Lag Problem

huw · Post by **huw** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:14 pm

I have started experiencing some serious lag (2400ms+).

My PC is relatively fast (AMD Athlon XP 4400+).

My PC is connected to the internet through a router.

Usually it has been fine with a few lag warnings and occasional kicks.

Today the lag wasn't above most of the server limits but it was constant rather than having lag and then going back to no lag again.

Is there anything I can do PC side to try and reduce the lag?

Winny · Post by **Winny** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:25 pm

do you have anything like msn or google talk running ?

if so, log out of them, that can really reduce lag.

huw · Post by **huw** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:36 pm

I did try that earlier. It seemed to help but the lag still increased.

It was getting so bad that it was impossible to shoot anyone because they had moved by the time my shot had got there

/edit: Spelling

Winny · Post by **Winny** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:57 pm

your isp may just be having a bad day, or lots of people are using the service,

see if this persists over a long period of time ( 2-3days) if it does, maybe call you isp see if there are any problems with your connection (ie: your modem, main distro hubs near your house)

A Meteorite · Post by **A Meteorite** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:34 pm

DSL or Cable?

Have you had problems at this time of day? If no, then maybe some of their equipment is down and the other equipment is taking the load.

pyr0 · Post by **pyr0** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:40 pm

Cable or DSL really makes a difference. Despite Cables advertisement of "Faster and Better," it isnt necessarily true. Cable had the tendency to get slower speeds at peak times. I've been on a few Cable systems where they have outstanding (and even scary) speed at night (2000kb/s), but the next day they are as slow as 56k. It also varies upon the number of neighbors who have Cable as their ISP (500 neighbors to the main station versus 15000 will make a huge difference).

DSL has always been consistent because they use the phone lines instead of the cable lines. I've always gotten a steady speed upon my plan but rarely more and even more rare is less (Currently I'm getting 384kb/s, I'll be upgrading from 3.0mbit/s on Verizon to 7.1mbit/s on TampaBay DSL and I expect a 900kb/s connection).

More then likely if your on cable, it is just the day. If, on the other hand, you have DSL, run some speed and ping tests at broadbandreports.com and if they're not what they should be (with speed, allow a little speed offset for it, mine reads 360kb/s but I download at 384kb/s in most cases) call your provider and ask them to run a line test. I had to call Verizon to get my line fixed twice now for small errors in the modem and then once being in their line. Havent had one problem (or IP change) since.

huw · Post by **huw** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:44 am

I have 1.1 DSL. I think I get lag anyway to start of because I am near the 1.5 mile connection limit for the DSL exchange and the phone line has been extended.

I do seem to still get some problems based on the time of day

I usually get a fast download and ping speed (usually max out my connection if I am downloading, which isnt at the same time as playing bzflag!)

Spazzy McGee · Post by **Spazzy McGee** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:12 am

extended phone lines cause problems when they get hot. our DSL always used to go off or get really laggy at around 7:00pm because the extension got too hot and shorted out. it took us weeks to find out the problem, phoning demon to get line checks and all, but in the end we just had to replace the standard telephone extension with an ADSL Cable extension, right into the splitter box.

huw · Post by **huw** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:47 am

Thanks for the information. I might try the router townstairs to see if I can get a difference in lag.

If it does it might be worth considering. It might also allow me to get a faster connection that is paid for but won't work on the router.

huw · Post by **huw** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:57 pm

I just did a traceroute to my favourite server (viper2.pimpi.org)

Code: Select all

Tracing route to menegroth.pimpi.org [217.20.127.212]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2   104 ms    81 ms    93 ms  217.47.206.58
  3    90 ms    93 ms    99 ms  217.47.72.161
  4    76 ms    80 ms    76 ms  217.41.169.13
  5    73 ms    83 ms    89 ms  217.41.169.65
  6    69 ms    74 ms    93 ms  217.41.169.114
  7   105 ms    99 ms    94 ms  217.41.169.50
  8    81 ms    90 ms    97 ms  213.123.109.49
  9   104 ms    87 ms    89 ms  core2-pos4-3.reading.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.0.249
]
 10    74 ms    79 ms    76 ms  londont-ia1-fe00.mdip.bt.net [195.99.125.37]
 11    89 ms    97 ms    92 ms  core2-pos5-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.74.65.
181]
 12    85 ms    86 ms    63 ms  194.74.65.14
 13   110 ms   107 ms    72 ms  so6-0-0-2488M.ar1.FRA2.gblx.net [67.17.74.150]
 14    80 ms   109 ms   106 ms  gblx01-fra-gatewayrouter.ge-1-1-0.415.ar1.FRA2.g
blx.net [64.212.41.66]
 15   108 ms   101 ms    89 ms  fragw2.gatewayrouter.net [217.20.117.9]
 16   135 ms   122 ms    86 ms  menegroth.pimpi.org [217.20.127.212]

Trace complete.