lag issues

StrikerNZL · Post by **StrikerNZL** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:29 am

Hi i just installed BzFlag on my laptop and am getting issues with connecting to US servers with lag of between 400 and 600ms..

And normally when i manage to get somone of another team in my sights

culd this have to do with my ADSL router? and how the firewall is configured?

btw i am in New Zealand

Grace F · Post by **Grace F** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:55 am

I don't know much about routers and all that, but seeing as how your in New Zealand that does affect it. I'm an Australian and the best lag I get on 1 of the popular servers is 210 on Hepcat.

What's your lag on there? Should be somewhere between 220-290

CannonBallGuy · Post by **CannonBallGuy** » Tue May 29, 2007 1:26 pm

To put it simply: you'll have to expect high pings for servers on the other side of the planet. Unless you move, you'll probably not be able to play on any US or European servers easily.

anomaly · Post by **anomaly** » Tue May 29, 2007 2:18 pm

Not sure about New Zealand's internet infrastructure, however If you can run a unix/linux shell you can run the pingtimes.sh script in bzflag/misc directory. It will print a list of active servers and ping times. You will probably need to get the source for this.

optic delusion · Post by **optic delusion** » Wed May 30, 2007 1:22 pm

You gotta search for the servers closer to you, it's the only way.

Lt-Kirby2007 · Post by **Lt-Kirby2007** » Wed May 30, 2007 8:56 pm

ok Optic Delusion is rite in the fact that u can only really make a decent connection with servers in ur country or continet to have a reasonably decent speed.

another thing that could be causing it is (if you have it) your wirless unit. now to get a decent speed wen im on maps i literally have to keep my door open so i get a good signal from the wireless unit. even if your computer says the signal speed is good or very good the internet speed between your computer and wireless unit should try to be above 24.0mbps. this allows room for spurts in your signal that could drop down to 18mbps on the odd occassion and will also allow you to play music without causing trouble (as even this can sometimes cause a problem - of which happens frequently to me as i tend to like to listen to a bit of Pendulum or Freestyle while im playing

)

it is unlikely to be your firewall, although it is good to check. if you have a norton firewall (which for some reason, most seem to have) it is easy to check just by going into Norton System works, clicking on the firewall tab on the side and then scrolling through til you find the option button to configure the firewall to the programs...scroll down untul you find BZFlag (which shouldnt take long as it is done alphabetically) and on the right hand side, click "Permit All".

as every1 else is saying and CannonBallGuy said, it is highly unlikely that you will be able ot make a decent speed with Euro or US Servers - although it is possible if you have around 48mbps as i did it when i was on holiday with that speed. the lag is high but still within the limits...just. as long as you try not to run any other programs, internet windows or music then the computer concentrates souly on the internet speed to BZFlag.

hope that was of help

~Lt_Kirby2007~

helping people out whenever he can

P.S. Im probably gonna get picked to pieces for this with people saying half the stuff im saying is wrong, but trust me...it works...ive done it and im living proof that it works. hope i was of help

A Meteorite · Post by **A Meteorite** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:42 am

Lt-Kirby2007
You can not compare bandwidth and lag (latency). The two are very different, and having "around 48mbps" is not going to help. This is much faster than most consumer connections (except FiOS), and even if it was slower, the BZFlag client does not need that much bandwidth. If BZFlag was indeed starved for bandwidth (ie, a slow dial-up connection), then you would experience packet loss and not latency. That is because the client would try to send and receive more packets than the line allows for and some packets must ultimately be dropped. Latency is the time it takes for one packet to get from point A to point B. Bandwidth is how much data can travel simultaneously from point A to point B.

But, your point about having good signal, does have a relationship to latency. More noise on your wireless link will increase processing time (therefore adding latency) and a low signal may cause packets to be dropped (which is noticed much more than latency).

StrikerNZL
Your router (or firewall) could be the culprit of some added latency, but not as likely since you would notice it. If you ever get kicked for "no UDP" than your router/firewall would be to blame. Though that will only happen for servers that require UDP. UDP is much more efficient than TCP for games and would reduce latency dramatically. Considering you did not mention being kicked for "no UDP" you are probably not experiencing this. But it's a good idea to add it here for anyone else who may be watching this thread.

Your problem is summed up very easily: most servers are geographically very far from you, and even though the speed of light is fast, it still takes a minimum amount of time. Your ISP could also be bad, but getting a better ISP probably would not help the situation much considering you are getting lag around 400-600ms.

EDIT: Man, I forgot how fun these long posts are.

Lt-Kirby2007 · Post by **Lt-Kirby2007** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:15 am

see what did i say lol. dont care what you say Meteorite (in a nice way i dont care ofcourse

) it works for me so its gotta be true.

~Lt_Kirby2007~

who loves cheesey puffs?

p.s. again somebody is probably gonna have a go at me...again

A Meteorite · Post by **A Meteorite** » Thu May 31, 2007 11:09 pm

Lt-Kirby2007 wrote:see what did i say lol. dont care what you say Meteorite (in a nice way i dont care ofcourse ) it works for me so its gotta be true.

It may have worked for you, but not for the reasons that you claim.

You can't argue against basic principles, such as bandwidth does not equal or relate to latency.

linuxrunner · Post by **linuxrunner** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:45 am

I am glad that I am not the only one in New zealand that is getting frustrated by lag. I have been playing on and off for about 2 years (mainly as beanyNZ) and am constantly getting booted because of lag. There are occasionally aussie servers and sometimes NZ servers...that is good for us...but generally it aint good in NZ....