Video #1 (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxKIRjX0cr4) Video #2 (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-HgnIgbBVw) Video #3 (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nxnj54QkjYM)
Full Guide and Solution
There are hundreds of ISPs all giving you access to the net, but how good are they for playing games on? The truth is the bigger named ISPs will often claim to be the fastest, but you will find that their number of users outweighs their capacity to serve them properly.
Gaming will test your internet connection like never before. Your modem is happy fetching pages when you click a link on a web page or accessing your email. On external modems take a look at the send and receive lights. Whilst browsing they will flicker and your connection will go idle as you read what is on your screen. When playing games however, the lights will be constantly on like a pair of demon eyes. Why?
A massive amount of data needs to be relayed to the game server and back to your PC. In action games when you press the fire button the information is passed to the server and your player will fire its weapon. Simple? Well, not really. You have to take into account what else is going on. There are other players there as well all moving about and blowing things up, and you want to see them especially if they are firing at you! Also, take into account doors opening, lifts moving, more players entering the server and you have a huge amount of data to shift via your connection. Hence, the faster your connection the more data you can handle and the less “latency” you are likely to receive.
Latency:
When you play a single player game on your own machine against the computer you’ll have hardly any latency at all. You’ll aim at whatever is on screen and hit it no problem, however, when you play a game online you’ll have to face a latency, as does every gamer. This is displayed as your “Ping time”. On a modem, you can expect ping times of 60 – 120ms (milliseconds). This is the time it takes for data from you to be sent to the games server (i.e. you fired a shot), and back to your machine again (i.e. shot has been fired). The ping time can change during a game, especially when there is a lot of action on a player's screen as there will be more data shifted back to and from your machine. Some players will have lower ping times than you. This is due to the different connection types available to the net:
Connection type Approximate expected ping time
Modem: 120 – 250
ISDN: 40 – 100
Cable Modem: 30 – 60
ADSL: 30-60
For example, take the player highlighted green in the screenshot here who has a ping of 232ms. A ping of anything less than 350 is playable on a 56k modem (thankfully these are no longer used :) ). Trying to play with anything higher is like trying to sprint through a sea of treacle with lead weights attached to your legs. You will also see players with a huge range of pings. The reason for this is mainly down to three factors.
Distance from the games server. For instance, if you live in the UK and are connected to a server in the US, players living in the US will have faster connections to it, hence lower pings than you.
How the Players have set-up their games configuration is also a factor. Games can be tweaked to lower pings by a few milliseconds and give a faster more enjoyable gaming experience.
Lastly, a player's connection type plays a big part in how fast the connection is going to be. The good old modem is the slowest and will give you pings in the range of anything from 110 – 300. Then there’s ISDN, cable modems, and ADSL, all of which can give pings as low as 30 – 80. Of course, players with access to T1 lines are laughing as they zip along with pings in the low forties.
Not only does a lower ping result in less latency, but they are usually digital as well. This means they are often more stable for sending data that is also digital. This in turn means usually less lag along with these connections. It also gives players an advantage over higher pinged players when it comes to reacting. A player with a ping of 50 is going to be able to react slightly faster than a player with a ping of 150 so in a one on one situation the lower ping player will have an edge. One factor still remains and that’s a skill. Give a player who is never played online an ultra fast connection and another with a slower connection who knows the game inside and out and the skilled player will come out on top. So even if you do not have the lowest ping in the world you will still enjoy competing against other players on the game of your choice. As with all things in life, practice makes perfect.
Lag:
You’ll see this mentioned a few times, and is one word you are bound to hear constantly from other players and something you're going to love to hate. Lag occurs when data from your machine to the games server is interrupted. To you, this will appear as though you are stuck to the spot and can’t move/shoot, and anyone seeing you in the game will get an easy kill as you will be locked to the spot. Lag usually is temporary and only occurs for a few seconds.
If you are experiencing latency (commonly known as lag) while playing Call of Duty online, your first step should be to check the server status for your platform and for the Call of Duty game you are playing.
PlayStation Network Status
Xbox Live Status
Steam Support
Call of Duty Server Status
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
If the Server Status for the Call of Duty game you’re playing is not at DEFCON 5 indicating that all online services are fully operational, you may encounter lag or connectivity issues until the status has returned to DEFCON 5.
If the Server Status for the game is at DEFCON 5, there are a number of steps that you can take to improve the quality of your connection.
Run through the basics
Here are a few things to note before delving any deeper:
Network bandwidth – Avoid other bandwidth-heavy applications on your network while playing online, including but not limited to streaming music or video content, or downloading files.
Wired connections – You will achieve optimal performance when playing an online game over a wired Ethernet connection. Wi-Fi connections have a wide variance in reliability and bandwidth, and can dramatically affect the quality of online gameplay. Wired connections will maintain the minimum bandwidth connection that is required for online gaming.
Input/Display lag – Most modern TVs come equipped with features that can cause input or display lag. At a minimum, high refresh rates or settings of 120Hz or 240Hz should be avoided when playing online. The optimal settings should be standard refresh rates at 60Hz. Input lag can also refer to a delay in seeing the game respond to buttons pressed or movements made using a wireless controller.
Turn on Game Mode – Available on most modern TVs, Game Mode is designed to turn off features like motion smoothing that can contribute to lag.
Turn off all reductions – There may be several names for the reduction settings available on your TV, and all of them should be turned off as they all contribute to input lag
Motion smoothing – Game Mode will often turn motion smoothing off automatically, but you should verify that this setting is turned off.
Update your controller's firmware – The Xbox One controller's firmware will not update unless the controller is plugged into the Xbox One. Follow these steps to ensure your Xbox One controller is up to date.
Test your home networking
The following tests require you to log in to the router on your home network to troubleshoot your network. You will need your router’s login credentials to proceed. If you do not have your router’s login credentials, you will need to contact your Internet Service Provider.
These tests refer to options that are typically found in a router’s menu. If you cannot find what you’re looking for, please refer to your router’s manual.
You may not need to perform all of these tests, so be sure to test the game after attempting each one.
If you are on an institutional (school), corporate, or other shared networks, please refer to your network administrator for further assistance.
Test 1: Universal Plug and Play
Turn Port Forwarding off (if it is turned on) and enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP).
Check your new settings in game. If this doesn’t resolve your issue, proceed to the next step.
Test 2: Port Forwarding
Turn UPnP off.
Turn Port Forwarding on. Learn more about Port Forwarding.
Assign a Static IP address to your console.
Check your new settings in game. If this doesn’t resolve your issue, proceed to the next step.
Test 3: DMZ
Turn Port Forwarding off.
Assign the console’s Static IP address to your router’s DMZ.
Check your new settings in game.
If the tests above do not resolve your issue, please contact your Internet Service Provider for further assistance,
Online games are very popular and almost all game developers have jumped on the boat to develop such games. Reported lag and latency issues increase with the number of players joining online games around the globe.
How does an online game work, how is it possible to play with a mate 1000 km away from your location? And why do some players experience lag, stuttering, flickering, freezing, disconnections or crashes in online games?
Which solutions exist to fix lag and latency issues in online games?
How does an online game function and why do lag and latency issues happen?
In this article, we will try to give answers to all online game lag and latency issues related to questions a gamer may have. We will provide images, graphs and statistics, list existing solutions to fix lag and latency issues and explain to you in detail how an online game network functions!
Based on facts, you will find out that fixing lag and latency issues is not magic but rather a complex task that will not always end in success. This is because there are numerous causes; you the gamer do not have an influence on all parts of the online game network chain!
What is a lag in online games?
Online game lag refers to a delay of actions, chat, movements, sound, or screenplay. Lag can cause an online game to freeze or disconnect as well.
Lag can be caused by malfunctioning hardware, not meeting the system requirements, slow performing operating system, wrongly configured or corrupted processes, settings, entries, or services. Old drivers or firmware, high conflict devices and game settings also cause online game lag.
A majority of lag issues are caused by the internet connection. The performance of your internet connection does depend on hardware (CPU, RAM, network card, adapters…), the processing speed of your operating system, settings made in your router or modem and of course the speed and quality of the line or signal from your ISP provider!
It is not always the internet connection *speed* that counts!!!
In most cases, a speed of 256kbps will be fine for online games, as the packages sent and received are relatively small!
If one of the included chains in the online game network suffers from a delay in sending and receiving data packages that contain game information, then the online game lags. The chain includes your end (computer, laptop or mobile device, the ISP, internet gateway and nodes), the datacenter connection of the game server and the game server itself.
What is latency in online games?
Online game latency refers to the time a data package needs to be sent or received from your computer, laptop or mobile device to a server or host computer located somewhere in the world and back.
The latency also refers to the time local processes an online game needs to perform on your computer. For example, the time your graphic or audio cards need to update your screen or play a sound file.
How is the Online Game Network build up?
Online games require a network over the internet (internet network). All actions, movements, chats and so on are sent and received via servers and clients. In order to play an online game, you will need a computer, laptop or mobile device and a router and/or modem.
You also need to have an active internet connection from an internet service provider which is used to communicate with the game server (part of the online game network). There are the 3 major ENDS included. The Internet functions over gateways and nodes (big and fast datacenters/servers connecting countries and continents).
An Online Game Network includes:
A. Gamers computer
B. Router/Modem
C. Internet Service Provider
D. Gateways/Nodes
E. Datacenter or ISP where the game server is connected
F. The game server
A typical Online Game Network
Online Game Network
(Image 1 & Online Game Network)
Explanation to the Typical Online Game Network Image Above:
1. Gamer 1's PC
2. Gamer's Router/Modem
3. Gamer's ISP
4. Internet Gateway/Nodes
5. Game server ISP
6. Game server
7. Gamer 2's ISP
8. Gamer 2's Router/Modem
9. Gamer 2's PC
As you can see in the picture of an "Online Game Network" the network circle is quite complex and there is not always only one end causing lag or latency issues for gamers.
Let's take an example based on the picture (Online Game Network):
Player 1, located somewhere in South America (1. Gamer PC) is playing with Player 2 (2. Gamer PC) located in Russia in an online game. Both joined a huge virtual game world (realm) with thousands of players on a game server located in the United States.
Both signed up with an Internet Service Provider and have a similar internet connection speed. Player 1 just got a new gaming computer and Player 2 has a five year old standard set-up computer. Let's play the online game now to understand latency and lag issues!
Player 1 enters the game world and adds Player 2, who was already playing the game for a while, to his contact list in order to chat with him. Both agree to meet in a specific location to hunt down beasts. After some traveling, Player 1 and Player 2 are virtually meeting. Now Player 1 can see on his screen that Player 2 walks to a big house in front of them.
So what's actually happening when Player 1 sees his mate walking to the house?
Look at the picture showing the process of sent and received data packages in an online game network.
1. Player 2's computer creates a data package containing the movement information
2. The computer sends the data package to the modem/router
3. The modem/router processes the command received from the computer
4. The modem sends the data package to the datacenter of Player 2's ISP
5. The ISP datacenter processes the data package and forwards it to the node or gateway
6. The internet node or gateway datacenter processes the data package and forwards it
7. The data package arrives at the ISP and/or datacenter of the game server
8. The game server processes the data package and sends a confirmation back to the sender and sends a data package with the movement information over the same network circle to Player 1
You've already got an idea of what's happening when you join a group of players and fight heavily against another team or NCP?
Sent & received data packages in an online game
Sent and received data in an online game network
(Image 2 & Sent and received data in an Online Game Network)
Where in the online game network can latency issues happen and cause lag?
Literally everywhere (see also the pie chart for the top 11 lag and latency causes) in the process a delay of the sent and received data packages can happen.
Sending and receiving data packages around the globe is very complex and requires many operators, data centers, gateways and nodes. A solution to cover ALL possible issues is not available.
Lag & latency issues are a part of the nature of online gaming. But this does not mean that the latency or lag issues you individually suffer from cannot be fixed. (See image 5)
Possible causes of latency and lag in the network chain of an online game
lag and latency causes in an online game network
(Image 3: possible latency and lag causes in an online game network)
What solutions are available to fix lag and reduce latency in online games?
If you are or ever have been affected by high latency and/or online game lag you probably have searched for solutions. As the online game market is quite huge and growing (currently around 350 million online gamers worldwide) many applications, tools, utilities and services claim to reduce latency and/or fix the lag. Lately, even virus scanners want to be part of these solutions.
As already mentioned above, there is no solution available that will cover ALL possible causes!!! We analyzed and tested some of the more popular solutions claiming to fix lag and latency issues. As causes of latency issues and lag are very complex, most of the mentioned tools, applications and services have an impact (higher - less) on reducing latency and fixing lag. On the other hand, some sources are just self-claiming with no proof of results!
Here is a column chart of the top 12 lag & latency fixing solutions with high to little impact:
lag and latency fixing solutions
(Column chart 1: lag & latency fixing solutions)
Lag and latency solutions:
1. The Online Game Booster - LATENCY OPTIMIZER can be found here
2. A Signal Boosters can be found here
3. A Game Booster can be found here
4. A Tunnel Service - WTFAST can be found here
5. Another Tunnel Service - BATTLEPING can be found here
6. A Game Proxy - tunnel service PINGBETTER can be found here
7. Another Tunnel Service SMOOTHING: can be found here
8. An Internet Accelerator can be found here
9. A Junkfile Cleaner can be found here
10. A Disk Cleaner can be found here
11. A System Maintenance Tool can be found here
12. A Virus scanner can be found here
13. A Registry scanner can be found here
14. A WOW Lag Fix tool can be found here
You might have noticed that the Latency Optimizer is on top of the list and we do understand that you might have a smile on your face, because we (Badosoft) are the developers of Latency Optimizer. We are the only available solution that what will boost online games due to the fact that we cover a wide range of testing, optimizing and fixing tools while using the newest techniques.
Fixing lag and reducing latency in online games is not an easy task and most of the solutions have limited effects. Accelerating the internet connection speed, cleaning junk files, boosting your PC, lowering your ping, offering tunnel services/game proxies or cleaning infected systems are all effective procedures.
All of the top 12 solutions we have tested have some kind of impact, though naturally, some are more effective than others.
To give you a deeper insight into latency and lag causes, here is the TOP 11 pie chart:
pie chart - lag and latency issues
(Pie chart 1: Top 11 lag and latency causes)
The pie graph shows the most common lag & latency causes in online games:
1. System Requirements
2. Hardware issues
3. Slow Operating System
4. Internet connection settings
5. Router / Modem
6. Internet Service Provider
7. Firewall / Virus-scanner
8. Internet Gateway / Nodes issues
9. Game Server
10. Old Drivers / Firmware
11. In-Game-Mechanics
If you look back to the top 12 lag and latency fixing solutions chart, you will recognize that all of the solutions are effective but the impact of solving major issues is mainly small.
Allow us to give an example where we will compare Latency Optimizer with a tunnel service or game proxy, just to show you where the impact of those 2 solutions lies. As you can see on the image "Latency Optimizer vs. Tunnel services" can see that Latency Optimizer works on the gamer's computer.
Game tunnel services and game proxies impact on gateways and or node issues!!
A tunneling service or proxy influences latency issues caused by gateways and/or nodes.
You will still need to have your computer in top condition, your internet connection optimized and properly set up, a stable and fast line or signal from your Internet Service Provider and last but not least no lag or latency issues caused by the game server. That does not mean that a tunnel service will not help a player whose ISP suffers from gateway or node issues. But these are firstly the issues your ISP needs to fix!
The tunnel or game proxy uses other gateways or nodes as your ISP might do!
how game tunnel services work
(Image 4: Lag and latency fixing the impact of a tunnel service)
Latency Optimizer has a high impact when it comes to the computer's system performance and involves tweaking and tuning your internet connection.
Furthermore, Latency Optimizer is the only online game booster available that includes testing and troubleshooting tools as well. Latency Optimizer assists you with getting the highest performance of sent and received data packages through the online game network.
Of course, it must be said that this software cannot do magic! But it is the only lag fix and latency reduction solution available that covers a wide range of cleaning, tweaking, tuning, optimizing and testing tools.
Latency Optimizer impacts on latency and lag issues in online game networks
How latency optimizer works in online game networks
(Image 5: Lag & latency fixing impact of Latency Optimizer)
Latency Optimizer works mainly where the latency and lag issues exist! At the gamers END!
All online games are vulnerable to latency and lag issues!
Here is a bar chart of popular games and the reported lag and latency issues! Note that the popularity of online games has an impact of the reported issues! As you can see on the bar chart, even the most popular online games have lagging players.
top lagging online games
(Bar chart: Top online games with reported lag and/or latency issues)
To speed up your Internet connection: Download Latency Optimizer to assist you to optimize your Internet connection & PC performance!
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