Capturing Traffic: PlayStation issue on one ISP

[mrric]

After switching to Frontier fiber, I recently discovered that I cannot do online multiplayer with one of the games. It fails without an error code going into multiplayer. I thought it might be my new RT-AX86U Pro but when I tried my old RT-AC68U, it failed on that also. Using my phone as a hotspot with just my cellular connection, it works. It also works if I use Proton VPN Free configured in the router. Both these options are unusable because of the latency and disconnects. Frontier support is blaming my, "third party devices." They assure me that they don't have any firewall enabled on my account... but I know something with their internet is causing this issue. I had no issue when I was on Xfinity cable. I am wired directly from the Frontier ONT to the ASUS. The PlayStation is hardwired to the ASUS.

Is there a way to log all the traffic from just the PlayStation to troubleshoot? I want to compare the logs with their connection vs one of the other connections where it actually works. Perhaps if I can tell them exactly what I see being blocked, they can escalate internally.

 

[ColinTaylor]

You'd have to install tcpdump through Entware and then run something like this (assuming the PlayStation is connected to your main LAN):

tcpdump -i br0 host 192.168.50.99

Change 192.168.50.99 to be the IP of your PlayStation.

 

[mrric]

Thanks, I'll look into this.

 

[cptnoblivious]

Personally, I'd change the DNS to be something other than your ISP first, because it's easy.

Most likely it's a name resolution failure or an IP block, given that you have success with the other methods (both VPN & hotspotting are likely using a different DNS, though you've not said if you're using the default DNS, i.e. the router using the ISP DNS, or if you have set a custom one).

Just my $0.02

 

[mrric]

Thanks for the input. I tried various DNS. Normally, I have the CleanBrowsing Safe DNS on my WAN side. I tried others including Frontier's and Google. Same result. Also, I played with the DNS in the connection settings of the PlayStation without any success. I also tried resetting the WAN connection for a different public IP... thinking mine was blocked somewhere. I was able to get the 3rd and 4th octet changed when I did that, but it didn't help. The first two don't change... and that may be the issue. There is also the UPNP and Secure UPNP settings on the router and the connection settings of the PlayStation that I played around with. Still couldn't get it to work... though I don't know if I tried all combinations.

 

[cptnoblivious]

Sounds like you covered that angle.

 

[ApexRon]

After switching to Frontier fiber, I recently discovered that I cannot do online multiplayer with one of the games. It fails without an error code going into multiplayer. … It also works if I use Proton VPN Free configured in the router. … Frontier support is blaming my, "third party devices." They assure me that they don't have any firewall enabled on my account... but I know something with their internet is causing this issue. I had no issue when I was on Xfinity cable. …

I extracted the clues for your issue. The key clue is that the issue goes away when you use a VPN. One misnomer I want to point out is that Frontier does not have an internet. Frontier has a local network that has connections to a conglomeration of other networks which make up the internet. When you use the PlayStation as is, your ISP will typically route the data traffic using the same path. Also, packet inspection is possible though I doubt they would go through the expense of doing so. When you use a VPN the routing changes and the packets can no longer be inspected.

Having worked several similar issues on Reddit involving different ISPs there seems to be a common cause and that is the user’s ISP is experiencing congestion at a common point where the packets are being routed to the greater internet which result in excessive latency periodically or in the ISP discarding packets breaking the session.

So how do you resolve the issue? I am not sure that you can without impacting your gaming in a different way. Perhaps when all the gamers using the same local Frontier network go back to school or work multiplayer will work for you.

 

[mrric]

I guess congestion is a possibility... but I tried it all different hours and it never works.