• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

WoW wireless networking issues

Wuzup101

Platinum Member
Lately I've been getting a bit fed up with my framerates in WoW on my powerbook, so I decided to upgrade the graphics card in my PC (which I had been using to run vent) and just play everything on that. Problem is, on the PC, my ping is pathetic. It's usually over 400, and frequently spikes well beyond 2000ms. The powerbook, being used at the same desk, generally has a ping right around 100.

This isn't something new either, I had tried this PC both at home and here in my appartment at school a month ago and I got similar results. The internet isn't sluggish at all. Files download very fast, the ping to my vent server is usually like 20-30ms, etc... All drivers are current, and I've tried 2 wireless cards (both linksys). One was an internal wireless b/g card (which I'm not using now because I somehow misplaced the antenna in travel), and the other is an external USB wireless b connector. I have the connector mounted above the desk on the wall, and it's less than 15 feet (and through 1 thin wall) from the router (also a linksys model).

As I stated, drivers are current for everything in the system (including the usb wireless card). It's running a fresh (less than 2 month old) copy of XP sp2, bios are updated, and the only software on the computer other than drivers and utilities are vent and WoW.

One odd thing I noticed is that in game, when i hit the windows key, and then jumped back into game, my ping would be good for about 5-10 sec (under 200) and then go right back up. It's really kinda anoying. I can run at 10-20fps with everything turned down and a nice solid ping of 100, or 40fps minimum with everything turned up and a 2000ms ping... which would you choose?
 
I would suspect something wrong with the USB wireless adapter. To test the problem, connect the PC to your router using an ethernet cable and see what kind of ping results you get. If it works properly, then it's a problem with the USB (could be the drivers, the USB bus is overloaded, or the adapter itself). If you still get poor ping times when wired, then there's a problem with the networking protocols on the PC or something wrong with your installation of WoW.
 
I do not get it, if the general pings of the system (not WoW) is 20-30ms what the Wow pings have to do with USB, and or Wireless?

It is either the WOW installation per-se. Or, more probable, the regular load, and traffic to the Blizzard?s servers.

:sun:
 
The wierd thing is, from the same internet connection, the PC just has a way higher ping. I'm going to try hardwireing it to the router tomorrow and see if that does anything. Obviously on the mac I get the occasional server induced lag, but for the most part, it's pretty even in the low 100s. Furthermore, when I get that lag it's always everyone getting it. My PC starts at about 200, and slowly works it's way up so that I never see anything less than 500ish without restarting the game. I've heard about others having this problem, was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I'll let you guys know what the results are of connecting it via ethernet.
 
It is more likely to be a problem with WoW itself, but it's easy to eliminate the network connection as a cause, and I've personally had problems with some online games getting poor ping times over a USB wireless connection even when everything else on the network seemed to be functioning normally, which is why I recommended trying that first. If you want to skip those steps and just go straight to WoW as the cause, I don't have any problem with that, I just like to include all of the possibilities I can think of in approximate order of difficulty to test just to make sure nothing simple gets missed. 🙂

If other people in the game in different locations are getting the same bad pings at the same time you are, then it pretty much has to be a problem with WoW itself, and very likely a problem with the actual WoW server you are on (or as JackMDS said, heavy load on the server or the server's network connection).
 
Back
Top