Ping and Packet Loss

[Bad Robot]

Does the quality of the ISP and the connection you receive affect game play, as most of you know I'm hopeless at shooters like BF3 and Black Ops etc. Am I really so bad or does my connection have a part to play? I've tried on several sites and get the same results.

 

[Slaine]

It can do. Might be worth messing around with your controller setup. My son always turns up the turning sensitivity so he can spin around really quickly. Sounds like an advantage, but then the downside is the cursor moves really fast across the screen. I know people who've put a bit of masking tape in the shape of a cross hair dead centre on their tv, just so when the screen is a bit manic the tape acts as a better visual representation of where you're aiming.

But theres nothing like a bit of practice, and at the risk of trying to teach you to suck eggs, I'd say go for the head shot each and every time. This works for pretty much all games (well apart from Gran Turismo etc!!), and will put you in good stead.

But dont despair, keep at it and things will get better.

 

[Martok]

Blimey with results like that, no wonder you are having problems!

The line quality as you can see is poor. The ping time is rather high as is the jitter. High ping times mean you'll be laggy which will affect you in trying to kill others as well as others trying to kill you in the likes of BF3.

How did you take those results? Was your computer on a wired connection and did you make sure that there was no-one else or no other devices accessing the internet when you did this? Is your router connected to the master telephone socket in the house or is it connected to an extension socket? Master socket is best and if an extension socket is badly wired it can affect your connectivity.

Also, what internet speed are you getting (which you can get from http://www.speedtest.net)?

 

[ColSonders]

I would take a serious look at your network setup with those stats.

I'm now on a fairly average line, not particularly close to my exchange, but I get around 45ms ping response with up to 10ms of jitter. And that's using pingtest and hitting a server >250miles away.

When I hit local servers <50miles away I tend to get more like 40ms pings and 0ms jitter.

First port of call I would say is to turn your router off, unplug it, hook it up to the main telephone socket (not an extension), in the UK these are called BT master sockets and are normally in stupid places. However this will reduce any internal problems to basically zero.

Ensure you have just your router connected, disconnect any telephones, fax machines, other equipment from your telephone line. Ensure the cable from telephone socket to router is fairly short as a long cable (above 3 metres) can have large detrimental affects on your line. Also worth trying a different filter, you possibly aren't using one given those results....which could be your problem. Connect a laptop to the router and try pingtest.net again to see if it's any better/different. The lower your ping and jitter the better.

If it's any different then the issue is internal to your property, post here if that's the case and we'll see how we can help you further. Otherwise it's gonna be a case of contact your Internet Service Provider and your telephone supplier and let them know you're having problems and ensure you let them know what you've tried to eliminate internal property issues.

 

[Bad Robot]

Thanks for the quick replies guys
I have my router connected to the main telephone socket, it shares it with cable television ( I disconnected this yesterday with the same results ) and the alarm to the house. I have range extenders that are using the electrical wiring circuit in the house to enable me to get the coverage all around. I have tried on both my laptops which are macs and my baby 27inc iMac and a Windows based computer in the past all with the same results. Test done with no interference from other apps using the line. I think its a problem on the ISP side not mine to be honest but thought I'd ask you knowledgeable folk on here to confirm what I already suspect. Telefonica here is dire and they have the monopoly of the telephone exchanges like BT do in the Uk. I've seen exchange boxes left open to all the elements here in my village, no wonder the Internet suffers after a bad storm

 

[Jkrohn1]

The telephone infrastructure in Barcelona is at the similar level or if not better then that of the UK. Not sure what service speed you pay for but looking at the ping time I would say there's a problem between the exchange and your home. It's your ISP's responsibility to sort this problem. Hope they fix it fast for you, although from your above comment it doesn't sound like they will.

 

[Bad Robot]

I rewired my router connection to a dedicated line this morning with positive results Had to use a different site for speed test as normal site is down.

 

[HaloJ]

That's just fine! Nice fix Mr Robot!

 

[ColSonders]

What exactly did you do then?

That looks a lot better, now you're just left with a slightly sub-par upload speed.

 

[Jkrohn1]

The ping is much better wonder what the packet loss will be, probably zero now.

 

[Bad Robot]

What exactly did you do then?

That looks a lot better, now you're just left with a slightly sub-par upload speed.

I wired the router straight to the junction box bypassing the main phone socket.

No packet loss either Jkrohn1

 

[Jkrohn1]

No packet loss either Jkrohn1

Should improve your gaming with less then half the ping and no packet loss. Might see you on tonight.

 

[Acegadgets]

My son in his infinite wisdom decided to change the router yesterday. Its an Orange bright box. He also put a new filter on the line.
I played last night with no disconections but I was lagging really badly. Sometimes i couldn't move.
Tried a speed test this morning which shows this.


We cant get a faster service in our area, something to do with the wires into the estate. We also cant get cable in the area. I'm going to put the old Orange Livebox back in to see if the new router is to blame for my laggyness. Its always been slow but never laggy. Unless it was just a one off on the battlefield site?

 

[Jkrohn1]

Check for availability and register your interest might get lucky and get it soon

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=29017

 

[Acegadgets]

Not available, nothing is on our estate.
According to the site, I should get :-
Between 1.0Mb and 4.0Mb
(Estimated speed: 2.5Mb)
Is that upload or download speed?

As my younger son has recently became a BT employee we can get broadband for nothing (I think). just havent got around to switching it yet.

just tried using google chrome and my PC browses a bit quicker.

 

[ColSonders]

Ace, as much as those speeds leave a little to be desired they are acceptable for gaming.

Proof was that your comms were working fine, comms being by far the most intensive in terms of how much bandwidth they use.

I would suggest going to pingtest.net and running a test there, speed isn't all that important, but ping is and it should give you a clearer idea of how good your line is.

 

[Acegadgets]

Dosent mean a lot to me , but B* seems OK and a low jitter is a good thing?

 

[ColSonders]

Yeah Ace that actually looks alright there mate, good overall grade, excellent jitter rating and acceptable ping.

Perhaps try some other games online and see what they're like, it's possibly the old EA ports being shit on your router thing.

If your ports aren't correct it will cause lag like what you were seeing, I had the same issue with a router and manually setting up port forwarding on it fixed the issues I was having.

 

[Acegadgets]

following on from the other thread about my battlefield conection. tried opening ports, disabelling media server. neither of which helps.we had a line check from bt a few years ago and it was fine. we are using orange internet but no other isp can offer a faster speed in my area. cant get infinity or cable. tried switching all wi fi devices off and disconecting all phones. still getting battlefield and indeed all other ea games lagging to the point where i cant actually move. have tried 2 routers both on wired and wireless. peak times i might as well just switch it off and talk to the wife and kids.

 

[Plaxinator]

If it's any consolation I quite often have problems connecting to EA servers, particulatly on the PS3. Had it with BFBC2 and now BF3. Tried giving my PS3 a static IP address and port forwarding on the router which hasn't helped. Funnily enough on the xbox it's ok, can get into a game first time on BF3. Used to have the odd problem with BFBC2 on the xbox though. I just put it down to EA being shit. My connection isn't bad, usually get around 6 mbps down and 900 kbps up with a ping of around 36. Jitter I think is usually around 5 - 7ms