Guild Wars 2 provides the ability to do a traceroute while the game is running in order to verify your connection to the game server.
How to Run a Traceroute
- Open your Guild Wars 2 folder.
- Right-click on GW2.exe and select Create Shortcut.
- Right-click on GW2.exe - Shortcut and select Rename.
- Rename the shortcut to Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic.
- Right-click on Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic and select Properties.
- Locate the Target line and add -diag after the existing text. Your target line should now look like this: "C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\GW2-64.exe" -diag
- Click OK to save your changes.
- Double click Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic to start the test.
- Once the test has completed, click View Results.
The resulting NetworkDiag.log file will be automatically saved to your ...\Documents\Guild Wars 2 folder—the same place where your screenshot folder is located.
Interpreting Your Traceroute
In the 'Tracing Network Paths' section of the resulting log, you will find five columns for each traceroute to a different network location:
- The hop indicates whenever a packet is passed from one router to another.
- The round-trip time (RTT) represents the time it takes to send a packet and receive a response from the network computer. This time is represented in milliseconds.
- The Source to Here (Lost) represents the number of packets that never received a response.
- The Source to Here (Sent) represents the total number of packets sent by your computer.
- The Source to Here (Pct) represents the percent of packets that were lost.
- The This Node/Link column represents the packets sent, received, and lost on a particular hop.
- The Address is the IP or domain address of the device that is receiving the packets your computer is sending out.
Below is an example of what a good connection looks like. This is denoted by the low number of lost packets during each hop from your computer to the destination:
On the other hand, here is an example of what a bad connection looks like. Note the high percentage of dropped packets between the different hops:
A few things to consider based on your results:
- If you are losing packets on the very first hop, you are likely experiencing a problem with your own router or computer. Try resetting your router and ensuring all of your network drivers are up-to-date.
- If you are losing packets at an intermediary step (after step 2), you may want to contact your ISP to see what they can do to address the problem.
- If you are losing packets on the final step, there may be a problem with the game servers. If you consistently run into issues, consider contacting the support team with a copy of your NetworkDiag.log file.