Minimize Lag While Gaming Online

"Lag" or latency, can turn a pleasant and fun gaming experience into one that will make you want to tear your hair out. Read on to find out how to minimize it.

Steps

Reducing the applications

  1. Close down other applications that use the internet, i.e. instant messengers (MSN, AIM etc).

Tweaking the settings

  1. Optimize your game settings. All popular online games have network settings, its just a case of finding them. Search online for a guide to tweaking your game.
  2. Configure your firewall properly. Badly configured firewalls can stop some packets getting through, causing loss or lag.

How many people are already on the network?

  1. See how many other people are on the network. If you have a home network, other people using it will take some of the bandwidth away, and your gaming will also be slowing their internet down.

Improving speed

  1. Speed up your PC. Slow PCs may not be able to keep up with the amount of packets. Close antivirus programs and other background applications.
  2. Change your internet connection. It might just be that your ISP is not suited to gaming, or that your current package is just not fast enough.
  3. Use a wired connection. If you have a laptop, simply connect your computer directly to your home router/modem via a Ethernet cable. This can help speed your internet speeds up by having you directly connected into the network instead of being a wireless signal which can slow down upload/download rates.

Tips

  • "Choke" is when the server has too high a data rate, and the client just can't keep up.
  • The Internet works by sending "packets" of information back and forth. When you're gaming online, your PC sends packets containing your movements etc, to the server. The server bounces these out to all the other players in the game.
  • If you understand what lag is, then minimizing it should be easier.
  • Sometimes packets are lost on the way, due to a firewall, dodgy connection, or sometimes just lost. This is called "loss".
  • There is a Ping Hack you can perform in Windows XP. This is done through the registry. Full instructions are on the Blog at the referenced site.

Related Articles

  • Get a Start on Mechquest
  • Log on to Webkinz While The Site is Offline
  • Draw on Drawball
  • Create Good Line Rider Tracks

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Minimize_Lag_While_Gaming_Online&oldid=278568"