Tim-Grove

Just getting into online gaming and don’t know much about it yet. I have heard people talking about ping times, what is a ping?? Just followed the WinXP help file about “pinging” and tried to ping scoobynet, I got these results are they any good???

Tim.

Copied and pasted from command prompt

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Grove>ping www.scoobynet.co.uk

Pinging www.scoobynet.co.uk [217.79.111.23] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=120

Ping statistics for 217.79.111.23:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 39ms, Average = 26ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Grove>

AndiThompson

Ping is the amount of time a bit of data takes to go from your computer to the server and back. The lower the ping the better. Those do look like good pings, mine are around 39ms atm to scoobynet.

In games, the lower your ping, the smoother the game will play. You'll find if you try some games on a 56k modem they kinda judder as the modem struggles to keep up with the data it's trying to transmit and recieve. The problem with this is everyone else will see you in game as not moving for periods of time, or will see you before you see them. Bang, your dead.

Tim-Grove

Just unplugged my broadband and pinged scoobynet via my mobile phone connection (T-68) and got this

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Grove>ping www.scoobynet.co.uk

Pinging www.scoobynet.co.uk [217.79.111.23] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=1231ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=1160ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=1233ms TTL=120
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=1240ms TTL=120

Ping statistics for 217.79.111.23:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1160ms, Maximum = 1240ms, Average = 1216ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Grove>

IanW

As Andi has said, the lower the ping the better the online gaming will be, as you will be less likely to suffer lag etc...

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3718]
(C) Copyright 1985-2002 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\IanW>ping www.scoobynet.co.uk

Pinging www.scoobynet.co.uk [217.79.111.23] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=121
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=121
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=121
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=121

Ping statistics for 217.79.111.23:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 16ms

super_si

E:\>ping www.scoobynet.co.uk

Pinging www.scoobynet.co.uk [217.79.111.23] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=117
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=117
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=117
Reply from 217.79.111.23: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=117

Ping statistics for 217.79.111.23:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 31ms, Average = 19ms

E:\>

well i just had to do it

Tim-Grove

What connection you got there Ian??? Those times look quite low.

Tim.

Tim-Grove

Im on a Blueyonder 512K connection.

Tim.

IanW

Mine is a 1Mb Cable Connection provided by Telewest/Blueyonder.

Times would probably be a tad less if I did the traces from the router and not one of the machines.

Tim-Grove

I have mine and my sisters PC running through a 4 port router/gateway, would my ping be quicker if I were plugged directly into the cable modem???

Tim.

IanW

would be very marginal the difference.