For the past 2 weeks I have been constantly getting “unplayable connection”. I have already lowered the chunk download and restarted the game several times. Also checked my own pc connection, which isn’t the problem. Is it just me having this problem? What can I do to improve this little problem?
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Have you tried changing your DNS? That solved my issue last year.
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What is dns?
Edit - Never mind, found it and I think it’s working. 
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Hope it works… try using the google DNS and hope it works… IF you can try changing it on the Modem/Router you are using instead of your network adapter. I did mine from the modem/router and it basically lets all the computers you have connected to it run off that DNS instead of doing it to each machine.
here are a few others…
- Google Public DNS 8.8. 8.8 and Secondary DNS 8.8. 4.4.
- QUAD9 DNS 9.9.9.9 149.112.112.112.
- OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220.
- Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1.
- Clean browsing 185.228.168.9 185.228.169.9.
- Verisign 64.6.64.6 64.6.65.6.
- Alternate DNS 76.76.19.19 76.223.122.150.
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Thank you, will keep this info for future reference
@DaOne82 it did yesterday, and it worked well. But today it is back to disconnecting again. I really don’t know what to do anymore.
Try the other ones… It may be also from your ISP as well…
On which world are you playing and from what country/region? Playing on a World that is on the other side of the world during rush hours might give some issues.
I’m from EU but the planet is on US server. Not sure if it could be that bad as I haven’t had this issue before. And I experience it on several other planets. It is strange that it’s only been happening for the last two weeks.
We have checked everything suggested and anything else we can possibly think of. But it is still happening.
OK so this is more intended as encouragement/entertainment than advice, as it turns out that what happened to me this one time was I happened to be in such a location that I ran into trouble with a specific server that wasn’t configured correctly inside of amazon.
Things were a bit busier at that time so with some dev input I just kept on troubleshooting, heh. It turns out it really was just me having connection problems, but it wasn’t my problem (or theirs), of course.
I just linked into the post where Blake identified the issue but that’s a thread full of deeper and deeper troubleshooting while I had odd partial connection issues for a couple of days and everything worked fine for everybody else.
Two weeks is a while, though. Sorry to hear it.
I very much doubt this has anything to do with DNS. DNS has no effect on your ping times or latency (except when contacting a new server for the first time), and would not explain why you get “Unplayable Connection” and an increased ping value while walking around on a single planet, which I frequently do.
Slow or faulty DNS might explain an inability to open portals, which is what the linked thread is talking about, since planets are (as I understand it) separate servers. But once you are connected to a server (planet), DNS has nothing to do with the performance of the ongoing connection.
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I too have been suffering from this a lot recently, playing on Ceph Merika.
Someone did mention not to use a wireless connection to the router. I managed to connect my router to my pc with a cable. And so far so good, not had the problem for most of the day. I’m just hoping it will be the same when I next log on.
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I often have unplayable connections but I also have 5 meg DSL lol so pretty sure it’s me!
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Very much this.
I normally run on my VPN’s special DNS for the most part, but when I start up Boundless I switch to Cloudflare’s DNS (I’m not 'kin touching Google with a barge pole) and it’s perfectly fine now.
Oh … and my advise for changing the DNS on your router is … do it. HOWEVER … make sure it’s the most private DNS that you can have. Then whenever you need to change it on your device (let’s say it won’t connect to your bank on the one time a week/month you go there), you can choose to quickly change the DNS. Otherwise, keep it private at the router. 
Also, if you’re on Windows, too I have the absolute best tool for ya’.
DNS Jumper
I’m still using an old version, I think, and it just … works.
Also it makes it easy to clear your DNS cache, too. That’s the part of your PC that stores the routes to where you’re trying to get to. Sometimes this is needed if those routes are the issue.
Seriously, though, changing DNS is so much easier with this.
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I was fine till yesterday.
Today I get unplayable a lot. And even when i get a couple of minutes without that, there are frequent spikes to 300-400 from my normal below hundred.
I’m going to be on in a while, I’m UK based, and I’ll let you know how I get on with the above setup.
I’m on a (reliable) 80Mb (50-60 real numbers) down, 20 up, connection that mostly stays there or thereabouts.
I’ll try to do some ping tests, too. If anyone has any favoured servers … or if there’s an IP of Boundless that I can ping, I’ll do that 5-10 times and provide averages.
EDIT - This was originally posted 3 hours ago … I am now currently on (w/ Cloudflare) at ~13:40 UK time … and zero issues so far.
If Boundless use AWS for their services, then I would imagine that any Amazon provided DNS might be ideal for playing.
EDIT 2 - I’ve been bouncing around a ton of US planets (mainly trior) with zero issues thus far, will try some aus later.
EDIT 3 - OK, so I couldn’t totem a portal location to Tenstacia … but managed to make one to Uhanan … (exos) … maybe that’s related? Because it’s not resistance related … 
… Maybe I’d run out of places? I did clear them before getting it to work on Uhanan.
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How do you do a ping test?
Since I connected my router with a cable it seem to work fine. I have noticed the game glitch a few times or run slow, although it didn’t show that little notification.
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Ah, yeah, the cable will be your saving grace, here. That will have resolved your issues, I believe. Plus, since you’re good, I’d say this looks like a closer for @majorvex, wouldn’t you, @TootsBoots?
What Is Ping?
A ping test measures the time it takes to send and receive the same packet of data to an IP address. So if you were on your Windows PC now and wanted to send a ‘ping’ to 1.1.1.1 (which is cloudflare) you would open up CMD (‘Command’ line) or PowerShell, and type:
ping 1.1.1.1
That would then provide something that looks like this:
Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Ping statistics for 1.1.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 5ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 5ms
This shows that it took, on average, 5ms for the packet of data to go to 1.1.1.1 and come back again.
Why Does This Matter?
So … if that were more like 20ms (or 30/40/50ms!) imagine how that might affect how a game which relies on much larger amounts of data going to and from a server getting to the server and back again for your travels in-game.
What you’ve seen is the immediate benefit and difference that using a cable to your router (or switch) will have to that ‘ping’ since it has a much faster route from your PC to the router … then to any server that it has to reach. 
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Wireless can still be good, but any number of things can interfere with that, and mean that it takes longer for your data (or that from the server) to get to where it needs to go. Not all cable connections are super fast, but they’re mostly much more resilient to other factors messing with the journey from you to the server. So you might actually end up with a faster ‘ping time’ and a lower overall speed, but that’s somewhat abnormal.
Why Different DNS Servers?
All of this doesn’t mean that there can’t still be problems that cause the same issue, and that’s why you had folks talking about DNS servers here.
That’s because when you (or a game, or internet connected service) wants to connect to their systems, they will not use an IP, they’ll use an address.
They do this because they may need to change the IP address that a service is on (for many reasons, but let’s say they switch from Amazon to Microsoft) but they can keep the domains that the IP addresses are associated with. This allows them to potentially (for example) improve the service that an online game provides without forcing an update to the users.
Example - This Forum
Using your browser as the easiest example, if you want to come to this forum, you open your browser, type in forum.playboundless.com and bosh, here you be.
In the background browser is asking what IP address forum.playboundless.com is on, finding that IP address, then retrieving the data from that IP address and displaying it on the screen. If it doesn’t already know that, then it has to ask the DNS Server where it is, introducing the extra step.
The faster the DNS, the faster the ping.
Think of it like a phonebook and directory services for the internet.
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You can think of the DNS server as a phone directory, of sorts. You want to speak to the people that run the community garden that you visit, but you don’t know their phone number. So instead of calling “Play Boundless Fora and Fauna” because that can’t be done, you look in the phone book for “Play Boundless Fora and Fauna”, get their number, and voila, you can call them.
So, let’s play the game without a DNS server. Let’s be our own DNS server. Do this:
- Ping
forum.playboundless.com - You will get an IP address (I got
52.91.241.3), but it won’t give you further replies. - Take that IP address and put it into the address bar of this browser.
- Hit go.
MAGIC! YOU ARE BACK HERE!
Why Did Someone Say “Clear the Cache”?
So, imagine how fast all this needs to happen in order for your experiences to not feel onerous? It needs to be fast. So you need to have your own phone book, AND access to directory services, because your phone book might be out of date.
This means that sometimes if you’re having issues, clearing your cache, is like getting an up to date phone book.
So if you clear your cache, then your computer will not have forum.playboundless.com in the phone book, and you will have to ask directory services for the number. Once you have that, boom, it’s in your new phone book.
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Your operating system (and some programs) keeps a local store of what all of the requests that you’ve made, and their corresponding IP addresses. This is the first port of call for any request to an online service that isn’t asked for specifically by IP.
This is built, over time, as you’ve seen above. However, over time, some hosts move to different IPs, or use a variety of IPs to provide services.
Meaning that the next time you request forum.playboundless.com it asks the DNS Server what the IP address is, which sends that back to the browser, which then gets these pages!
This process is also done by the DNS server to a more complicated degree.
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