World of Tanks is especially slow/congested today, at least for me. My ping, which normally hovers at a steady not-great-but-ok 92 on AT&T's U-Verse was up around 129. Making everything stutter about and delaying my shot reactions more than usual. So I decided to see what I could do about speeding it up. Turns out, I was able to get it down to a smooth 65 ms with a simple tweak. Here's how:
Step 1: Check U-Verse Settings
Nothing much to do here. U-Verse is notorious for high pings. But not as high as I'm getting. Must be something else going on...
Step 2: Connect PC to router directly instead of through my switch.
1 ms gain. Oh boy!!!
Step 3: Assume It's Windows' Fault
Sixteen years of technical computer experience has taught me that Windows is almost always to blame. So I went looking for optimizations, and boy did I find one. It seems that Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a 'feature' that optimizes network traffic at the expense of latency.
So I turned it off and now my ping hovers between 55 and 65 ms. Excellent!
Here's the instructions I found in this forum, I'm not responsible if you brick your machine.
1. From a command prompt (usually in All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt) run “regedit”
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
3. Browse the items under interfaces until you find one that has an IPAddress entry matching the network interface you want to affect (typically LAN IP addresses start with 192.168 or 10.0); note that if your IP address is automatically assigned by a DHCP server you may need to look for a matching DhcpIPAddress instead of IPAddress
4. Right-click on the interface and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it “TcpAckFrequency”
5. Right-click the new TcpAckFrequency value and select Modify, enter “1″ (Hexadecimal radio button should be selected)
6. Right-click on the interface and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it “TCPNoDelay” (note that TCP is all uppercase this time – that’s intentional)
7. Right-click the new TCPNoDelay value and select Modify, enter “1″ (Hexadecimal radio button should be selected)
8. Verify that both TcpAckFrequency and TCPNoDelay now show up in the adapter’s property list with types REG_DWORD and values 0×00000001
9. Exit regedit and reboot (reboot is necessary for the changes to take effect!)
10. Play a game and enjoy your new low ping
cool. I did notice it was a bit choppy today myself as well.
ReplyDeletewhat are the downsides, if any, to doing this, before i go ahead and 'brick my machine'?
ReplyDeleteYou might see a small decrease in overall network performance. Such as when transferring large files around. For a lone computer, it really has no downsides.
ReplyDeleteMeh, I've also got U-Verse. My comp uses wireless to connect to the router. I've never had trouble with ping though. Of course, I've got other, more serious problems, so all I can say is "trade?"
ReplyDeleteAs for laggyness of WoT, I didn't notice it. In fact, I saw a lot more speedy little wolf packs today than normal. Made it a real pain in the ass for me to credit farm with my Priest. (Horray for being a pain to grind EXP on.)
The machine spirit is weak in Windows for sure!
ReplyDeleteIt's temperamental but perform these rituals and you will appease it.
ReplyDeleteI gave it a shot but it hasn't helped me much.. My ping is always at 350-450ms anyway due to shitty unshielded phone lines in my hood. Oh how i'd kill for 50ms!
ReplyDeleteHere's a better tip...stop downloading porn while playing.
ReplyDelete