Have been experience strong sudden lag lately, specifically on TF maps

[sweetbrainjar]

Hey there. 

I live in Germany, I've been playing on and off since Homecoming started/went public/whatever, mostly on Everlasting and later Exelsior, and the last few years exclusively Excelsior. And I've never had consistent lag issues before, even though I know I regularly play with a bunch of Americans and people from all over the world in general.

But, the last few weeks, whenever I join a TF or team and enter a mission map, there's lag that makes it very difficult to play (depending on AT as well of course). If I play missions solo, this isn't an issue. Does anyone have an idea what could cause this (also why it's suddenly there at all, after years of no issues)?

[Marine X]

Most Lag is caused by something Client side, you can start by running Netgraph to see is there are any Network issues with your connection.

 

/netgraph number

Allows the user to turn on and off a network monitoring graph.

This graph will overlay on top of any other windows, and will always be in the lower right hand corner.

 

0 - Off

1 - Display a small netgraph

2 - Display a large netgraph.

/netgraph by itself will return the current net_graph setting.

Netgraph shows a visual representation of TCP/IP network data flow called "packets". A network packet is segment of a larger message after it has been divided into parts or units of data. Each packet is then sent across a network of communication lines and recombined on the other end.

 

Interpreting the netgraph:

 

Spike shape: The height of the bar representing server ping time in milliseconds. Short is good, long is bad.

 

Green bars represent received packets.

Short = normal/good

Long = low bandwidth.

Yellow bars represent retransmitted packets.

Short = ISP/Router issues

Red bars represent dropped packets

Short = ISP/Router issues

Blocks of Red = Interrupted communications

[sweetbrainjar]

1 hour ago, Marine X said:

Most Lag is caused by something Client side, you can start by running Netgraph to see is there are any Network issues with your connection.

 

/netgraph number

Allows the user to turn on and off a network monitoring graph.

This graph will overlay on top of any other windows, and will always be in the lower right hand corner.

 

0 - Off

1 - Display a small netgraph

2 - Display a large netgraph.

/netgraph by itself will return the current net_graph setting.

Netgraph shows a visual representation of TCP/IP network data flow called "packets". A network packet is segment of a larger message after it has been divided into parts or units of data. Each packet is then sent across a network of communication lines and recombined on the other end.

 

Interpreting the netgraph:

 

Spike shape: The height of the bar representing server ping time in milliseconds. Short is good, long is bad.

 

Green bars represent received packets.

Short = normal/good

Long = low bandwidth.

Yellow bars represent retransmitted packets.

Short = ISP/Router issues

Red bars represent dropped packets

Short = ISP/Router issues

Blocks of Red = Interrupted communications

 

That's a helpful tool! I'm not really versed in this stuff, and I'm also colorblind...

I took this screenshot just standing around in a city zone. At first glance, the ping seems kind of high for just me hanging out. Other than that, I'm not sure? 

[sweetbrainjar]

This is what it looks like inside of a solo mission map. The ping is similar, receive is halved... there's some spikes, and being on the mission map I also had some spikes that reached to the top of the screen.

[Marine X]

The Long Green spikes typically mean Low Bandwidth. You may try rebooting your Modem and router and see if that helps, also if on WiFi try either moving to a slightly different location in relation to the WiFi access ( being right next to the WiFi is actually not ideal ), or if possible, go to a wired connection, then see what /Netgraph shows. Anything electrical between you and the WiFi can cause disruptions so consider that when moving.

[sweetbrainjar]

I only play CoX on desktop with a wired connection, and I think we haven't restarted our modem in a while. I'll try that later. Thx though, forgot to say that in my first reply

[Ukase]

On 10/25/2024 at 3:14 AM, Marine X said:

Interpreting the netgraph:

 

Spike shape: The height of the bar representing server ping time in milliseconds. Short is good, long is bad.

 

Green bars represent received packets.

Short = normal/good

Long = low bandwidth.

Yellow bars represent retransmitted packets.

Short = ISP/Router issues

Red bars represent dropped packets

Short = ISP/Router issues

Blocks of Red = Interrupted communications

This has got to be one of the most helpful posts I've ever read. Since I first heard of Netgraph, I have never understood what any of it specifically meant, other than green was probably good. 
 

[sweetbrainjar]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

This has got to be one of the most helpful posts I've ever read. Since I first heard of Netgraph, I have never understood what any of it specifically meant, other than green was probably good. 
 

Yeah, I agree, I still can't read it very well, but they explained it well. My issues have been getting a little better. I think my C drive didn't have enough free space which was hampering everything, and also the modem restart was a good idea.