As with any online game, the ability to play Guild Wars 2 depends on your computer's ability to connect and communicate with the game servers. Below are some tips that can help improve your connection, as well as understand and troubleshoot the source of many common connectivity problems.
GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
If you start to experience frequent connectivity issues, begin by working through these basic troubleshooting steps:
- Confirm you are using a supported connection (Guild Wars 2 requires at least a broadband connection to ensure the game will run smoothly).
- Reset your router and modem. Rebooting your modem can fix connection problems, improve slow connections, and clear out any issues stored in the memory of your router.
- Reboot your PC. Giving your computer a chance to reset can fix any number of issues that might affect your connectivity to the game.
- Temporarily bypass any routers, hubs, or switches and try connecting directly to your modem. You may need to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection after doing so.
- Temporarily disable any security software such as Norton, AVAST, AVG, or McAfee, and then re-launch the game.
If you're still having issues after working through these steps, continue on to the sections below for additional information and troubleshooting steps for your particular problem.
Lag / Latency Issues
When playing an online game, there is constant communication between the game servers and your computer. While the server is sending your computer messages about your location, the world, and everything happening around you, your computer sends signals back to the server with your movement, skill, and other inputs—information that has to be received before the servers know how to respond or communicate your actions to other players.
Most of the time, this communication is seamless over a fast and stable connection. When the signal between the server and your computer is weak or intermittent, however, your character can exhibit a number of signs that suggest a problem with your connection:
- You might begin to teleport or jump back to previous locations—what is known as rubber banding.
- Your skills will no longer fire when prompted, or may not fire for several seconds.
- All of your actions and interactions are delayed.
If these issues become a common experience, it is a good idea to check your game connection by running a Traceroute. This provides you with a detailed outline of where the problems are occurring in the communication between your computer and the game servers. If they happen before the signal reaches the servers, you will know that you need to contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) for help.
How to Run a Windows Traceroute
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. Please follow the steps below to run the test:
- 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.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.
Disconnects
If you are experiencing repeated disconnects from the game servers, try working through the following steps:
If You Receive An Error Code
If you are receiving an error code when you disconnect, search the Common Error Codes article for the code you are receiving and the specific troubleshooting steps you can take to address the problem.
Repairing Your Client
If you are having problems running Guild Wars 2, the data archive may have become corrupted. This can lead to crashes, disconnects, and other issues that disrupt your ability to play, and which need to be repaired before the game runs properly.
Follow the instructions in this article to learn more about repairing your game client.
Clearing Your Game Cache
If repairing your client doesn’t solve your connectivity problem, you can also try clearing the temporary files in your game cache. You can do this using following these steps:
- Open your windows explorer browser.
- In the navigation bar, type %temp% to open your temporary folder.
- Search for any folders that begin with “gw2cache-“ followed by a string of numbers.
- Delete these folders.
- Open Guild Wars 2.
While you will need to re-download any files that are necessary to run the game, this process will help replace any corrupted files that might be lingering in your game cache.
Disable Background Processes
Disabling any inessential processes that are running in the background can help solve a multitude of problems, including connectivity issues. To do this, you can use the Windows® MSCONFIG command.
For Windows XP, Vista, and 7
- Press and hold the Windows® and R keys at the same time. This should open the Run dialog box.
- Type MSCONFIG and click OK. This should open the System Configuration Utility window.
- Click on the Services tab.
- Check the Hide All Microsoft Services checkbox near the bottom of the window. DO NOT continue unless this box is checked.
- Click Disable All.
- If there are any critical services you need to run with Windows, re-check their individual boxes. This may include:
- Wireless Connection Software
- Mouse or Keyboard Applications
- Security Applications
- Click the Startup tab and click Disable All.
- Click OK and restart your computer.
- Once Windows® is back up, DO NOT start any other programs. Instead, launch the game to test your connectivity.
For Windows 8, 10
- Open the Windows menu and type in MSCONFIG.
- Left click on System Configuration. This should open the System Configuration window.
- Click the Services tab.
- Check the Hide All Microsoft Services checkbox near the bottom of the window. DO NOT continue unless this box is checked.
- Click Disable All.
- If there are any critical services you need to run with Windows, re-check their individual boxes. This may include:
- Wireless Connection Software
- Mouse or Keyboard Applications
- Security Applications
- Click the Startup tab and click the Open Task Manager link. This will display a list of all the applications you have set to start when Windows first boots up.
- Right-click on these applications one by one and select Disable.
- Once completed, click OK in the System Configuration window to save your changes. You will then be prompted to reboot your PC. Once you return to Windows, launch the game right away to test your connection.
If the steps above resolve the issue, it means that another process (or the number of processes) running on your computer is causing a conflict.
To determine the specific process causing the interference, open the System Configuration tab and begin re-enabling a few processes at a time and launching the game until you encounter the error again. When this happens, disable the process that was last selected and add a different one. If you're still able to play, then you have identified the offending process. If you continue to run into issues, the problem is probably related to the number of processes you have running at the same time.
Re-enabling Disabled Processes
To re-enable all of the processes that we disabled:
- Press and hold the Windows® and R keys at the same time. This should open the Run dialog box.
- Type MSCONFIG and click OK. This should open the System Configuration Utility window.
- Go to the General tab and select Normal startup.
- Click OK and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Can't Find a Solution?
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