Very High Ping in games, particularly WoW

[Xilly]

Hi there

I recently (today!) moved back to my parents house, and have plugged into their netgear router (dg834gt), browsing seems fine, fairly quick. Downstream of between 1 and 2 meg which is fine.

However, when I launch a game and hop onto a server, I get particularly high pings. For example my ping in World Of Warcraft will not drop below 350, there are no issues with the server im connecting to.

Ping times from dos to bbc.co.uk for example are a steady 75, not great but fine, my parents get their sky broadband for free, so im not expecting miracles.

Any clues? Can't really play with a 300+ ping

Thanks in advance

Dave

[x LAGER LOUT x]

Phone support and get them to troubleshoot a slow connection. They should then open a ticket for you and transfer to (or arrange a callback from CST), then explain to CST that you want your Max Delays reduced. This should bring your pings down a fair bit.

[richone54]

could you also post your detailed router stats (see second link in my sig and look for the mognuts utility)

how are you connected (wired or wireless) and you could do some comparison tests from your "test" socket (see first link in my sig)

[Undecided Adrian]

Is the the same on all the severs you try and is it the same at non peak times to peak times?

If it is the EU servers you connect to the most likely problem is more likely to be Blizzard's ISP which is telia, and frankly no matter bad UK ISP's are telia is in a whole diferent league, I was on Arathor for over 2 years then got so sick of the massive lag and poor latency soon as you hit 7pm during the week and most of the weekend I gave up with it, I won't pay for such shoddy service.

As this was over NTL,BT and then Sky I knew it wasn't my ISP's causing this problem, trouble is blizzard and telia don't tend to admit when there is problems either, you know if there is a problem as the offical forums are full of why is the lag so terrible again, so a nip over to them may worthwhile to see if there anybody else with "issues".

Your upload speed on base will also be a major limiting factor as your PC sends an awful lot of data to the game servers reporting on where you are in the world etc and so a fairly low upload spped could be causing some delays.

One thing to note WoW uses up approx 25+ meg/hour of bandwidth and so if your parents are on the base package their 2gig/month allocation could be really hammered if you play a lot or need a biggish update.

[Xilly]

Thanks for the replies, just for reference, what happens if the 2 gigabyte monthly allowance is exceded? Is is the same as other ISPS, whereby the speed is just severely reduced for the rest of the month?

Also, is there somewhere I can monitor my usage so far in the month?

With reference to Adrians excellent response, this is the same on all EU servers, in WoW, UT, CS, TF2 etc.
The line when I lived here before was okay, back then I was on multiplay UK as my isp, but since i'm only going to be living here again temporarily I don't want to migrate out only for my parents to have to migrate back again after I leave.
Will talk to them about moving up to the max package, its only a tenner a month?

Detailed modem stats :

/usr/sbin/adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 416 Kbps, Downstream rate = 2048 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 31.1 13.0
Attn(dB): 41.0 26.0
Pwr(dBm): 16.5 0.8
Max(Kbps): 9792 1216
Rate (Kbps): 2048 416
G.dmt framing
K: 65(0) 14
R: 16 16
S: 2 16
D: 64 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 65 14
M: 2 16
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 2.2424 17.0666
L: 528 120
D: 64 8
Counters
SF: 1458407 1458405
SFErr: 0 22
RS: 49585872 6198221
RSCorr: 1861 144
RSUnCorr: 0 0

HEC: 0 8
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 119756936 0
Data Cells: 945088 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 15 0
SES: 15 0
UAS: 61 0
Total time = 6 hours 54 min 32 sec
SF = 1458407
CRC = 0
LOS = 29
LOF = 0
ES = 15
Latest 1 day time = 6 hours 54 min 32 sec
SF = 1458407
CRC = 0
LOS = 29
LOF = 0
ES = 15
Latest 15 minutes time = 9 min 32 sec
SF = 33640
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52989
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52931
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52930
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0

[Xilly]

One other quick question, if I call and upgrade the broadband, how easy is it for me to then downgrade again once I leave the house once more? Don't want to for example sign up to 12 months of max when I only really plan on being here for around two.

[Undecided Adrian]

Your line seems ok but I am not an expert in looking at those stats.

With your parents line the 416k/sec upload could be the limiting factor the max product is 768k/sec and I would be happy if sky upped it even more as todays online games need as much upload speed as you can get.

If you parents upgraded to Max they would be locked into a new 12 month contract and if you exceeded the 2gig/month useage limit Sky will wirte to your parents suggesting that they upgrade their package anyways.

With World of Warcraft in mind a latency of 300ms although is not great I have certainly played it with worse and not got my bottom kicked, I proably wound't want to do a high end raid dungeon but you should be able to play with minor hiccups.

[Xilly]

Mini thread revival, i've had a look on the sky site and not found a contact number or email address for support, anyone got any clues?

Thanks in advance

edit :

nevermind, opened eyes, found e-forms.

[Xilly]

Just another update, this morning I upgraded to Max, and last night I submitted a query to the CS team and received this response this morning :

"Dear Mr Jones,


Thank you for contacting Sky Broadband Support.

I have arranged to have your max delays reduced. This usually helps with gaming issues.

I trust this helps however should yo u continue to experience technical difficulties, please reply to this email or call us on 08705 515 515. Lines are open 24 hours a day. "

If this resolves the issue then I have to say I am more than impressed at the speed and effectiveness of the CS team in this case, simply cannot ask for more.

[richone54]

thats good news, let us know how you get on,