Very High Pings on Unreal Tournament

[jctoots]

Hi,

I have been trying to play Unreal Tournament (Game of the year edition) online, but am usually frustrated by getting totally unplayable pings in the 1,000s. Occasionally I join a game with a decent ping of say 90 and it stays at about that level, so I can get a game. More often that not, however, it starts about 90, and then deteriorates varying between about 500 and 5000. I would really appreciate any advice I could get on this.

My system spec:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with 512 MB mem
Windows XP op system
NVidia GeForce 4 Ti4600 card
My PC is running behind a Linksys router (one other user also connects via the router, but the ping is just as bad whether they are using their computer or their computer is switched off).

I am in Cambridge and use NTL's 512k service.

Can anyone throw any light on this problem for me, please?

Thanks,

James

[Steve H]

Are you sure its not just the game servers? Most of the time, especially with the US hosts, the games fine for a bit, until it fills up.. then pings start to hit the roof.

[kronas]

you could try a direct connection from the modem to the PC thats running the game, as steve h pointed out it could be the servers at the US end.

[philip.j.fry]

Hi jctoots,

I used to play UT a (helluva) lot. Sadly, the game is now quite dated and a lot of the decent servers have dissapeared with only a few hardcore ones hanging on. I can't sya for sure, but probably a lot of the servers that are left are the cheaper ones with less bandwidth and in remote countries (where the game is more recent). Your high ping is probably due to this. It's now about a year since I last played, good times

[Rone]

Ive been playing ut since its release and still do. Its almost impossible to find a really good server. Jolt are not what they were, tho better than most. Gameservers dont suit a lot of UK players same with Elite, and even good old Barrysworld. We use Digifrag in 2 clans, and they are doing their best to get them up to scratch, cos atm they can be unplayable. Thats of course as long as your connection is 100% as well.
The problem lies with the the UT code, basically its a bit out of date, [tho still, its a well played game] chances are if you played UT2K3 you might find it ran better. If you are getting 500+ pings theres something seriously wrong somewhere. We played some Estonians the other night , and they pinged reasonably well on our server, less than 200 all 5 of them. However when we got to theirs.....

[rdhw]

Originally Posted by jctoots

it starts about 90, and then deteriorates varying between about 500 and 5000. I would really appreciate any advice I could get on this.

You are on the 600k service, which supports only 128kbps on the upstream. You should therefore configure UT with the console command netspeed 10000 or lower so that the game does not saturate the cable modem upstream rate cap.

You should check your PC for any background trojans or spyware which might be generating network traffic behind your back. For instance, run AdAware from http://www.lavasoft.de/. Ensure that any P2P filesharing systems that you might have in your PC are totally shut down (not just minimised in the system tray: totally shut down).

You don't say what model of Linksys router and cable modem you have. Another thing to check is whether there is a disagreement between the router and the cable modem over ethernet duplex setting, which might cause excessive ethernet collisions between the router and the cable modem.

You should in any case try the game without the router in the circuit to see if that changes anything.

See http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...ips/games.html for a general discussion of gaming problems on cable modem services.

A final possibility, after the ones under your control have been eliminated, is that your cable modem might be connected to an oversubscribed upstream channel: if this is the case, it could only be rectified by NTL, and only after some convincing evidence that this is indeed the case.

Hyia jctoots,

to nthw.

Its very helpfull if you put your location in your profile so we can se where you are in the UK.

What are the ping times to say www.bbc.co.uk when nothing else is running on the pc?

[Neil]

Originally Posted by schiller

Hyia jctoots,

to nthw.

Its very helpfull if you put your location in your profile so we can se where you are in the UK.

Originally Posted by jctoots

I am in Cambridge and use NTL's 512k service.

[jctoots]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try some of the suggestions made.


In response to Schiller: how do I find out my ping times to www.bbc.co.uk? Is there a good freeware program for this kind of thing?

In response to rdhw: - Router is a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router model BEFSR 41 and Modem is marked 'NTL:Home Broadband Internet' model 60194E-A12. Also, how can I tell if there is a "disagreement between the router and the cable modem over ethernet duplex setting" as you suggested?

One other point worth mentioning - I have Hotbar installed. This is technically spyware, but I'm satisfied with the arrangement and enjoy their product. As far as I can see no hotbar processes are running unless I'm using Outlook or my Web Browser - does anyone know any different?

Thanks,

James

[rdhw]

Originally Posted by jctoots

how do I find out my ping times to www.bbc.co.uk? Is there a good freeware program for this kind of thing?

You use the ping command in a command prompt window.

Router is a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router model BEFSR 41 and Modem is marked 'NTL:Home Broadband Internet' model 60194E-A12. Also, how can I tell if there is a "disagreement between the router and the cable modem over ethernet duplex setting" as you suggested?

The only evidence of an ethernet duplex error would be poor throughput, packet loss when there is traffic in both directions, and high ping times. But lots of other things can cause those symptoms too. There are many versions of the BEFSR41 (look at the label underneath). If it is any version other than version 3 or later, then the WAN port of the BEFSR41 is 10Mbps half-duplex only. You should go into the NTL cable modem web interface by sending your web browser to http://192.168.100.1/ username root password root, and follow the link for the ethernet configuration. Then, for best compatability with your router, you should configure the cable modem to use 10Mbps half-duplex ethernet.

[SOSAGES]

why not try playing another game and see if you have any issues with that as well..

id suggest if u dont have any more games that u can play online then try downloading a MOD for UT such as tac ops or strike force .

Also you could borrow a game off a friend maybe ut2003 and try that online see what u get?

why not take your pc to a buddies house that has BB and try that see if the same thing happens if it does u can probably tell its your pc...

i did this with ntl for 17 months they made me buy new cables for the modem and try every trick in the book i tried 5 pc's on my line all had high ping and i tried each pc on next doors dsl line and they worked fine (pings of 30-100) eventually after more moaning they looked at the ubr and it was oversubscribed and was then fixed.. they then gave me a couple of montsh free net access as the local manager called me up to say sorry ..

very nice chap

[SOSAGES]

oh and try not goping through the router ...

Originally Posted by jctoots

In response to Schiller: how do I find out my ping times to www.bbc.co.uk? Is there a good freeware program for this kind of thing?

If you use windows goto help and support and search for "ping".

If you want to ping bbc then at the command prompt type:
ping www.bbc.co.uk

it will come up with this:
Reply from 212.58.224.124: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=247
Reply from 212.58.224.124: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=247
Reply from 212.58.224.124: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=247
Reply from 212.58.224.124: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=247

and

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 84ms, Average = 56ms

HIghlighted are the important bits. Trans-atlantic pings take longer so dont give revelant results.