Tick rates issues and port prioritization

[TheAspergerGamer]

Hi, I did post some of these things on Twitter and I was advised to head to this forum by Fraser. I own a XR500. I play games on an XBOX One X. I play, mostly, FIFA20 and I have been struggling with delay and lag for 4 installments now. I did start investigating this since FIFA17 and I've learnt quite a few things. I have changed different ISPs and routers, and settings, etc. Nothing seems to work.

My setup looks like this: Netgear DM200 (bridge mode; flashed with OpenWRT) ----> Edgerouter X (PPPoE) ------> XR500. I wanted a modem with an open source firmware to stay in Bridge Mode. Then I wanted the ER-X behind this, so I can mess around with my connection (e.g. delay, packet loss, etc.) for testing. And the XR500 behind the ER-X to test the same server locations.

However, the issues I want to highlight with the XR500 are the following:

1. The tick rates bug (discussed here, as well - https://bit.ly/2uby05p) -  sometimes when changing the connectivity type between Wifi and Ethernet the tick/update rates will look something like this in Geo-filter - 30-60-30-60. But I measured it with Wireshark and they  are constantly, roughly, at 30 Hz both ways. This is for FIFA 20.

2. It seems there is no priority for the ports I setup for FIFA20. The list is below. The dot does not turn red. The ports I added to the list are the ports from the EA website and the ones I noticed the game uses, since FIFA17, when playing on a dedicated server (see Wireshark snip). Some of them will be on the EA website, but for different devices.

Other settings: NAT is open on Xbox; same ports forwarded on the ER-X; Xbox is in DMZ on XR500; UPNP off on both ER-X and XR500; QoS enabled on both routers/modems; XR500 share bandwidth excess. 

The only way the red button would turn red is if I add the device as a console in the above list. I believe it is just a bug when this turns red using this method, as it should turn red when ports are prioritized, as well. Another weird thing is the fact that when using UPNP, the only leased port that comes up as being in use is just the Xbox port set up in the console's network settings. None of the ports seen in Wireshark get leased in any way. I tried Rocket League, as well, but I had to manually add ports as I was playing, as I do not have a particular list due to not playing enough. Still no red light.

[Zippy]

Those port arrangements are wrong and incorrect. Most of those ports you added are what the game says to port forward.. Not prioritize.. Also very rarely do you ever prioritize a TCP port. Usually you only prioritize UDP ports because those are the ones that are critical ones for in game use.. If you are going to set manual rules you just want in game UDP ports.. That's it.  I would delete everything you have and start over.. You really only want to see the red light come on while in game play. Not when you turn your xbox on..  Btw your Source Port is very rarely the same as a Destination port.  If you need help setting this up let me know. I have a few things for you to try..

Zippy.

[Netduma Admin]

44 minutes ago, Zippy said:

Those port arrangements are wrong and incorrect. Most of those ports you added are what the game says to port forward.. Not prioritize.. Also very rarely do you ever prioritize a TCP port. Usually you only prioritize UDP ports because those are the ones that are critical ones for in game use.. If you are going to set manual rules you just want in game UDP ports.. That's it.  I would delete everything you have and start over.. You really only want to see the red light come on while in game play. Not when you turn your xbox on..  Btw your Source Port is very rarely the same as a Destination port.  If you need help setting this up let me know. I have a few things for you to try..

Zippy.

This is a great response. I'd really recommend undoing that list and going back to using DumaOS classified games as it will detect all UDP traffic on any consoles connected to the router (or PC's with a console device type e.g. Playstation).

Thanks for the tick rate issue. A little odd that one, we'll look into it.

[TheAspergerGamer]

11 hours ago, Netduma Admin said:

This is a great response. I'd really recommend undoing that list and going back to using DumaOS classified games as it will detect all UDP traffic on any consoles connected to the router (or PC's with a console device type e.g. Playstation).

Thanks for the tick rate issue. A little odd that one, we'll look into it.

1. The tick rate is not an odd one. The link I shared above shows there have been other people having similar issues. Moreover, I can confirm that when lowering the speeds and downloading/uploading to increase jitter the tick rates are all over the place (even above 120, as in the original post where someone says it does over 80 in Modern Warfare).

2. I know the difference between UDP and TCP, and I know what kind of traffic to look at when in FIFA matches, in Wireshark. The only reason I added the TCP ports was because Fraser suggested with the EA link on Twitter and I know how this "customer service" thing works, trying to avoid a clear answer to the questions asked.

3. Look, I am not going to use classified games. That will be avoiding the issue I have. I want to understand why the ports are not leased by the router or prioritized when done manually. Clearly, there is something going on.

[Guest Killhippie]

9 minutes ago, TheAspergerGamer said:

 I know how this "customer service" thing works, trying to avoid a clear answer to the questions asked.

Zippy is highly knowledgable, if Admin agree which they have why don't you "try" the suggestion, having an attitude like the one quoted wont get you far, and we always learn things as we move forward so you may well be wrong, looking at what you have done I would back Zippy up here, also you do only want to see the red light come on when you start playing not when you turn the xbox on. Its a friendly forum with some very knowledgable people, as I said trying what they suggested wouldn't hurt. However if you think you "know how this customer thing works" there is no need to be here asking for advice.

[TheAspergerGamer]

12 hours ago, Zippy said:

Those port arrangements are wrong and incorrect. Most of those ports you added are what the game says to port forward.. Not prioritize.. Also very rarely do you ever prioritize a TCP port. Usually you only prioritize UDP ports because those are the ones that are critical ones for in game use.. If you are going to set manual rules you just want in game UDP ports.. That's it.  I would delete everything you have and start over.. You really only want to see the red light come on while in game play. Not when you turn your xbox on..  Btw your Source Port is very rarely the same as a Destination port.  If you need help setting this up let me know. I have a few things for you to try..

Zippy.

Thanks for your reply. As explained above, the only reason I used the TCP ports was because of Fraser's tweet. I know games use UDP. FIFA uses, more specifically, GVSP protocol running on UDP.

Only UDP ports used by FIFA prioritized. Same issue! Yes, in match, the red light does not show up.

[TheAspergerGamer]

47 minutes ago, Killhippie said:

Zippy is highly knowledgable, if Admin agree which they have why don't you "try" the suggestion, having an attitude like the one quoted wont get you far, and we always learn things as we move forward so you may well be wrong, looking at what you have done I would back Zippy up here, also you do only want to see the red light come on when you start playing not when you turn the xbox on. Its a friendly forum with some very knowledgable people, as I said trying what they suggested wouldn't hurt. However if you think you "know how this customer thing works" there is no need to be here asking for advice.

1. At no point I disagreed with Zippy.

2. I understand when the light should be red. From the start I was referring that the light doesn't flash red, at no point.

3. And yes, I know how customer service works, that's why I am willing to try again stuff I already tried. To show everyone that I am willing to try their suggestions even though they assume I don't know the difference between TCP and UDP. My problem is that I want my specific question to be answered and I don't want a workaround, because I believe the workaround masks some sort of bug.

4. That's why I am here, because I do not know everything and I was hoping people working at Netduma would try to answer the question I asked, not the question they believe I asked.

[Bert]

If you used wireshark, what ports did you get and how did you use wireshark? Ie what was the physical hookup. In Modern Warfare for example the ports change from server to server and also with the way I have hooked it up. Ie when I run my PC in between the XR500 and console I get source ports in the range 62000-65000 and with my PS4 directly connected I get 3074 as source port. 

 

The suggestion to use the games console setting is actually a valid one as it simply works for all games.

 

A quick search on Google brings me to the EA site and the UDP port range of 10000-20000 is only quoted for Playstation 4, not Xbox.

 

One other thing, the UDP packet you display from Wireshark shows the following:

Source: 59012

Destination: 10577

 

That means it's not in any of your QoS rules hence the light not coming on.

You need to change the last rule to UDP Source 55000-65000 and destination 10000-20000. It seems like you have that reversed.

[TheAspergerGamer]

1 hour ago, Bert said:

If you used wireshark, what ports did you get and how did you use wireshark? Ie what was the physical hookup. In Modern Warfare for example the ports change from server to server and also with the way I have hooked it up. Ie when I run my PC in between the XR500 and console I get source ports in the range 62000-65000 and with my PS4 directly connected I get 3074 as source port. 

 

The suggestion to use the games console setting is actually a valid one as it simply works for all games.

 

A quick search on Google brings me to the EA site and the UDP port range of 10000-20000 is only quoted for Playstation 4, not Xbox.

 

One other thing, the UDP packet you display from Wireshark shows the following:

Source: 59012

Destination: 10577

 

That means it's not in any of your QoS rules hence the light not coming on.

You need to change the last rule to UDP Source 55000-65000 and destination 10000-20000. It seems like you have that reversed.

Thanks, good spot. I checked my Wireshark again and it seems it, actually, changes the destination and source ports between IPs, for some reason, during the match (I do not have any video to see at which point). Essentially, this is what I need, to cover both ways. It worked! Red dot is flickering now!

Yes, you are right. That ports range on EA website is only for PS4. The EA website gives the wrong information (go figure). 

Thanks for your help! I had the feeling I was missing something!