Suggestions on Bringing down Latency in Online Gaming

[johncatral]

I have a Desktop PC which has a Netgear PCI Wireless G card, connected to a Netgear Router and I constantly get high Latency when online gaming.

Is there anything I can do to help bring Latency times down? Is it my ISP or something in my network? Any suggestion would be appreciated!

Thanks!

- JOhn

 

[Fardringle]

Can you connect the PC to the router using a wired connection? Or even connect the PC directly to your broadband modem? If so, try both of those and see what your latency looks like there. If they are fine then you'll want to look into possible wireless interference. If your latency is still high when connected directly, then the problem is with your router and/or modem hardware or the ISP itself.

 

[p1800volvo]

Go to Start, then Run. Type cmd. This will open a DOS prompt. Type tracert www.ibm.com. Copy and paste the Tracert results here, and we should be able to tell you where the latency is. Let it go to about 15 lines, then give a a control-c.

 

[johncatral]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
Can you connect the PC to the router using a wired connection? Or even connect the PC directly to your broadband modem? If so, try both of those and see what your latency looks like there. If they are fine then you'll want to look into possible wireless interference. If your latency is still high when connected directly, then the problem is with your router and/or modem hardware or the ISP itself.

I can connect to the router wirelessly without a problem but I would have a problem connecting the computer directly to the router because it is not in the same room and the computer is heavy as it is. Maybe a last resort.

Originally posted by: p1800volvo
Go to Start, then Run. Type cmd. This will open a DOS prompt. Type tracert www.ibm.com. Copy and paste the Tracert results here, and we should be able to tell you where the latency is. Let it go to about 15 lines, then give a a control-c.

Here's my rsult of tracerout to ibm.com.

Tracing route to www.ibm.com [129.42.20.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 106 ms 11 ms 18 ms 10.111.112.1
2 16 ms 31 ms 35 ms pos1-2.orldflwsbg-rtr1.cfl.rr.com [24.95.226.33]

3 21 ms 31 ms 16 ms srp2-0.orldflwrpk-rtr1.cfl.rr.com [24.95.224.65]

4 44 ms 39 ms 34 ms 24.95.224.165
5 30 ms 15 ms 18 ms p1-0.hsa2.orl1.bbnplanet.net [63.209.120.29]
6 139 ms 31 ms 20 ms ge-6-0-1.mp1.Orlando1.Level3.net [64.159.0.37]
7 59 ms 63 ms 77 ms so-0-0-0.mp2.StLouis1.Level3.net [64.159.0.57]
8 73 ms 51 ms 65 ms ge-7-2.hsa2.StLouis1.Level3.net [64.159.4.138]
9 113 ms 83 ms 84 ms unknown.Level3.net [63.208.48.6]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 ^C


I hope this helps!

 

[p1800volvo]

Cool. These four lines may be the issue...

1 106 ms 11 ms 18 ms 10.111.112.1
6 139 ms 31 ms 20 ms ge-6-0-1.mp1.Orlando1.Level3.net [64.159.0.37]
8 73 ms 51 ms 65 ms ge-7-2.hsa2.StLouis1.Level3.net [64.159.4.138]
9 113 ms 83 ms 84 ms unknown.Level3.net [63.208.48.6]

The number before is the time in miliseconds. So, the 106 ms is about 1 1/10th of a second. Add that to the other long times and you get lag.

The first number may be between your PC and the router over the wireless. Line 6, 8 and 9 are just slow performance from your isp. Not much you can do, but give them a call.

 

[johncatral]

Okay, I bought a new Linksys (WRT54G) router today to see if my router was the problem. Well, here's a copy of the traceroute to IBM.com.

Tracing route to www.ibm.com [129.42.20.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 7 ms 9 ms 13 ms 10.111.112.1
3 11 ms 15 ms 8 ms pos1-2.orldflwsbg-rtr1.cfl.rr.com [24.95.226.33]

4 9 ms 8 ms 10 ms srp2-0.orldflwrpk-rtr1.cfl.rr.com [24.95.224.65]

5 11 ms 14 ms 9 ms 24.95.224.165
6 12 ms 10 ms 14 ms p1-0.hsa2.orl1.bbnplanet.net [63.209.120.29]
7 8 ms 10 ms 8 ms ge-6-1-1.mp1.Orlando1.Level3.net [209.247.9.241]

8 41 ms 42 ms 43 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.StLouis1.Level3.net [64.159.0.49]
9 58 ms 40 ms 43 ms ge-9-0.hsa2.StLouis1.Level3.net [64.159.0.66]
10 77 ms 68 ms 68 ms unknown.Level3.net [63.208.48.6]
11 * * * Request timed out.



It looks a little faster than my previous one. I'm going to try playing some Counter Strike and see how my ping/latency times are.

- JOhn