SG Broadband Community

i have a motorola surfboard cable modem. i have fairly decent speeds, but i have problems with ping and lag in games. online games i play, such as quake 3, don't give me a low enough ping to play. Most of the people that live around the same area that i do get about 40 pings in the same servers when i get 80 and 90. is there a way to speed up a cable modem so my pings will be lower? i have the sg tweak btw, but are there certain settings i can change through Windows XP because maybe the default settings are not the best???? Thank You

To be honest 80 and 90 pings are pretty good. I play several fps and I don't get any lower than 110. There may be some things you can tweak.

Start with doing a tracert from the command prompt to one of the servers you play on. For example:

C:\>tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx > trace.txt

Open the .txt file and cut and paste it here. It's a good place to start. Also, don't forget to run the TCP/IP Analyzer from the home page. That information can be helpful as well.

Tracing route to brandon.comcast.net [12.209.92.240]

over a maximum of 30 hops:



1 * * * Request timed out.

2 * * * Request timed out.

3 * * * Request timed out.

4 * *

You'e trying to tracert to yourself - you need tracert to the game server, please.

Kip

While pings of 80-90 are actually fairly good, in Quake3-engine based games one can easily notice a big difference between pings of 40 and pings of 80. Those 40 ms have a fairly large impact on weapon accuracy. I doubt that you will be able to influence your pings much though, since the pings usually increase not at your end but rather somewhere along the way to the server.

One thing to check though is if you have programs running in the background or on your home network if you have one. When my upload cap is reached, I get really horrible pings (1 sec and above) to most servers. Also, since you're on cable, is it a general thing (at all times) or do you get considerably better pings at night? If so, then your ISP is probably overbooking the lines too much, like mine does.

Originally posted by SeedOfChaos
While pings of 80-90 are actually fairly good, in Quake3-engine based games one can easily notice a big difference between pings of 40 and pings of 80.

This is the lowest pinged server that i found. i do get about a 50-60 ping on it. BUT, it always feels like i have a 100 ping. and like you said SeedOfChaos, you can feel a difference between the pings. i have been asking others on the server and they say they feel the same way.

Here is the server i pinged. Don't know what any of this means though



Tracing route to fenady3.fenady.com [209.73.68.10]

over a maximum of 30 hops:



1 8 ms 34 ms 19 ms 10.183.224.1

2 8 ms 10 ms 11 ms 12.244.118.161

3 11 ms 15 ms 10 ms 12.244.73.38

4 13 ms 17 ms 26 ms gbr2-p50.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.13.62]

5 12 ms 35 ms 14 ms gbr4-p70.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.1.189]

6 13 ms 22 ms 13 ms ggr1-p370.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.13.69]

7 29 ms 32 ms 38 ms att-gw.sf.genuity.net [192.205.32.66]

8 30 ms 29 ms 30 ms p5-0.paix-bi1.bbnplanet.net [4.0.3.130]

9 34 ms 31 ms 33 ms p6-0.snjpca1-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.7.61]

10 32 ms 28 ms 30 ms p9-0.lsanca2-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.57]

11 31 ms 31 ms 35 ms p7-0.lsanca1-cr6.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.50]

12 28 ms 60 ms 29 ms p7-0.lsanca1-cr3.bbnplanet.net [4.24.4.1]

13 29 ms 69 ms 28 ms 4.24.4.251

14 29 ms 29 ms 74 ms lngw2-isi-1-pos.ln.net [130.152.80.29]

15 79 ms 30 ms 29 ms border1-100m-ln.digilink.net [207.151.118.22]

16 46 ms 101 ms 34 ms 209.73.68.1

17 36 ms 32 ms 34 ms fenady3.fenady.com [209.73.68.10]



Trace complete.

Originally posted by Brandon_k_W
This is the lowest pinged server that i found. i do get about a 50-60 ping on it. BUT, it always feels like i have a 100 ping. and like you said SeedOfChaos, you can feel a difference between the pings. i have been asking others on the server and they say they feel the same way.

Here is the server i pinged. Don't know what any of this means though



Tracing route to fenady3.fenady.com [209.73.68.10]

over a maximum of 30 hops:



1 8 ms 34 ms 19 ms 10.183.224.1

2 8 ms 10 ms 11 ms 12.244.118.161

3 11 ms 15 ms 10 ms 12.244.73.38

4 13 ms 17 ms 26 ms gbr2-p50.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.13.62]

5 12 ms 35 ms 14 ms gbr4-p70.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.1.189]

6 13 ms 22 ms 13 ms ggr1-p370.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.13.69]

7 29 ms 32 ms 38 ms att-gw.sf.genuity.net [192.205.32.66]

8 30 ms 29 ms 30 ms p5-0.paix-bi1.bbnplanet.net [4.0.3.130]

9 34 ms 31 ms 33 ms p6-0.snjpca1-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.7.61]

10 32 ms 28 ms 30 ms p9-0.lsanca2-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.57]

11 31 ms 31 ms 35 ms p7-0.lsanca1-cr6.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.50]

12 28 ms 60 ms 29 ms p7-0.lsanca1-cr3.bbnplanet.net [4.24.4.1]

13 29 ms 69 ms 28 ms 4.24.4.251

14 29 ms 29 ms 74 ms lngw2-isi-1-pos.ln.net [130.152.80.29]

15 79 ms 30 ms 29 ms border1-100m-ln.digilink.net [207.151.118.22]

16 46 ms 101 ms 34 ms 209.73.68.1

17 36 ms 32 ms 34 ms fenady3.fenady.com [209.73.68.10]



Trace complete.

That trace result doesn't indicate any routing/latency problems. And without further info (network configuration, OS configuration, connection caps, etc.) and further testing (more data from traces) it will be difficult to pinpoint the source of your problem.

Do you experience trigger lag, warping, screen freezes? Is it just choppy in general? What are your network settings in Quake 3?

Give me a full rundown of your computer hardware specs. CPU, Ram, Gfx Card etc...

Originally posted by Respice
Do you experience trigger lag, warping, screen freezes? Is it just choppy in general? What are your network settings in Quake 3?

Give me a full rundown of your computer hardware specs. CPU, Ram, Gfx Card etc...

Hmm i DO experience screen freezes that last about a second. they happen every minute or so. i don't know if it is because it loads the new player that joins, or if it a network fault. got any tweaks for quake 3 that may help me? Thanks

Trip to Best Buy tonight...I noticed they have a signal booster for cable modems. (If you have a extra $50 to lay down) Do not know anything about them.

Trip to Best Buy tonight...I noticed they have a signal booster for cable modems. (If you have a extra $50 to lay down) Do not know anything about them.

Don't be duped into believing this device will "speed up" your connection. It is simply a signal amplifier with a +15dB boost. The most important thing is to have strong, clean signal to start with. If the modem is set up right, (first in line, because us geeks want best signal - TV is secondary ) it should fall into the correct signal range. I try to keep my modems in the 0.0dB to -10dB range. Where an amp comes in handy is when a person has 5-6+ outlets and their low frequency channels are getting snowy or digital channels are tiling. Remember, an amplifier can also amplify problems! I have run into occasions where a digital amp was necessary and seldom have problems. You get a downstream boost, but get little if any return boost which is just as important. With all that being said, if you don't need an amp, then don't use one. It's not a "miracle device".

Link to overpriced AMP

We give them away to broadband customers and charge $50 for them when a customer needs one because they have 14 outlets!

I've been to homes with 17 outlets, 7 splitters, 2 amps and 12 TVs. Some people need to buy a book once in a while