Help!!

[LazerLemurz]

Okay, I just got home earlier today, went online to check up on things and catch up on what I missed. (Since I was in Colorado for 5 days) No problems yet, but then I opened up Steam because I wanted to play CS:S. Like normal Steam opened, still, everything's fine. I join the eGO Office server and I am shocked by the amount of lag that I'm getting. So I ask around to see if anyone else is lagging, a few "a little"s like normal but nothing spectacular like me. I decided to try a zombie mod server I play all the time to test if the lag was coming from my end or from the server. Same problems there. So I gave it one last try on the eGO Dust server and was getting ridiculous spikes. I got fed up and exited Steam all together. I checked to see if there were any mystery programs running in the background, nothing. So I restarted my computer, hoping maybe that would do something, again... NOTHING. As of right now I'm still getting lag, and although my computer is older, I have never had any lag issues on CS:S. So if anyone has any ideas please, please, let me know ASAP. I'd really like to get back to gaming as soon as I can.

 

[ScrappyDoo]

Lazer,

First relax, people have come to expect the Net to be this wonderful always available utility - like the phone line. But it isn't, and it isn't (not quite yet) a utility, per se.

So, the problem might just be transient and temporary.

That said, try going here and what are your results. Are they close to what you expect? It should pick a spot close to your local NAP. If the results are pretty good, then the problem is likely between your ISP's backbone out to another carrier. Not much you can do.

On the other hand, if the results are horrible and not what you expect. The problem may be with your local ISP to you (your local trunk connection) or with your own PC.

Here's another way to look at things. Open a Windows command prompt (Start-Run or type Run in the Vista search box) and type the following command: tracert www.google.com (Or pick the IP address of an eGO server.)

(There's a space between tracert and www.)

You should see a series of results with five columns. The numbers of interest are in the third, fourth, and fifth columns. Those represent your average response time, max response time, and specific hop for those corresponding response times.

If you are getting high response times closer to you, the problem with your local ISP and trunk. If you get great response times all the way out, but the first line is high, the problem is with you locally. If you get high response times closer to the server, then the problem is with the backbone or server's ISP. (For you netgeeks, yes, I'm greatly oversimplifying...)

 

[LazerLemurz]

Thanks for the help Scrappy.
However, I wasn't sure if at first you were trying to send me to a specific link? If so the link did not show.
I tried the tracert command with www.google.com and everything seemed fine. I then tried with the IP's like you said and I got a message saying, "Unable to resolve target system name." I'm not quite sure what that means or is implying, so if I'm doing something wrong let me know.

 

[Raccoon]

Try a speed test on your internet.

Or check your Window's Firewall settings.

 

[ScrappyDoo]

Oops, yes, I didn't include the link to Speedtest, which is what Raccoon is referring to in his post. Here's the link: http://www.speedtest.net/

That said, what did your results to google (or to an eGO server) say? It's OK if it can't resolve a name, but what where the results in the 4th column? Your numbers, if you're using broadband, should be in the 30 to 80 ms range, give or take. If you're seeing numbers like 175 or higher, that'd be a red flag.

 

[LazerLemurz]

I actually just played and everything seemed fine.
Thanks for the help though, it was very appreciated!