Elite Dangerous Networking Errors and Glitches? Is there any client workaround

Hi all, I haven't played Elite Dangerous that much but one of the worst aspects of the game for me is the near constant networking issues - crashes during session change, super long session changes - mission boards hanging or taking a long time to respond and the game simply crashing during mission hand-ins etc etc.

Its left me wondering if its really this bad for everyone? Or is there something that can be done to improve the networking performance at the client level?

I've already followed the Frontier Support FAQ to resolve issues and tried it with no virus checkers / checked with the router settings - pinged typical servers etc etc.

Am I missing something?

Because the way the game currently works (literally freezing and crashing near continually) it seems incredible anyone is able to put up with the performance at all?

Any advice kindly received.

(Obviously when the game does work I kinda love it otherwise I wouldn't be bothered trying to find a performance fix)

Cheers!
 
What ISP are you with? What router are you using? Are you on NAT? Try putting your machine in the DMZ as a test.

I'm on Aquiss Internet (uses the Entanet UK backbone) Router = Asus RT-AC87U - Not sure on NAT or how do to DMZ on the router though - any advice there appreciated?

All a bit confused though - sometimes Elite Dangerous works fine - sometimes its network performance is truly awful. I've played for hours in the evening without issue - but this afternoon its been beyond awful.

Cheers.
 
is your router/modem configured to open ports for ED? the game uses p2p networking most of the time wich is not the greatest

Is your firewall configured to port ED? you gotta check youre not blocking some of the programs used by ED, its not just ED.EXE

Is the antivirus blocking traffic? always a possible culprit

Do you have the same issues in solo play? I had major issues in open due to p2p,untl I opened ports, and enabled UPNP in modem settings
 
Try disabling the in-built antivirus thingie. I'd also see if there's a firmware update. Also try calling your ISP and ask them what their P2P traffic shaping policy is.

Also - what modem is feeding it?
 
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Obvious question, what other traffic is on your network at the same time you are trying to play? If the missus is streaming Netflix while downloading BitTorrents, it may cause issues. Are you plugging in direct or wireless. If wireless, plug in with a cable. Literally, 50 times faster.

tomalus gives the basic points you need to look into. Add Elite (or the ports) to your exception list.

A malware scan may help as well. malwarebytes.com (Get the free version)

The manual for your router is here. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/mydownloads/e8971_RT-AC87U_Manual_English.pdf

Look up chapters 4.3.2, 4.3.3, 4.3.4.

This may also help if you need to open a ticket. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/187122-Port-Forwarding
 
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is your router/modem configured to open ports for ED? the game uses p2p networking most of the time wich is not the greatest

Is your firewall configured to port ED? you gotta check youre not blocking some of the programs used by ED, its not just ED.EXE

Is the antivirus blocking traffic? always a possible culprit

Do you have the same issues in solo play? I had major issues in open due to p2p,untl I opened ports, and enabled UPNP in modem settings

I'm using Norton Internet Security for a firewall haven't specifically enabled any porting for ED (not sure how to) - issues are across solo, group and open play. Sometimes it all works perfectly fine - sometimes (most always in the UK daytime) its a horrorshow. - UPNP is enabled in the router.

(Just worked out how to DMZ the machine so may well try that)

I'm wondering if it might be P2P traffic shaping in UK daytime ... hmmm.


Edit -> Now working perfectly (from 18:00 hours) .... No changes made of any kind.
 
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try to reinstall windows
when any game doesn't work i reinstall windows.
btw what the "router" you all talking about?
 
I'm using Norton Internet Security for a firewall haven't specifically enabled any porting for ED (not sure how to) - issues are across solo, group and open play. Sometimes it all works perfectly fine - sometimes (most always in the UK daytime) its a horrorshow. - UPNP is enabled in the router.

(Just worked out how to DMZ the machine so may well try that)

I'm wondering if it might be P2P traffic shaping in UK daytime ... hmmm.


Edit -> Now working perfectly (from 18:00 hours) .... No changes made of any kind.

Please don't put your PC in the DMZ, it's too dangerous, seeing as you appear to be a novice in this area. : )
It's highly unlikely to fix your problem and forwarding just the ports ED uses is a much better way to do it.
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I did say the DMZ was just as a test :D

As everything appears to be working now for them, I would put it down to random internet groblets.
 
I did say the DMZ was just as a test :D

As everything appears to be working now for them, I would put it down to random internet groblets.

Yes, I realise that, but I started to get a bad feeling the more I read. : )
.
I would really like to know the reason for some of these network issues that people have.
Whether it's the actual broadband provider, the connection, the router and how it's configured, other people using the home network or any programs like anti-virus that are installed on the PC.
.
Some people say that they don't have problems with any other game other than ED, and also don't have problems just looking at web pages.
This could point to the peer to peer networking that ED uses and maybe the broadband router not being able to cope with it properly.
I also think that some cheaper routers don't do uPNP very well.
It's weird anyway.
.
 
I'm using Norton Internet Security for a firewall haven't specifically enabled any porting for ED (not sure how to) - issues are across solo, group and open play. Sometimes it all works perfectly fine - sometimes (most always in the UK daytime) its a horrorshow. - UPNP is enabled in the router.

I have to think that would be an issue. E:D requires net access. Better yet just get rid of Norton and get some proper protection.
 
Couple of updates and replies to the points raised above:

First, game worked perfectly last night all evening with absolutely no changes to my system / network environment. This is using Aquiss Internet / Entanet UK – on an Asus RT-AC87U modem (this seems to be a pretty nice bit of kit that supports UPnP / static IPs for specific devices etc and various adaptive QOS options (currently preferring gaming).

In general my connection works pretty well on other games (dota2 etc) but I appreciate the P2P nature of ED creates different challenges. The ping test advised in the ED FAQ “ping -t -l 900 bbc.co.uk or ping -t -l 8.8.8.8” showed stable netconnection throughout.

Anyway as I say, the connection was generally excellent all last night and mission boards near instantly updating, no drops and generally reliable gameplay.

Today its not as bad as yesterday but still considerably worse than evening play. I’ve gone ahead and set a static IP and configured port forwarding as advised on the ED network FAQ and its had an improvement on reliability – but there are still very long pauses when loading mission screens and jumping from system to system or general session changes. It seems like the Port Forward option means its more reliable in handling LONG pauses in connectivity but doesn’t really improve performance per say.

Couple of notes specific to points raised in the thread.

1. Norton Security is always my first thought when network problems happen so I always try turning it off to test – this made no difference to the daytime issues.

2. As before its Solo, Group and Open play affected equally.

3. The Asus router is being fed by a standard BT broadband modem. The asus modem has the most up to date firmware and now has the internal firewall functions disabled.

4. No other traffic on the network during these tests. It’s a direct connection to the router by cable.

5. Yeah didn’t bother with the DMZ option 

In conclusion. Couldn’t really find anything obviously wrong with my connection and the symptoms seem massively worse in UK daytime than during the evening. I guess brings it down to the following obvious options ….

a) My ISP (or backbone provider) doing anti P2P traffic shaping during ordinary working hours 06:00 -> 18:00 …

b) Frontier doing something to their own network that makes network perform considerably worse during UK working hours.

Ultimately it’s a tricky one to track down because of the weird fact that it works perfectly sometimes. Instant Mission screen access, game loading and jumping vs (minutes worth of delays and hanging) strange business.
Still I now know a lot more about my router than I did before and have configured it for port forwarding!

Cheers everyone who provided help and advice so far.
 
try to reinstall windows
when any game doesn't work i reinstall windows.
btw what the "router" you all talking about?

from 30 years in IT ......
please dont do that
the work it will give you is huge
its a bit like rebuilding your house when you have a leaky tap

- - - Updated - - -

Couple of updates and replies to the points raised above:

First, game worked perfectly last night all evening with absolutely no changes to my system / network environment. This is using Aquiss Internet / Entanet UK – on an Asus RT-AC87U modem (this seems to be a pretty nice bit of kit that supports UPnP / static IPs for specific devices etc and various adaptive QOS options (currently preferring gaming).

In general my connection works pretty well on other games (dota2 etc) but I appreciate the P2P nature of ED creates different challenges. The ping test advised in the ED FAQ “ping -t -l 900 bbc.co.uk or ping -t -l 8.8.8.8” showed stable netconnection throughout.

Anyway as I say, the connection was generally excellent all last night and mission boards near instantly updating, no drops and generally reliable gameplay.

Today its not as bad as yesterday but still considerably worse than evening play. I’ve gone ahead and set a static IP and configured port forwarding as advised on the ED network FAQ and its had an improvement on reliability – but there are still very long pauses when loading mission screens and jumping from system to system or general session changes. It seems like the Port Forward option means its more reliable in handling LONG pauses in connectivity but doesn’t really improve performance per say.

Couple of notes specific to points raised in the thread.

1. Norton Security is always my first thought when network problems happen so I always try turning it off to test – this made no difference to the daytime issues.

2. As before its Solo, Group and Open play affected equally.

3. The Asus router is being fed by a standard BT broadband modem. The asus modem has the most up to date firmware and now has the internal firewall functions disabled.

4. No other traffic on the network during these tests. It’s a direct connection to the router by cable.

5. Yeah didn’t bother with the DMZ option 

In conclusion. Couldn’t really find anything obviously wrong with my connection and the symptoms seem massively worse in UK daytime than during the evening. I guess brings it down to the following obvious options ….

a) My ISP (or backbone provider) doing anti P2P traffic shaping during ordinary working hours 06:00 -> 18:00 …

b) Frontier doing something to their own network that makes network perform considerably worse during UK working hours.

Ultimately it’s a tricky one to track down because of the weird fact that it works perfectly sometimes. Instant Mission screen access, game loading and jumping vs (minutes worth of delays and hanging) strange business.
Still I now know a lot more about my router than I did before and have configured it for port forwarding!

Cheers everyone who provided help and advice so far.

This is the game unfortunately I see the same issues across my friends ... all of whom run different stacks (versions of HW / Operating systems / drivers / networking)

The last bad wing session I had i found the server IP (just use windows resource monitor and look down at your networking connections) ... when i pinged this the round trip times were terrible and there seemed to be packet loss . So I think we are dealing with 2 issues
1) issues in how the game communicates with us and between all the back-end micro services
2) issues with the servers in the amazon cloud (AWS)

I have tried all the networking tweaks but havnt put my machine in a DMZ as i'd rather avoid an attack on it, doing this can be like plugging your machine into an internet cafe in lagos......and ive been to lagos :)
 
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