This lag thing...

[Nuclear Krusader]

Can anyone here explain to me this lag thing when playing online games? I've only played online once, Red Alert. In the right bottom corner of the Westwood Chat window was this: 1000ms.
I assume that ms is miliseconds, is that the lag? What is the lag anyway?
TIA

[Jenni]

Lag is the amount of time it takes for information to go from your computer to the server and back again. 1ms lag = 1 second behind. So basically, everything you are seeing happened 1 second ago. Which would be unplayable on most games. Above 300-400 is unplayable in FPS games like Counter-Strike.

There are other issues involved, I have seen people with 600 pings on CS that were playing just fine, so I don't understand it all myself. But I do know lower is definitely better, lol.

[DrZaius]

What Jenni said, except I think 1ms lag = 1 millisecond behind. ;)

[Alaron]

Lag is the same as latency. Latency is the amount of time that it takes for a packet of data to travel from its source to your computer. You are correct in saying the ms is milliseconds. People with dialup connections get around 300-600ms when they play online, which is pretty bad. It makes the gameplay really choppy. People with cable get less then one hundred. With lag, less is more.

[Xion]

Lag is when your keys are delayed.

Say I'm in New York, and I want to play a server in Tokyo. That's 6760 miles. The speed of light is 186,000 miles a second. Your signal has to go from your computer to the server, and back.

So, we have to go 6760 miles there, and 6760 miles back. That's 13520 miles. At the speed of light, there and back it takes 72.688 ms (((13520 miles) / 186000 miles/sec) * 1000ms/sec). So, at best you can have a 72 ms ping.

The lower the ping the better!

[Jenni]

Yeah, I meant the 1000 ms he listed in his post. Doh!

[Xion]

Originally posted by Jenni
Yeah, I meant the 1000 ms he listed in his post. Doh! I have a name. :( Lol.

Yea, lag is annoying while playing any online game. There's also packet loss, choppiness, and others.

[Blakhart]

If you have no packet loss(pl), but a hi ping, you can often play online just fine, even with a 850 ping. You may get booted by the admin of the server tho, as many have limits to ping.
Pl is far worse than hi ping.

[muTe]

if your lucky you can play games like counter-strike with a server near you. I was playing CS with a 56k and was getting 200-220 ping. was great for 56k. now that I have cable i'm getting 10-20 ping and can't play when my ping is 75 or higher :D

the only solution to have great time playing online is to get another connection! none of these "programs" that boost your connection will work.