Pings

[fred]

Okay, I am getting tired. Tired of being railed by people with amazing ping times. The question is here, does anyone know specific ping times form various pieces of equipment? (Different types of connection to the net?) I mean that the servers I play games on I am now consistantly the slowest ping. About 95% of people are better than 150ms. 90% are better than 100ms and 80% are better than 50ms. Me? I am still stuck at 250ms and getting truly fed up of not being able to play against these folks!! You know what really gets me is that I am not just slow, but I am ALWAYS the slowest! Something I have been completely unable to work out the reason for. From what I understand, the slow pings, like myself, have now been completely chased away from the servers by the fast pings.....but but but but I wanna be a fast ping!!! What equipment do I need and what ping will I get.

[Skinny Boy]

What type of net connection do you have? What are your system specs?

I am one of these low pingers, in the 30 to 50 range, most of the time I play. I am connected via cable modem, and have some modified settings for the data speeds in windows, to better optimize the flow. I also have a good video card, a 600mhz processor, and 128mb of ram, and 7200RPM drives, w/ good disk access time's.

All these things make for a speedy system, connected to a high speed net connection. I was playing Q3 at a buddy's house the other night, and he was lucky he could stay in the 400 ping. He was playing via a regular modem, via a phone line. The system I just built him, only has 100mhz on me, and it could keep up w/ the frame's no problem, but the speed of the connection just wasn' there. That is the biggest secret. If people are getting good ping, they either have a cable modem, or a DSL connection, or better.

A modem just can't do it like the others.

[fred]

You must be right, it just kinda amazes me the number of folks who have cable modems. The games I visit it seems nearly everyone is now using a cm. http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/frown.gif I guess I must be about the last, I am a bit out in sticks here and my area seems to be the last in the world to get cm's. http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/frown.gif
I guess I will just have to get my butt kicked until they introduce 'em around here..luckily only a few more months to wait http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

My only minor problem is that the provider that is going to do cable access here is well known for not doing games pops. GREAT! A browser pop means that you might game lost connections during the game (kinda like glitches!). Hmmmmmm!!!! Make me worried that the entire venture might be a waste of time. Oh! It's no good, I should move to an area that has good access.

[fredwest]

Hi guys,
Yeah, DSL and Cable are the way forward. Having said that, though, I've played HL on-line a few times using Won and I appear to have pings from 150-250. I just have a regular modem (USR) but CLEAN telco lines. So I get the full lash of data as well as having the MTU etc tweaked for a modem (and not a NIC).

I guess fred if your lines aren't clean etc then you probably will have to go cable etc.

Get your lines checked by a telco engineer who 'cares'. Then go and buy a Diamond Supra Express EXT modem. Do NOT get the PRO or the USB version. I know SARGE swears by them (or at least his kids do) http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif.

HTH...?


Yours

Declan (aka fredwest) http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

[fred]

The lines are very good, but not good enough to let me get sub 100ms! When you play Quake III with a 50ms ping, it is almost like playing with no ping...it is that good! But with a ping greater than 200ms, you are suffering a severe handicap. At some point just over 300ms, the game is almost unplayable and you WILL get your butt kicked , even by complete idiots.

[wedor]

I used to play Diablo on-line at B-net. Using 56K modem usually pinged at 120-140, from mid-west(WI) to CA.

[dan3223]

Fred, 250 isn't all that bad for a 56k... Before I got cable I'd get around 500, not I'm getting 150 since I got cable...

[Skinny Boy]

Have you tried game spy? or do you connect through the Q3 server list? You may be connecting to some point too far away, w/ too much traffic between you and the server. Check around locally too, see if anyone in your area runs a server, you may have better ping there. I usually connect right through the Q3 interface, and enter the IP of a fairly local server, although the server is running on RR cable also, it is about 70 miles away, and I usually have less than 50 ping. If DSL was available here though, I think I would go w/ that instead, as long as it had comparable transfer rates.

[fred]

Oh! I am just tired of it. I have had my butt kicked AGAIN tonight!!! I went through to the five fastest servers I could find and averaged over 300ms on every one. The worst part is that with over eighty other competitors, 70 had 40-60ms pings. Boo!

[fredwest]

Hi dan3223,
I just posted as a reminder that modems still work! I have played on-line two times......that's right folks. I did it just to see 'if I could'. I was beaten etc but the thing worked http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif.

WON.net has an applet that runs (VERY slowly) that shows your ping to a given site. In my case the speed usually gets better as I browse for potential opponents http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif.


Yours (aka fredwest) http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Bruno]

250 isn't so bad for an analog modem..I get about 200-300 hundered when playing UT.. With Quake 3 I get about 130 (closer server).

I think that you can improve ping a bit by adjusting MTU, ...In windows 98 they asvise to put the package size to high instead auto in TCP IP settings...I forgot the URL where I saw that but I'm sure you'll find it at www.56k.com (http://www.56k.com)

[Tiretool]

Ummm...in UT, if you're pinging at 200-300, in my opinion it blows. Games these days are hard on your available bandwidth and having a crappy ping time enables "the other guy" to pull the trigger on you before you even see him! At 200-300 ping times you're dead before you even click the "fire" button.

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They call me †i®è†øøL
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tiretool@pcmech.com

[StunGunz]

Is fred using a WIN modem, because in my experiences those little peices of cow dung are useless. Check to see Fred, and if you are using a win modem throw it away and get a new modem.

[xpopodannyx]

Hey fred, i feel your pain. I don't know what to do myself. I'm wondering if there is anything w/i the game setup to be able to help with my lagging 200-300 ping rate. It drives me nuts!!! I'm better than most and i still get beat!!!

[Xayd]

If you bought your computer "pre built" in the past year and haven't replaced the modem yourself, you have a Winmodem. If you have a Winmodem, it isn't suitable in the least for gaming.

Only thing you can try is to knock it down to v34. Less compression means quicker transfer of small packets instead of slower transfer of large packets. Gaming is all transfer of small packets.

Need to know the chipset manufacturer of your modem for strings, though.

If you REALLY wanna solve the problem, go get yourself a Diamond Supra Express, External (serial) or ISA.

Winmodems and gaming generally don't work.

Xayd