can connect via telnet but not via Freecap, at least you know where the problem lies.

Uradox writes...

Freecap using wowproxy-wa.3fl.net.au 1080
Stuck on the Connecting phase.

I can see 2 attempts from 203.59.x.x IPs this morning to the WA proxy. One of them will be elithrar, but the other one I assume is yourself. From the log entries, it doesn't look like your computer is talking SOCKS 5, as it doesn't seem to recognise your connection commands.

Are you using SOCKS 5 within Freecap or SOCKS 4? The proxy doesn't support version 4, only 5.

Wow across a vnc is no fun but interesting.
I tried the telnet option using putty to no avail (the connection attempt this morning was me trying that as I just did then again as well). Wowtunnels and lowerping both work over freecap BUT reinstalled freecap and it just connected.

Sitting on a 300+ms ping which might be something to do with my home pc pumping out data across vnc :)
EDIT
Now I have tried it at home I can say it doesnt really feel any better than without it at all. Ping is 350 which is only 100 less than what I normally get and the delay feels the same :(

Can anyone using a Mac report their pings using this proxy?

I ask as I recently purchased a MBP, but had been using a Windows machine for playing WoW for at least 1.5 years.
Upon using the Mac with the same addons, etc...my pings are in the green (200-300ms) 90% of the time. With the Windows machine it was always much higher (400-600ms).

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this difference and if the proxy improves on it?

cobo11 writes...

Upon using the Mac with the same addons, etc...my pings are in the green (200-300ms) 90% of the time. With the Windows machine it was always much higher (400-600ms).

This is pretty common – WoW gamers on OS X or Linux often see better pings over their Windows counterparts. A vastly superior TCP/IP stack helps here; though you should still see a slight improvement when using the 3FL proxy.

elithrar writes...

This is pretty common – WoW gamers on OS X or Linux often see better pings over their Windows counterparts.

Really? I run WoW on my linux laptop, but I've rarely noticed the performance improvements, as I'm usually running of a wireless modem... Might have to look into that. =)

I've tried to use this proxy thing, when I try to log in I get instantly disconnected from server. But when I try to connect to another server it works fine with the lower ping. My server is Kargath which doesn't work but the handful of oceanic servers I tried worked fine.

Dan The Man writes...

I've tried to use this proxy thing, when I try to log in I get instantly disconnected from server. But when I try to connect to another server it works fine with the lower ping. My server is Kargath which doesn't work but the handful of oceanic servers I tried worked fine.

Interesting.

Could you please drop me an email (my email address is in my profile) with further details, e.g. your IP address, when you tried to connect, your Wrath beta key (joking! :D) etc. and I'll check it out.

Thanks.

This was working great for me, but is no longer working anymore, I just get (almost instantly), unable to connect.

[05:46] Testing Started.
Proxy Server
Address: wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au:1080
Protocol: SOCKS 5
Authentication: NO

[05:46] Starting: Test 1: Connection to the Proxy Server
[05:46] IP Address: 202.173.128.246
[05:46] Connection established
[05:46] Test passed.
[05:46] Starting: Test 2: Connection through the Proxy Server
[05:46] Authentication was successful.
[05:46] Error : connection to the proxy server was closed unexpectedly.
[05:46] Test failed.
[05:46] Testing Finished.

[05:51] Testing Started.
Proxy Server
Address: wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au:1080
Protocol: SOCKS 5
Authentication: NO

[05:51] Starting: Test 1: Connection to the Proxy Server
[05:51] IP Address: 202.173.128.246
[05:51] Connection established
[05:51] Test passed.
[05:51] Starting: Test 2: Connection through the Proxy Server
[05:51] Authentication was successful.
[05:51] Error : connection to the proxy server was closed unexpectedly.
[05:51] Test failed.
[05:51] Testing Finished.

__________________________________________________________________

[13:01] Wow.exe – 12.129.232.129:80 open
[13:01] Wow.exe – 12.129.242.21:80 open
[13:01] Error : The proxy server wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au:1080 has unexpectedly terminated the connection
[13:01] Wow.exe – Could not connect to 12.129.232.116:3724 through the proxy server.
[13:01] Wow.exe – 12.129.232.129:80 close, 281 bytes sent, 246 bytes received
[13:01] Wow.exe – 12.129.242.21:80 close, 268 bytes sent, 234 bytes received
[13:04] Error : The proxy server wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au:1080 has unexpectedly terminated the connection
[13:04] Wow.exe – Could not connect to 12.129.232.116:3724 through the proxy server.
[13:05] Wow.exe – 12.129.232.129:80 open
[13:05] Wow.exe – 12.129.242.21:80 open
[13:05] Error : The proxy server wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au:1080 has unexpectedly terminated the connection
[13:05] Wow.exe – Could not connect to 12.129.232.116:3724 through the proxy server.
[13:05] Wow.exe – 12.129.232.129:80 close, 281 bytes sent, 246 bytes received
[13:05] Wow.exe – 12.129.242.21:80 close, 268 bytes sent, 234 bytes received

aftahours writes...

This was working great for me, but is no longer working anymore, I just get (almost instantly), unable to connect.

There are a number of users connected to the NSW proxy at the moment, so its not a general problem with the proxy as far as I can tell.

I can see something in the logs that I suspect is your connection attempts, it looks like maybe Blizzard have changed some of the IP addressing for their WoW realms, as you're trying to hit an IP address that isn't allowed. Whereas if it was working fine previously, it must've been on a different IP address.

Which realm are you trying to connect to?

I get better pings with putty and my west coast US server, (200-250) than I do with the 3fl proxy (300-350). both are still better than the normal 450-600 though.

It's working fine now, and I didn't change a thing, so yeah, must be something to do with the IP's of the realms or something.

Is the proxy still up? I am trying it now and getting an error saying "No proxy in use. Please select at least one. Program will be terminated"

Ive pointed Freecap to my wow directory and put the proxy info – wowproxy-nsw.3fl.net.au port 1080 – into Program parameters. Is that all correct?