That Funky 999 Lag Thing!!!

[crazyplaya73]

This is what happens on my dedicated server:

 

There is like no lag at all for most of the time but simetimes all of the ping numbers go up to 999 and the server lags like a big fat turd. If you wait like 5 minutes it'll just go away and run like a champ again. There seems to be no consistent thing that causes it. It'll happen when there are 8 people connected and it's happened with 4 people connected.

 

I don't think it's my cable Internet connection since I get 350KB upload and 750KB download. And I don't think it's my server since so many others seem to have this same problem.

 

My server has max ping set to 200 and max players is 8

Pentium 2 400mhz, 390mb RAM, Windows 2000

 

Is it me or do we need a patch from Raven???

[MatrixCPA]

Hard to say. Have you checked your line for any packet loss problems? Some cable connections are notoriously flakey. Are you connecting to the server from anohter box on your LAN? There have been some reports of problems with that situation.

[Novus]

could be some background process hogging resources.

[Kristian]

With a shared resource like cable, I'd say your problem lies there. When I had my rate set too high for my DSL line, I would run into the "fat turd" issue when the server reached full capacity with mostly broadband clients connected (56kers default to a rate of 4000 which is lower than anything I'd set my server to ).

 

Your cable connection is probably hitting peak load and your server just can't get the info out/in fast enough for the players causing them all to lag out.

 

I agree with Matrix's suggestion though - I do L3 tech support for a living, and you'd be surprised what you can learn from running a continuous ping overnight *grin*

 

Pick up a copy of TJPing and set it up to ping the gateway non-stop during the time period you experience problems most. You may also want to try running a traceroute for that period. It would identify where any issues might be. I know progs like Neotrace let you run a continuous trace/ping test. I'd suggest you set it up to trace into your server from the outside if possible, otherwise choose a relatively stable site on the outside and trace to it from the server.

 

-C

[crazyplaya73]

Hmm, good ideas. I'll test out my cable connection for any packet loss. Where I live it is believed that we have an above average cable internet service and I have been very happy with my cable connection since day one.

 

I do connect to my dedicated server over my home LAN from another PC and I really think that is part of the problem. I have heard others with this same problem so I hope they can make a patch for this. Thanks for the ideas though, definetly worth checking out! I'll let ya know.