High Ping... Over a Lan?

[Towelie2k4]

Okay guys, this has myself and everyone I know completely stumped. I have a small network of 3 computers and a printer plugged into a Netcomm NB5Plus4 router, and I'm experiencing a ping from 4 - 20 when playing games over lan.

At first we thought it was the router at fault, so we tried using a crossover cable between the two better computers. No difference whatsoever.

We then thought it might be the cabling, but threw that out the window because the crossover, which is obviously doesn't use the other cables, gave the same problems.

We then thought it might be Zonealarm, so we disconnected the internet and turned it off. It still made no difference.

Then we tried using both old and new drivers for the onboard Realtek RTL9139 ethernet, but again no change. The Realtek driver is set for 100mbps Full Dulplex and the Optimal Performace setting is on (but having it off again made no difference).

Changing graphics setting also made for no change.

We found high ping in everything, from UT2004, to Empire at War, to FEAR, to Starcraft, and everything in-between.

:brickwall:

So, what am I missing? :)

[ZaphodB]

Is that a ping of 4ms?? What more do you want??!?!?? 4ms is a LOW ping, a HIGH ping would be something over 100ms in my book. If you're trying to get a ping of 0ms, good luck, think it's impossible.

[Towelie2k4]

Sorry, I might be confused. I thought over a Lan, a home network, that the ping was closer to zero. :o

I guess I should have started by asking what the average ping over a two person LAN game was, cos' frankly, I don't know. I thought I had a ping of 1 or so over the Lan at our Community Technology Centre, and that had about 12 computers playing.

EDIT: Getting 4 is quite rare however, the average is around 15.

[Steve]

Sorry, I might be confused. I thought over a Lan, a home network, that the ping was closer to zero. :o

I guess I should have started by asking what the average ping over a two person LAN game was, cos' frankly, I don't know. I thought I had a ping of 1 or so over the Lan at our Community Technology Centre, and that had about 12 computers playing.

EDIT: Getting 4 is quite rare however, the average is around 15.

I get about 15-20 ping while playing on my lan but 50-60 while playing online.

[Duoae]

You only get 0 ping if you are hosting the PC.

Plus most games "estimate" the ping over a LAN and so your actual ping may read 50ms but will actually be faster. You should notice that each game will read the ping over the network to the hosting PC differently but the speed and such will be the same. I presume that this is down to network coding in the game engine.

[Decker]

Plus most games "estimate" the ping over a LAN and so your actual ping may read 50ms but will actually be faster.

Exactly.

Ping around ~20 is insignificantly low. It can be attributed to anything from the net code of the game to the way the game reports the ping. It doesn't mean anything is wrong with your network.

Unless you're actually experiencing lag (warping players etc.), you have nothing to worry about.

[ZaphodB]

Sorry if I sounded a bit abrupt earlier, just was shocked by your statement of thinking a ping of 4 was high.

[Towelie2k4]

Sorry if I sounded a bit abrupt earlier, just was shocked by your statement of thinking a ping of 4 was high.

Fair enough, I completely understand your point of view now that I know what number it's meant to be.

The only reason I thought it was a high ping was because a couple of games were giving me trouble, namely Empire at War (synchronization issues, etc). Guess it's a problem with the game itself.

I feel embarrased at my lack of networking experience now. :o

Anyway, thanks for the information everyone, its really appreciated.

[0marTheZealot]

It depends on a lot of factors, but from my experience, 10-25 is normal ping for LAN.

[Phait]

I've had 100-200+ pings *online* without trouble.

[Steve]

I've had 100-200+ pings *online* without trouble.

Try 500 or so :eek:

[ZaphodB]

My avg piong online is 1500:insomnia:

[Misel]

4 to 20ms ping time is pretty normal. For higher throughput and faster ping you might want to switch to another network card such as 3com or Intel. Realtek cards are known to work on basically every OS. But they're relatively slow especially under high load.

[da3kstar]

I get an average ping of 5 never more than 7 useing duel nvidia 7800gx in sli

[mon2908]

I get an average ping of 5 never more than 7 useing duel nvidia 7800gx in sli

So,

what the heck has the graphics adapter you use to do with the quality of your network connection? I do not get the point here.

[Duoae]

The point is that some people can be sold anything by telling them anything. ;)

[GambitMR]

start -> run -> cmd
ping <insert_other_pcs_ip_here>

with lan it should look something like that (though, obviously ... not german :P)

Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127

as for ingame ping .. .it's really engine and hardware related

[mon2908]

start -> run -> cmd
ping <insert_other_pcs_ip_here>

with lan it should look something like that (though, obviously ... not german :P)

Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127
Antwort von 192.168.0.1: Bytes=32 Zeit<1ms TTL=127

as for ingame ping .. .it's really engine and hardware related

Terminal -> ping <insert_other_pcs_ip_here>


PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.13 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.14 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.14 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=1.13 ms