NationStates Jolt Archive

i have a 2mbps connection here and i just bought Battlefield 2 today. i don't play online games much (well, ever) so i'm getting increasingly confused and annoyed that i keep getting chucked off multiplayer servers cos my ping is too high (generally around 250-ish). i've heard the term before but what does it actually mean in real terms, and anybody got any nifty ways to get it better?

i've also been kicked off for having a modified version of the game, which is pure BS cos i only just got it today :mad:

Usually you get a high "ping" when you are downloading or uploading lots of stuff

Usually you get a high "ping" when you are downloading or uploading lots of stuff
well i'm not - BF2 is all i'm running. i think the game hates me cos my microphone mysteriously decided to stop working with the game, too :(

and for the record, my system more than meets the recommended specs

Ping is the amount of time it takes a packet to get from your computer and back. The higher the ping, the worse the latency, or the 'lag', which is basically a slowdown. Lag is bad, especially with twitch shooters. There isn't much you can do, except get a faster connection or stop downloading porn in the background while you play.

well i'm not - BF2 is all i'm running. i think the game hates me cos my microphone mysteriously decided to stop working with the game, too :(

and for the record, my system more than meets the recommended specs
Maybe other people in the same house are.

Maybe other people in the same house are.
nope, all asleep now and besides i'm the only one who would use P2P download progs if i could - our ISP has disabled them (hmm maybe this is the cause of the BF2 problems...)

Ping is the amount of time it takes a packet to get from your computer and back. The higher the ping, the worse the latency, or the 'lag', which is basically a slowdown. Lag is bad, especially with twitch shooters. There isn't much you can do, except get a faster connection or stop downloading porn in the background while you play.
lol see above - no porn here... damnit :mad:

and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:


could firewall settings play any part in this? we have a particularly trigger-happy firewall here so maybe thats screwing things up?

nope, all asleep now and besides i'm the only one who would use P2P download progs if i could - our ISP has disabled them (hmm maybe this is the cause of the BF2 problems...)


lol see above - no porn here... damnit :mad:

and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:
Bad luck then. The internet doesn't like you right now

lol see above - no porn here... damnit :mad:

and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:
Wireless connection?


And, no, I'm tempted to say DSL isn't fast enough, because you'll never actually get that high. Cable is better, but...yes. Just stack the servers by ping, and try to get into the ones that are around the 100's.

Wireless connection?


And, no, I'm tempted to say DSL isn't fast enough, because you'll never actually get that high. Cable is better, but...yes. Just stack the servers by ping, and try to get into the ones that are around the 100's.
nah not wireless (yet), but thanks i'll try that :)
patching the game at the mo (taking ages) but i think it must be our shitty ISP - they're quite evil on restricting bandwidth use (but they are cheap :P )

nah not wireless (yet), but thanks i'll try that :)
patching the game at the mo (taking ages) but i think it must be our shitty ISP - they're quite evil on restricting bandwidth use (but they are cheap :P )
No, don't use wireless, that's far slower. You need to have a fully patched game (that might help) and a rather large amount of bandwidth to play BF2. It's fun though, I used to play quite a bit.

i have a 2mbps connection here and i just bought Battlefield 2 today. i don't play online games much (well, ever) so i'm getting increasingly confused and annoyed that i keep getting chucked off multiplayer servers cos my ping is too high (generally around 250-ish). i've heard the term before but what does it actually mean in real terms, and anybody got any nifty ways to get it better?

Distance affects ping: if you're playing with people in Asia, Australia or somewhere similarly far away your ping is going to be pretty high. My advice is to play mostly during the evening, when pings should be best.

EDIT: er, that advice about what time of day you play might be a bit irrelevant. I had a p2p game in mind when I wrote this.

Ping has little to do with connection speed. It is the time it takes a packet to go to the server and return. Some types of connections, like satellite connections can be very fast, but have obscenely bad pings. The reason is that even if the connection is fast once established, establishing the connection is very slow.

There's nothing else you can do than to remove anything that might compete with the game's connection, and if that doesn't help, choose another connection.

Isnt a "ping" used to see how long it takes you to reply? Like to see if you're lagged or not.

-
[moo PING]
-
[bleh PING reply]: 1sec
-

i have a 2mbps connection here and {snip}
Lots of things to check - is windows update disabled? For that matter is BITS disabled? The gist of this is you want to check to see if *all* of your net bandwith is reserved for gaming. The two questions I pointed out refer to M$ windows stuff.
Others are pointing out other things to check.
Um ... you could check the network topology ( "traceroute" ) see if your pakets are running all over the dam place, etc.
Still thinking...

Ping is the time, in miliseconds, a packet of information takes to get from you, to the server, and back to you. It varies based on the distance between you and the server, the interenet connection speed of the server (handling many packets at once takes a large connection), your connection speed (you need to be able to send the information as fast as the server can read your packet and send a packet ini reply; the fastest you can go is the rate of the slowest connection), and the qualety of the server's virtual memory and processor speed (for busy servers).

In an online game, the server syncronises you with the other players and with any data that is serverside (such as non-player-characters).

A ping of 250 means that you get synchronised every 250ms, or every quarter of a second. You are probably trying to connect to a servers on an opposite side of the world (do you live in Oceana/Asia?), given your computer's high specs. Try sorting by ping and finding one around 50-150.


EDIT: Also, what sort of connection do you have? Cable? DSL?

and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:

Depends. How many users share it? You may think you are the only one, because no one else in your house shares the connection, but the ISP groups a bunch of users together and shares the bandwidth between them.

Something else that can help is trying different BF servers, preferably ones that are not too crowded.

Ping has little to do with connection speed. It is the time it takes a packet to go to the server and return. Some types of connections, like satellite connections can be very fast, but have obscenely bad pings. The reason is that even if the connection is fast once established, establishing the connection is very slow.

There's nothing else you can do than to remove anything that might compete with the game's connection, and if that doesn't help, choose another connection.
Yes and no. Of course satallite is a bad idea (large pipe, but ungodly latancy), but generally with DSL/Cable/56k, the larger the amount of bandwidth, the faster the game, the lower the latency.

right, thanks for all the advice, peeps, but after patching the game's graphics have decided to fuck up... so i give up for tonight :headbang:



edit:
Depends. How many users share it? You may think you are the only one, because no one else in your house shares the connection, but the ISP groups a bunch of users together and shares the bandwidth between them.
i think i'm on a 50:1 ratio, but i'm changing ISP to 20:1 in a few days

{snip}
and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:
{snip}
Sacrilege! Bad KARMA!
No internet connection is ever fast enough...
:eek:

right, thanks for all the advice, peeps, but after patching the game's graphics have decided to fuck up... so i give up for tonight :headbang:



edit:

i think i'm on a 50:1 ratio, but i'm changing ISP to 20:1 in a few days

And, in the fine heritage of BattleFront 1, Lucasarts releases the game when it should still be in late beta, then patches it over the next few months to something resembling playability.

i have a 2mbps connection here and i just bought Battlefield 2 today. i don't play online games much (well, ever) so i'm getting increasingly confused and annoyed that i keep getting chucked off multiplayer servers cos my ping is too high (generally around 250-ish). i've heard the term before but what does it actually mean in real terms, and anybody got any nifty ways to get it better?

i've also been kicked off for having a modified version of the game, which is pure BS cos i only just got it today :mad:
Sorry if this has been answered

Ping is an ICMP echo response

Basicaly you send out a ICMP packet with a flag that will return to sender when the destination is reached

For example pinging YAHOO .com sends an ICMP packet and waits for the return

This mesures your LATENCY (the unit of delay on a network) and mesures your RTT (round trip time)

When you have high latency that means your ping time is long (for example mine is about 20 off of yahoo.com)

Note this is NOT a mesure of your bandwidth but just the sear ammount of time it takes to send and recive a reply

Note this is NOT a mesure of your bandwidth but just the sear ammount of time it takes to send and recive a reply
ok i get all that but surely wouldn't bandwidth (or lack of) have a pretty big effect on average ping?

ok i get all that but surely wouldn't bandwidth (or lack of) have a pretty big effect on average ping?
Actualy not nessisarily ... to an extent the QUALITY of the connection matters rather then the QUANTITY it holds
In general a lot of high speed providers are higher on BOTH quality and QUANTITY hency why latency is usualy better in high speed connections

But not nessisarily my dialup was geting pings of under 100 RTT as well ... not quite as good but yeah


The advantage bandwidth has is usualy sending delay in the equipment


Think of your internet as a pipeline ... latency (ping) is how FAST the watter can go through it and BANDWIDTH is the width of the pipe

Now dialup can have a small pipe but move fast untill you reach the capasity of the pipe (then it backs up into a holding tank till the pipe can acomodate it)

So dialup can move fast untill the pipe capasity is reached THEN it can effect the time the watter takes both in the storage tanks and in the pipe line

(hope this is clear)

Now Broadband has a big pipe and the watter can move fast but it really shines because water does not back up into that holding tank as much cause the pipe line is full

i have a 2mbps connection here and i just bought Battlefield 2 today. i don't play online games much (well, ever) so i'm getting increasingly confused and annoyed that i keep getting chucked off multiplayer servers cos my ping is too high (generally around 250-ish). i've heard the term before but what does it actually mean in real terms, and anybody got any nifty ways to get it better?

i've also been kicked off for having a modified version of the game, which is pure BS cos i only just got it today :mad:


It's like the game Marco Polo. If you have high ping it means other computers say 'Marco' and it takes you forever to say 'Polo'. An online game is only as fast as the slowest computer, so if your computer doesn't communicate information fast enough then all the other players get pissed and boot you. The game servers usually ping all the computers and display the results to let everyone know who's lagging.

To make it better you could temporarily eliminate your firewall if you have one, and make sure other programs aren't using the internet. Also see if you have the latest upgrade of your game.

ok i get all that but surely wouldn't bandwidth (or lack of) have a pretty big effect on average ping?
Generally, that is the problem. I didn't want to get into the difference between latency and bandwidth, because it really doesn't matter, not at this level anyway. With BF 2, 2 mbps might not be enough to run the game, especially if you use DSL, with is notoriously bad for being crap for online games.

BF II drove me nuts. I spent 6 consecutive hours tinkering with my computer, exhausting every bit of advice on various forums, trying to get the goddam thing to work. Turns out my video card doesn't like the game, but I held on to hope that the latest videocard patch would help. No dice.

No Dice! Hey, I made a funny.

Stupid buggy game.

BF II drove me nuts. I spent 6 consecutive hours tinkering with my computer, exhausting every bit of advice on various forums, trying to get the goddam thing to work. Turns out my video card doesn't like the game, but I held on to hope that the latest videocard patch would help. No dice.

No Dice! Hey, I made a funny.

Stupid buggy game.
Hey, it's a great game when it works. :D

Hey, it's a great game when it works. :D

Oh, I know. I've played it elsewhere. IF I had had a gun in the house, I think I would have shot my computer though.

Generally, that is the problem. I didn't want to get into the difference between latency and bandwidth, because it really doesn't matter, not at this level anyway. With BF 2, 2 mbps might not be enough to run the game, especially if you use DSL, with is notoriously bad for being crap for online games.
I played it solidly on my 512 Kbps connection (before I went up to 3 Mbps)

And if you want a crappy gaming connection try satalite lol

I played it solidly on my 512 Kbps connection (before I went up to 3 Mbps)

And if you want a crappy gaming connection try satalite lol
It depends on the server and how many people are using the connection (locally)...

Ping is the amount of time it takes a packet to get from your computer and back. The higher the ping, the worse the latency, or the 'lag', which is basically a slowdown. Lag is bad, especially with twitch shooters. There isn't much you can do, except get a faster connection or stop downloading porn in the background while you play.Don't know if anyone suggested this but check your PC for Spyware/Malware.

Ping can be affected by firewalls, routers and other hardware.

Basically, if one or more things are checking every packet as it goes out and comes back in, your latency is gonna be shot to hell. It takes time to examine each packet to determine where it came from, where it's going, and whether or not the firewall or router will send it out. Try disabling whatever firewall you may have running, and streamlining your router's operations if you have one.

Windows firewall is on by default in XP

Ping can be affected by firewalls, routers and other hardware.

Basically, if one or more things are checking every packet as it goes out and comes back in, your latency is gonna be shot to hell. It takes time to examine each packet to determine where it came from, where it's going, and whether or not the firewall or router will send it out. Try disabling whatever firewall you may have running, and streamlining your router's operations if you have one.

Windows firewall is on by default in XP
i figured firewall might have something to do with it, but its a bummer... we have a hardware firewall here and there's no way i'm gonna be allowed to switch it off cos we run a business from here. bah!

if i knew which ports the game used i could open them in the router's settings (like you do with p2p progs) but i can't find that info anywhere for BF2 :(

could firewall settings play any part in this? we have a particularly trigger-happy firewall here so maybe thats screwing things up?
Yes

i figured firewall might have something to do with it, but its a bummer... we have a hardware firewall here and there's no way i'm gonna be allowed to switch it off cos we run a business from here. bah!

if i knew which ports the game used i could open them in the router's settings (like you do with p2p progs) but i can't find that info anywhere for BF2 :(
Possible but if it is geting through at all firewalls (that are operating on spec) generaly wont create THAT much of an increase ... not any more then the standard hops that a packet normaly takes in its rout across the net

And, in the fine heritage of BattleFront 1, Lucasarts releases the game when it should still be in late beta, then patches it over the next few months to something resembling playability.

....battleFIELD 2..... pay attention bro, no cheap shots at Lucas unless your sure we're talking about Lucas heh. (although I'm not denying the likely hood of accuracy inyour statement)

i have a 2mbps connection here and i just bought Battlefield 2 today. i don't play online games much (well, ever) so i'm getting increasingly confused and annoyed that i keep getting chucked off multiplayer servers cos my ping is too high (generally around 250-ish). i've heard the term before but what does it actually mean in real terms, and anybody got any nifty ways to get it better?

i've also been kicked off for having a modified version of the game, which is pure BS cos i only just got it today :mad:

If you're using a wireless router that might be it.

Being kicked for having a "modded version" may have actually just been a boot for not having the lastest patch. I've seen some bizarre boot messages myself that totally didn't apply. Like being told I was kicked for excessive teamkilling on a server I've never played on heh.

Also for ping, I've found that actually looking up the server (since most of them have a website for the host) and finding out where they are from helps. ALthough I still tend to play on an Internodes Australian servers even though I'm coming out of the U.S.




Improving Gameplay Performance
========================================================================

Some machines will benefit from experimenting with your
Network / Video / Sound options:


INTERNET / NETWORK PERFORMANCE

This section is very important to experiencing good internet play!

- JOINING MULTIPLAYER GAMES:
To get the best performance on your computer we recommend
you follow these guidelines:

HARDWARE
Minimum system - Join servers that have up to 16 players

Recommended systems - Join servers that have up to 32 players

High end systems - Join servers that have up to 64 players

BANDWIDTH
ISDN users - Join games with a maximum of 16 players.

ADSL/Cable users - Join games with a maximum of 32 players.

T1/LAN users - Join games with a maximum of 64 players.

NOTE: In order to create a Battlefield 2 multiplayer account, you must have the following ports open in your firewall.

Client Ports:

UDP 27900
UDP/TCP 29900
TCP 80
TCP 4711
TCP 29901
UDP 1500-4999
UDP/TCP 1024-1124
UDP 28910
UDP 16567
UDP 55123-55125

Hosting a Battlefield 2 Server
In order to host a Battlefield 2 server, you must have the following ports open in your firewall.

Server Ports:

UDP 27900
UDP/TCP 29900
TCP 80
TCP 4711
UDP 27901
UDP 1500-4999
UDP/TCP 1024-1124
UDP 29900
UDP/TCP 27900
UDP 16567
UDP 55123-55125

and a 2mbps connection isn't fast enough? :confused:


Depends how cluttered the landlines between your connection and the server are. If it's a cable connection it may be oversold in your area, if it's a T1 line from a college than your college may be limiting bandwidth. I really hate SBC. They oversold cable in our area and the damned 'net goes down between about 11am-1pm and again at 3pm-4pm as all the damned kiddies get out of school.


Ping is derived from sonar ping btw.

No, don't use wireless, that's far slower. You need to have a fully patched game (that might help) and a rather large amount of bandwidth to play BF2. It's fun though, I used to play quite a bit.

Not really. I have a wireless connection and play CS...I usually play on servers with pings of 30-100, and 200 is generally the most i'll get for US servers.

Plus, it beats having 10m of cabling for everyone to trip over.

No, don't use wireless, that's far slower. You need to have a fully patched game (that might help) and a rather large amount of bandwidth to play BF2. It's fun though, I used to play quite a bit.
Bah wireless 802.11g is 54 Mbps

His internet is only 2 Mbps

I hardly think the wireless will be the bottleneck

(and running super g it is 108 Mbps)