Best Practices for a Lower Ping when Gaming
We’ve all felt the effects of a high ping when gaming. Even if it isn’t us, other gamers with a high ping cause problems. Nobody wants a laggy gaming experience.
I’ve used cable, DSL, satellite, 4G, and even dial up for gaming. There are ways to lower ping specific to the type of internet connection. Plus methods to lower ping for any game in general.
What is Ping Time
Ping time is a measure of lag. It’s the time it takes for packets to be sent and received across a network. You can ping local addresses within your network or addresses on the internet.
Why Ping Time Matters
The lowest ping times equate to the best gaming experiences. Low ping times mean no lag for multiplayer games, especially first person shooters.
How to Test Ping Times
An easy way to test your ping time is to open a command prompt, type:
ping -t amazonaws.com
Most ping times are going to be around the same time. You have to watch it for a fem minutes to catch any variance. Let it run for at least 2 minutes while watching the time column. Hit CTRL+C to stop it.
Good ping times are lower than 50ms. Bad ping times are 90ms or higher. If you see a solid 2 minutes of less than 30ms, then congratulations, you have an awesome internet connection.
For the rest of us, it’s common to see an occasional higher ping time. One or two replies of 120ms over 2 minutes isn’t bad. If you consistently see times of 50ms or 80ms plus spikes over 100ms, then I pity you.
Steps to Lower Ping Times
Causes for high latency are related to the network itself or the device your using, such as a console or PC. I’ll start with things to get the lowest ping in general.
Whether you’re on console or PC, wired connections are way better than WiFi. WiFi is just not as consistent as a wired connection. I’ve yet to see any WiFi hold a consistent ping time over long periods of time.
The First Step to Lower Ping Times is to Ditch the WiFi.
Get a long ethernet cable, powerline adapters, or MoCA adapters. Ethernet cable from your router to your console is best. If that isn’t feasible, then adapters to make use of your power lines or coax cables are next best.
Powerline adapters make use of your existing AC power lines to send low voltage DC signals. Powerline adapters plug into power outlets. One near your router and another near your PC. Then ethernet cables go from the adapters to your router and PC.
These adapters also work for gaming consoles. Then plug in the other adapter near your PC or console. An ethernet cable between the adapter and your gaming device.
The Second Step to Lower Ping Times is to Eliminate Extra Loads on the Network.
This ranges from turning off kindles to closing apps on your PC. Nowadays there are many devices connected to any home network. From a refrigerators to cameras to phones, every device connected to the network adds chatter.
All these devices have heartbeat signals and receive UDP packets if they’re connected to your network. Having dozens of devices randomly checking for updates or communicating on the network causes serious lag. Turn off as many devices as you can. Or at least turn off the Wifi for them.
Since many of my gaming sessions are after hours so to speak, I found connecting directly to my cable modem or DSL modem greatly reduced my ping times. Eliminating the wireless router completely isn’t practical for everyone. But everyone should experience the incredible speed at least once.
Closing Apps and Services on a PC to Lower Ping
I know it’s handy to have a discord chat, web browser, and email going while gaming. But if you’re having lag issues, close as many background apps as possible.
MS Edge is notorious for staying open in the background for no reason. I’ve found I have to use task manager to close Edge or Chrome sessions running in the background.
Print spooler is another unnecessary service running in the background that causes network chatter. I turn the spooler.exe service off during gaming sessions. However, it is necessary for printing.
While we’re at it file and printer sharing aren’t necessary for most home environments. Having them enabled adds to the overall load on your network.
Netbios and IPv6 are also chatty but unnecessary protocols running by default on most PC’s. Bonjour on a Mac is also very chatty. Disable unnecessary protocols, services, and apps for better ping times.
Update Drivers and Apps Lower Ping
While updating display drivers for a better gaming experience is a given, don’t forget to update those ethernet drivers. Having the latest drivers ensures taking advantage of the optimal software for speed and performance.
Any glitch in an ethernet driver equates to lag. In my experience packet loss is very rare since the devices make several attempts before completely abandoning a packet. However, varying ping times are common. Any resends or time spent reassembling packets increases ping times.
The latest drivers ensure the best performance. As far as ethernet settings, just be sure to disable any power saving or green energy settings. Any energy efficient settings should be disabled. While other settings such as flow control or receive side scaling .
The Third Step to Lower Ping Times is to Change DNS Servers
Switching from the default DNS servers provided by your internet service provider (ISP) can reduce lag. Switching to the nearest server is always a good idea.
If your ping times are 70ms or more then you can benefit from switching DNS servers.
Google and Cloudflare offer DNS services for free. Given that they have a massive amount of servers present on the internet in general, chances are good they have one near you. I’ve used Google and Cloudflare but prefer Cloudflare.
Cloudflare DNS:
- Primary: 1.1.1.1
- Secondary: 1.0.0.1
Google DNS:
- Primary: 8.8.8.8
- Secondary: 8.8.4.4 Primary is 1.1.1.1 and secondary is 1.0.0.1
Go into your ethernet adapter properties. Then turn off the automatic DNS and enter the IP addresses listed above. Lastly, reboot or do a ipconfig /flushdns command.
The Fourth Step to Lower Ping Times is to Upgrade Your Hardware
If your router or modem is 10 years old, then you can benefit from an upgrade. While most hardware is capable of 100mbps or even 1 Gbps, that doesn’t always equate to low latency.
Most of the time 1 Gbps ethernet is overkill. Just because a router is capable of gigabit ethernet speeds doesn’t mean it needs that much bandwidth. Latency is a measure of speed.
A slow processor or inadequate memory affects latency more than bandwidth. Your network hardware should be upgraded from time to time.
If all else fails, upgrading your ISP to a higher tier service is advisable.
Summary to Lower Ping Times
- Ditch the Wifi
- Reduce the load on your network. This is done by eliminating devices connected to the network, disabling unnecessary protocols on the network, disabling certain services and apps running on your PC.
- Changing settings. This ranges from port forwarding settings in your router, to switching DNS servers. Disable any power saving or energy efficient settings in your ethernet adapter. Upgrade to the latest drivers for your ethernet adapter.
- Upgrades. Ten year old routers and modems have ten year old processors and memory. Replace them. Upgrade to a higher tier service with your ISP.
Best Practices for a lower Ping when Gaming brought to you by David M.
I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.
