Tech Help Any advice on getting lower ping?

[SandlineOperator]

Dear eGO Members,
Is there anyway I can lower my ping? I am not sure if there is really anything I can do about but I thought I'd try.
Thanks,
Johnathan
(SandlineOperator)

 

[Snipeye]

Very open question as a variety of things can impact your connection
1) Most obvious is upgrade your internet connection. Getting only 10 Mbps? Get 25 or 50 or even 100 Mbps from your ISP.
2) Improve the wireless signal that you're using if you're connecting to the Internet that way. Position the router closer to where you use your laptop/desktop (to improve your wireless signal).
3) Turn off other programs that run on the Internet. If you're streaming video; stop it. Running youtube on 1080p while gaming? Stop watching youtube. If you have family watching Netflix or Hulu elsewhere in the house, kick them out of the house and lock the door. Anyone using the Internet can slow your connection.

Those are the most common methods to lower/reduce ping.

 

[SandlineOperator]

Thanks for the info!

 

[JayFromEpic]

Gotta agree with Snipeye, raising internet connection speed is a big help!

 

[He@d$hoT]

He missed the biggest one, pack up and move to Dallas

Also, make sure you get what you pay for. For example, I lived in an area with only one DSL provider (no high-speed broadband) and they offered several packages. However, the copper infrastructure was old and the demand in the area was high, so I would only get about 700mbps. This meant that I would only be able to utilize the slowest available plan they had anyway. Support should be honest and explain this to you (mine did), but I doubt you will get that service from most.

 

[itsfulloftuna]

Additional tips:

1. If you have the ability to game wired, definitely do it. With a wireless connection, any other devices that can emit a wireless signal can impede the fluctuation of signaling, causing the latency between your device to waver. And if the first hop from your device to the next is "unstable" its only going to snowball from there. This is called jitter, and I've encountered/helped a few people here get rid of it.

2. If you are running wired, make sure to use quality cabling. Fresh Cat5e/6 can make a difference when its replacing a cable that has been rolled over by your chair, chewed up by the pet, etc.

2a. If you have the ability to check, see if your line is running clean. If you see discarded frames/dropped packets, you are going to have a bit of latency while the receiving end is waiting for your packet stream to finish.

3. To piggyback on what Snipeye was saying, turn off any additional programs/processes that might be "heartbeating" out of the LAN connection. On board LAN connections will utilize CPU power, which will also limit processing back to the LAN. If at all possible, try and get a dedicated NIC. You may not see that much of a difference (perhaps 2-3 ms decrease) but depending on, you might see a huge increase in weaker machines that just can't muscle the programming of today.

You might not have a lot of control on how you get from your desktop to a server, regardless if you are only cities or states away. It's how the internet routes. If you see a really unusual route to a destination, for example, living in Oklahoma, but routing through Washington DC to get to Dallas, you can call your ISP and they can examine a traceroute to see if you are taking the most optimal path. Maintenances are done somewhat constantly to move consumer customer gatweways through different peering points. Hell, you might have them stumble upon a down peering point between networks like I did one time. It never hurts to call them and ask, but, don't fret if they don't do anything for you if you are on a consumer line.