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So you think you have lag...


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So you think you have lag...

Wikipedia: LAG

 

For UT2K4, and many online games, you can boil the lag types down to these three broad types:

 

Server-side - CPU choke

 

Server-side - Networking outbound

 

Client-side - You!

 

On Nepenthe you might experience something Flitterkill calls "Stat Lag" - you can read about that at the end along with what are referred to in the online world as "high ping bastards"

 

1) Server-side - CPU Choke:

 

This is where the number of players overwhelms the boxen due to gametype, mods running, other servers on the same hardware, etc.

 

Good server admins have already adjusted the settings and such where this should not be a problem. You will occasionally see this on servers where there are other servers on the physical hardware (which is not that uncommon). In those situations, some other guy's server could be performing so badly as to honk off everyone else on the box.

 

How do you know whether or not you are experiencing CPU lag?

 

Easy. Look at the pings.

 

If you join an ONS server and there aren't too many people on there, note what your ping is. On Nepenthe when there are 10 or so folks, pings in the 40 to 60 range are very common for folks playing from the east coast or the midwest (Nepenthe is hosted in Chicago, IL).

 

Now take a look when the server is full up.

 

Did your ping go up? Probably. Thats the stress on the CPU as it is taking a bit longer to process all that information and get it out to you - the result is that pings go up.

 

Good servers have some good iron behind them and server admins who have things set just right. On Nepenthe you should really see no more than a 20 to 30 (and 30 is pushing it) jump from when there are 14 or so peeps in the server to when we are at 26 and 2 specs full. When Nepenthe is full, most people who are playing from the east/midwest will still have pings well under 100 - which is fine and lag free.

 

If you were in an ONS server and you joined with say 12 peeps in there and your ping was 60 but later when there were 18 players in the server your ping was around 160 - well guess what? Right.

 

*Some* 32 player servers (and other large servers) have this - you can def. tell - just look at the pings and feel the chop.

 

There is a reason there are not many ONS servers over 16 players in size - ONS is *brutal* on CPUs.

 

On Nepenthe, you should never have CPU lag. Opteron 285 - nuff said.

 

 

2) Server-side - Networking Outbound:

 

Good providers have good pipes (connections) out into the internet-type world.

 

They, just like us, are often at the mercy of *thier* providers and so on.

 

If someone further up the chain from our server provider is having routing problems or the like, well, there ya go.

 

And there is nothing that *we* can do about it. That lag is something everyone who plays online games has to deal with. Eventually, it gets better.

 

 

 

 

3) Client-side - You!

 

Yeah - you!

 

While you are playing are you:

 

Downloading pron?

Torrenting anything?

Folding proteins?

Defragging your harddrive?

 

You get the idea - stop that and you'll have a much better playing experience.

 

Where are you playing from? Folks in Australia probably do not ping well to our server...

 

How is *your* internet provider getting you to our server in Chicago?

 

Do a tracert to Nepenthe's IP address (In Windows XP, open a console window and type in: tracert 72.51.60.245)

 

How many hops does it take to get to us? 20 plus and maybe you might want to play on other servers...

 

The bottom line is look at the pings - if most everyone else's ping is under 100 and yours is not - then look to your end for the problem - whether that is with stuff you are running in the background on your computer or how your IP gets you to our server.

 

Of course, do not forget packet loss as well. If you start to bliter about lag on on server to no end and everyone else is fine - we might kick you to stop the broken record. Bring up the scoreboard and look at the p/l # - if everyone else is at 0 and you have 4/8/16/22/whatever - you have some serious connect problems - lag for you but just what ya brung with ya!

 

 

 

4)High ping bastards:

 

High ping bastards are those folks who happily join servers clear around the world, or people on 56k modems playing on opposite sides of the the USA, or people who just plain ignore the fact that the UT server browser shows the ping to our server as 240 - you like us so much you are going to join anyways!

 

HPB's are the folks who have pings of 180, 220, 300, etc. when they join a server where the majority of players have sub-100 pings.

 

In these cases, one or two HPBs *can* cause problems (or rather, others will perceive the effects of these guys running around as lag) for the rest of us normal folks.

 

One of the mods running on Nepenthe takes care of most of these players - the game will automatically kick folks out for *sustained* high pings. At the moment, that's an *average* ping (over the course of a few minutes) of 200 or over. The kick message you recieve if this happens to you will indicate you wre kicked for high ping. This will only go active once 12 real people are on the server. Anmd of course, it bears mentioning - this ain't personal - this is an auto boot with no admins involved at all. You get booted - check your connect!

 

Have fun!

 

-Fk

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