[Someone Else]

I've just about had it with the amount of lag and how often I get timed out when I play games online (Lineage 2, Mario Kart DS, etc.) and I want to know what factors apply to make a connection good/laggy so I can try and improve my connection.

When I'm simply browsing the web I don't lag or time out, but when I get into games my connection just can't handle it.

Before you ask:

• My graphics card is a RADEON 9800 PRO, so my computer is more than capable of handling the games visually.
  
• I have 1024MB RAM
  
• I realize it may not be my connection, but it may be the server I'm connected to.

I ran a test through PC Pitstop and it gave me these results at the time:

Bandwidth Download - 2976 Kbits/sec
Bandwidth Upload - 375 Kbits/sec
Average Ping - 53 ms
Ping Loss - 0%
TCP Receive Window - (default)
IE current cache - 69 MB
IE max cache - 80 MB

Before you ask, I was using IE since that's what was recommended.

I believe my upload bandwidth may be the problem, everything else looks pretty darn good. Actually, I'm pretty certain my upload bandwidth is the problem, but since you people are the professionals I thought I'd ask you. :agitated: So anyway, again, what factors make my internet lag?

[Andross]

Can you give us what your usual ping is when you're online (in a game that is; there should be a ping box...usually)? In addition, the lag may just be hiccups and errors on both ends - it may be something that you simply can't fix. That's just how the game is programmed, so you really don't have much control over it.

This post has been edited by Andross: 23 November 2005 - 03:47 PM

[Someone Else]

Well, that's hard to do when you're playing Mario Kart, but I'll try it.

Naturally it performs better when I disable the firewall.

Well, could you show me a game where it tells me what my ping is in-game?

This post has been edited by Wind Dude: 23 November 2005 - 04:43 PM

[Andross]

Umm, why do you have a firewall ON? You should leave it off, assuming you have a ROUTER, correct? A router has built in firewall, so having a program that acts as a firewall is completely pointless.

[Someone Else]

What about Windows Firewall and McAfee? :3 I've disabled those anyhow.

[Zaffa Dot Xom]

Interesting topic, WD.

I've been wondering about this myself. I mean, am I right when I say that the firewall thing was a bad idea for games? And even for the internet, maybe?

Also, I am on a wireless-to-router connection. Would that affect me? And in what ways?

And to answer WD's question about finding the ping, you should download FRAPS; it has a ping counter for whenever you play a game, online or offline.

This post has been edited by Zaffa Dot Xom: 24 November 2005 - 02:12 PM

[Andross]

Wireless to router instead of ethernet to router will have a slower mbps, but it doesn't have enough of an effect to slow internet speeds significantly.

For the most part, if you have some sort of firewall or even rudimentary anti-virus which has Worm Protection for instance, you will most likely get problems due to that. You shouldn't need a firewall if you use a router, and if you have something like Norton's Worm Protection, while that isn't necessarily interfering, you may consider turning it off while playing an online game.

[Zaffa Dot Xom]

Well, I have Trend Micro PC-Cillin, which doesn't really have a firewall as far as I know. But should I just turn off all the other unecessary stuff that does?

[Andross]

That last comment threw me off...do you mean any other firewall? Yes, any firewall you have, turn it off. If you mean other things PC-Cillin is running, no, don't bother, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[Zaffa Dot Xom]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out.

[Someone Else]

Alright, I'm back on my own computer. I was at my grandmother's for a while.

Are you sure that's a ping counter in FRAPS, Zaffa? It measures framerates as far as I know. I get good frame rates, at least when I'm not lagging.