Help with connection needed

[HicRic]

I'm sorry if I sound like a complete newbie in this post, but I've never really played an online FPS before. :) Been playing BF2 offline since release but only just got the chance to play online now.

My ping is always under 30..that's good right? Lots of the time I see people and vehicles moving erratically and suddenly changing position, etc. I think this is lag, right? It happens to me quite a bit, I suddenly find myself in a few steps to the left or facing the wrong direction and things.

But why does this keep happening even with a low ping on a 512kb connection? Is it something that can't be avoided? Playing the game is a total farce as it stands. I try and shoot people only to have them warp five meters right and kill me. Or I duck behind cover only to find myself out in the middle of the road in front of a tank...

Very frustrating, no matter how hard I try to play I find myself hopelessly dying all the time. :cry:

Is there something I can do to try and cut this down? Tweaks? Optimisations? in-game options?

It might be relavant, but I get a lot of "there is a problem with your connection" messages post-verification. And when I finish a round I seem to lose the connection to the sever 90% of the time..

Playing with patch 1.02.

comp:

intel celeron D 2.53GHz
768mb ram
9800 pro (128mb)

Hardly a stellar system but I can do medium settings @ 1024x768 and keep the FPS above 30.

Is my boardband just a bit rubbish, perhaps? It's a nice ping and speed, but maybe it's low quality or something..I don't really know. Any help appreaciated.

[Shamus]

Re: Help with connection needed

It's hard to say but for starters lets assume you are not trying to game wirelessly because that will cause the problems you are having. Make sure that the lower setting for Connection Speed in the games options menu is selected because this has a great effect on throughput.

I have experienced a similar problem when I was on DSL. I had great pings (lower number is best) but I had too many lost and dropped packets while gaming. As it turned out, my ISP had some over-sold routers that were congested and causing the packet loss. The only way I knew was by using the trial version of www.pingplotter.com to map where the packets were being dropped. In the end, I switched to Cable because even though they admited the problem, they refused to fix it.

[HicRic]

Re: Help with connection needed

Aww shhhhhhhoot. I'm on wireless internet... So it's a problem even with low ping and good bandwidth?

I think I can get a physical cable to the router from my comp, would that help?

[Shamus]

Re: Help with connection needed

Yes, a cable would smooth out things and allow you to play as expected. All the real fun is online, HicRic! Hurry and get a cable! :)

You will never be able to game wirelessly given todays technology. There is just too much latency involved in wireless connections.

[HicRic]

Re: Help with connection needed

Cheers, Shamus! I slapped in a spare 5 meter ethernet cable I had and it's amazing. My bandwidth just literally doubled and lag is almost gone. :)

Many thanks!

[Shamus]

Re: Help with connection needed

Cheers, Shamus! I slapped in a spare 5 meter ethernet cable I had and it's amazing. My bandwidth just literally doubled and lag is almost gone. :)

Many thanks!

Awesome news HicRic! Have fun and we'll see you on the Battlefield!