How to reduce ping - Any advice helps!

[chappy1cap]

Alright, so there's probably millions and millions of different websites talking about how you can reduce your ping and people asking how to reduce it. With every website I venture nothing seems to help it. Here's the run down of what I'm working with here before people reply telling me to get faster internet,

-ISP Time Warner

-Download speed: 50

-Upload speed 5

-Ping through the roof with every server, even close to me results in at least 60 ping.

It's every single game that I join, garry's mod high ping, counter strike I can't even get in competitive servers because of my ping, literally everything.

I have no idea what to turn to next, I've contacted Time Warner through live chat and on the phone and nothing they suggest helps me lower ping. I've upgraded to the highest available internet speed from Time Warner but it doesn't help.

If anyone has any advice that would be great and appreciated because GTA V PC is coming out soon and I'd like to play online without rubber banding everywhere on every server that I join.

 

Thanks for reading this.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Airsoft220

[nath22]

It might just be something you have to deal with in your location.

 

Have you tried connecting directly to your router rather than wifi? Changing your wireless channel might be worth a try too.

Edited March 7, 2015 by nath22

[chappy1cap]

It might just be something you have to deal with in your location.

 

Have you tried connecting directly to your router rather than wifi? Changing your wireless channel might be worth a try too.

I've seen people say that connecting an Ethernet cable doesn't help it much, but no I've never tried it for myself.

[nath22]

 

It might just be something you have to deal with in your location.

 

Have you tried connecting directly to your router rather than wifi? Changing your wireless channel might be worth a try too.

I've seen people say that connecting an Ethernet cable doesn't help it much, but no I've never tried it for myself.

 

Ordinarily it won't but if your ping is in the 60's it could be a wifi problem.

[TJGM]

 

It might just be something you have to deal with in your location.

 

Have you tried connecting directly to your router rather than wifi? Changing your wireless channel might be worth a try too.

I've seen people say that connecting an Ethernet cable doesn't help it much, but no I've never tried it for myself.

 

It helps a whole lot, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem.

[chappy1cap]

 

 

It might just be something you have to deal with in your location.

 

Have you tried connecting directly to your router rather than wifi? Changing your wireless channel might be worth a try too.

I've seen people say that connecting an Ethernet cable doesn't help it much, but no I've never tried it for myself.

 

It helps a whole lot, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem.

 

Alright, I guess I have no other option but to at least try it. Thanks guys

[K^2]

Start by figuring out what's running slow. First, open up command prompt. Under Win 7, hit the Start button and just type in cmd into the run/search bar. Do a quick search on the internet if you need instruction for another OS. Once that's open, figure out the IP address of your router by running ipconfig. You'll get something like this.

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ipconfig Windows IP Configuration  Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hsd1.ca.comcast.net.   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2601:9:7280:bbc:cc40:d3fa:6c5b:70a9   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2601:9:7280:bbc:b1b4:544f:b9ff:7449   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::cc40:d3fa:6c5b:70a9%16   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.6   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::8e09:f4ff:fe68:8ff1%16                                       10.0.0.1

There will probably be more stuff there, but what you're looking for is that Default Gateway there. It will give you one or two addresses. The one above shows IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. Go ahead and just use the normal IPv4 address. So next step is to test the ping to your router. With my configuration above I'd run ping 10.0.0.1

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ping 10.0.0.1Pinging 10.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Ping statistics for 10.0.0.1:    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

The above tells me that my ping to router is literally zero (0ms). If your problem is due to WiFi, you'll start seeing some measurable numbers there. Switching to ethernet cable might solve that. But it could also be simply a problem with the router.

 

Next, you can start testing your connection to actual websites. Command's exactly the same, and you can use domain name in place of the IP. Lets use Google for a test.

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ping google.comPinging google.com [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007] with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=12msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=21msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=13msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=13msPing statistics for 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007:    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 14ms

So my average ping to this particular Google server is 14ms. Note that it's using an IPv6 address simply because my connection is IPv6 compatible, and so is the destination's. It's not a big deal if you can only get IPv4 connection. If you are getting high ping to Google, however, you start worrying. The next step would be finding where the actual slowdown is happening. To do this, first and foremost, you need to trace the route. Command for that is tracert. Lets use Google's server again for the example.

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>tracert google.comTracing route to google.com [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007]over a maximum of 30 hops:  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  2601:9:7280:bbc:8e09:f4ff:fe68:8ff1  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.  3    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  te-0-3-0-11-sur03.sanjose.ca.sfba.comcast.net [2001:558:82:183::1]  4    12 ms    13 ms    13 ms  te-1-1-0-10-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [2001:558:80:17::1]  5    12 ms    13 ms    11 ms  he-1-5-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [2001:558:0:f697::1]  6    15 ms    12 ms    13 ms  be-17-pe03.56marietta.ga.ibone.comcast.net [2001:558:0:f8e2::2]  7    12 ms    14 ms    13 ms  2001:559::4fa  8    14 ms    14 ms    13 ms  2001:4860::1:0:7ea  9    12 ms    13 ms    14 ms  2001:4860:0:1::691 10    12 ms    14 ms    13 ms  nuq05s01-in-x07.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007]Trace complete.

Looking at this, I can tell that my biggest source of lag is from my router to my provider. It's between hops 1 and 3, going from <1ms to 9ms. If this is where you end up picking up 60ms, then your problem is likely with ISP. Though, bad router can also cause that. If it's a hop or two further down the chain, it's definitely your ISP. If you end up with large increase somewhere near the end, the problem is on their end.

 

If you are on Linux or Mac OS, there are equivalents to these commands available. Again, just do a quick search online.

[chappy1cap]

On 3/8/2015 at 5:11 AM, K^2 said:

Start by figuring out what's running slow. First, open up command prompt. Under Win 7, hit the Start button and just type in cmd into the run/search bar. Do a quick search on the internet if you need instruction for another OS. Once that's open, figure out the IP address of your router by running ipconfig. You'll get something like this.

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ipconfig Windows IP Configuration  Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hsd1.ca.comcast.net.   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2601:9:7280:bbc:cc40:d3fa:6c5b:70a9   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2601:9:7280:bbc:b1b4:544f:b9ff:7449   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::cc40:d3fa:6c5b:70a9%16   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.6   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::8e09:f4ff:fe68:8ff1%16                                       10.0.0.1

There will probably be more stuff there, but what you're looking for is that Default Gateway there. It will give you one or two addresses. The one above shows IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. Go ahead and just use the normal IPv4 address. So next step is to test the ping to your router. With my configuration above I'd run ping 10.0.0.1

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ping 10.0.0.1Pinging 10.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64Ping statistics for 10.0.0.1:    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

The above tells me that my ping to router is literally zero (0ms). If your problem is due to WiFi, you'll start seeing some measurable numbers there. Switching to ethernet cable might solve that. But it could also be simply a problem with the router.

 

Next, you can start testing your connection to actual websites. Command's exactly the same, and you can use domain name in place of the IP. Lets use Google for a test.

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>ping google.comPinging google.com [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007] with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=12msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=21msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=13msReply from 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007: time=13msPing statistics for 2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007:    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:    Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 14ms

So my average ping to this particular Google server is 14ms. Note that it's using an IPv6 address simply because my connection is IPv6 compatible, and so is the destination's. It's not a big deal if you can only get IPv4 connection. If you are getting high ping to Google, however, you start worrying. The next step would be finding where the actual slowdown is happening. To do this, first and foremost, you need to trace the route. Command for that is tracert. Lets use Google's server again for the example.

 

 

C:\Users\[Redacted]>tracert google.comTracing route to google.com [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007]over a maximum of 30 hops:  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  2601:9:7280:bbc:8e09:f4ff:fe68:8ff1  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.  3    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  te-0-3-0-11-sur03.sanjose.ca.sfba.comcast.net [2001:558:82:183::1]  4    12 ms    13 ms    13 ms  te-1-1-0-10-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [2001:558:80:17::1]  5    12 ms    13 ms    11 ms  he-1-5-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [2001:558:0:f697::1]  6    15 ms    12 ms    13 ms  be-17-pe03.56marietta.ga.ibone.comcast.net [2001:558:0:f8e2::2]  7    12 ms    14 ms    13 ms  2001:559::4fa  8    14 ms    14 ms    13 ms  2001:4860::1:0:7ea  9    12 ms    13 ms    14 ms  2001:4860:0:1::691 10    12 ms    14 ms    13 ms  nuq05s01-in-x07.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4005:800::1007]Trace complete.

Looking at this, I can tell that my biggest source of lag is from my router to my provider. It's between hops 1 and 3, going from <1ms to 9ms. If this is where you end up picking up 60ms, then your problem is likely with ISP. Though, bad router can also cause that. If it's a hop or two further down the chain, it's definitely your ISP. If you end up with large increase somewhere near the end, the problem is on their end.

 

If you are on Linux or Mac OS, there are equivalents to these commands available. Again, just do a quick search online.

 

I pinged to the IPv4 and it was 90 ms! Google was about 40 ms, it's probably my connection to my router I will definitely try ethernet now. Thanks for the help and the tutorial man!