Pings Aren't What They Seem

MoNkEy_MaN_XMoNkEy_MaN_X Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9679Members
in General Server Discussion
<div class="IPBDescription">Read on</div> Last night my server was full with 12 people and the pings were all around 200, even me and I'm sitting next to the server on a LAN. OK, this is the odd thing, my ping was only 200 when I hit tab and checked that way, when I got a net_graph 5 going, my ping was 50ms. So even though when I hit tab is was saying I had a 200 ping net_graph was telling me at the same time I have a 50ms ping. I asked other people in the server to do this to, and they mostly everybody that did it reported a lower ping than when you hit tab.

So I wonder which ping time to go by. I think I need a better machine for a server or something, the pings "go up" when alot of stuff is built and there is a full house, I don't think it's my connection since I hosted a 16 Man Raven Shield Server without problems. The computer I'm running it on is a:

PIII 800
384MB RAM
15GB UDMA 33 HDD
Connection 3.5mb/384k

I'm also just running Linux so. I switched from Win 2K in hope of a performance boost since Linux is just a command line window and no GUI.

Anyway, has anybody else tryed the net_graph 5 with different results than tab? Also, what is everybody running for servers?
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Comments

  • MellonpoprMellonpopr Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2304Members
    edited November 2002
    your right.. this is old news and all over the forum , but anyway..

    the ping reported by the scoreboard is inflated due to the cpu usage being high. If you notice.. the pings show fairly accurate before the map goes on too long. As the game drags on the ping increase dramatically.

    the net_graph 3 (that's the version I use) shows the latency more accurately than the scoreboard. On my lan I'm pinging around 10 yet the scoreboard shows up to 200 at times. I told my clients to either run net_graph 3 or check the scoreboard for my ping and subract that from theirs to get a better idea of what it really is.

    so If a client is seeing 300ms on the scoreboard and my ping is 200, they can subract 200 from 300 and get their actual ping of 100.
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  • EpochEpoch Join Date: 2002-10-10 Member: 1474Members
    That's simply amazing Monkey Man, my setup is almost exactly like yours. I run my server out of my home, and I am also on a LAN with it. You cah grab my server's specs <a href='http://www.joshbeeler.com/doombrihade/info.html' target='_blank'>here</a>.

    The scorboard misrepresents your latency because it adds the server's latency to each player's latency before it displays it (I believe this is correct). I use net_graph 3 to determine my true latency (I've never tried net_graph 5, I'll have to do that).

    The net_graph has more accutate ping information; go by that. Also, I too run a Linux server over Windows for the same reason (and my Linux box is also a router).

    Until yesterday, I thought if you put "pingboost x" in your autoexec.cfg it would function the same as "-pingboost x" in your commandline, but alas, I was mistaken. I really didn't have pingboost astivated all these past weeks. I just turned it on however, and since pingboost 3 increases CPU usage, it actually makes latency worse. However, pingboost 2 works like a charm. It has lowered everyone's latency ~40 ms.

    I'll try net_graph 5 and see what it shows. I use net_graph 3 instead of 1 because I don't need the graphs. Also, you can use net_graphpos 1, 2, 3 to move it around on your screen, in case you were unaware of this neat feature!
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  • SlycasterSlycaster Limited Edition Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 24Members, NS1 Playtester
    In complete honesty, NS's netcode is better then ANY HL mod, period. Even better then HL it's self, and CS.
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  • LiquidFusionLiquidFusion Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3139Members
    the scoreboard shows latency just fine. the netgraph shows ping. 2 completely different things people. Letency, like someone said, is ping with cpu time. Its basicly how long it takes you to make a "frame" Ping is just ping. see latency is more important than ping, because ping doesn't mean jack. So the scoreboard is much more important than the net graph.
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  • MellonpoprMellonpopr Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2304Members
    the cpu usage for NS is much worse than CS .. dev team explained it away by saying that's because NS is much more complex but they were working on getting the cpu usage down. 1.02 patch helped windows server a bit but did little to nothing for linux admins.

    from what I hear 1.03 will not have any new cpu usage fixes. Just bug fixes, AM support and agressive team balancing..possibly a new toy.

    I've heard that the bandwidth usage is much less than an equally sized CS server but I haven't seen any screenshots to prove it. Anyone <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
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  • BrutusBrutus Join Date: 2002-10-20 Member: 1555Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Cyanide+Nov 26 2002, 11:19 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cyanide @ Nov 26 2002, 11:19 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In complete honesty, NS's netcode is better then ANY HL mod, period. Even better then HL it's self, and CS.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    How do you figure?
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  • LiquidFusionLiquidFusion Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3139Members
    well supposedly it uses less bandwidth than any other halflife mod. so thats how. One guy had a graph or something to show his results.
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  • BrutusBrutus Join Date: 2002-10-20 Member: 1555Members
    Using less does not mean better. There is a lot more to netcode then just using less. Is it a significant amount?
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  • Dan_ForeverDan_Forever Join Date: 2002-08-02 Member: 1054Members
    Consider this

    What does a HLDM DS have to talk about with the clients? Where all the players are, if someone's fired/hit and dead.

    CS is about the same, theres not much more to communicate to the clients, accept things like time till the bomb explodes...

    NS has buildings, some of which are turrets, a commander mode, abilities like cloaking/motion tracking. It has a lot more things to communicate to and from the clients and server. The fact that Pings are pretty much almost CS levels at times (barring the high cpu usaged) shows how much the NS team improved the netcode.

    Of course I could be completely wrong here, but this is my understanding of it, please feel free to add/correct anything.
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  • NecroNecro &lt;insert non-birthday-related title here&gt; Join Date: 2002-08-09 Member: 1118Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Cyanide+Nov 26 2002, 09:19 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cyanide @ Nov 26 2002, 09:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In complete honesty, NS's netcode is better then ANY HL mod, period. Even better then HL it's self, and CS.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    amen! also, my rule is that if u can't FEEL the lag, it's not lagging <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
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