Major lag playing online even though I have a blazing connection.

Kendro

Kendro

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I can't figure this out for the life of me. I have a 5MB broadband connection and regularly download files at around 750 KB/second. If I'm downloading a file from a major server like Apple or Microsoft, I'll break 1 MB/second. Lately I've been playing games like CS: Source online and even though I have 5 ping, the game plays like I am on 56k. I can't go more than 5 steps without the game stuttering or lagging for 5 seconds. Basically I walk 5 steps, stutter, boom I'm dead from a guy that I never saw. This goes for XBL as well. Can barely get connected to a game of Gears.

Does using torrents have anything to do with this? The thing is that I don't even play while downloading a torrent (not that it should matter since my upload is set at a maximum 20 KB/second). Can constant downloading and uploading make a connection go haywire? Because even if I finish a torrent and download something, I still download files lightning fast at 750 KB/second. I've noticed this happening only recently. A few months ago I could download and upload torrents and play with no problems.

Any PC savvy users who know anything about this?
 
What ISP do you use? I regularly use a Roadrunner Cable connection and sometimes are downloading like 30+ GBs of torrents in one day that my connection will go to crap so I am pretty sure it is the ISP restricting your bandwidth to make sure everyone elses connection is a decent speed.

Oh wait I see in your little speedtest thing that you do use Roadrunner, I am pretty sure what I said above is correct. Best thing to do is wait like a day with no torrents and no game playing and it should reset.

Hope that works for you.
 
Whenever you have a technical issue... or really any issue, there are two questions you should ask yourself.


Were things working fine at one point? What changed?

Until you answer those questions, we really can't do much more than speculate.



Saying that, I'd speculate you could try resetting your modem. Do you have a lot of cable splitters on your line? That doesn't affect speed, but plays hell with connection quallity.

Do you have ports open on your router for the games you're playing?

Some routers have a "gaming mode" where-in game related packets are prioritized over others. Does yours? Is it on?

Stop downloading porn.

Do a spyware check, something could be phoning home.
 
Yeah, avoid downloading torrents for a few days and see what happens.

Do you have a firewall program?

As for laggy Steam games: go to Steam settings and click on the Internet tab. Make sure you have the correct Internet connection speed selected. A few years back, my Steam was set to 56k and it would lag my games, despite my awesome cable connection. I spent hours with tech support and speed tests before I discovered the real culprit :lol:
 
Some interesting bits of info from each of your responses.

[quote name='darthbudge']Oh wait I see in your little speedtest thing that you do use Roadrunner, I am pretty sure what I said above is correct. Best thing to do is wait like a day with no torrents and no game playing and it should reset.[/quote]
That is what I kinda figured but could that possibly be a reason? If they wanted to limit bandwith, wouldn't they limit my download speed as well? I can download anything at pretty lightning fast speeds regardless of downloading torrents or not.

[quote name='Kayden']Whenever you have a technical issue... or really any issue, there are two questions you should ask yourself.


Were things working fine at one point? What changed?

Until you answer those questions, we really can't do much more than speculate.



Saying that, I'd speculate you could try resetting your modem. Do you have a lot of cable splitters on your line? That doesn't affect speed, but plays hell with connection quallity.

Do you have ports open on your router for the games you're playing?

Some routers have a "gaming mode" where-in game related packets are prioritized over others. Does yours? Is it on?

Stop downloading porn.

Do a spyware check, something could be phoning home.[/quote]
It couldn't be spyware because I never download shady files and I check for it every day. The biggest reason it couldn't be spyware is because I have just reformatted my PC a short while ago and haven't downloaded anything that could be remotely harmful. Also, this has been happening since before I reformatted (hence the reason why I tried reformatting hoping to fix this). I have no cable splitters, the modem goes directly to my PC. If I want to use XBL, I have to shut off Internet access to my PC so I can use it for the 360. I'm suspecting that downloading torrents causes my connection to mess up like the user above stated because if I take it easy for a day, things are still laggy but not as bad. But like I said before, I don't get why I would still be able to download over 500 KB/sec if they really did limit the bandwith.

[quote name='Serik']Yeah, avoid downloading torrents for a few days and see what happens.

Do you have a firewall program?

As for laggy Steam games: go to Steam settings and click on the Internet tab. Make sure you have the correct Internet connection speed selected. A few years back, my Steam was set to 56k and it would lag my games, despite my awesome cable connection. I spent hours with tech support and speed tests before I discovered the real culprit :lol:[/quote]
Yes I use ZoneAlarm though I doubt that has anything to do with it because a few months ago everything worked fine. For a second I thought your Steam idea might help but my settings were set to broadband. The thing is that it isn't just a little lag, this is worse than 56k lag which is why I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. Even when I had 1.5MB DSL, I always played online fluidly. Games don't take much bandwith and my 5MB connection should certainly be adequate.
 
The torrent app might be causing the lag... I'm hoping you're using uTorrent which is the most efficient as far as I can tell.

Just because you limit your torrent speed doesn't really mean anything. There are usually hundreds of peers connected to you at all times so that could cause some lagging.

Go to your settings and the find out where you can control the number of 'global connections'. (For uTorrent, it's options > Preferences > BitTorrent). There should be three things, 'Global maximum number of connections, max # of connected peers per torrent, and # of upload slots per torrent). Set all of those to less than 10% of whatever the program has them default at. I have mine set at 50, 20, and 10. Doing this shouldn't hurt your sharing too much- you'll be sharing with less people but they'll get better speeds from you.

I had uTorrnet running on our main computer and that caused a lot of slowdown for our entire network and lots of lagging in Unreal Tournament (the original) on my laptop. I turned all those down and UT runs smooth as hell even though I'm on a wireless connection.
 
When you download and upload huge amounts of data, I have noticed the isp tones your connection down for a little while afterwards, as if to punish you! So I would not be concerned if your con is a little slow for a few minutes after youve been torrenting. TORRENT PLUS GAMES =LAG. Except if your upload is capped. (Which you said it was.. soo..). Enter a game, immediatly alt tab, is windows firewall blocking it? click unblock if it is. (a popup will present itself). Otherwise what sort of a router are you using?
 
Yes I use ZoneAlarm though I doubt that has anything to do with it because a few months ago everything worked fine.
Click to expand...

Uhh always disable Zone Alarm while playing games, everytime I have tried to it always messes up the online games. And before you ask you have to disable ZA not just add the games to the exception list because for some reason even when it is in the exception list it still blocks.

Also you have a direct connection from your Modem to your computer or do you have it going through a router? Or are you on a wireless connection? If you are going through a router or a wireless connection try connecting directly because I noticed when I installed a router my download and upload speeds were horrible.
 
Then you're probably not using ZA right. I've used it for years and never had a problem.

[quote name='darthbudge']Uhh always disable Zone Alarm while playing games, everytime I have tried to it always messes up the online games. And before you ask you have to disable ZA not just add the games to the exception list because for some reason even when it is in the exception list it still blocks.

Also you have a direct connection from your Modem to your computer or do you have it going through a router? Or are you on a wireless connection? If you are going through a router or a wireless connection try connecting directly because I noticed when I installed a router my download and upload speeds were horrible.[/quote]
 
Thanks for the input fellas. To answer the question about my connection, it is direct and I use no routers. Also ZA never gave me problems with online games before and I've been using it for years as well. I don't think it would cause lag because there is no gray areas with it, it is either black or white in the sense that it will either block the game or not depending on your settings.

I'm gonna lay off torrents for a few days and try what Vinny suggested with the maximum global connections. It is odd because I've never had to do that before so I don't know why all of a sudden my ISP is getting wack with torrents.

Oh and not that there is anything wrong with downloading porn but I'm actually trying to get all of the LucasArts games (which is like 10 gigs combined) because my interest peaked after reading the Grim Fandango thread.
 
maybe its not your internet and your video card is pissed and stutters badly which just looks like a guy standing still or moving slowly to whoever is capping your ass
 
I don't think that could be the reason. I used to play CS: Source at high settings with a 9800 Pro. I now own a 6800 GT which is a much more powerful card. Also when I play Half-Life 2 offline (which is more demanding than Counter-Strike), the framerate always hovers around 100.
 
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