That is why we are going to show you how to improve ping of your favorite online multiplayer game. Reduce lag in WoW and all games that you play online.
Boost Ping
Showing you how to improve or boost ping in your favorite online games.
The first thing if you want to increase ping of your network connection is to find out how it works and what it actually means. Also, it is important to know which ping is considered good and in what kind of online game.
One of the most important things to know is that latency of your network connection depends on your physical location as a player (client) and the game server or peer you want to connect to.
So, let’s say you live in Australia and you are playing your game on some US server located in California. Because of geo location between you and server, you may cause lag issues. If servers where somewhere in Australia then you should play more smoothly.
Test Network Latency (Ping)
Fortunately, there are some tools which we can use to test our network latency. I would recommend you to use pingtest.net where you can select and test servers from almost any country on the world.
For example, I live in Bosnia and Herzegovina and here are my default values for servers in San Francisco, CA:
And here are my results from servers in Frankfurt, Germany:
This is a very good example of this. You see that distance between my computer and servers in California is more than 6000 miles away which gives me 5 times larger ping than with servers closer to my location in Europe.
Good Ping Speed
Ping is measured in “ms” which stands for milliseconds. Having a ping of 38ms means that your actions are 38 milliseconds late. However, the average human reaction time is around 150ms, so having a ping around this value is like having a 0 ping.
In most cases, someone with a ping of 150ms will not be at a huge disadvantage against someone with a ping of zero ms simply because there is only 0.15 sec difference. You need to add in to this time it takes to make a decision in certain games.
In my opinion anything between 100 and 180 is pretty decent for online gaming. But it is always better to try to lower game ping if you can.
How to improve ping?
I hope you now know how how it actually works and which ping values are good for most online multiplayer games you want to play.
Here are some good examples of what can you do to improve ping of your connection in general. These tips should reduce latency from you as a client and server located on different continent away from you.
Boost ping with DNS
I found this technique as a very good way to increase ping. In some cases, using different DNS server of your connection might reduce your ping drastically.
For example, I have been played Aion on US servers for a long time. And during this period my ping was averaged around 400ms. After changing my DNS servers to Google Public DNS, my ping was never 180ms at maximum.
All you need to do is to go to your network connection properties and change DNS servers to public DNS. I would recommend you these providers (Public DNS list):
1. Google Public DNS
2. Open DNS
After changing DNS it is recommended to restart your computer to ensure they will load and run properly on your computer. By using these servers you will likely experience lower game ping on some servers.
Upload is more important than Download
When it comes to ping improve, upload cap from your internet service provider is way more important than download. Upload speed is important and it may highly reduce your ping in online games.
So, when it comes to online gaming always choose an internet plan with a better upload speed. Unfortunately, upload speed cap is still way lower on most internet service providers than download speed limit.
Play Online Games via VPN
Virtual Private Network is a network type that is capable of creating a secured network connection via Internet. You can use some of these free VPN services to play an online games through them and see if your ping is improved.
A VPN connection might help you to get a lower ping on some games, especially if you are playing a game on a long-distance game servers. This is also another way that might improve ping in games you play online.
Optimize Internet Connection with SG TCP Optimizer
It is a free program for Windows which will try to optimize your internet connection parameters inside Windows to provide faster internet experience in general.
The tool uses advanced algorithms to find the best TCP Window for your specific connection speed. The TCP Optimizer is targeted towards broadband internet connections, however it can be helpful with tuning any internet connection type.
This tool is extremely useful and there are many users who actually use it to improve their internet connection. With help of this tool you can boost ping pretty easy.
Close bandwidth intensive programs
Every internet connection has bandwidth limitations. When you use close to your maximum bandwidth cap from your ISP your network latency will drop significantly. In order to increase ping you need to close all bandwidth intensive programs such as:
BitTorrent client, such as uTorrent;
VoIP and IM programs, such as Skype, Messenger, TeamSpeak;
Close your browser and pause downloads;
Programs with background downloads like Steam.
All these programs may reduce latency of your connection and reduce game ping. Close such programs to improve ping and reduce lags in online games.
Switch to a wired connection
A wireless (WiFi) connection is practical, but it can take a serious toll on online gaming in general.
Online gaming requires stable internet connection and in most cases WiFi is not going to allow you that. To get the best performance and noticeable ping boost in most games, make sure that your computer is wired directly to your router.
If that’s not possible, try to speed up your WiFi or boost your WiFi signal strength.
Install Leatrix
Leatrix Latency Fix is a popular tool which can significantly speed up your ping in most online games by increasing and customizing the frequency of TCP connections sent to the game server.
This little tool is available only for Windows systems and you will see reduced latency in many online games including WoW, Rift, WildStar, Guild Wars, Diablo and more.
I hope you now know how to improve ping on your computer. I have managed to increase ping using some tricks above and all games I play online runs smoother. After all, do not expect any miracles simply because you can not force your connection to run faster and be closer to the game server.