Ping while gaming

I was wondering if there are any ways to help reduce high pings and lag.

1. Should I shut down ALL other programs that are using the internet? Whether its AOL instant messenger or Firefox? Will that help?

2. Im in a dorm and we are using wireless, from a router that my roommate set up. If there are a few other guys using it will that hurt my ping? Should we set up a password for the network?

3. The router is a few feet from my laptop, would it make a difference while gaming to have it plugged directly into the internet, or would wireless be just as good? I have a 100% connection to it.

Thanks!

 

1) Yes. Try to avoid running high memory usage programs such as firefox, limewire, etc. and on the side note, DONT leave your MSN Messenger, etc. service on because it can interfere when you are playing a game. Especially, when someone messages you. (It happened to me when i was a rookie to tech.)
2) No one can interfere with your level of ping, whether its high or low
3) Yeah, you should give it a shot. That maybe the reason for this whole fuss.


Need more help? Sure can ask.
D3158

 

1.) NO. If it just firefox doing nothing it will be fine. Leaving messengers will also be fine if you are just using the messaging service, but other services will interfere.
2.)YES. They can interfere with the connection if they are using bandwidth hog services such us limewire, torrents, and as such.
3.)NO. There is only a 1ms-3ms+ difference which you can't even feel unless you are very picky about pings. You can try it out.

 

Well to fight ping there are a few things to do. Have a good data plan (e.g. sDSL or synchronus dsl, FIOS...) with good download AND upload. People always overlook the UL speed, becuase the DL speed is so high. But when gaming over the net UL is alot more important alot of the time. When I was on an sDSL plan I rarely pinged, now Ill get decent to bad ping since the verizon sDSL plan is gone (not my choice, they just switched it and kept charging me the same rate) and now Im on an aDSL plan with low UL.

Another thing that will help fight ping and is directly related with DL and UL speeds is gaming on WIFI. The only time I can do modern gaming on WIFI is at my parents house when I sit my lappy next to the WAP which has the more intense 802.11a standard, and she also has a very good FIOS. I usually speed test 15mbps DL and 8mbps+ UL. Which is more then enough for gaming. But for 99% of gaming you should be plugged in (wired). My school, University of Maryland, Gets killer data rates so gaming is not an issue.

Yes shutting down anything that would steal broadband or baseband bandwidth will affect performance positivly. But IE and firefox dont constantly eat bandwidth, unless your downloading or streaming. They only use bandwidth when opening a page and after its done then so is the use of bandwidth. AIM and other messangers on the other hand keep a port open as long as your logged in. SO they do steal a little bandwidth, how much I cant really say. But I do know that AIM doesnt require much at all as I am streaming 128kbps music, surfing the web, and using aim on my works 144kbps crappy plan on my lunch breaks.

 

As long as an application isn't taking up CPU cycles, then you can leave it open. I often leave iTunes and a web browser open while playing.

I would suggest shutting off the instant messaging software; as posted, you don't want someone to send you the message in the middle of the game.

I game on wireless and have a very low ping. No problems. You could always plug in and see what your ping is.

 

As previously explained,
1. You can leave anything open that doesn't hit performance on your computer or hogs bandwith (Limewire, uTorrent, or downloading something through MSN or directly from the web). You can leave MSN on if you dont mind someone interrupting you while playing
2. If they're using the bandwidth with mentioned software above or similars, then they can affect your ping.
3. There's hardly a difference in ping between being on wireless or by cable. You won't notice it unless there are so many people being on wireless but in your case, i doubt it.

 

Well take everyones advice here.

But take mine as well. YES SECURE YOUR NETWORK! If not just to stop people interfering with your games, but so they don't do anything against your colleges Acceptable Use Policy and get YOU in trouble.

 

How do I secure the network? Would I use the CD that came with it? Can I use my computer, or does the originating computer (my roommates) have to do it?

 

Memory usage has nothing to do with ping, but may affect framerate/performance.
But programs that use your network connection may have an effect if they consume a lot of bandwidth. (P2P programs or bittorrent are the only really bad offenders, typically)

Interfering with your ping is extremely easy. Everyone who uses the network sends their data to the router, which queues it up for transmission to the internet. If everyone sends lots of data, that queuing takes longer. And in some case, the queue might even be overrun, and the last packages dropped. Then they have to be resent from your computer, which takes even longer.

Basically, as long as not all of your available bandwidth is being used, your ping is unaffected. If you have a 2MBit/s connection, you can all download, say, 1.8MBit/s without affecting your ping more than 2-3%, so it's not noticeable.
But if you actually use all 2MBit/s, data will start queuing up, which can, in serious cases, cause huge ping (in the order of seconds)
In particular, be wary of how much upstream bandwidth is being used, since you typically have less of that available. (A 2mbit connection might only allow you to upload 512kb/s, so if people are sending lots of data, it quickly hits that limt, and causes ping)
All the above numbers are obviously for everyone using the router combined, which means that the number of people using it can have a big effect.

 

wireless eats bandwidth , mine goes from 1.5mbps DL 768kbps UL to 768kbps DL and 384kbps UL. Thats just by going wired over wireless. My wifi is the only 2.4ghz device in my apt and I have tested EVERY channel for performance increases with zero difference. I use 802.11g standard, and park the lappy about 2 feet away from my WAP. MTU is also 1500 so its not the frame size thats affecting it.

Like I said some cases you can use wireless to game. What I was trying to say is that it has much lower baseband speed, and it affects broadband bandwidth too. No matter how you slice it wired will always be better then wireless as far as bandwidth is concerned (minus hubs and 10baseT).

 

i think it does not matter if someone have a HIGH or LOW bandwidth to play online games. What matters the most are the low pings we get from the servers. I may have a 2mbps DL rate and 768 UL but it will be beaten by my friend's 384 DL and 256 UL because I get better pings from the former than the latter by a significant amount. it always depends on your ISP on how the route your connection to the server you are connecting.

for example, i MAY HAVE A GOOD CHANCE at getting better pings to the services provided by my ISP such as online games even though i only have 384 DL and 256 UL than to someone who is not a subscriber of that ISP and have 2mbps DL and 768 UL. get the point?

again, it always depends on how your ISP route your connection to the server. take not that internet sharing will affect your pings if someone in your network does intensive DL UL. it is better to give your network a security such as giving the router a password, blocking certain services, and as such to maximize your bandwidth.

 

I usually play with messenger open and sometimes with emule. But it depends the day. Because som days that I played with emule opened the ping went up and when I turn off emule it went down.

But when I play in wirelss the ping goes up, why is it? I need to configurate some speciall parametres in the router? It's a D-link G604T. Normally I play Call of Duty 2