Unable to connect to the Western servers even though I live in the West

[themadcloner]

I live in Alberta (West side of Canada) and the game is automatically connecting to me to the Eastern servers.  I called EA support and they told me they can't do anything about it manually as the game automatically decides which server to connect to based on geographical proximity.  I always used to connect to the West server, so I'm assuming this is a recent change.  Did EA change the locations of their servers?

It's making the game unplayable for me because I'm getting 35+ MS response times in my online games vs. the ~15 MS response times I used to have when I was connecting to the West server.

[EA_Barry]

@themadcloner

Maybe your ISP made some configuration changes?

Try power cycling your router and also possibly use Google Public DNS rather than the default:

Google Public DNS: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using#routers

[themadcloner]

I checked with my ISP, no changes were done.  I've also tried setting the DNS to Google and to my local (Shaw) West servers in Vancouver, and the game (NHL 18) still connects me to the East server.  I guess I'm out of luck, eh?

[Socair]

This has happened to me several times over the past three years. Nothing you can do. I used to reboot the game repeatedly trying to get in the west server, and sometimes it worked. But generally it would correct itself after a period of time (anywhere from a couple of days to a month).
I'm in AB too, fwiw, but I know one of my club mates in BC has dealt with it too.

[themadcloner]

@Socair @EA_Barry

I would have this as an intermittent problem before as well, but it would always be solved by restarting the game until it logged me in to the proper server.

This time though, no matter how many times I try, it always logs me in to the East server.

I think I figured out the root of the problem.  I ran a trace route to easo.ea.com and it shows that I'm getting routed to a server in Chicago (which is East/Central US), so EA is probably reading that I'm in the East.

There's no workaround for this, I'm assuming? Short of EA patching the game and giving us the option to choose which server to play on?

[Socair]

I tried everything I could think of; changing dns, dmz/port forwarding, trying nat 1, 2 and 3, using a different system and even using wifi instead lol. Plus the usual power cycling modem and console.
Short of switching ISP's and hoping that fixed it, I have no idea what would correct it.
I still noticed bad latency when we could select our region normally in matchmaking prior to last year, when I had east recommended. So it doesn't really help the individual, but it definitely prevented having your club match east because of your "east" connection, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I hope this doesn't mean I'm in for another bout of east recommended myself. Let me know if you learn anything new and I'll chime in if I experience it again.