Introduction:
Hi i'm new to this forum. I dont know hom many people frequently exprience high ping (latency) while playing PC games online. Well I certainly do. I play a lot of Counter-Strike, and sometimes I have very poor connections and huge lag problems. In this tutorial (if you'd like to call it), I will mention ways which can prevent you from having ping problems.
The Causes and Cures:
- If you happen to be downloading any mp3s or any other file, this would be interfering with the connection. The less traffic which passes through your line, the better.
- Close down any unnecesary programs/processes, which use up valuable memory. An easy way to do this is to disable most of your startup items when you turn on your PC (start -> run -> msconfig -> "uncheck" Load startup items). Close down any P2P programs (e.g. Kazaa).
- If your PC has run all day and it's very worn out, let it rest for a couple of hours, only some computers are built to run 24 hrs. (This might not affect most people but I find it extremely effective).
- It's better to have a high RAM on your system. Mine is about 512mb, but 256 is ok too. If yours does not fulfil the mentioned requirements, then I would advise you to consider upgrading. A good processor often helps too. Mine stands at 2.20 GHz (using Celeron processor), so I would think anything above 1.8GHz would be sufficient. Hehe…but if you get the chance, a Radeon X800T would be brilliant for online gaming.
- This one catches most people out...Spyware and viruses. Many people have Spyware in their system without knowing it, which is why I would reccomend a Spyware check once a week. Typical symptoms of having spyware on your PC while playing PC games online are; latency spikes (ping jumps up and down continuously for several minutes), laggy moments (the game freezes at regular intervals) and many more. A good combination of Ad-Aware SE Pro and Spybot S&D should keep any signs of Spyware at bay.
- If you experience a lot of latency spikes, and if you're using a USB Network Adaptor for a wireless network, you might have a problem. This is why I would deeply recommend purchasing a wireless PCI card (like the Linksys WMP54G which is great for gaming.
- Ping (measured in milliseconds), as most people already know, is determined on how long your PC can transmit the data to the server and return. Therefore, the closer the server (i.e. if the server is in England and you live in England) you have a great chance of having a great in game experience with a relatively low ping. If however you live in England and try to connect to a New Zealand server, it'll take a long time for the server to respond. So suppose you're in the UK, any European servers will do (I sometimes get away with North American though, with ping being about 150-180).
Last but not least:
GET A GOOD CONNECTION! There a hundreds of people who wonder why they have a high ping when they find out that they're using an inferior 56K modem connection. ADSL and Cable connections are the best for online gaming (and most affordable too). Satellite connections, however will cause problems.
And there you have it, follow those steps and your online gaming experience will change dramatically. 100% guaranteed! If anyone has any problems, with ping, please post in this thread.
Hi i'm new to this forum. I dont know hom many people frequently exprience high ping (latency) while playing PC games online. Well I certainly do. I play a lot of Counter-Strike, and sometimes I have very poor connections and huge lag problems. In this tutorial (if you'd like to call it), I will mention ways which can prevent you from having ping problems.
The Causes and Cures:
- If you happen to be downloading any mp3s or any other file, this would be interfering with the connection. The less traffic which passes through your line, the better.
- Close down any unnecesary programs/processes, which use up valuable memory. An easy way to do this is to disable most of your startup items when you turn on your PC (start -> run -> msconfig -> "uncheck" Load startup items). Close down any P2P programs (e.g. Kazaa).
- If your PC has run all day and it's very worn out, let it rest for a couple of hours, only some computers are built to run 24 hrs. (This might not affect most people but I find it extremely effective).
- It's better to have a high RAM on your system. Mine is about 512mb, but 256 is ok too. If yours does not fulfil the mentioned requirements, then I would advise you to consider upgrading. A good processor often helps too. Mine stands at 2.20 GHz (using Celeron processor), so I would think anything above 1.8GHz would be sufficient. Hehe…but if you get the chance, a Radeon X800T would be brilliant for online gaming.
- This one catches most people out...Spyware and viruses. Many people have Spyware in their system without knowing it, which is why I would reccomend a Spyware check once a week. Typical symptoms of having spyware on your PC while playing PC games online are; latency spikes (ping jumps up and down continuously for several minutes), laggy moments (the game freezes at regular intervals) and many more. A good combination of Ad-Aware SE Pro and Spybot S&D should keep any signs of Spyware at bay.
- If you experience a lot of latency spikes, and if you're using a USB Network Adaptor for a wireless network, you might have a problem. This is why I would deeply recommend purchasing a wireless PCI card (like the Linksys WMP54G which is great for gaming.
- Ping (measured in milliseconds), as most people already know, is determined on how long your PC can transmit the data to the server and return. Therefore, the closer the server (i.e. if the server is in England and you live in England) you have a great chance of having a great in game experience with a relatively low ping. If however you live in England and try to connect to a New Zealand server, it'll take a long time for the server to respond. So suppose you're in the UK, any European servers will do (I sometimes get away with North American though, with ping being about 150-180).
Last but not least:
GET A GOOD CONNECTION! There a hundreds of people who wonder why they have a high ping when they find out that they're using an inferior 56K modem connection. ADSL and Cable connections are the best for online gaming (and most affordable too). Satellite connections, however will cause problems.
And there you have it, follow those steps and your online gaming experience will change dramatically. 100% guaranteed! If anyone has any problems, with ping, please post in this thread.
