[b]UPDATE: This original post was regarding a largish group of us unable to connect for the last week or so. Issues have progressed far beyond that point and it has become very clear that Bungie has significant server/software issues and are trying to sort them out. By the way, if servers don't respond, latency will be massive your connections will likely be unable to connect or will timeout (I guess that is obvious).[/b] [b]UPDATE: 12 Nov 14 - Bungie have publicly announced they are aware of a wide-spread issue affecting their services. Hoping they fix it soon.[/b] [quote]We are actively investigating issues impacting Destiny services. Until resolved, various Destiny and Bungie.net services may experience disruptions. 5h 34m ago[/quote] My original post: I wrote a post yesterday that seems to have been deleted by a moderator. In it I explain the reasons many of you are getting disconnected after the latest patch. For me (and a lot of others) Destiny was fine before the last patch. For the last 4-5 days it has been unplayable. Apart from [b]Destiny's servers unable to handle the load[/b]. Yes, they need to add more servers, but they may also be [b]purposely disconnecting you[/b]. In a post ( http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/77918858/0/0 ) they respond saying: "Developing a robust solution [b]that does not impact the experience of others takes time[/b]." In my original post I reference a similar response to another user. In another post, they respond similarly: "We have two major updates" ... "in development that are intended to reduce the frequency of these errors [b]while maintaining a consistent gaming experience for all users.[/b] " This article explains what happens ( http://www.plugthingsin.com/internet/gaming/ ): [b]"It’s important to realize that many game servers have thresholds for ping rates. If your ping rate is too high, you might be automatically kicked out from the game. Thresholds can be as low as 130 m/s."[/b] Another good summary explains ( [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_%28video_gaming%29[/url] ): "ping refers to the network latency between a player's computer (client), and either the game server or another client (i.e. peer)." .... [b]"Servers will often disconnect a client if the ping is too high and it poses a detriment to others' gameplay. Similarly, client software will often mandate disconnection if the ping is too high."[/b] With the last patch Bungie may have lowered the tolerance for their disconnects. If they deem you have a bad (high) ping time, they disconnect you. They do this to try to keep the experience good for those with good (low) ping times. Also of importance is the ability for Bungie's servers to respond to your requests. Even if they didn't lower the ping threshold, if demand is high enough, the servers won't be able to cope with the demand and response times are affected, hence raising latency (ping time). Ping time or RTT (round trip time) is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-trip_delay_time Just because your connection is awesome (e.g. 30Mbps download/upload) doesn't mean your ping will be good (low). The path it takes to the server (and of course [b]responsiveness of the server/s[/b]) is important as that determines latency of the connection. This is why some people have had success with the ridiculous suggestion of getting their ISP to re-route their pathways (omg, let's change the internet for one game). But, if their servers can't cope, changing the internet won't help either. [u]So what are the solutions to this predicament?[/u] 1. Bungie, improve your servers' responsiveness. 2. Bungie, raise the ping tolerance (if 1. isn't enough). 3. And, if that isn't enough, Destiny needs to be more tolerant of network latency. This would involve more than just raising ping tolerance. It could mean software changes to, for example, store (cache) more content locally, rather than accessing their servers for every thing you do in the game. And, sure, try all the things Bungie suggest to see if you can get the desired throughput, but you can only take it so far. I agree with the many that say that other online games work, so why spend money on anything else when it isn't guaranteed to fix the situation. We paid money for a working game. It should work. [u]Why does tracert timeout on Bungie's IP address?[/u] A number of people have asked why tracert times out after the 14th or 16th (etc.) hop. This does not necessarily mean the host is down. Some servers choose not to respond to ping requests (ICMP). This is usually to avoid Denial of Service (DoS & DDoS) attacks. These attacks flood the server with ICMP requests, which then the server responds to (if they are not set to be ignored) and the server becomes unresponsive as it tries to reply to these numerous requests, thus affecting normal traffic. [b]I see the tracert timeout too, but I know the server is up because I can browse it's web page.[/b] So, great the Bungie web site is up, how about their game servers? We don't know the IP address to any of their game servers. [u]Other resources[/u] Good video about Ping and Latency (up to the point he tries to sell us an audiobook): [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowuBUIX4Wk[/url] More simplistic version but also helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMhtKo__Vmo [u]Links referenced in the text above[/u] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_%28video_gaming%29[/url] http://www.plugthingsin.com/internet/gaming/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-trip_delay_time