Internet gaming slowdown thingy

[Dax]

This maybe doesn't belong here but recently (last few weeks) any games I play online lockup every 30 seconds or so for 2-3 seconds.

This happens in any game I play online but never when playing them offline so I doubt its a hardware issue. I've run Ad-aware, Spybot S&D and virus checker with no luck.

My connection is Nildram 512k ADSL.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[tRoG]

Sounds like packet loss.

I'd get on the phone to Nildram

 

[Dr_Weasel]

To check if it is packet loss, from a cmd prompt run;

tracert <server ip address>

Post the results back here.

 

[Dax]

Riiiight, anything in particular I should try to ping ? Whats the command to make the trace save to a text file ?

I've run a couple of test traces (to various web sites) and all the numbers were between 20 and 40.

 

[Dr_Weasel]

best thing to try is to a server that you play on and have trouble with. Look for high pings and *'s.

you can copy and paste from a cmd window by right clickin on the title bar and clicking 'Edit->Mark'. Select the text, then do 'Edit->Copy'. then you can paste here.

But tbh, if you aren't seeing a problem to websites either, then its probably not packet loss.

 

[Athan]

If no-one else on the same game server(s) is seeing it then I'd hazard a guess it's more a problem your end.

How much RAM do you have? How much Page File is in use (Performance tab on ctrl-alt-del on Windows XP will show this quickly) ? Does the hard disk activity LED light up as these pauses happen ? Although you say it doesn't happen when you're offline, playing online *IS* a different stress on the machine, so don't rule out hardware problems.

You describe the problem as a 'lockup', is this just things ingame stop moving, or does the game also ignore any input from mouse/keyboard ? Keyboard is the more reliable indicator for this. What game(s) ? Have you checked forums for the hardware you have to see if anyone else sees such a problem (maybe a dodgy driver, BIOS or chipset) ?

Oh, and if you want to easily check the ping/traceroute thing I'd recommend PingPlotter as you can get a nice historical graph out of it, plus some statistical analysis of the pings on a given hop rather than just 3 per run that you have to 'eyeball'.

-Ath

 

[Dax]

If no-one else on the same game server(s) is seeing it then I'd hazard a guess it's more a problem your end.

How much RAM do you have? How much Page File is in use (Performance tab on ctrl-alt-del on Windows XP will show this quickly) ? Does the hard disk activity LED light up as these pauses happen ? Although you say it doesn't happen when you're offline, playing online *IS* a different stress on the machine, so don't rule out hardware problems.

You describe the problem as a 'lockup', is this just things ingame stop moving, or does the game also ignore any input from mouse/keyboard ? Keyboard is the more reliable indicator for this. What game(s) ? Have you checked forums for the hardware you have to see if anyone else sees such a problem (maybe a dodgy driver, BIOS or chipset) ?

Oh, and if you want to easily check the ping/traceroute thing I'd recommend PingPlotter as you can get a nice historical graph out of it, plus some statistical analysis of the pings on a given hop rather than just 3 per run that you have to 'eyeball'.

-Ath

512mb of crappy ram. Right now the page file iusing 160mb, i have no idea what this means. HD light doesn't come on during the lockups.

The game stops moving but any input I give it will usually show up when the game carries on.

I've seen this happen while playing Final Fantasy XI, XIII, Aliens vs Predator 2 and Age of Mythology.

I'm trying to get some server addresses atm so I can ping them but not having much luck.