Battle.net

The traceroute tool allows you to inspect the route path of Internet data packets between your computer and the World of Warcraft server, it also helps identify whether or not your connection is experiencing unusual latency issues. When using this program, you may determine exactly where the data packets transferred meet problems. Below you will find instructions on how to create a trace route in Windows and on Mac OSX.

How to create a trace route in Windows

When you are playing the game, press the Alt and Tab keys simultaneously

[ Windows XP ]

1. Click the Start menu and then Run
2. Type in cmd then press Enter



3. Continue to Step 4

[ If using Windows Vista or Windows 7 ]

1. Click Start and type cmd in the Search/Run field
2. The search should find a program called cmd.exe
3. Right-click on the cmd.exe program and left-click on Run as administrator
4. Type the following into the Command Window that appears:

netstat -n -p tcp -b | more



You will see a line like this one (depending on World of Warcraft):

TCP XXX.XX.XX.XX:XXXX YY.YYY.YYY.YY:3724 ESTABLISHED ZZZZ [WoW.exe]

The X is your IP address, please include this in your email with the information above.
The Y is the address of the server you are connecting to. The 4 digit numbers after the : in both cases indicate the port used. This may be 3724.
The Z is the process id for World of Warcraft on your computer.

5. Now we need some information on your connection, in the same command window, type in:

tracert YY.YYY.YYY.YY > C:\tracert.txt



Important: When using the address from the Netstat command above for YY.YYY.YYY.YY, ensure that you use the number values given and remove the :3724 from the end. A file will be created on your local drive (C:) called tracert.txt which will contain the trace route information. Please note that you must have administrator privileges on your C: drive in order to create this file.

How to create a trace route on Mac OSX

When you are playing, switch the game to windowed mode by pressing the Apple/Command and M keys simultaneously

1. Open the Finder, choose Applications and then Utilities


2. Run the Terminal program

3. In the Terminal window, type netstat -np tcp | grep 3724 and press Enter



You will see a line like this one:

tcp4 0 0 XX.X.X.XX.XXXX YY.YYY.YYY.YY.3724 ESTABLISHED

The Y information is the address of the server you are connecting to.

4. We can now create a trace route to your server using the Y address above In the Terminal window, type traceroute YY.YYY.YYY.YY > ~/Desktop/tracert.txt and press Enter



Important: When using the Y address from the netstat, ensure that you enter the number values given. A file will be created on your desktop called tracert.txt which will contain the trace route information. Please allow your computer 2-3 minutes to create the tracert.txt file before opening or moving the file.

I ran Trace Route, now what do I do?

Open the tracert.txt file. You will see 3 kinds of information regarding the route that internet traffic is taking from your computer to the realm you chose:

1) The number on the far left is the hop number. One hop (Hand over Point) is the router your data packets go through in order to reach the destination.

2) The next 3 numbers (with 'ms' after each one) is the length of time, in milliseconds, it takes for your computer to receive a response from the computer you are trying to contact. A high value, for example greater than 200 ms for broadband or 350 ms for dial-up indicates that traffic is slow, and can cause latency or 'laggy' play. Asterisks (*) indicate that your computer did not receive a response from the computer you are trying to contact at all, which can keep you from connecting to our servers all together, or cause you to be disconnected abruptly. However, please note that network administrators may purposely block incoming PING connections due to security related issues.

3) The final piece of information is the DNS (or 'name') and/or the server IP address you are trying to contact on this hop. If you did not receive any responses from this server, you may receive an error message such as Request Timed Out or Destination Net Unreachable.

Important: Since our World of Warcraft servers are protected from unsolicited traffic and attacks, all the hops after you have reached our server may give you an error message such as 'Request Timed Out' or 'Destination Net Unreachable'. Our current server names begin with various mixes of numbers and letters, and end in the following addresses: Telia.net (example: prs-tc-ks51-geth0-1.telia.net) All error messages you may receive after contacting our server can be safely ignored for troubleshooting purposes, and they do NOT indicate a problem with your internet connection.

If you see any error messages or asterisks in your trace route for the hops before you reach our servers, you may need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and provide them your trace route information for further troubleshooting. Once the information has been submitted, it may take several days for the problem to be identified and resolved.

Remember that Blizzard Entertainment can only ask your ISP to fix an issue; the best results come when you contact your ISP directly.

Reported!