any way to lower ping

[i nEeD HeLp]

the title says it all. and also any tips on lowering it (connected by cable)

[robal]

If you're using cable, than I don't think there are many options for you.

Just make sure your broadband is not used by anything else when you play.
That includes obvious things like: downloads, radio streaming, torrents, updates, frequent mailbox checks etc.

If your broadband is shared with other users (home network), all that applies to them too.

If you have some beefy 'router' giving you broadband access, resetting it may help in some rare cases.

[Animalpak]

Get this





lol i joke


I have this...





THis is the DGL-4300 D-Link gaming router with gamefuel system, it REALLY improves the ping during gaming. I can play alomst in every left4dead servers with 35 40 ping, plus in some Crysis Wars servers my ping is around 18.

This router is amazing i recommend you. I use cable too.

[mrw1986]

I use a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with DD-WRT v24-sp1. Great router with great pings!

[ZenZimZaliben]

If your motherboard supports this, which it may, but I doubt. YOu can run Bridge Network Adapters. If you motherboard has to cat5 ports you should be able to do this. This is essentially forcing 2 network adapters into parallel. Similar to RAID for HDs.

[hat]

A router is a router. Most internet doesn't even go over 10mbit anyway so routers from 10 years ago would work fine with today's outdated 1950's internetwork. I would try downloading the tcpip optomizer and see if that helps. Additionally, if your router has a DMZ port, try plugging the ethernet cable from your computer into the DMZ port in your router and go into your router settings and find the DMZ tab and enable it. It's usually where the port forwarding options are. This will leave your computer's ports wide open - all 65535 of them. This leaves you vulnerable to attack, however, there is absolutely no chance of something being blocked, at least at the hardware level, so this should improve internet performance. If you have a firewall, disable it.

I don't run a firewall or antivirus but I don't go to warez websites that tend to load you up with shit. However I am behind my router's hardware firewall. Most of the time, viruses require the user's permission to be installed anyway. They're usually hidden away in iffy ActiveX controls or those strange windows you see every now and again when visiting a dodgy website you've never been to before. They usually say something like this: "PcDefender has found 23 viruses on your system! Download and install PcDefender Antivirus now to get rid of these dangerous threats!"

If you save sensitive information on your computer like your bank information, logins/passwords etc do not go this route. I save all my sensitive information on my flash drive, so although I have everything saved on a computer file it's impossible for someone to get a hold of it unless they physically come over and steal it.

[a_ump]

yep, hat is right, as long as your not visiting dodgy sites or torrenting or limewire'in then you don't really need anti-virus, however i thk there are few that fall under that category . And i didn't know a router could actually improve pings, were u guys pullin his leg or is this true? i just use the Linksys WRT54G wireless router.

[CDdude55]

My D-link router was cheap, when my bro is on his PC my ping goes through the roof sometimes.

So they don't help all the time as it varies on other things (ie. other PC's, what there doing on there PC)

[Conflict0s]

Also it depends where the server of the game is. Further away = more ping.

[lucasweir]

i would go to portforward.com and look up the game your using and forward the port for that game its helps a lotq

[mlee49]

Originally Posted by Conflict0s

Also it depends where the server of the game is. Further away = more ping.

There it is for ya, the further away from the server the higher the ping. Ping is measured as echo time from you to a server, best way to cut down on your ping is to get physically closer to the server!

[CDdude55]

Originally Posted by mlee49

There it is for ya, the further away from the server the higher the ping. Ping is measured as echo time from you to a server, best way to cut down on your ping is to get physically closer to the server!

If only it where possible.

[robal]

Guys !

TBH, there's no other way to improve ping in games, than getting better ISP.

All this marketing around 'better router' or 'better network card' etc. isn't as helpful as you may think.
There are rare case where these might help.
All TCP optimisation tools WILL NOT improve you ping in games! Games use UDP, not TCP.

It's very useful to do a traceroute:
-go to START -> run, launch 'cmd'
- in command line enter tracert with IP of the server you use to play (eg. 'tracert 134.120.34.2')

You'll see latencies between you and all IP nodes in the way, your packet must make to reach the server.
That's very useful information. You'll know how much latency is added up at each step.
This way, you'll probably discover that you broadband connection (like cable or adsl) has no more than 25ms of latency to the first node.
All further latency is inside of your ISP's network and then inside your game server's ISP's network (because it's overloaded with crap)
You can't do anything about those. No fancy router and no fancy network card will help you.

Possible solutions:
- convince everybody not to download so much porn
- convince everybody not to download 300GB of thinks they don't need (like pirate torrents you don't even use after download)
- play your games at 3:00am where above people are asleep
- kick your ISP's ass for traffic shaping, which should target torrents but also hurts games
- kick your ISP's ass for not improving its core network capacity
- kick your ISP's ass from me (because they probably deserve it anyway )

Cheers,

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by a_ump

yep, hat is right, as long as your not visiting dodgy sites or torrenting or limewire'in then you don't really need anti-virus, however i thk there are few that fall under that category . And i didn't know a router could actually improve pings, were u guys pullin his leg or is this true? i just use the Linksys WRT54G wireless router.

Quite naive. Viruses don't just come from "dodgy sites". They can be everywhere. It's foolish to believe you won't get one because you don't visit "dodgy sites". Besides, with current hardware a virus killer hardly impacts anything.

As for the "a router is a router" comment, that's a bit ignorant as well. With a single client on a slow connection this might be true in most cases, though even a 10Mbit connection will torture your 10 year old router. A slow processor takes longer to unpack and repack all those packets, so the more data it has to unpack and repack the higher the latency gets.
Just look up some reviews and you'll find that various routers give quite different performance.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by ZenZimZaliben

If your motherboard supports this, which it may, but I doubt. YOu can run Bridge Network Adapters. If you motherboard has to cat5 ports you should be able to do this. This is essentially forcing 2 network adapters into parallel. Similar to RAID for HDs.

False. that wont speed up shit, because the bottleneck is between his router and his ISP, not his PC and his router.

Originally Posted by Conflict0s

Also it depends where the server of the game is. Further away = more ping.

Correct. Find a closer server, join that.

Originally Posted by mlee49

There it is for ya, the further away from the server the higher the ping. Ping is measured as echo time from you to a server, best way to cut down on your ping is to get physically closer to the server!

or connect to more local servers.

Originally Posted by robal

Guys !
TBH, there's no other way to improve ping in games, than getting better ISP.

All this marketing around 'better router' or 'better network card' etc. isn't as helpful as you may think.
There are rare case where these might help.
All TCP optimisation tools WILL NOT improve you ping in games! Games use UDP, not TCP.

It's very useful to do a traceroute:
-go to START -> run, launch 'cmd'
- in command line enter tracert with IP of the server you use to play (eg. 'tracert 134.120.34.2')

You'll see latencies between you and all IP nodes in the way, your packet must make to reach the server.
That's very useful information. You'll know how much latency is added up at each step.
This way, you'll probably discover that you broadband connection (like cable or adsl) has no more than 25ms of latency to the first node.
All further latency is inside of your ISP's network and then inside your game server's ISP's network (because it's overloaded with crap)
You can't do anything about those. No fancy router and no fancy network card will help you.

Possible solutions:
- convince everybody not to download so much porn
- convince everybody not to download 300GB of thinks they don't need (like pirate torrents you don't even use after download)
- play your games at 3:00am where above people are asleep
- kick your ISP's ass for traffic shaping, which should target torrents but also hurts games
- kick your ISP's ass for not improving its core network capacity
- kick your ISP's ass from me (because they probably deserve it anyway )

Cheers,

^ this man speaks truth. the most common reason for spiking pings, is someone uploading and maxing out your connection.

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Quite naive. Viruses don't just come from "dodgy sites". They can be everywhere. It's foolish to believe you won't get one because you don't visit "dodgy sites". Besides, with current hardware a virus killer hardly impacts anything.

As for the "a router is a router" comment, that's a bit ignorant as well. With a single client on a slow connection this might be true in most cases, though even a 10Mbit connection will torture your 10 year old router. A slow processor takes longer to unpack and repack all those packets, so the more data it has to unpack and repack the higher the latency gets.
Just look up some reviews and you'll find that various routers give quite different performance.

Backing dan up, ever heard of a worm? they dont even need to be executed, if it gets an open port to your PC, its in.

[RCoon]

Easiest way to improve ping:
move closer to the dedicated server
dont download stuff while playing games
less than 300m of cat5/e cable
a capable router not more than 5 years old

anything else is obsolete.

[Suhidu]

I'll backup from personal anecdote that an older (or just crappy) router can give you either unreliable, or stably subpar INTERNET performance. Particularly, older routers predate the kinds of internet speeds that we get today, and their problems extend beyond whether the WAN port is 10Mb or 100Mb Ethernet. It can actually affect ping as well. This is because if the router is consistently handling more data transmission over the WAN port than it was built with in mind, it can get overloaded and slow down. This is akin to using 2013 software on a 2003 computer. If you think it was faster in 2003, you're probably right. A router is a specialized computer system with a CPU, and it can slow down and take longer to respond. Another problem with old or not-good routers is that certain software can cause a higher load than they were built with in mind, due to the way that that software sends/receives packets. Torrents, for example (and particularly DHT functionality), can put excess stress on a router without necessarily using more bandwidth.

Another thing: you can try updating the drivers for your NIC(wired or wireless) just in case there's something buggy with your current version. Additionally, wireless connections will have more latency by nature, and some wireless NICs just really really suck.

[Black Panther]

A somewhat drastic solution but check out other ISP's in your area. Specifically check user reviews and speak to people asking them their experience. Because obviously ISP's market their DL and UL speeds but not ping..

My internet connection was 15Mbps with ping varying between 20ms and 80ms.

I changed ISP for a same 15Mbps but my ping now never goes above 5ms or 6ms.

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by i nEeD HeLp

the title says it all. and also any tips on lowering it (connected by cable)

Move closer to the server you're connecting to or get an ISP with better latency. Most hardware routes internet traffic just fine, even garbage routers.

[jagd]

Any spesific reason to necroing 4 years old thread ? U bad RCoon

Originally Posted by RCoon

Easiest way to improve ping:

[Suhidu]

Originally Posted by jagd

Any spesific reason to necroing 4 years old thread ? U bad RCoon

It must have taken his message that long to get to the server. Poor guy .

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yeah NIC teaming can't help speeds at all outside one's own LAN...and that "gaming" router must simply be doing some type of QoS.

[Jetster]

We are traveling back in time