CharlesC

I'm not usually an online gamer. I've given it a shot a couple of times and I think its fun for a few minutes but haven't really been able to 'get into it'. Anyways, I finally downloaded America's Army today, went through the basic training, and proceeded to hop online.

Only problem is that my ping is somewhere between 2000-3000. This, as you can imagine, does not make for a very good gaming experience.

I thought maybe it was just a problem with AA so I started up Jedi Knight II and gave it a shot. Same problem.

So then I thought maybe RoadRunner was just bogged down today. I tried it a couple of hours later and same problem. I've tested my speed through dslreports.com and they tell me I'm getting "streaming video" type speeds.

Any ideas? TIA.

Keyser Soze

Are you on dial-up? If so.. that's your problem.

You really need DSL, or cable to get a solid gaming ping.

-k
###

joltaddict

Are you playing them through Gamespy Arcade? Gamespy is suckekekekekekekeke!

Icculus

Do you have any file sharing programs that are running in the background? If you do they can suck down a lot of your bandwith.

joltaddict

I just went to dslreports.com and got well over "streaming video" type speeds" 501/81 to be specific. I was on the AA servers tonight too and all were pinging at 120-500.

Something is either sucking up your bandwidth or your DSL is fugged.

Trigger

Well, sounds like you're on a high-speed connection... that doesn't always mean low pings. Cable and DSL will give you low pings, but high speed services that use sattelites will have high pings yet fast speeds. The best high-speed services for gaming are DSL and Cable. Roadrunner I think is cable if I'm not mistaken, so you should be getting lower pings. Most recent games have an option of the type of connection you are using and most will default to 33.6 modem type connections. Try changing that setting. Also as others have mentioned - try eliminating things that auto update over the web and file sharing programs. Using the in-game server browsers will also give you better ping reports.

BabiG

It's not how big your ping is, it's how you use it.

Trigger

Is that what she told you?? hahaha - she lied.

Keyser Soze

... and don't forget about your pings' girth.

-k
###

Jackskeleton

Big Pings = teh suck

Might be you have other programs in the back ground or that your on a satalite high speed connection, which will screw over your ping no problem because of the fact that it's going on satalite instead of a wire.

Feneant

You try tracing the ip's to see where your ping gets so high? You can always none Homelan servers to see how it goes, those might be better, my upload is 56k worth but I still get a 200-300 ping when playing.

CharlesC

I am on cable. Sorry should've made that more clear.

I am using Gamespy. For some reason the in game server list will never show anything in JKII or AA.
edit: I just tried JKII without going through gamespy and had the same problem.

Not running anything in the background besides Sygate Personal Firewall and Norton Antivirus.

JKII is setup to use cable connection, not 33.6.

How can I trace the IP's?

joltaddict

I assumed you were on DSL because you mentioned DSLreports. Id say try a tracert but 3000?!?!? Are you sure you ruled out something sucking it up on your end? P2P, Spyware, etc? But if you saw 3000 just call for support if its definitely not that.

There is no in game browser for AA yet. I heard The All Seeing Eye is compatable now but I never used it.

Feneant

Im not sure how to get the ips in AA, I think you hit escape before you try to connect so that you see the 'connecting to 10.**.**.***' screen. To trace, just go on a dos prompt and to tracert [ip] or tracert -h to get help if you want more options... You might be able to ping the server names you get in gamespy in dos too to get the ips, but I dont know, sorry

I remembered, in Unreal Tournament there was a setting you could change that might help, I don't remember anything about it except that you it was in the thousands... most people with cable ran it at 40000 or so I think while dialups at 5000... that could change your ping a bit, but I don't know much more of what could hurt.

joltaddict

Use the tilde. The ` thing under the esc key.

CharlesC

Okay here is a tracert I did on a AA server. I got the IP by right clicking on the server in GameSpy. Seems like the first step is the big bottle neck. I don't really know what this means though. Is this my neighborhood 'gateway' before I get to Roadrunner's servers? And why wouldn't this affect my regular downloads? Strange...

Tracing route to 66.220.20.224 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 3055 ms 66 ms 66 ms 10.33.0.1
2 66 ms 66 ms 65 ms SRP4-0.ORNGCA1-GSR2.socal.rr.com [24.30.161.183]

3 68 ms 67 ms 68 ms SRP2-0.ORNGCA4-GSR2.socal.rr.com [66.75.161.189]

4 68 ms 67 ms 67 ms pop2-las-P7-1.atdn.net [66.185.137.173]
5 67 ms 68 ms 71 ms bb2-las-P1-0.atdn.net [66.185.137.165]
6 75 ms 76 ms 76 ms bb2-sun-P5-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.46]
7 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms pop1-sun-P1-0.atdn.net [66.185.140.166]
8 76 ms 76 ms 212 ms dcr1-so-3-0-0-0.SantaClara.cw.net [208.172.156.6
9]
9 77 ms 76 ms 76 ms agr1-so-0-0-0.SantaClara.cw.net [208.172.156.38]

10 80 ms 78 ms 77 ms bpr2-loopback.PaloAltoPaix.cw.net [208.172.146.1
9]
11 79 ms 79 ms 80 ms 206.24.241.178
12 154 ms 149 ms 152 ms 64.71.128.117
13 151 ms 149 ms 150 ms gige-g0-0.gsr12008.fmt.he.net [216.218.130.6]
14 150 ms 150 ms 151 ms 66.220.20.224

CharlesC

Here is another on a different server. Seems to be more spread out on this one:


Tracing route to 66.220.20.232 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 328 ms 187 ms 66 ms 10.33.0.1
2 162 ms 249 ms 66 ms SRP4-0.ORNGCA1-GSR2.socal.rr.com [24.30.161.183]

3 254 ms 249 ms 311 ms SRP2-0.ORNGCA4-GSR2.socal.rr.com [66.75.161.189]

4 68 ms 123 ms 67 ms pop2-las-P7-1.atdn.net [66.185.137.173]
5 70 ms 185 ms 186 ms bb2-las-P1-0.atdn.net [66.185.137.165]
6 160 ms 314 ms 437 ms bb2-sun-P5-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.46]
7 74 ms 82 ms 75 ms pop1-sun-P1-0.atdn.net [66.185.140.166]
8 108 ms 75 ms 76 ms dcr1-so-3-0-0-0.SantaClara.cw.net [208.172.156.6
9]
9 77 ms 188 ms 249 ms agr1-so-0-0-0.SantaClara.cw.net [208.172.156.38]

10 382 ms 250 ms 124 ms bpr2-loopback.PaloAltoPaix.cw.net [208.172.146.1
9]
11 115 ms 79 ms 124 ms 206.24.241.178
12 150 ms 202 ms 188 ms 64.71.128.117
13 205 ms 311 ms 250 ms gige-g0-0.gsr12008.fmt.he.net [216.218.130.6]
14 150 ms 188 ms 150 ms 66.220.20.232

Trace complete.

CharlesC

Well it seems to have cleared up. I was dead in the water for a couple of days there, but now I'm pinging at around 100.

AA is a freaking tough game. Now I know why I was in the Air Force.

joltaddict

What name you using at AA? Im usually on Bridge defense side. Same username as here.

Im gonna be there in about ten minutes too.

CharlesC

I'm CharlesC in AA and Big Daddy on Gamespy.

We should make a thread so everybody can post their Gamespy names.

I've only tried the pipeline map so far. Very dark, very cramped with lots of doors and rooms.

Spicollidriver1

even though it is cleared up now I just wanted to let you know that it did same according to your tracert that the problems were on your end usually the first 3-4 hops is your isp. If you are having problems a lot of time it is good to tracert your isps home page just to see if it is your isp slowing you down. I am glad it works now if I could just get my dsl working I will be happy again.

CharlesC

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

Jackskeleton

Maybe this is why you dislike PC gaming,

since your in Ca. why not stop by this Lan game center my friends own in Pasadena ca.? you will get an easy 10 ping.

CharlesC

Actually, I love PC gaming. You must have me confused with someone else.

I just don't love online gaming. I used to have a group of friends that would get together every so often for a lan party. THAT was fun, being in the same room and all. Online just seems to impersonal. I'm not good enough to be able to chat/communicate and play at the same time.

Jackskeleton

doh, I had you mistaken for Chris C. my bad. well the place is a lan game center. 10 computers soon to be 30(after august 7th)