what does it take to get good pings for FPS games??

[Bacardi151]

like the message of this thread is asking...what does it take?

i'm spiking hard on all servers when i try to play some CS. i have cable, although it's only 353/90 (down/up), it should still be able to handle playing a 6 year old game!

could it be because i'm on a wireless network? what can i do to fix this? any suggestions?

thanks in advance

 

[KeyserSoze]

Originally posted by: Bacardi151
like the message of this thread is asking...what does it take?

i'm spiking hard on all servers when i try to play some CS. i have cable, although it's only 353/90 (down/up), it should still be able to handle playing a 6 year old game!

could it be because i'm on a wireless network? what can i do to fix this? any suggestions?

thanks in advance

Possibly try the networking forum. Those guys could possibly help a little more. Sorry, I got nothing.




KeyserSoze

 

[warcrow]

Do you have anything running in the background? Filesharing? Virus sending out info?

How do you know its network latenancy and not your system's videocard or cpu?

 

[Nothinman]

It takes a good network connection and a good machine, wireless is fine for FPS games as long as the signal is decent. traceroute the server's your connecting to, if it is a network problem that'll atleast tell you where the problem lies. I can get pings as low as 10-15ms to servers on the same ISP as me and 30-40ms to servers on other ISPs on the east coast.

 

[trmnlprep]

stop downloading pr0n with kazaa while you're trying to play CS

lets see... are you on a wireless network? if so make sure your network card isn't buried. if it's a wi-fi network what kind of router are you using. someone might be leeching your bandwidth...

how long is the cat-5 cable. is it frayed? does it run past your microwave or near anything else that might mess up signals?

 

[bunker]

Put the machine back on a wired network and see if it improves. I have a feeling your slower than usual broadband + wireless network is hosing you.

 

[skace]

It is all about latency and packetloss.

 

[Firus]

If you are behind a wireless router for your connection, that could be it. I know, even with the ports forwarded I cannot get good pings for the life of me behind the router. I have a switch before the router with an extra cat 5 to connect to wired just for playing games online. Try that out, no router (if you have one) just straight from the cable modem

 

[Bacardi151]

Originally posted by: warcrow
Do you have anything running in the background? Filesharing? Virus sending out info?

How do you know its network latenancy and not your system's videocard or cpu?

granted that i have a half decent video card, an ATI 8500, it still is good enough to work on a 6 year old game, and my CPU is OC'd to compete with a p4 3ghz. and the reason i know that it's my ping is simply because it says my ping is 800 and sometimes goes up to 1500, and i can never narrow down my server list to servers under 150 ping.

also before i got this new wireless network set up, and i had another wireless, i was running CS fine with the current computer that i have.

the signal for my current wireless is around 38-54Mbps.

i also noticed that i can't seem to upload faster than 1kbyte/s on CS (i'm using a program that measures my d/l and u/l) but the fact that my upload capacity is 90kbit (which is sufficient for CS gaming since it should only require a bit more than 1kbyte/s)

anyways, any idea why i can't upload faster on CS? but i can on other applications?

regards,

will

 

[Bacardi151]

Originally posted by: trmnlprep
stop downloading pr0n with kazaa while you're trying to play CS

lets see... are you on a wireless network? if so make sure your network card isn't buried. if it's a wi-fi network what kind of router are you using. someone might be leeching your bandwidth...

how long is the cat-5 cable. is it frayed? does it run past your microwave or near anything else that might mess up signals?

no not a wi-fi, i have a SMC 2802W 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless PCI card

and granted that the telephone frequency may mess up my signal, but my signal is at 38-54Mbps when i try to play CS (usually at 48 constant)

and no it doesnt run by the microwave, and i also assume that having a phone nearby shouldnt mess it up right? as long as it isn't in used? and there's 3 total computers connected to this network, but my problem seems to just be with CS itself, i can't seem to get a good upload speed to handle the game. my download is decent for the game, it's downing at around 2.xx kbyte/s but my upload for the game can't seem to surpass 1kbyte/s, whereas i'm positive i have a higher upload than just 8bs!

my d/l also seem to vary from program to program, i was running my virus updater and it was d/ling at 75kbyte/s which is around 600Kbps.

does it possibly have anything to do with the ports? (i've just realized that ever since i plugged in a phone in my room it has been somewhat shitty, but it's not like it is in use when im online and the signal is just fine)

anyways, to my understanding CS usually use 27005-27030 ports, could the ports be the problem?

 

[Bacardi151]

Originally posted by: bunker
Put the machine back on a wired network and see if it improves. I have a feeling your slower than usual broadband + wireless network is hosing you.

yeah when i was on a wired network my bandwidth was superb, i was downing at 2.5Mbit and upping at around 320Kbit, but since i'm not the admin of this network, and i actually prefer the clean looking way without the wired cables running throughout the house, i can't go back to wired networking.

however, i've had 2 wireless networks, my other one was supporting only to 11Mbps, but it was running smoothly, nto as good as a wired network, but by far much better than what i have now, my previous wireless network was only 10% less efficient than my wired network, but i unfortunately i can't say the same for this one, i'd have to say it has dropped dramatically for efficiency. which is weird seeing the new router and the network adaptors are suppose to be better than my last ones.

 

[jbritt1234]

Originally posted by: Bacardi151

Originally posted by: bunker
Put the machine back on a wired network and see if it improves. I have a feeling your slower than usual broadband + wireless network is hosing you.

yeah when i was on a wired network my bandwidth was superb, i was downing at 2.5Mbit and upping at around 320Kbit, but since i'm not the admin of this network, and i actually prefer the clean looking way without the wired cables running throughout the house, i can't go back to wired networking.

He means put it on temporarily to see if that solves your problem. Then go back to wireless and work on the problem.

So, whose network is this that you are on? Why can you not hook up to a regular cable? Even if you have to move the computer (temporarily) to test it, that's what you really should do. That's the best way to find out if it is a ISP problem or a hardware problem.

So, everything just runs hunkey-dorey when you are on the net? Then dies when you are playing CS? I'd say it's your ISP that is the problem or you have the port forwarding set up incorrectly. Check CS's forums to find out how they need to be set up.

Originally posted by: Bacardi151

no not a wi-fi, i have a SMC 2802W 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless PCI card[/quote]

Um, that is a wi-fi card man... Wireless = Wi-Fi basically
No, I don't have apples, I only have apples.

 

[Bacardi151]

i just said when i was on wired networking it was going all well, until i went to wireless, so i already know how it will be like when i go back to wired networking.

on another note, i think it's just the hardware, for some reason even though i'm d/ling at a constant and upping at a constant rate on CS, it keeps giving me a high ping.

i was refreshing the server to see what the response time was, and i realized that the ping jumped back and forth, sometimes it was at 33, then it jumped to 80 then it jumps down to 40 and so forth, would that matter? is that like a spiking lag where the reponse keeps fluctuating every second.

 

[us3rnotfound]

change your rates to these values:

rate 9999
cl_cmdrate 101
cl_updaterate 101

if that doesn't work, tough :|

 

[Bacardi151]

done that ages ago, and i honestly dont think they have any effect at all.

i think it's my wireless network adapter, i checked up some reviews on it, so far 7/8 reviews has given it thumbs down :T i think that's the problem then ....*sigh*

anybody with an insight on the SMC2802W from this board?

 

[WobbleWobble]

Do a "net_graph 3" in the CS' console and see if you're choking or if you have packet loss.

Changing rate, cl_rate, cmd_rate and all that had a HUGE effect with me.

 

[Bacardi151]

yeah i always have the net_graph 3 on, and yeah i do have packet loss, which varies between 0-6, and choke at 20-70

what does that imply?

i also noticed it's not the game itself

but when i ping anything, like yahoo.com, i get good pings at certain times, and bad pings at certain times..and when i do get good ping from yahoo.com, i usually get a good ping from CS as well, and vice bad pings from CS if i get bad ping from yahoo....so i'm suspecting it's my connection that is bad in general...

i have cable, and i know it's shared, and i also know there are times when a lot of cable users are on which eats up the bandwidth, but i never really experienced it to be this bad in the past.