Speed Tests (primarily ping)

[DavidCore89 7,404]

I have noticed a lot of lag recently, much of the lag seems to come from certain players, although there have been crazy instances of lag with quite a few players in the crew. It can be pretty frustrating during contact races and DM's with said players literally bouncing from one location to the next, killing you at least a second after you've taken cover and even instances of players getting back up off the floor and continuing after clearly being headshot killed.

 

I don't wanna show anyone up, I'm simply trying to find out something that may help people find faults with their connections and maybe improve them over time.

 

It would be interesting if members would take a speed test here http://www.speedtest.net/  share the result for all to see using the 'forum' link, simple copy and paste.

 

Ping is the most important factor in online gaming and I have sourced some information that some of you may find interesting/useful:

 

"Latency is the delay (ping time) in milliseconds that it takes the signal to travel to the server and back. The lower the number the better, but you'll definitely want a ping time of under 120 ms or you'll have major problems with online gaming. Ideally you want less than 75 ms ping to the gaming server. 

Ping time depends on distance and number of connections. Your connection may have to be routed through 15 or 20 hops (different locations) to reach the gaming server. Each server has a delay (latency) due to the distances that the signals must travel. Try to choose a closer gaming server to lower your ping time. 

Upload speed also plays a factor in updating your player position data to the gaming server. Slow upload speeds can cause your online game to lag. The faster the better, but at least 0.5 Mbps would be my minimum recommendation. 

Wireless connections are not good for systems used for online gaming. Wireless signals are affected by many factors including wall density, electrical interference, directional antenna range, etc. 

Wireless connections also experience overhead involved in the transfer such as the encryption and decryption of the data used for wireless security.Your latency (ping) may be 30 ms and wireless interference could cause it to spike to 200 ms or more. 

Your best bet is to use a Ethernet connection between your PC or game console and the router". 

 

So, who is the master of lag? It's not me (I hope)  .

 

Here's my result based on the closest server hosted by my ISP:

 

My download is typically around 60mb, upload no more than 3mb (due to be doubled to 6mb, 1/10 proportionate to download speeds).

 

My ping is always very low, 12ms is pretty good.

 

Apparently faster than 65% of GB, I'll take that!

Edited January 27, 2015 by DavidCore89

[ScottyB 2,086]

Cool topic and one I wanted to talk about aswell. Nothing worse then those scenarios.. Especially when they disappear from in front of you to behind you or even on the other side of the map..

Firstly, can I suggest to do this test on your PS3/4 browser. Not sure if this one works but if you search "non flash speed test" or "speed of me" that will allow you to do it and show exactly what your PS3/4 is doing and not what your computer is doing which may or may not be different..

Secondly, I read on a reddit forum (search "gta online servers explained") about how the gta servers work. Basically from my understanding, they use a "meshed" session. This is different than explained above which traditionally everyone connects to the same server. A meshed session means that everyone's console connects to each other. You get all your saved game data from their servers (vehicles,character stats, money etc) and that is downloaded to your console which then interacts with everyone else's. There are pros and cons to this which you can read on the forum.

I don't fully understand it and don't know if it's a reliable source but it's something else to consider.

These results were done on speed of me on the ps4. I done it a few times consecutively and got the average result. It was a slightly off peak time (2-3pm) and no other devices were using the Internet.

Download: 21.45 Mbps

Upload: 0.95 Mbps

Latency: 24 ms

On a side note, I tested wirelessly and wired and the wireless speeds were only very slightly lower than wired. I do have a good router and I am only 1 metre away from the router. I'm sure the consistency would be a problem with wireless though but yeah.

These speeds should be within the limit to have a stable gaming session even though they are way slower then other people here. I guess when the speed drops a bit it due to peak usage or using other devices, that causes some minor problems occasionally, some that I notice and some that I dont.

When I notice these problems, mostly in DMs, I clearly connect several head shots and they don't die.. I start to realise that I'm getting lag (for whatever reason) and then get shot mid roll and behind walls and after they have died etc.. Then sometimes almost half way through the DM, it changes and the head shots work and I kill them how it should work.. Sometimes I even get shots behind walls and mid rolls.. So it goes both way and I can't work out why.

One other problem I have noticed a few times was it depends on your team mates connection. I was Playing a DM with LN-MLB who never lags and he was paired with a random who was lagging terribly and jumping all over the map, laying on the ground dead only to appear 5 seconds later on the other side of the map.. And then LN started to lag and jump around. Not as bad but there was still lag.

So I think there are many more factors involved in how it works but obviously a fast and stable connection will help.

Something else I would like to mention about latency, some may or may not know and if you don't it will help a lot. All modern TVs have pre processing to make the picture quality better. This is great for general tv and movies but horrible for lag. I noticed it most when driving, It would take atleast half a second to respond to you moving the joystick and I kept crashing and couldn't work out why. It doesn't sound like much but it's massive.

The solution is to change the setting to "game" (or another equivalent which can be found by Google or in your manual). This setting removes any picture processing and directly and instantly displays your image.

[Haste 190]

[DavidCore89 7,404]

Nice, very low ping time!

 

Is the nearest server based in your house? 

[markt112 168]

Mine says..

Ping - 41ms

Download Speed - 6.94 Mbps

Upload Speed - 0.38 Mbps

 

Getting fibre enabled on thursday hopefully this will improve things. I know they said my download speed will be between 76 and 82 Mbps not sure about the rest

[DavidCore89 7,404]

Getting killed a few seconds after clearly taking cover and players that die but the kill doesn't register for ages is certainly due to a high ping on their end, players with a crazy high ping will be seeing things slightly later than a player with a low ping.

 

Guess who loses out?

[Haste 190]

Getting killed a few seconds after clearly taking cover and players that die but the kill doesn't register for ages is certainly due to a high ping on their end, players with a crazy high ping will be seeing things slightly later than a player with a low ping.

 

Guess who loses out?

 

The one with the low ping, cause Vish gets me all the time, and i am always behind cover...

 

To answer your other question, no it is not its around 60-65 kilometers from me (around 37-39 Miles)

[ScottyB 2,086]

I read somewhere that you can change your DNS to one of googles and that can sometimes help if you have a poor connection. Don't know how much it will help but yeah.

The most frustrating thing is when you clearly headshoot people and they don't die and will then kill you in one shot. Like zigmiester, he is from country australia so his internet would be pretty bad.. He is extremely hard to kill due to lag..

I think that everyone would see a things at a slightly different time. How mucus it effects game play I don't know..

Occasionly, against G I will start to own him with 1 shot kills and he gets a bit upset cause he is seeing something different and can't kill me. When that happens, I wonder if it is my internet that is working properly or that other people's Internet is lagging a little bit..mit shows to me that it's working properly and I am getting proper kills. It's hard to explain but it just feels right, like it's actually doing what I want and showing what I've done..

[ronin 596]

Interesting stuff. My results below:

 

 

Also, thanks Scotty for the TV tip !!

My TV does have a game mode setting, but I never use it because I don't like the color scheme too much. It is too bright and has too much contrast to my liking. I think it can be customised and saved, but I never bothered and out of laziness always went for the 'cinematic' setting, which has a much softer and realistic color scheme.  Definitely going to check this one out next time online !

Edited January 27, 2015 by ronin

[DavidCore89 7,404]

I'm gonna try game mode too.

[ScottyB 2,086]

Oh no, I didn't mean to help you guys get even better

You probably have already gotten used to how it works so it will be very interesting to see how it effects you and if you notice it.

[zmurko 7,622]

Test to a Slovenian server:

 

Test to a UK/London based server (closest to where most of you I game with come from):

 

All done from a laptop on wireless connection.

[zmurko 7,622]

And if R* connections really work the way Scotty said (kind of a p2p system, similar to torrents), then it would be good if everyone tested their pings to most locations you game with. I wouldnt be surprised to see some high results.

 

I am aware of even a slight lag to Norway for example, nothing bad, but its there and can decide a shootout winner if both players are of similar headshot speed. But this works both ways, you'll be on the short end of some situations and come out as winner in others.

 

For me it's something like this:

 

UK: 25-50ms

Norway: 50ms

US: 100-150ms (up to 200ms)

Sydney: 300ms(+)

Indonesia (juve): 400ms <--- if you've played with juve, you'll know what this means (add juve's wireless home connection into the equation and you can imagine what's it like)

 

These are all results to servers on good connections (I think), pings to players on not-so-good connections (and/or wireless home connections) are probably even higher.

 

I don't know how much R* does in terms of balancing the connections and ping or what else affects it (who's hosting the job, etc), but I'm sure there is some sort of a compensation, as few times I've played with Scotty for example, it wasn't nearly as bad as 300ms+, I'm sure of that.

 

Basically, you can expect lag when you play with someone very far away, it's inevitable.

Edited January 27, 2015 by zmurko

[DavidCore89 7,404]

Test to a Slovenian server:

 

Test to a UK/London based server (closest to where most of you I game with come from):

 

All done from a laptop on wireless connection.

Not bad, but a lot of that high ping speed may be lost through encryption as it passes through multiple servers if the connection to the game servers is done wireless.

 

And if R* connections really work the way Scotty said (kind of a p2p system, similar to torrents), then it would be good if everyone tested their pings to most locations you game with. I wouldnt be surprised to see some high results.

 

I am aware of even a slight lag to Norway for example, nothing bad, but its there and can decide a shootout winner if both players are of similar headshot speed. But this works both ways, you'll be on the short end of some situations and come out as winner in others.

I have some high readings when I test to Australia, Brazil and India in particular, other parts of the world are fine in terms of ping, but I never experience lag with players from these countries that causes the high ping.

 

Here are a few:

 

London:

 

Munich: 

 

Milan:

 

Sydney:

 

New York:

 

Mumbai:

 

Sao Paulo:

 

All done using a wired connection from a PC with multiple windows open and around 10 devices connected to my network permanently.

Edited January 27, 2015 by DavidCore89

[zmurko 7,622]

I have some high readings when I test to Australia, Brazil and India in particular, other parts of the world are fine in terms of ping, but I never experience lag with players from these countries that causes the high ping.

 

Exactly, I'm mostly fine with everyone I play with, so I think R* must be doing something to compesate high(er) pings when playing with people around the world, at least to some degree. Of course dodgy home connections will always cause higher pings and this is where most of the lag comes from when playing with someone from the same continent.

 

 

Another test EVERYONE should do is the PS connection test. If you're not NAT 2 or NAT 1 type, then you MUST do something about your Playstation connection or you WILL have serious issues connecting to jobs/PLs.

[DavidCore89 7,404]

 

Another test EVERYONE should do is the PS connection test. If you're not NAT 2 or NAT 1 type, then you MUST do something about your Playstation connection or you WILL have serious issues connecting to jobs/PLs.

This^^.

 

Very likely to cause way more issues than any high ping reading, a conflict in NAT types will cause no end of problems.

[Squirrel 5,180]

 

Best I can do with a non-fibre connection. Can't get fibre where I am as because I live in a city centre the disruption would be too great to install it. Stupid bloody council.

 

I'm on NAT type 2

Edited January 27, 2015 by Squirrel_Army

[DavidCore89 7,404]

 

Best I can do with a non-fibre connection. Can't get fibre where I am as because I live in a city centre the disruption would be too great to install it. Stupid bloody council.

 

I'm on NAT type 2

Grade D+... That sir, is a pass!

 

(Just about).

 

[Squirrel 5,180]

It used to be grade A until companies started installing hyper speed broadband everywhere else. I very rarely have a problem staying connected to a host. I've only had to back out of a playlist once when it was showing me as still joining so even though I'm not the quickest, it's more than adequate to be a part of it.

[DavidCore89 7,404]

It used to be grade A until companies started installing hyper speed broadband everywhere else. I very rarely have a problem staying connected to a host. I've only had to back out of a playlist once when it was showing me as still joining so even though I'm not the quickest, it's more than adequate to be a part of it.

Yeah, I never notice any issues with you, but we're not really that far apart.

 

I've had the joining thing a couple of times, luckily enough I was able to rejoin before the job started.

[zmurko 7,622]

Btw, I haven't mentioned that, but my PS3 is on a hard wired connection, NAT 1 type, as open as you can get.

[Casey 1,680]

 

 

This means nothing to me but I can make a mean Victoria Sponge Cake 

Edited January 27, 2015 by Casey

[DavidCore89 7,404]

Btw, I haven't mentioned that, but my PS3 is on a hard wired connection, NAT 1 type, as open as you can get.

My router won't allow NAT type 1, only type 2 is allowed for security reasons as the router is supplied by my ISP.

 

It seems just as compatible.

 

You seem to have a solid connection though, even considering the PS3 can have a few connection issues on GTAO.

[DavidCore89 7,404]

By far the best upload speed so far, it's actually a great speed.

 

I'm surprised that the ping speed isn't as impressive, but I see you don't live very close to the Morecambe server, so perhaps you live in a low populated rural area with not many severs locally.

[Casey 1,680]

Hold on a second, Morecambe?? 

 

By far the best upload speed so far, it's actually a great speed.

 

I'm surprised that the ping speed isn't as impressive, but I see you don't live very close to the Morecambe server, so perhaps you live in a low populated rural area with not many severs locally.

 

I live in town but Inverness has not much of anything locally so this does not surprise me!