COD4 PC version variable ping

[#1]

Hi,
I have recently switched to Plus.net.
But I am having the same problem I have been having for some time. Mainly playing COD4 on the PC. Ping starts at around 50 - 70 ms but then jumps up to around 100 - 200 for about 1 minute , then comes back down again. This happens every 5 minutes or so. Problem is when it gets above 100ms , FPS slows right down to around 10fps, making the game unplayable for that minute.
Initially contacted PN support who asked me to take the BT speedtest and ping tests. These were fine at the moment I did the test. They basically said everything was normal ? Not where I am sitting.
Anyway, later I pinged the game server and did tracert, these are the results
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 26 ms 26 ms 27 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 24 ms 22 ms 24 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 25 ms 26 ms 24 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 28 ms 87 ms 23 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 36 ms 33 ms 37 ms 195.72.129.125
7 24 ms 25 ms 24 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 25 ms 25 ms 25 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
D:\Documents and Settings\Mark>tracert 77.74.192.138
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 30 ms 27 ms 27 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 26 ms 24 ms 23 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 25 ms 23 ms 33 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 50 ms 203 ms 201 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 38 ms 28 ms 36 ms 195.72.129.125
7 26 ms 29 ms 31 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 26 ms 36 ms 31 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 31 ms 39 ms 25 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
D:\Documents and Settings\Mark>tracert 77.74.192.138
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 28 ms 36 ms 23 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 25 ms 22 ms 23 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 25 ms 24 ms 28 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 64 ms 218 ms 181 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 24 ms 24 ms 25 ms 195.72.129.125
7 24 ms 24 ms 25 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 38 ms 25 ms 24 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 29 ms 26 ms 24 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
D:\Documents and Settings\Mark>tracert 77.74.192.138
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 34 ms 48 ms 39 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 28 ms 29 ms 30 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 28 ms 36 ms 23 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 204 ms 177 ms 85 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 28 ms 31 ms 28 ms 195.72.129.125
7 25 ms 27 ms 52 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 39 ms 26 ms 32 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
D:\Documents and Settings\Mark>tracert 77.74.192.138
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 25 ms 25 ms 28 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 30 ms 31 ms 27 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 29 ms 50 ms 33 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 24 ms 212 ms 199 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 23 ms 24 ms 23 ms 195.72.129.125
7 24 ms 24 ms 25 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 25 ms 24 ms 25 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 31 ms 24 ms 26 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
D:\Documents and Settings\Mark>tracert 77.74.192.138
Tracing route to no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 32 ms 31 ms 27 ms lo0-plusnet.thn-ag3.plus.net [195.166.128.80]
3 22 ms 25 ms 25 ms vl303.thn-gw2.plus.net [84.92.3.178]
4 26 ms 23 ms 25 ms te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
5 23 ms 27 ms 24 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
6 24 ms 26 ms 23 ms 195.72.129.125
7 24 ms 24 ms 23 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.193.230]
8 24 ms 25 ms 25 ms bsd1.ukservers.com [78.110.166.122]
9 24 ms 24 ms 23 ms no.rdns-yet.ukservers.com [77.74.192.138]
Trace complete.
As you can see, the result from
5 64 ms 218 ms 181 ms ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
jumps up and then settles down. Plus net suggested this might be the problem (Actually I thought I suggested it) but anyway..
They suggested contacting the game server host, but I think maybe its better to contact ge2-21-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net [195.72.128.21]
But who are they ?
If anyone has any suggestions why this is happening, or any ideas about solving the problem, I would be grateful
Also, something strange I noticed today. If I am in game, looking down at the ground, my ping is low (45) and FPS is high (78) But if I then look up at the game action, like people running and shooting etc, my ping goes up (100-200) and my fps goes down (12fps)
It is as though the broadband connection cannot handle the amount of data transfer
Now I am no techie, but hopefully one of you may have an idea.
Thanks in advance
Mark

[#2]

Hi,
You may have two problems here.  Your ping and FPS are not normally related. FPS is how fast your PC can update the screen where as ping is how quickly the network connection responds. If you FPS is dropping to 12 then try a lower resolution or detail level and see how much it improves. In extreme cases where a PC is too under powered for a game it can make your ping increase alot but this does not normally happen with newish PC's. This may sort out your problem.
If you have high FPS and a poor ping make sure the server is in the UK and try a few other servers. If only that server has issues it may be Plusnets traffic management system. If all servers have issues it will probably be something to do with your PC. Ways to improve ping while gaming ONLY are turning off on access virus scanners and using hardware but not software firewalls. BUT don't forget to turn your antivirus etc back on for web browsing or anything else.
Hope that helps.

[#3]

Hi, many thanks for your fast reply.
I know what you mean about  the ping shouldn't relate to the FPS, but thats the weird thing, it does.
PC wise I have a 3.4ghz dual core with 2GB ram, running XP
Graphics card is a Geforce 7500LE which is the standard card that came with the PC. I know another player on the same server has same PC and same graphics card, he has a constant ping of around 100-120, but has no problems with FPS etc. The server I mainly play on and the one I tested (ping/tracert) is in the UK, but the problem happens on any server I try.
I will try switching everything off before playing to to see what happens.
Thanks
Mark

[#4]

as6908 are an internet peer, I.e. they connect PN to the rest of the internet. If the problem is intermittent you are unlikely to get PN to take action on your behalf, particularly if no one else is reporting it; I haven't known any ISP to change their peering policy on the basis of a single customer's enquiry.
That said, a 200ms ping should still be an acceptable level to play online. Have you verified that the 'slowdown' is a definite FPS drop with an independent tool such a fraps? The stuttering experienced due to high latency can have the appearance of slowdown.
My first suggestion would be to ensure that you have all the latest drivers installed, I've found DriverMax to be a very handy tool.

[#5]

Hello there,

Quote from: marinetrimming

I know what you mean about  the ping shouldn't relate to the FPS, but thats the weird thing, it does.

Common misconception with a lot of Quake 3 based games, such as CoD:4,
people expect the network handling to be separate from the frame rate - they are in fact closely related.
Also your jumping hight can be determined by your frame rate, as it has rounding errors within the Physics calculations.
Jump at 125 FPS (Physics sync rate) and you can jump over some tall objects easier.
The problem is, that the frame time affects the response time for the client snapshot (from client to server).
As you only receive 20 snapshots by default, a shocking frame time of 50ms is the minimum (20FPS) and that is all you actually get.
So any frames over that are the in between time for model animations.
What this is telling you is that your Graphics Settings are still too high to atain a stable framerate,
resulting in a higher ping time - the faulty network gateway doesn't help but that's life, changing routes is a bit of a pig.
There are some tweaks you can do to reduce the general fluctuation of response time semi-regardless of frame rate.
Best thing to do would be to check your Lagometer first to check if it's Upstream / Downstream or both.
This page covers some things which might help Here.

---

Open your Console [`] in game,
Type in these commands.
\cg_drawlagometer 1
Turns on the Lagometer (change to 0 to disable again).
The aim:
The Blue line to be constantly Blue and peaks facing downwards, with no aggressive spikes.
The Green line to be constantly light green, small and consistent in height.
\set rate 25000
Pretty standard for ADSL Players, sometimes not set correctly by the game but it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Allows upto 25000 [bytes] per Server Snapshot. Some servers might allow 30000.
(default 20 snapshots per second - snaps).
\set com_maxfps int
Make sure you set com_maxfps appropriately from the following values from your average frame rate when playing:
60, (75), 90, 100, (125).
I would use anything which is evenly divisible by the Snapshots value,
otherwise sync will be completely skewed if you do certain actions in between the time base.
Example: \set com_maxfps 60
\set maxpackets int
Within the range 30 to 100, select what is equal to your frame rate / an even factor of your frame rate.
Why? This ensures the timing for each network packet is sent the same time for every client frame - making it more synchronised.
Example: \set maxpackets 60

---

@chickendippers:
200ms is not acceptable for a real time application ... To some people it might be.
due to that, the data is ariving so late to the server, the games Anti-Lag will then step in.
predicting the client location in between time, giving a warping effect and slow client sync.
Fraps will tell you less than Call of Duty does.
The game has the Frame Counter and the Lagometer which will be of more help.
Jim,

[#6]

Hi,
the wolfstuff website you linked to came up as trying to download a trojan onto my PC 

[#7]

Just for info, AS6908 is a company called Datahop which PN peer directly with and operate a fibre ring connecting several data centres in London