Question High ping on one game only

[BurberryCheesecake]

I am from PH and the servers that I play on Sandstorm are either from SG or Taiwan and since Nov 2021 I've been able to play on 40-90 ping up until 3 weeks ago where my ping is constantly above 300. I tried to reset my router and reinstalled my network drivers to no avail. How do I know what the issue is?

 

[bill001g]

You have no control over the path your data takes to a server.

Your only option is to send and receive the traffic from the connection from your ISP. All traffic uses the same connection so it will not have different latency.

Now I guess it could be some issue with the game code for that particular game but that tends to be unlikely.

The most common reason for latency to suddenly change would be your ISP or some other ISP in the path had some equipment failure and you are now running on a backup path. Could be some undersea fiber got cut which takes a long time to get fixed.

The only thing that might work is to use a VPN service. VPN should in theory always make a connection slower because of the overhead of running through a third party data center. For some people on a ISP with poor connectivity it might help. You would need to find a vpn service that you can get good latency to the VPN data center and then that vpn would need a better path to end server than your ISP has. It is all trial and error. These so called "gamer" vpn services tend to be very popular in asia because of the many ISP that do not have good access to the most optimum undersea fiber paths.

 

[BurberryCheesecake]

You have no control over the path your data takes to a server.

Your only option is to send and receive the traffic from the connection from your ISP. All traffic uses the same connection so it will not have different latency.

Now I guess it could be some issue with the game code for that particular game but that tends to be unlikely.

The most common reason for latency to suddenly change would be your ISP or some other ISP in the path had some equipment failure and you are now running on a backup path. Could be some undersea fiber got cut which takes a long time to get fixed.

The only thing that might work is to use a VPN service. VPN should in theory always make a connection slower because of the overhead of running through a third party data center. For some people on a ISP with poor connectivity it might help. You would need to find a vpn service that you can get good latency to the VPN data center and then that vpn would need a better path to end server than your ISP has. It is all trial and error. These so called "gamer" vpn services tend to be very popular in asia because of the many ISP that do not have good access to the most optimum undersea fiber paths.

I forgot to mention that it usually drops down after 2+ hrs, I have no idea why, but after a while I was able to play on constant low ping. Although it's going to be the same thing tomorrow, like it was past few weeks.

 

[bill001g]

This tends to be almost impossible to figure out. If it was everything on your internet connection then there are methods to test. When it is only 1 site you tends to blame the site.

Could be there is a connection between ISP overloaded in the path. Maybe the game server company does not have enough bandwidth at their hosting site and when lots of people play it gets overloaded.
Maybe different things but you can do nothing about things that are not in your house and in your control.

 

[BurberryCheesecake]

I bought Sandstorm in November 2021 and up until February 2022 everything was okay but a month later high ping started becoming the norm. My internet didn't change nor does it feel slow, only in this game. I also know there's only few people in my neighborhood with this ISP, most of them use other brand.

 

[Ralston18]

What actual ping values are you seeing?

First when everything was okay, and second, now when pings are high?

How are you measuring or otherwise getting the ping values?

And the high pings are only when you play Sandstorm - correct?

No other games, apps, browsing, etc. have high pings?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

More traffic in the late afternoon/evening and ICMP being given the lowest possible priority (if not actually disabled by a competent network admin) are the issue here. Nothing you can do about either. ICMP was never intended to be used in the manner in which you are using it.

And, you already have an active thread covering this exact issue ( https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/high-ping-on-one-game-only.3758618 ) Do not start multiple threads for the same issue.

 

[BurberryCheesecake]

What actual ping values are you seeing?

First when everything was okay, and second, now when pings are high?

How are you measuring or otherwise getting the ping values?

And the high pings are only when you play Sandstorm - correct?

No other games, apps, browsing, etc. have high pings?

Yes, before March 2022, high pings barely happen but now it's becoming the norm. Yes, my internet speed remains the same and I only get problems in Sandstorm. I played The Forest, Valorant, APEX legends, watched on 1080p and even a MOBA game just to test the ping to make sure. (No problem encountered)

It's weird because if I'm correct, the official servers in Sandstorm is based either in SG/Taiwan like the old Insurgency game which I played for 4 years and I got consistent 60-90 ping. I also tried the custom server in Sandstorm and I never got ping issues so I'm confused.

I get the ping values when I press tab in-game.

 

[Ralston18]

You can run ping directly from the Command Prompt and target the game's website.

Compare the results to the tab in-game results.

May or may not be helpful or meaningful.

Overall, as has been posted above, there is little that you can to resolve the matter.