Forum Discussion

snu_mk1's avatar
snu_mk1
Joining in
2 months ago

Any way of lowering my ping?

Might be a long shot but here goes. My schedule means I'm usually online and available in the early morning, meaning I play mostly on NA east servers but sometimes ping can get a bit wobbly. I recently met a friend who turned out not only to be British but also in the same city. Here's where my question comes on. He plays on 80-85 ping with zero packet loss on EE meanwhile I'm constantly on 100-120 with slight packet loss.

Is there anything I can do for this or am I just stuck with it?

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    We don't know the kit in use or how it is connected.

    Gamesters are best to avoid use of half duplex Wi-Fi especially multiple hops across Wi-Fi Pods / Wi-Fi Repeaters.

    • snu_mk1's avatar
      snu_mk1
      Joining in
      2 months ago

      True. My bad. The equipment is superhub5 1gig and I'm using a wired connection.

  • Barstaff's avatar
    Barstaff
    On our wavelength
    2 months ago

    Alas no, there’s nothing you can do. In this instance the biggest source of latency is the VM connection itself, the way that it works. 

  • asim18's avatar
    asim18
    Rising star
    2 months ago

    100-120 does seem a bit high even for VM. I get about 75ms to New York.

    Do you know exactly where these servers are located? The further you go from Long Island and New Jersey the higher your ping will be as that's where most of the under sea cables land.

    I would do what legacy1 suggested, set up a BQM.

    • snu_mk1's avatar
      snu_mk1
      Joining in
      2 months ago

      No exact location but speculation is falling on Northern Virginia. Game - Hunt: Showdown 1896

  • asim18's avatar
    asim18
    Rising star
    2 months ago

    Using Hurricane Electric's looking glass I get 75ms to New York and 110ms to Florida, so server location can add considerable latency.

    • Barstaff's avatar
      Barstaff
      On our wavelength
      2 months ago

      Of course; because what does the term ‘latency’ mean? Crudely it’s a measure of the round-trip time between two hosts. So yes, naturally where the ‘target’ system is absolutely does matter. There is no such thing as ‘my latency is...’, it’s more a case of ‘latency to where?'

      However, for the OP’s situation is this even relevant? They are on a wired connection, playing in the early hours of the morning; there’s nothing more they can do. Anything else is down to the underlaying ISP infrastructure - not something that a mere customer will have any influence over.

      • legacy1's avatar
        legacy1
        Alessandro Volta
        2 months ago

        or just a bad router mode so test hub in modem mode

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    No surprise the same results are seen, most of the latency is due to the distance to the target server.

  • suttonscloud's avatar
    suttonscloud
    On our wavelength
    29 days ago

    Hi @snu_mk1, 

    You will find your friend on the EE connection will probably be using Openreach's network, and for many years with everything Openreach did wrong, the main thing they got right was their latency and response times on their network.

    Virgins network has never been great for latency, and you can expect anywhere from 20-40ms difference between them both in peak times when the VM network becomes busy.

    With the server already being 80ms at a lowest, this is a target server that is probably far away and not in the UK. If it is in the UK, then it must be very congested.

    There is unfortunately no resolution to this problem, you will need to wait for the VM upgrade to hit your area to get XGSPON / Full Fibre. - If you are in doubt, you can always login to the router and under Tools you can do a traceroute, do one to facebook.com as that seems to give me the lowest results.

    Hope this helps.
    Jaye