Bad performance in online multiplayer

[Goldendragon1]

I’m on BT FULL FIBRE 900.

Note: I’m autistic so sorry if my post is mumble jumbo at certain points.

When I’m playing on call of duty multiplayer I suffer from what feels like network input lag.  The game in question is black ops 6. I know servers are not very good at the moment, but during 5-10pm I get latency spikes and the game says I get 1-7 percent packet loss.

I’m located in south wales and this can happen when I’m on a 6-7ms server. 

Call of duty uses from my understanding Vultr and Microsoft servers. I’ve done trace routes to vultr, Microsoft and Google and they seem to be direct connections between bt and the providers - so routing looks good. The BT public ip address after my router and the private ip (172.x) it’s usually 62.172.x.x can’t remember its full address but it’s the one after the private ip and just before its hit bt uk core telehouse/redbus, that sometimes drop packets. But I guess that might be from ICMP packets? Packet loss testing indicates no packets loss from my connection.

I’ve spoken to bt support and call of duty support. Activision say I must open ports for things to work and bt advised me against that unless Sony are adamant it must be done as I’m not covered under bt guarantee if I engage in port forwarding. (I don’t know much about it so I was asking bt agent about safety, and  for advice on what to do to achieve it)

Over Christmas I had my cousin and their console here, and they had an open Nat type and i now have a moderate Nat type, so I’m wondering if resetting Upnp might help?

if anyone has suggestions or solutions on how to improve, please. 🙏 

[Crimliar · Accepted solution]

Oh how I would love to be able to connect to a game server on a 6-7ms delay, the minimum here is about 12ms and more commonly 17-20ms!  The very first thing I would do is make sure that your gaming machine and the router can use IPv6 if that's available - as your device will initiate the connection, it often means that you'll not need any port forwarding at all.

Opening/forwarding ports though is reasonably safe - provided your games are legitimate.  Pirated games often come with payloads that can make your computer vulnerable through those open ports.  Having an avid game here who is on the spectrum I've first-hand experience in dealing with those issues.  So I think what BT support may have meant is that they cannot support issues surrounding opening/forwarding ports, and there is an increased risk of intrusion, even though it's small.

UPnP is supposed to be the great saviour, and prevent all this faffing about!  But again its never that simple, and is probably a little less secure than manually opening/forwarding ports.

Try it, you have little to lose, and when you move on to the next game don't forget to set everything back to normal!

[Goldendragon1]

I am grateful for the detailed response. 

I phoned up BT Support today (usually I speak to them via chat as it's less intense for me) After going back and fore with the agent. He agreed to help me. So I've only opened up the port that call of duty uses (3074). He said that they can't promise safety because it depends on how secure the game servers are. 

I am playing games on PS5 and it is isn't jailbroken or anything like that, so all games I believe are verified and signed by Sony. 

Sony was adamant that I should be opening ports to fix this issue. The Agent said to speak to Sony and the game company that the problem isn't with them as my fibre line is fully functioning as it should and that BT's routing my data to the platforms is fine. As they seem to be against opening up ports. 

From your information and some research, as long as I'm using the same IP for the port forwarding rule then it's safe to do. So my game console has a locked IP address (internal) with the rule forwarding to that. 

After doing the port forwarding call of duty reports that my nat type is open for their services. So far gameplay wise it feels improved. 

I was surprised by 6-7ms ping as I'm like 187 miles from London. But I can get put onto 20ms servers aswell depending on time of day. 

Once again thanks so much for your help and advice.