How to get basic network information from the game traffic?

[Ellie]

Hi,
I am interested in understanding how network dynamics (delay, jitter) may affect the Everquest game performance. To achieve this, I need to infer packet loss rate and roundtrip delay from the game traffic. It seems that the client regularly sends a 10 byte beacon message to the server. Is this true?

Can people tell me which data fields denote ACK sequence number? What type of packet from the server would initiate an immediate response from the client and vice versa? Does any packet contain timestamp information? Is there any relationship between packet size and their interpretation? (for example, 10 byte and 26 byte packets are frequently seen).

If the client is really slow, what's the timeout mechanism from the server?

Thanks so much! ;)

[fee]

To achieve this, I need to infer packet loss rate and roundtrip delay from the game traffic.

Or you could look at the lag-o-meter in game. Same information is displayed here.


It seems that the client regularly sends a 10 byte beacon message to the server. Is this true?

sorta. I have documented a ping in the source, see packet.cpp decodePacket()


The best way to learn the protocol is to start taking some packet captures to visually inspect. Showeq's source is also a great resource, see packet.cpp and packet.h for a complete break down on the protocol.


fee