my ping fluctuates too much

[wally]

I need some help, when i play counter-strike im playing and my ping is under 100 then all of the sudden im hitting high 200s and it keeps going up and down, high then low. this always happens even on different severs. can someone tell me how i can get my ping to stay consistent and low. i would really appreciate it.

[MIKEUSING@HOME]

When I first got cable I was using a software firwall prog. I'm not sure if you are or not, but I noticed my ping was al over the place with games and things of the such while the firewall was enabled if I disabled it my ping would be nice and stable.....if you have a software firewall try disabling it while playing

[MosDef112]

If you have a stateful firewall in place, ping spikes will result from the firewall doing the packet inspection before it allows it through, whether it be inbound or outbound. You could either disable the stateful packet inspection feature on your firewall, make a note of the TCP/UDP ports that Counter Strike makes use of, and forward those via NAT to the PC that you're using to play that game with. This will improve your latency, and will also continue to protect your PC. You can always put the PC you're playing from on the DMZ port, too, though you're compromising your PC's security.

[wally]

I dont play with my firewall on so i dont think thats the problem, but thanks for trying. Anyone else?

[MIKEUSING@HOME]

Mosdef what would be the best way to figure out what port a prog uses. JUst run the prog then look at the firewall log?? Is there another way to do this??
thanks

[Da_Devastator]

Hi.

The problem could be due to the increasing alertness of more peeps coming into the game and/or peeps connecting to the server, that dont already have the map, textures, etc., having to receive the file from the server.

bye.

[MosDef112]

** To MIKEUSING@HOME **

Not really sure your firewall could log that kind of access, but theoretically you should be able to have your firewall monitor incoming/outgoing traffic. Couldn't really tell you how to do it. I have as yet to figure out how to do it myself. practicallynetworked.com does have a list of TCP/UDP ports used by the most popular software titles/games. You might find out what you need to know from there.