High Ping/ Laggy - what's a guy to do?

[Raz.You.Up]

System Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-core Processor 5000+ AM2 2.6 GHz
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro GPU
1 gig RAM
160 GB HDD, 40 GB HDD
All latest drivers installed
Windows XP Service Pack 2
Avast!
Broadband at about 4 Meg

The lag is unbearable, and the ping is terrible. This game came out a few years ago, so why this rig cannot handle the game, is beyond me. Any help?

[Stormy{CAN}]

First the ram. Anything more than medium with a couple on high isn't going to cut it with only 1GB.

Second the hard drives. Hope that 40GB drive isn't being used for more than storage.

Third, connection issues. Done anything on your end to try and determine whether it is your computer, your ISP, or possibly a routing issue to the servers you are playing on? Quickest and easiest way to test is doing a tracert (open a command prompt, Start-Run-cmd) and typing "tracert IP of server" (without the quotes). This will help in determining if it is your computer, your ISP, or routing issue.

[Raz.You.Up]

First the ram. Anything more than medium with a couple on high isn't going to cut it with only 1GB.

Second the hard drives. Hope that 40GB drive isn't being used for more than storage.

Third, connection issues. Done anything on your end to try and determine whether it is your computer, your ISP, or possibly a routing issue to the servers you are playing on? Quickest and easiest way to test is doing a tracert (open a command prompt, Start-Run-cmd) and typing "tracert IP of server" (without the quotes). This will help in determining if it is your computer, your ISP, or routing issue.

I feared it would be the RAM, but I've tried to put them all on low settings, and there's still lag, and I can play perfectly on single player all on high.

Yes, the 40 GB is just my old hard drive, put on here so we have access to the files.

Connection issues seem to be most likely then? I went onto tracert but I don't know which IP is the right one to put in. Where do I find out?

Cheers for the help btw, and I hope it's something as easy as upgrading the RAM.

[Stormy{CAN}]

For the tracert start with one to your ISP (just use www.yourisp.com, replace yourisp with your ISP's name), for a BF2 server make note of the IP before joining and check without the game running; might also want to through one in to Google just for good measure. Post back the results of each here, and we can tell you if it is you, your ISP or a routing problem.

[Raz.You.Up]

My ISP:

Tracing route to Belkin [87.74.20.16]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms Belkin [87.74.20.16]
2 17 ms 2 ms 11 ms Belkin [87.74.20.16]

Trace complete.

BF2 server's IP:

Tracing route to 213.190.195.49 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Belkin.home [192.168.2.1]
2 14 ms 11 ms 11 ms host-83-146-18-43.bulldogdsl.com [83.146.18.43]

3 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms ge-1-0-0.33.cht-cor-001.bddsl.net [83.146.22.126]
4 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms so-0-0-0.0.thn-cor-001.bddsl.net [83.146.19.153]

5 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms london1-cr1-f50.cprm.net [195.66.224.91]
6 42 ms 43 ms 41 ms lis1-br1-gi-12-0-0.cprm.net [195.8.0.174]
7 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms lis2-cr1-gi-12-0-0.cprm.net [195.8.0.173]
8 59 ms 61 ms 60 ms cabotvm.cprm.net [195.8.30.82]
9 61 ms 60 ms 60 ms vl01-ar03.netmadeira.net [213.190.192.225]
10 61 ms 61 ms 60 ms ge11-cr01.netmadeira.net [213.190.192.17]
11 61 ms 61 ms 60 ms ge011-ar01.netmadeira.net [213.190.192.110]
12 62 ms 62 ms 61 ms ge01-as03.netmadeira.net [213.190.192.75]
13 62 ms 62 ms 61 ms 213.190.195.49

Trace complete.

Another server:

Tracing route to 85.114.137.67 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Belkin.home [192.168.2.1]
2 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms host-83-146-18-43.bulldogdsl.com [83.146.18.43]

3 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms ge-1-0-0.33.cht-cor-001.bddsl.net [83.146.22.126]
4 11 ms 13 ms 10 ms so-0-0-0.0.thn-cor-001.bddsl.net [83.146.19.153]

5 11 ms 11 ms 38 ms 195.66.224.209
6 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms hmb-145-254-16-245.arcor-ip.net [145.254.16.245]

7 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms esn-145-254-19-22.arcor-ip.net [145.254.19.22]
8 32 ms 31 ms 31 ms dus-145-254-19-198.arcor-ip.net [145.254.19.198]

9 32 ms 32 ms 31 ms dus-145-254-4-174.arcor-ip.net [145.254.4.174]
10 32 ms 32 ms 38 ms 145.253.26.46
11 32 ms 33 ms 32 ms lcgw-dus1-2gig.dus2-de.fibre1.net [62.141.47.14]

12 33 ms 32 ms 32 ms 85.114.137.67

Trace complete.

I reinstalled the game btw, and the lag seems to have disappeared, but it's slowly creeping back. When I first installed it, the multiplayer was great for a while, and then lagged like crazy. I hope that I won't have to keep reinstalling the game everytime I want to play this :/

I also play Half life 2: DM, which works perfectly and there is no lag at all, if this helps.

[signa]

give Qtracker a try. you'll be able to find servers that are in your region of the world. sort the servers anyway you like - or for what you want, try sorting by either average ping, or response time. that way you'll be able to get a real list of servers with the best ping. you can also download filters to only show certain servers (64 player, ranked, latest patch, etc..). oh and all this is free.

[Stormy{CAN}]

Those pings look OK, with nothing really out of the ordinary. The first is to a server in Portugal and the second is in Germany.

Next is to start with drivers. You have the latest motherboard/ethernet drivers installed? Also what version of Catalyst do you have for your 1950 Pro?

Do you have the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer,

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html

installed?

[Raz.You.Up]

I reinstalled the drivers just in case, I've got whichever version is on the ATI download page, and I have the Dual-Core Optimizer installed now.

Lemme just restart and see if theproblem is fixed!

[THEONEANDONLY]

Mabe this can help

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

[Raz.You.Up]

So far so good! Your help has been invaluable, and keep doing what you do - you're good at it