Weird lag / ping issue

FIXED

I updated my mainboard's bios which resulted in all my bios settings returning to default.. including turning my overclock off.


Hi,

I joined racederpartment and bought rfactor ready to get into some multiplayer racing when i come across quite a bizarre problem.

I get about 800-1200ms ping online, other players warp around and my game is constantly 'synchronizing game' even on servers from my country.

What makes it weird is that when i press 2 to ping the server it comes back 30-70ms and when I do a ping -t in command line on the server it comes back 10-30ms.

I have no problems in other games and speedtest.net returned 18mb/s download and 0.5mb/s up.

No matter what I've done it doesn't seem to fix the problem, i've done / tried the following:

> Restarting pc, modem, router
> Port forward the correct ports for rfactor
> V-sync on / off
> Registry ping fix (used in mmos) and turned off tcp autotuning (i returned these to normal afterwards)
> Set connection type in rfactor to ISDN
> Reinstalled rfactor
> Connected my PC direct to my modem
> Disconnected others from the network
> Stopped all background programs
> Disabled windows firewall and added exceptions just incase

If you have come across this problem or have any suggestions, please do tell :)
 
Hi Edward,
Welcome to RD.

It would appear that you've done a lot already to try and isolate the problem and from what i can see your own setup seems fairly well diagnosed. Can i ask which other games you play on the connection that appear ok? The reason for this is i had a huge problem a couple of years ago with an old ISP who changed their service type from 'old' ping-based connection to a HTTP prioritising service (which is to say in times of high traffic their service was 'shared', so while HTTP internet traffic saw no difference apart from the occasional page not loading, ping-based traffic like gaming suffered horribly). I spent about 6 weeks arguing the case with them after i used some tracer software to identify problem connection hubs and providing detailed 'hop maps' (the details of connection from my pc to match.rfactor.net). In the end they (pipex for what it's worth, having been recently taken over by Tiscali) conceded that they had re-prioritised their system and couldn't cure my problem, so they released me from contract without demanding settlement fees.

If you try http://visualroute.visualware.com/ you can test your connection to match.rfactor.net at various times of the day and evening and see if there's any specific pattern to the problem, and maybe from there diagnose if there's a connection problem to the servers you're racing in.

Good luck :) wrighty
 
Thanks for the response Paul.

I get around 30ms to dedicated servers in my country for games like counter-strike, call of duty etc.

I did a trace using visual route and i'm averaging 172ms to match.rfactor.net, not bad considering i'm in Australia connecting to America. Also did a trace for some aussie rfactor servers and they returned at around 17ms.
 
Now to make this even more bizarre

I installed windows xp on my system (dual booting with w7) and reinstalled rfactor. I joined the server and got the same problems. I went to my other pc and joined the server, no problems at all. 2 pcs running the same opperating system, on the same network and in the same server at the same time but one lags and the other runs smooth as hell.
 
Are both PCs wire-connected to the router or is one wireless? Have you checked the driver for the network connection on the problem pc? (control panel>system>hardware>device manager) - i'm just wondering whether the problem might be hardware-related - do you have access to a plug-in network card that you can try (if the current connection is via a module on the motherboard).
 
IPV6 & 4 run on Win 7, as we are running out of IP addresses in the 1.1.1.1 (4 range), the new system will use the 6 range 1.1.1.1.1.1 however I doubt the issue would be IP related as Win 7 uses both..

I am using Win 7 x64 with rfactor and have no issues, if Edward is who I think he is (alt) I have seen him in the server and the ping sits around 800-900..

Rulling out that it's Win 7 x64 (as many here and elsewhere use it with rFactor) the problem would seem to come down to the router/modem itself..

My suggestion would be to get your hands on another modem / router (try a friends) as I really do think that the problem is this. I have heard people having issues with not connecting to more network traffic games such as Bad Company 2 & BF2 but never rFactor.

Changing this at least can rule that out.
 
FIXED

I updated my mainboard's bios which resulted in all my bios settings returning to default.. including turning my overclock off.

So you basicly say, with overclock off you got lag, and with overclock on you have a fine running system?
Can you please specify which mainboard you have and which overclock setting you use? (if it is a mainboard overclock preset)

Could help others in future.
 
Yep turning off the overclock worked. I'm running a intel core2duo e8400 at 3.6ghz and sometimes 4ghz compared to its stock 3, on a MSI neo3-fr mainboard. I've had the cpu running at that overclock for over a year now so maybe it's starting to dislike the extra stress? Turning off the overclock has helped fixed some other problems i've noticed in some games like out of sync audio during cutscenes.
 
I had the same weird lag and ping for a while. Did a bios upgrade tonight and default it all. Including settings the overclock from the system default to manually (off). And my first impression is already ok. Tested with nKPro where I had the biggest lag problems and so far it was ok.
 

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