broadband connection questions
Is there a website that I can go to to test the actual up/down speeds that I'm getting with my cable modem? I was discussing this last night with some people in WoW, but the website mentioned (dslreports.com) doesn't seem to do that.
The reason I'm asking is that I have TW RoadRunner and have been getting a lot of lag when both my fiancee and I are playing WoW. I've got a pretty standard Linksys wireless-G router that she's plugged in to, and I'm connected wirelessly on my laptop.
Some suggested that living in a highly-populated (and broadband-using) area like I do may make cable a less attractive option than DSL.
I BELIEVE I technically have 128k up and 384k down, but I'd have to check on that. Any suggestions?
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Would be a good idea. I plan to have Logan sit in for me when I am on my honeymoon.
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
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http://www.dslreports.com/stest does exactly what you want.
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Must have missed that. Thanks!
Any other thoughts/recommendations?
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Well, the thing about cable being shared bandwith and all was more a DSL propaganda program than anything. ALL bandwidth is shared at some point. Between using and supporting both cable and DSL personally and through work, cable reigns supreme in my opinion. Through RR you should be getting probably 5Mb/384kb.
Now latency isn't related to bandwidth. BUT usually a high-bandwidth connection comes with low latency (disregarding satellite and wifi connections). If the only scenario were you have latency issues is when you're both in WoW I'd suspect the router. Make sure it's firmware is current.
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If you are at 128/384 you are most likely being overcharged by an enormous amount. The only way to have something like that these days is to have a plan hanging over from a couple of years ago that hasnt been renegotiated recently. Might want to look into that.
Warrior Asherr
Hunter Ghorin
Try pinging Google from the command prompt. I think the command is "ping www.google.com -t", or maybe just plain "ping www.google.com". You should be getting reasonable pings... just now I got around 20 msec. If you consistently get especially high pings - say 80+ - it's a solid bet that somewhere between you and the cable/DSL company there's a problem. Call and complain - it's surprising how much you can get accomplished if you do.
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I have noticed that when my wife uses the link it ruins my Infentry (SOE top down shooter) ping which is very sensetive. I turned on QOS on my Linksys router to give my computer's packets higher priority than hers but I'm not sure if it's helping .I haven't had much trouble recently when she used her laptop so i guess it's doing somthing.
Yesterday I had trouble with my ISP giving me S2C (server to client) packet loss of 10-12% which may not be their fault since it may not be on their network. I'm pay almost double the price for my ADSL 2M/200kb package because it also include QOS. The isp i use is the only one in israel that offers a package with high QOS for gamers which gives them the freedom to set the price. it's not that bad about 16$/month ISP + 16$/month infrastructure (infrastructure is either cable or adsl and the isp is a seprate entity). I think the lowest price for a package without the QOS feature is around rate is about 10$ (+infrastrcutre you have to pay anyways).
The Infentry servers are probobly in west coast USA so without a good ISP I would have a lot of trouble getting a decent ping.
The difference is the same difference between a hub and a switch. Cable loops are "hubs", where the connection is directly shared by many machines and is "half-duplex" - transmission and reception occur over the same wire and cannot occur at the same time. DSL connections, conversely, tend to be "switched" connections. Though sometimes not "full duplex", they tend to not share the first mile with other machines. Once upstream, the traffic is essentially in a switched, full-duplex fabric, so the only issues that come up are routing and load on particular links.
In most cases the distinction is academic - the load on the cable loops is light enough that it doesn't matter. However, if your cable company is cheap or you live in an area where the cable system wasn't designed for data, you can end up on a "hub" with a lot of other people. If a few of those people are bittorrent hogs, your gaming will suffer because it has to compete simply to transmit. Using ICMP pings doesn't always show this problem because standard ICMP packets are small, easily transmitted, and not part of a stream, while many gaming packets are relatively large and/or have strict latency requirements. A better test is to use a larger ICMP packet, like 1400 bytes, and to send a lot of them to simulate a sustained burst of traffic (don't do this for more than a few seconds though).
If you live in a highly populated area, there is a chance that your area is saturated on the 2.4 GHz band used by 802.11g, and the extra traffic on your connection when your fiance is on pushes your wireless connection past the point where it is lag-free (instead of simply dealing with wireless packet loss, now you are dealing with bandwidth contention as well). I would test with your laptop cabled into the Linksys before you make any changes, and also make sure you are on the latest Linksys firmware - these routers have been known to have problems with games in the past.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Thanks for the advice, A. Today I updated the firmware and tried both computers logged in wired mode. Still unplayable lag for her (always her machine - which is a pretty decent AMD 3400+). Well, more specifically it does the thing where I can see her character in WoW, but she can't see mine. This lasts for about 30 seconds, and then the server notices something and kicks her.
So, it would appear that perhaps it isn't the router? (Linksys WRT54GS 1.1 with latest firmware) I'm going to do the speed test on dslreports, but I'm not sure what else to do. Her computer plays WoW fine when she's the only one.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Update: "Your maximum download speed is 5120 Kbps and the maximum upload speed is 384 Kbps."
What I tested on dslreports (thanks for the link, Ghastly): 4080 kbps down, 354 kbps up. Which is apparently not that bad?
The roadrunner people think I should talk to the Linksys people.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Here is what I would do.
1. Swap cable and port on router with her to see if it happens on your PC. If that doesn't work try the other stuff below on her PC.
2. Try old port w/ current NIC and old cable.
3. Try old port w/ current NIC and new cable.
4. Try a new port w/ current NIC and cable.
5. Try a new port w/ current NIC and new cable.
6. Try another NIC w/ old cable in the old port.
7. Try another NIC w/ a new cable in the old port.
8. Try another NIC w/ a old cable in the new port.
9. Try another NIC w/ a new cable in the new port.
10. Give her PC QoS priority on the router.
11. Flash the firmware on the router to DD-WRT.
Obviously stop if one of those works.
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Thanks Edwin, I'll try that this weekend.
I also just ran the WoW repair utility and it found nothing wrong with the game on her computer. It's step 1 of 10 or so on their website for tech support for crashes.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Are we sure this is even a networking problem on her PC? Could it not be something else?
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Welcome to the dance....guess who Linksys is going to want you to talk to
Warrior Asherr
Hunter Ghorin
I can't be sure, I suppose, and I've thought about it. The symptoms are: we're both playing WoW on a wired connection, same router. My cable modem performance seems to be okay from what I posted earlier. Sometimes, she'll lose sight of me, though I can still see her, right in front of me. A minute later, WoW kicks her. Although this also happened last night when it was just her computer on WoW.
I've sometimes had similar problems where I've, say, been unable to open my in-game mail, and after a minute, WoW kicks me. Seems networkish to me.
I am in the process of making sure that various drivers (including video) are updated. I'm considering formatting a new HD for her computer and reinstalling things to see what, if anything, that does. One thing that I wish that I had done last night would be unplugging the router and just running her computer straight in to the cable modem, to see if that would have done anything.
Her computer runs Doom 3 just fine, so it seems to me that it's certainly up to the WoW challenge. The fact that this mostly happens in capital cities (where there are lots of players) seems somewhat relevant to me. I think her computer only has half a gig of RAM, btw, but I don't know why that would cause this.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
That's a connection drop - you should see the same thing if you pull a cable that isn't directly connected to her PC, like the one from the cable modem to the router.
Yep, that's a network disconnect - I bet if you did a capture on it, you'd see your machine sending packets, but getting no replies.
Playing by yourself or with her on? I'm still leaning hard towards the Linksys, because of the previous problems. What version of the firmware did you update to?
I'd test that first. I'm betting it works fine.
It shouldn't. the network load is heaviest in big cities because of all the position and interaction updates - the more people that are on the screen, the more network traffic has to be sent to keep their movements updated on the client. 512 shoulbe be fine for WoW, the client isn't a hog as long as you aren't pushing things by using high-res texture and graphics settings. All you should notice is a bit of texture-load lag (the kind of lag you often see when on gryphons or bats).
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Aetius - I upgraded my WRT54GS ver 1.1 to firmware version 4.71.1, which was released back on 4/25/2006.
When that didn't help, I chatted with their tech help. At first the guy said we were going to open some ports, but then he changed his mind, and just had me change MTU from Auto to 1300.
What next? I can try taking the router of the equation. I can try switching the ports, as Edwin suggested - I think it's strange that it always seems to be her computer that's mixed up rather than mine. I can install DD-WRT - though if I do that, and it doesn't help, will I be able to flash back to official firmware?
If I thought that a new router would fix this problem, I'd buy one on the way home from work tonight.
Thanks for all the help, guys!
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Reinstall her nic drivers and make sure the various settings match yours. Also if you haven't swapped where she is plugged into the router yet, do that, and swap cables. Just take the cable out of yours, put it in hers and hers in yours and see what happens.
thought Id mention to make sure and disable the wireless NIC's when in wired mode. Nothing complicates a situation like guessing which network connection youre using.
Warrior Asherr
Hunter Ghorin
Roger, my wireless is turned off right now. Hers is a desktop with no wireless.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Problem appears to have been solved. I updated the video card drivers, DirectX 10, and the mobo drivers (nVidia nForce 3, which includes the ethernet driver). Hopefully, it will continue to appear solved.
Thanks for all the input!
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98