Help, extremely high ping issues

[livingsacrifice]

Okay, I like to play Quake and UT late at night and everytime I go into any server I get the highest ping in the room, like 250 or more, usually averages around 400. This is absoultely horrible for cable especially when it doesn't just happen on one, but all the servers. Does anyone know anything I can do softwarewize to fix this problem? I doubt seriously its a problem with the ISP because my friend gets good ping when playing games.

Thanks for helping me in this frustrating problem,
livingsacrifice

[Epyon]

Try SG's reg tweaks, it sounds like your system's settings are for 56k... After I used SG's reg tweaks I noticed about 30-40% increase in speed, not to mention lower pings. ;)

[livingsacrifice]

No, I have CableNut installed and have tweaked it for broadband, so I dunno what is wrong. And I'm on windows 98 se.

Here's my stats:

TCP options string = 020405b40103030201010402

MTU = 1500
MTU is fully optimized for broadband.

MSS = 1460
Maximum useful data in each packet = 1460, which is equal to MSS.

Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 256960
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 2 bits
Unscaled Receive Window = 64240
RWIN is a multiple of MSS
Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
513920 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 8)
128480 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
64240 (MSS x 44)

bandwidth * delay product:
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 10278.4 kbps (1284.8 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 4111.36 kbps (513.92 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON

Time to live left = 55 hops
TTL value is ok.

Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF

Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON

IP type of service field (RFC1349)= 00000000

[BlackSword]

did you have the ping problem before?

do a tracert to the game server you like to play on and post the results.

c:\>tracert 200.200.200.200 >results.txt

obviously put the IP of the game server where the 200s are, and the results of your tracert will be placed in a file called "results.txt" open that file and paste the results to back to this thread.

The speedguide tweaks are better for obtaining your maximum bandwidth, but as far as latency for gaming it is controlled by many things you have no control over LIKE, distance from ISP, number of users going thru ISP. You have some control over the quality of your connection to ISP.

While you are gaming you must make sure you have no tasks running in the background that use the internet, example being any file sharing software.

[livingsacrifice]

Alright, It doesn't matter which server I pick, they all give me bad ping, but ill try one and post it after I finish this download.

[livingsacrifice]

Here is an example, I just pulled the fastest pinged quake 3 arena server I could find.

Tracing route to dsl081-127-202.dfw1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.127.202]

over a maximum of 30 hops:



1 74 ms 97 ms 49 ms 10.4.84.1

2 21 ms 77 ms 121 ms bb1-fe5-0.chrtn1.sc.home.net [24.1.32.1]

3 133 ms 190 ms 167 ms c1-se6-1.gnvlsc1.home.net [24.7.73.193]

4 205 ms 152 ms 182 ms c1-pos5-0.atlnga1.home.net [24.7.65.65]

5 235 ms 243 ms 205 ms home-gw.attga.ip.att.net [192.205.32.229]

6 201 ms 196 ms 190 ms gbr4-p50.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.20.254]

7 256 ms 271 ms 184 ms gbr3-p20.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.2.89]

8 210 ms 145 ms 275 ms gbr6-p60.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.5.81]

9 158 ms 228 ms 212 ms gar2-p370.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.123.17.29]

10 211 ms 99 ms 171 ms 12.124.211.58

11 148 ms 93 ms 196 ms border5.fe0-0-bbnet1.dal.pnap.net [216.52.191.9]

12 116 ms 192 ms 170 ms spk-1-dfw.speakeasy.net [64.81.127.1]

13 176 ms 218 ms 205 ms dsl081-127-202.dfw1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.127.202]



Trace complete.

I'd probably get around 200 or more ping in this room if I played in it. I'm getting very mad if its a comcast@home problem.

[xenoss]

I am having similar problems.
In my case, I am having lag spikes: in CS, I am seeing 40s ping, then 50s, then 90s.. then, it will jump to 300s, 600s, back to 400s, and then 1000s.. sometimes even 4000s. Then it will jump back down to low pings, and this will happen all over again after a few seconds.
Also, some servers I join appeared to hav low pings at 1st, but after I go in, my ping stays at 800s or 700s.

Sometimes, everything is fine..

I have phoned customer service about this, the technician was doing something on his end, and my case is very strange to him also. I am not going to get on site help till Thursday next week. But he did a check and told me then the path from him to the hub is fine, so the problem should be on my end.

Now, he suspect it may be my network card. But a while ago i was using an old (previous) computer of mine, and this same thing happened (different system, OS, and network card).

So what remains seems to be the cables, or the modem itself. I wont be able to check them till Thursday..

So, what I suggest you do is try using another cable (the network cable or the TV cable), and see what happens. Try update ur network card drivers, or may be try ur modem on another computer and see if it works there. Since ur "lag" is constant, I would imagin it to be a cable problem. Usually, spikes like those i have and the fact it works sometimes seems to be a hardware problem (which i suspect is the modem itself)..

Since I dont have another set of cables, I can do nothing. I hope u can solve ur problem.

[livingsacrifice]

Actually, your gonna find this funny, we had cable installed like right when it came out and I actually use an ISA network card, it's worked fine up to this point but I guess I'll try some more CAT5 and a different network card to see if that helps. I'm not really getting spikes, usually stays around 200 or more ping throught the game.

[livingsacrifice]

Our isp sent us a letter about switching to a dynamic ip and other crap for the new comcast network, do you think it's gonna help with my lag issue?

[sgrah]

Xenoss - Your connection sounds like mine...

I'm an online gamer. I dont download MP3s. I dont run morpheus or Kazaa. I'm not running connection sharing software. I'm not using a NAT router. I try to keep my machine lean and clean so to speak hoping for high framerates and a decent connection (low ping no packet loss).

During the day I have a wonderfull conection. I can play RTCW and actually enjoy it. However from abnout 8PM - 11PM the connection blows. Same symptoms; my ping is..80..50...80...70..80...1900..80...75...request time out....80...300...etc. Strange thing is is during the evening my average ping is fine. But once avery 15-60 seconds (depending on the night of the week) I'll get a few high pings (i.e. (jumps by a factor of 10) and maybe packet loss for a few seconds. The result is that I'm frozen or "stuttering" in the RTCW game for several seconds (typically 3 or 4 seconds, just enough to get killed twice over.)

I've been looking for a solution for several months. Here is what I did...
1) Replaced D-Link ethernet card with 3COM
2) replace ethernet cable
3) replace coax cable from cable modem to wall
4) move modem power supply to a diferrent plug
5) format c: and reinstall windows
6) replace old hub with new 10/100 switch
6) Have the line checked by cable guy. (its fine)
7) Swap out my cable modem

I have two PCs on my network wirth legitimate IPs from my Cabnle ISP (Shaw Vancouver). I experience the same packet loss during most (but not all) evenings and from either computer. It does'nt matter If the cable modem is connected directly to the first or second computer or the hub. Same symptoms.

I can recreate the problem at will almost any evening as follows...

ping -t <ip address of shaw dns server obtained from winipcfg>
ping -t <ip address of shaw gateway from winipcfg>
ping -t <ip address of my other computer for comparisson>

Start a download from the Cable ISPs troubleshooting site. As soon as you load my connection a little bt the sporadic jumps in pings occur. Note the ping only jumps for the pings to the dns and gateways. The ping to my other computer, which doesnt have to go thru the cable modem stays consistently low.

Terminate the download and pings get much better.

Start up RTCWP multiplayer on the other PC. Observe PINGS get eratic. Notice that when RTCW experiences lag/packet loss so do the pings.

I'v espent countless hours on the tech support line. Plus I've had a few visits to my home by the support people to check my line and PC. All to no avail. I am not faulting the responsives of the cable company customer support. They have definitely taken time to come out and check things out plus work with me on the phone. I just wish my connection was better.

I know that there are 754 modems in my neighbourhood (richmond BC teralink 5). I also know that most of the time in the evening the teralink5 is running at around 88% downstream capacity.

I dont know what else I can do. I'm pretty sure the problem lies somewhere else. Possible causes (i.e. shots in the dark):

i) Maybe the teralink is overloaded in the evening and the cable company just needs to further segment my neighbourhood.

ii) Maybe the teralink isnt overloaded but instead there is some piece of network equipment in my neibourhood that has an intermittent fault.

iii) Maybe one of my neighbours is running a warez site in the evenings and messing up my connection

iv) Maybe everyone watcvhing vcable tv in the evenings is somehow responsible (There are a lot of digital cable Set top boxes...). Maybe its all those PPV movies or digital channels being watched by my neighbours?

[kjboughton]

Sent the original author an email on this issue. I go through the SAME gateway (10.4.84.1) and am having the same problems. Hopefully we can help eachother and Comcast work this out.

-Kris

BTW, check out this one! :o

1 933 ms 600 ms 825 ms My-UBR [10.4.84.1]
2 1297 ms 1196 ms 496 ms bb1-fe5-0.chrtn1.sc.home.net [24.1.32.1]
3 540 ms 912 ms 555 ms c1-se6-1.gnvlsc1.home.net [24.7.73.193]
4 158 ms 44 ms 287 ms c1-pos5-0.atlnga1.home.net [24.7.65.65]
5 349 ms 82 ms 391 ms home-gw.attga.ip.att.net [192.205.32.229]
6 173 ms 177 ms 45 ms gbr4-p50.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.20.254]
7 640 ms 387 ms 498 ms gbr3-p20.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.2.89]
8 634 ms 538 ms 626 ms gbr6-p60.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.5.81]
9 399 ms 321 ms 55 ms gar2-p370.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.123.17.29]
10 293 ms 93 ms 174 ms 12.124.211.58
11 277 ms 63 ms 309 ms border5.fe0-0-bbnet1.dal.pnap.net [216.52.191.9]

12 302 ms 66 ms 149 ms spk-1-dfw.speakeasy.net [64.81.127.1]
13 205 ms 99 ms 229 ms dsl081-127-202.dfw1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.127
.202]

[Cable_Dood]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kjboughton
[B]Sent the original author an email on this issue. I go through the SAME gateway (10.4.84.1) and am having the same problems. Hopefully we can help eachother and Comcast work this out.

-Kris

Hey! You folks are in luck...maybe. I'm an engineer for Comcast's high speed internet product. I'll be happy to help you try to get that problem fixed. What area of the country are you in? I'll go ahead and tell you that if you are still in a system serviced by @Home, then network performance is going to suck. At home, my pings were in the 180-400s before I cut us onto the new network 2 weeks ago. Now I get 20-80s.

Keep in mind that if you are on an @Home system, Comcast's responsibility effectively ends if your 'cable' light is solid on the router. There's not a thing we can do for @Home's crappy network problems....they've fired 98% of their staff and aren't doing anything to

We have invested an ass-load of time and money into this new network and you're gonna like it!

At any rate, our extension with @Home ends on Feb 28, so you will be on our new network by then. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

[ace]

i have not seen any light, sounds like someones blowin smoke..:p

[livingsacrifice]

Yeah, I'm sure me and the other guy have much better ping now since our comcast switched servers. I went from like 400 ping before the switch to 60 ping after. I actually had the lowest ping in my quake 3 games yesterday, I haven't seen that happen for like 3-4 months or so.

[Cable_Dood]

Originally posted by a0c2e4
i have not seen any light, sounds like someones blowin smoke..:p

Whatever...

[xenoss]

As much as i hope this will help, I am not so sure..
the support guy said it is becuz too many ppl is on the gateway, but thats a lie, according to the onsite technician..

this lag spike situation we are seeing with many people in my area, are most likely due to moise in the underground cables.

[kjboughton]

Hey, thanks for replying. Since the Comcast switchover from the @Home service my latency problems and connectivity speeds have improved SIGNIFINCALY. I am still not all the way satisfied though. I am looking for a little more ping stability and I would also like it to be a little lower. I'm a big time UT player (well, was) and this is important to me.

Anyway, are things still being switched over? Can we look forward to seeing more improvement in the next couple of weeks?

Secondly, trying to set up my new @comcast.net email account for access in Outlook Express. Is there a default password that Comcast assigns? My @Home email password doesn't work and I can't figure it out.

Lastly, this line is saved in the configuration logs for my Motorola Surfboard 4100 cable modem: "Retrieved TFTP Config msb4100_v1_silver_c01 SUCCESS" Obviously this is the configuration file that is used to set my caps on the network. Seems I am a "silver" member. I assume there is a "gold" level, maybe something higher. First, do you know what the highest is and second how do I go about upgarding to that level.

Sorry for all the questions, but as you can see, I am very curious about the new netword. Great work so far! Thanks.

-Kris

[xenoss]

About the Comcast switch, is it for Canada, or is it US, or both (like, all that was previously @Home)?

Because I have recieved info from Shaw that @Home is more or less dead, but nothing about a switch to Comcast was mentioned. I am experiencing lag spikes that are likely due to moist in the physcial cables underground, cause signal noise, in a very very bad way.. Shaw didnt admit to any problems with anything, they even lied. But they sent no 1 to check or fix the problem (since we can still connect to the net, they are not about to waste money fixing something that we cannot sue them for..) Can I expect a raise in service after the Comcast switch? Or will Shaw still be incharge of those things?

Shaw is the worst company right next to Telus..

Canada is not a good place to live..

[livingsacrifice]

I haven't even started on the email switch thing yet, I will be doing that soon and I'll post my results. Gonna go play some games :D

[RadiatioN]

I just joined in to say that I have been having the EXACT same problem with my internet latency...but I have seemed to fix it:

OS: Windows 98se
NewOS:WindowsXP Pro

Background info:
Im on Adelphia Powerlink cable and I started experiencing major latency slowdown in every online game a while back. My downloads were going at perfect and above average speeds, and my upload was perfect as well. But, my game latency was 300+...sometimes worse. After hours of sitting on hold and talking to people who were ill-informed, I finally got a tech to come to my house. He checked the outside connections and the whole bit and discovered no problems. My speed tests were above average and my pings into the Adelphia network were around 10ms (which is good). I showed him my latency in a few games and he thought it was probably a router somewhere and would have it looked into.
I decided to call back and see if i could get any over-the-phone help anyway. The Adelphia people were able to ping me, and I them, with good latency...yet my games were aweful.

Fixed?:
I decided to install WindowsXP Pro as a last resort. After it was done and I was back up-and-running I checked my game latency... and it was back to its normal 30-70ms on most servers. I don't quite understand what the cause or the effect resulted from, but an upgraded OS fixed my problems. I'm not saying everyone should run out and get XP, but I think that this info might help someone else determin a possible fix?
Good luck :)

[livingsacrifice]

Sometimes that does fix things and other times it doesn't but I don't feel like upgrading my OS at this time and programs I like to use not work.

[kjboughton]

Haha, I am runing XP Home Edition. I has Win98SE and went to WinXP when I was having problems. It didn't fix much. I MIGHT re-install my whole computer but I would really hate to do that.

Comcast has definately capped the ex-@Home users. D/L speeds have been signifincantly reduced.

Funny thing about the game latency/high pings. If I use a OS program like Ping Plotter I can get sub-100 pings (pretty stable) to a lot of the game servers that I play on but as soon as I jump in the game it can go as high as 300-6000! I can't figure it out. Even a fresh install of the game and the OS TCP/IP stack haven't changed a thing.

I was really hoping that the Comcast-@Home change over would fix things but apparently this isn't going to happen. What's worse now is technical support. I can't even find a number to call Comcast at on their site. The "Contact Customer Service" link has a picture of someone dialing a phone but apparently you have to fill out a generic form and submit information for THEM to contact you. That's some BS. Does anyone have a number, either local to Charleston SC or national? TIA. Sorry about the bitching.

-Kris

[livingsacrifice]

Still having problems? After Comcast switched last Thursday here I haven't had a single bad ping problem, or even bad spikes, been playing Serious Sam 2 without any slowdown what so ever. Very strange, I thought it woulda fixed your problem since you don't live but down the road a little.

[RadiatioN]

Wow, XP seemed to fix all of my problems with loadtimes for programs, etc. But that can vary depending on each system. I'm starting to think that it's not our isp's fault, but rather our own. In half-life or CS, for example, there are quite a few "latency boosting" options such as cl_rate **** and cl_updaterate **. It is really stange, though, because I ping *really* well to many many servers, yet at the same time I have aweful latency to some of the servers my local friends get 50 to. My ISP took over some @Home areas a while back which could have affected me, but I doubt that because my friend has the same service and does not experience these conditions. Perhaps we all have a software or setting conflict? I'm open to any ideas that would lead to a conclusion :S

[RadiatioN]

A little update:
I pinged a server that my friends on Adelphia average 40-50 on.
Pinging 64.95.112.*** with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 64.95.112.***: bytes=32 time=425ms TTL=236
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.95.112.***: bytes=32 time=396ms TTL=236
Reply from 64.95.112.***: bytes=32 time=406ms TTL=236

Ping statistics for 64.95.112.***:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 396ms, Maximum = 425ms, Average = 409ms


I took out the last 3 digits so don't worry about that.
Anything seem wrong with my TTL?


This latency issue just arose again after I installed some speed tweaks..... I will revert my settings then report back.

[xenoss]

Instead of pinging others, why dont you ping your own gateway..
I dont really know if that is bad or not.. since mine can jump to 4000+ ms..

[kjboughton]

TTL is just the maximum number of hops that your data packet can travel over before expiring. It has nothing do do with ping. As for the high numbers (and obvious packet loss) - looks like normal Comcast/@Home BS to me. I can't figure out why some people have such great latency times and others (like us) are so terrible. Let us know how the pings turn out after you revert back to previous "un-optimized" settings.

-Kris

[RadiatioN]

Well, after reverting my settings my latency improved quite a bit. I did, however, install the TCPOptomizer from speedguide's site and configure it for cable. My latency is still not as good as I would like to see, and it is still not as good as any of my other Adelphia-using friends. My computer is good enough to handle what its supposed to do...but I still have no idea of what is wrong. My latency to that server I pinged previously is now 150-170+ which still is bad. I'm going to call Adelphia's office later today and I will report my discoveries.......that is.. if I ever get off HOLD...... :P

[GUIGUI3000]

well i have the same problem, high pings while playing cs
i can ping a server at less than 99ms, which i believe is actually good, but then when i get in the game, my ping is completly eradic, i can be a 0 one second and then jump all the way to 4000
i have tried to tweak my cable modem, and i have tried win 98
hell this was also an issue when i was on win xp
i called my cable provider (i am on aol cable running on time warner) and apparently all was good, i get good download and upload speeds, but the latencies in cs are horrible
i have really no idea what to do, i have formatted several times, i have switched os but still i have no fix
does anybody have suggestions?

[RadiatioN]

Anyone else having this problem with another game?

[xenoss]

Ok, let me clear this up..

For those who have lag spikes, call customer support.. they will probably tell you they dont see a problem from their systems, and so on and so on, they will say they'll take it to their superiors and then, they will tell you they cant do anything since they dont seem to see any problem.. even though you are obviously seeing it.

In my case, their onsite techs even came and checked, and DO see there is a problem. Support denies it. They will pretend like you have previously said nothing:

If you told them you ping the gateway while gaming AND while not doing anything at all etc.. they will speak of how the game servers might be the cause, again pushing the problems away.

They might tell you the gateway has too many users on.. but the tech who came told me that this doesnt cause the problems like those I am experiencing AT ALL..

The tech said it might be moist in the cables.. not YOUR cables, but those outside connecting you physically to the gateway.

Even though most people just post their problems and then wait for replys without even caring to read some previous post (as most of all my post seems to have been ignored.. you can practically pull put my posts, and this whole thread would still "make sense").

This will be my last post here, I am sick of typing so much stuff just so people can ignore it and ask something that they should have seen if they read previous posts, my posts and posts of other people who cared enough to post what they know.

It is ignorant people here that discourages help of any kind.. they probably dont deserve ANY help. As I believe most havent done so much as to ping a stupid gateway.. some dont even make the phone calls just because they dont want to be left on hold.

For now, there is no fix. The Win98 to WinXP thing might solve it for some people.. someone did.. But I am already on a XP, and this happens to people on the same gateway as mine, where we have different OS..

For people like me, things are looking grim..
It seems to be 2 words: "too bad".. or 3 words, "too dam bad".
Thats for my case anyways, I wish those who tried get help better luck.. to those who didnt even try, you are on your own.

[livingsacrifice]

Actually dude, I call Comcast a lot and get up to a very high level of customer support and usually they tell me something stupid like giving me the wrong soultion to the problem or telling me they don't know what the problem is. I didn't see if any techs could come to my house because they just fixed the problem a week ago with a server change. xenoss, you seem mad, maybe you need to quit playing multiplayer games or something.

[RadiatioN]

xenoss>>>
How did you get your hands on their "script" ???
They said exactly that in almost that exact order...... They dont know crap as it seems. Its not my connections, its not THEIR connections, its not a "bad server" issue, and I am not stupid enough to let them tell me to download "gamespy." Then they go on to say "Well I'm not saying that there 'WASNT a problem befooooooreee'...but there doesnt appear one noooooooooowww" as if mocking me. The fact of the matter here is that they dont know what to do and they really dont care to try and resolve it. Im going to try ONE last thing before I give up my 5mbit cable for my cheap-old dsl line. (Ive never had any latency issues with dsl) And that thing is changing my ethernet card.... the cord going into the card is not secured properly and may be defective..... we shall see.. im going to pick one up tomarrow.

[GUIGUI3000]

no, your posts were not written in vain, and i did try to troubleshoot according to several possibilties listed over here, without success
and as a matter of fact i did call tech support and they gave me the address to this web site
posting my message was a solution of last resort, sorry if it has upset you

[xenoss]

I said it was my last post in this thread, but i need to clear something up.

I was only talking about some people, obviously some of you didnt ignore me and other posters.

As for a solution, there is none right now. Support is unwilling to, or sadly may be even unable to, fix this problem. And a law suit cannot be made since we ARE connected to the internet, and that we are, most of the time, with highspeed performance. Constant lag might give a chance for law suits, but spikes is unlikely going to make it. So for those like me, we can just pray or hope for the best.

[RadiatioN]

Well Well....I seem to have fixed my problem with latency!
Too bad I cant tell anyone how to fix it though.....
j/k ;)
______________________________
Before I begin I feel like I should drop responsibility for anything harmful you do to your computer as a result of this... so use at your own risk.
Nothing should happen that cannot be reversed, as these are only settings that change supported modes of your ethernet card.
______________________________
Im running windows XP so you 98ers will have to figure the exact steps out on your own. This method is time consuming so get some free time before you attempt this. For XP users go to Network Connections:
Right Click the ethernet link for your modem and click properties.
Go into your ethernet card Configure screen.
Click the Advanced tab.
Find the setting where it displays the "Speed and Duplexes". <<<If it does not say those exact words, look for an option where the Value is set to AutoDetect/AutoSense.
Now, click the dropdown box and try ALL the settings until you find one that fixes your latency issues. For me, it was 100Mbps Half Duplex and it may vary depending on your computer. Test ALL the settings there and see which one is good. Hope it clears up your issues as it did mine.
______________________________
The way that I found this out:
I finally got a tech on the phone who knew what the heck he was doing. He told me that he was at a ladies house who had the same exact issue. He had no idea what to do so he started messing with these settings. He thinks that when its on autodetect, it tries to detect continuously and it may slow things down.
______________________________
Even if that reasoning isnt correct, it has made latency to my regular game servers drop from 600+ to 20-40.
By the way --- in Halflife, you may wish to click "View info" for a specific server that has a 100-200 latency because it may be that your NEW ping reply is much less than the full refresh.

[xenoss]

I cant try this using XP Home.. So, I wish all of you the best of luck.

[RadiatioN]

xenoss> im using winxp home... it should work for you..and you wouldnt be violating any user-agreements by doing it.

[snookrz_2000]

I am in the same boat as all of you! I have had this problem for about a month now.

I have had my......
1)modem swapped
2)line checked
3)done tracer routes
4)sent .jpg pictures of my pings inside of Unreal Tournament
5)built a new machine and tried it on my line(still 3000 ping)
6)been on the phone for hours with c/s for Cox.net in Nebraska.

all of these attempts have brought no solution.

This problem has SO confused them and their techs. Now when I take my pc to my brother in laws house, across town, everything works fine.

But at nights at the old homestead, my ping is guaranteed to be 2000-4000. What really ticks me off is that the tech guys won't accept the fact that my pc works somewhere else....they say "We think you have a thing called a "Ping VIRUS". All though it is feasible, all though people do use a cheat like this on certain servers, it should not keep doing this at every server.

My patience is almost at its end..... I guess we shall ALL wait to find the conclusion to this awful chapter in the

"Gamer's Worst Enemy- Ping"

[Sava700]

I had the same issue once.. seems my ISP had issues in one of the switches or Nods near my house just up a few blocks.. seems there techs found it to be messing up yet the Tech supports Enginers were saying ohh it will work it self out...seems it finally went down after I made several calls a week about performance hence your problem "PACKETLOSS FROM HELL" the connection was down for the replacement of this so called "board" for a few days but when back up everything since then has been flying and great for ping ie:20-40 for Quake (on a close by server) varies a little but not much for a distant one across country. But look into this..don't buy into what the Tech Support say they don't know everything and some don't know nothing. Ask your local guys about checking this out slip em a beer and they may just jump right on it :)

[snookrz_2000]

Last night was the fastest ping i have had in a LONG while. I had one spike that lasted about 30 secs...but outside of that everything was perfect. my ping was about 70-100 in Unreal Tournament. i haven't seen a stable ping like that in about a month. But I have been calling them and letting them know, that if this problem has SO shocked them, then maybe there is a REAL issue here. I told them real customer service shouldn't be like this. I have some networking experience. I assumed with our switch over from Cox@HOME to COX.NET, (excite@home went bankrupt) that they put me on a node with a million other gamers and mine was the only one with a problem. LOL Anywho, if they found the problem and this is now FIXED...i will be very happy...afterall I got my old modem replaced with a brand spankin' new one...that does make me happy. I don't hate the company...i just think the service on this problem wasn't the greatest.

[Cable_Dood]

When you call tech support, ask them to begin documenting everything and tell them that you are going to want the ticket number after the call is done.

If you're getting ridiculous latency during peak hours, ask them how many modems are on your upstream port on the router....this will no doubt confuse them and they will give you a b.s. answer....ask them to document your question and the answer in the ticket.

Listen to them typing, after you try each thing, ask them if they documented it in your ticket. If they didn't, ask them why. If they did, thank them.

Documentation is the key to fixing problems. I hear all these nightmares about people spending hours and days on the phone with tech support. I call tech support every day and pretend to be an average customer and I have never had the horror stories I've read here.

Don't be little *********s to tech support. Those wankers don't care how mad you are....they talk to innumerable customer just like you. Just make sure they are typing the whole time they're talking to you.

If the problem doesn't get taken care of in 3 business days, call the local cable office and talk to a manager....give them you're ticket # and voila! they have documentation to follow up on.

Managers love calling the tech support folks and chewing them for being retards.

**disclaimer** The above is not intended to imply that all tech support staff are wankers....only 90% of them.

[snookrz_2000]

thanks cable dood...good advice... I have a text file that i have been keeping. I have the days that I have called, who I spoke with, and the timeline of what has happened...


I went home over lunch and tested to see if last night was continuining through today.. and....the answer...NO. I had a 1500 ping.... it is NOON here...it should n't be THAT busy.

Also I understand what you mean about being rude to the help desk people... i am not rude,,, i understand that my ISP(cox.net) is making a network switch that would normally take 6months....they are doing it in 6 weeks..

I have one of their guys calling me back tomorrow to follow up with me... I will ask him about HOW many modems are on my upstream port...

I think, maybe, they have me on a node with like 1/2 of the city...LOL :)

[C-S wanna be]

Here is the answer to all your questions. i have found that Comcast hates people playing games on their cable service.

[Sava700]

I think I disagree with the support posts.. I had them document everything,on everycall,,almost every word I said.. they just dont know whats going on.. forget Tech Support...I do agree however about local office help at least there you can demand to have a tech follow you out and check it..more than likely they will know if something is wrong usually weeks after its been fixed the Tech Support will find out. I do however say if a major area is down or having issues say example: THE WHOLE STATE then yes they will know..but for me it was just a few blocks of customers which is prob just me then it moved on to the whole city IE around 6000 people..so after this was fixed everything has been running fine.. look back at my last post see what I said was wrong mention that to check all Cable ISP's have these and need these to get you on..so just cause they are there doesn't mean they work right and no they won't work themselves out so tell Tech Support to stuff it and refund you for the time you have been grinding your teeth over packetloss and downtime. :D

[TuLSaViPeR]

C-S WANNA BE IS DEAD ON CORRECT!

GUYZ CABLE HATES GAMERS BECAUSE IT SUCKS UP THE BANDWIDTH ON THE NODE. THEY SAMPLE YOUR PACKETS AND IF THE DETECT GAMING THEY FLOOD YOUR PING. THEY DO THIS TO STOP PEOPLE FROM CLOGGING UP THE NETWORK.

I USE DSL AND I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM, AND I CAN SETUP MY OWN GAMING SERVER. DSL DOES NOT MIND IF YOU SET UP YOUR OWN SERVER. IF YOU WANT TO GAME GET DSL OR GET A T-1 OR A T-3 THOSE ARE YOUR ONLY OPTIONS.

[Cable_Dood]

>>GUYZ CABLE HATES GAMERS BECAUSE IT SUCKS UP THE BANDWIDTH ON THE NODE. THEY SAMPLE YOUR PACKETS AND IF THE DETECT GAMING THEY FLOOD YOUR PING. THEY DO THIS TO STOP PEOPLE FROM CLOGGING UP THE NETWORK. <<


ROFL!

Dude....get informed.

BTW....how many gamers have ~$10,000 a month for a dedicated PRI?

[Cable_Dood]

>>Here is the answer to all your questions. i have found that Comcast hates people playing games on their cable service.<<

YEAH! DAMN THE GAMERS! DAMN THE GAMERS DI-RECTLY TO HELL! :rolleyes:

...I would continue this post but I just got a page: Our l33t scripts just detected a whole clan of Everquesters on node 519 and we're all scrambling to get out there and beat them senseless about the neck and shoulders. w00t

[snookrz_2000]

i would just like to add...since my last encounter with my ISP...

They were supposed to call me last Thursday..they never did.. however..since Thursday..my conncection has been TONS more solid. My pings are mostly consistent in the 40-120 now. There are minimal spikes.

Whatever it was...my ISP in Ne. figured it out and fixed it. Yahoooooooooo!

Oh and Cable companies aren't bad. Sometimes the first person you speak with doesn't have the knowledge to fix the problem ...Usually it is the 3rd person up that can help you. So keep pushing to get to that person.


I thank my ISP for taking the time to help, me, the customer.

[Felix007]

That MTU tweak isnt even for gamers i dont think. Setting your MTU at 1500 creates more ping as it gives you more throughput. what i mean is that you computer takes a longer round trip to send 1500 then it does for it to make 560 or what ever the default is . setting your MTU att 1500 simply makes your packet size increase getting more info out everytime it sends a packet but at a slower pace. leaving it at the default is optimal for gamers because it can get the info back and forth in smaller pieces but more often.get it????? see games need to be updated VERY VERY often as far as pings\packets are concerned other wise you get that annoying lag death that made everyone here get DSL\CABLE in the first place