linksys router and serving for game

[vettinit]

I am and have been trying to serve for red faction. have gone as far as building new pc.. uping my dsl service to gold meaning 1500 down and 386 up. and tweaking out my xp pro windows settings.
but i still get a incredible amount of lag when serving.. dont understand it. shouldnt be there . its even there with 2-3 people..
could it be my router. and yes i have pc in dmz and i have port forwarded.. could that be problem..dont do both?

[YeOldeStonecat]

You don't use BOTH DMZ and port forwarding, it's one or the other. Best is to find out which ports your game uses, and only forward those. Using DMZ takes away all the security/protection that the routers NAT gives you.

And for gaming, the Linksys is a decent little entry level router for basic internet connection sharing...but for running servers behind it, like going elephant hunting with a BB gun....time to get the big boys, like a Netgear, Nexland, or Netopia router.

[BlackSword]

As per YeOld, you have to have a good router to serve.

Plus the fact that you only have 386kbps upload, I don't know Red Faction but you may also have to limit bandwidth per user. For example in CS there is a maxrate and minrate. The maxrate is used to stop One or two people from sucking up all the bandwidth. Limiting each peeps bandwidth and limiting the number of peeps is what you will need to figure out. ONE too many peeps and everyone Lags out.

Next would be what is your first HOP ping and how many HOPs before your out on the WEB and what is the ping time for that. Obviously if it takes your ISP 100ms to get you out to the WEB then everyones connection will take that hit.

[vettinit]

hmmm finnaly some interesting answers with substance
first of all i already have set to 4ooo per user... via the registry...
i have a linksys 4 port wireless router... its set to gateway mode ... but i have all pcs with manually assighned ips through tcpip...
i am not using the wireless option at all. the router i got has got rave reviews expecially here. its the best one linksys puts out i think. paid like 300.00 when i first came out. how much these other ones that you mentioned run?
and yes 386 up but thats the highest they offer here for up.. top of list. but shouldnt that be enough to play at leasst a game of 8-10 people.? at a reasonable level.
i will take it out of dmz.. and see how that goes...please reply.. expecially about router...hey wanna buy a router? linksys..heh

[YeOldeStonecat]

Other variables to consider.....

1) What ISP you have...this is actually one of the greater factors...in my opinion, moreso than your bandwidth. # of hops from your ISP's gateway to your router is what peeps will be traveling...plus # hops from them to your ISP's gateway. And the quality of the ISP itself. Example, I have a 1500/128 account for home with a great ISP, and it performs well for serving, compared to at the office, where we have a 6000/384 account...but it's with the local phone company...and I tried a server here...and it sucked.

2) Don't believe your speeds are what the ISP tells you....benchmark it yourself. You'll often find a 1500/128 account to actually benchmark at 700/90 or something like that.

3) Cap your number of players. Unreal Tournament, according to planetunrealtournament.com/theadminpage, uses roughly 28k per user. So take your benchmarked upstream, divide by 28...and that's the max number of peeps that can connect, until the next person eats into the others bandwidth, and introduces lag.

4) What OS is your server?

5) What is your NIC? A good 3COM/Intel that can handle concurrent connections well? Or any other brand?

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by vettinit
but shouldnt that be enough to play at leasst a game of 8-10 people.? at a reasonable level.
I would think that would be possible. Again stating I don't know Red Faction.

BUT, As both YeOld and I have stated your connection to the WEB VIA your ISP is critical and obviously nothing you can control, other than getting a new ISP or changing your service level if available.

One additional thing you need to realize is that limiting your rate by too much will cause most games to play choppy especially as the number of players increases. That is why you will need to play around with different rates and number of peeps to figure out right settings for your connection.

Additionally you need some peeps to connect that will tolerate you setting up the server and supplying you info on how their connection is.

As far as Windows based operating systems,,, it seem like anything you read states to have a good game server it needs to be LINUX

[vettinit]

xp pro...
i have a copy of advanced server 2000 laying around and considered using it.. but.. that sounds like work .
and dont know if it would be better.
as far as benchmarking i am test freak ..thats why I am at this site..heh.. and I ussually average from 1100 to 1400 down and believe it or not over 300 everytime i tested the up.
My isp is with my local phone company. but i don think that im that far from the base unit. at least thats what they told me.
and yes a gaming friend of mine farslayer who has an awesome server .. also went to linux for it.. but i dont see that happening yet for me... so my router should be ok ?

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by vettinit
xp pro...
i have a copy of advanced server 2000 laying around and considered using it.. but.. that sounds like work .
.................... so my router should be ok ? The server version on windows 2000 would probably do better then XP pro....... as far as the router you can read many posts that show the linky as less than adequate for a game server. Possibly they are better now but typically you get what you paid for.... Most of your cost would be related to the wireless option on your router. Obviously you have that router and you can try and host but your clients may see unnecessary lag and possibly disconnections.

[vettinit]

so is there a solutin to problem?
without spending alot of money?
anyway to bypass router and still use it for other pcs?

[BlackSword]

You will probably do better putting a post in gaming forum. You need to talk to someone that has setup a red faction server.

When you post in that forum supply answers for the following questions.

1. Is this a dedicated server? plus do you play on it VIA server or do you have a second PC?
2. How many HOPS and what is the ping time Outside of your ISP?
3. What is your tested upload/download rates
4. What is your OS
5. What are your system specs (CPU, Mem, NIC )
6. Router model number and firmware version

That will give a good start.

[monty]

time to get the big boys, like a Netgear, Nexland, or Netopia router

Don't forget about Cisco! The Cisco 806 can be had for under $300.

If you can't do it with a Cisco, you can't do it at all.

[vettinit]

ok!!!
Yahoooooooooo! I think I got it. call me skeptical if you will. but something about pc.s that sometims you just know aint what people say it is. you cant prove it.. you dont know exactly why.. but you can tell various ways... etc. in other words you know your computer and lan well enought that you can feel it out.. dont know if anybody buys that but I do. cause its happened to me many times when i knew.. etc.
so finnaly im messing around with settings.. and i think to myself...
well if lowering the rate of connection speed is supposed to make it able to handle more players.. what if i skyrocket it and try it with less players.. well its set at ... ahem 200,000 rightnow.. dont know if thats right .. but thats what it says.. and i just had 12 people on it running near smooth.. no complaints..etc etc.
I knew that it wasnt the router.. didnt make sense to me.. didnt feel right.. that make sense.?
anyway thanks..
i ask myself why didnt someone tell me to try to up the connection rate... i mean in my mind that only makes sense if others are getting lag. .up their connection speed

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by BlackSword
One additional thing you need to realize is that limiting your rate by too much will cause most games to play choppy especially as the number of players increases.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally posted by monty


Don't forget about Cisco! The Cisco 806 can be had for under $300.

If you can't do it with a Cisco, you can't do it at all.

Yah, I was trying to keep it in the affordable range for the average home user....the Netopia is kind of pushing that already. Considering ease of use, setup, etc. In my opinion, the Nexland ISB SOHO is the best in that range. Going to full blown SOHO like Netopia or Cisco gets to be over the average peeps budget, and technical ability in configuring.