I lag when a family member downloads...

[BrandonK123]

Hey guys,

So there has been an everlasting struggle between my sister and I as I lag to an extreme level while playing games, for example I get anywhere from 200 ping all the way to 999 ping. I lag the most when it's downloading torrents via utorrent but less when she watches YouTube but regardless it makes game play unbearable . I know to some of you experts in this field it may sound really stupid but I thought I might as well ask. Short of buying her separate connection I don't know what else to do. It's not just a once a week occurrence it's everyday and is SUPER frustrating as I like to play FPS games which require a low ping to play.It is wireless connectivity with a cisco router however if you have further questions i will work to get the answers. By the way, if this is in the wrong sub-forum i'm sorry but any help is appreciated. Also feel free to tell me i'm an idiot.

Thanks!

 

[MeteorsRaining]

Well, the max bandwidth you'll get on a single connection (no matter how many devices it's shared with), is capped by your ISP. Suppose you have a 10MB/s connection, and your game needs 2MB/s connection for smooth play, and you start a torrent download, then the download will try to get as much hold over the connection as possible, thus making the gameplay unplayable due to less throughput of data. The best way to avoid this is to set the priority of downloads to low or minimum from Torrent app, so that your game gets prioritized for bandwidth.

 

[huilun02]

If your sister is on wireless, get a physical ethernet connection from your router to your PC. You will get better connection to the game servers and should dominate the internet bandwidth.

If that is not an option you should look to improving your wifi connectivity like getting a faster router.

Whats your internet subscription speed btw?

 

[BrandonK123]

I will definitely try the priority settings method and a Ethernet cable isn't an option which is sad because I've heard it is significantly better connection. And Huilun, this is what I came up with, http://gyazo.com/a94542ef656099e0b8ed05c20a7dd388. I can try again if this isn't what your after

 

[huilun02]

No I mean the internet speed advertised by your ISP when you subscribed for it.

 

[BrandonK123]

Not sure, is there a way to find it? I think it's atleast 10 down

 

[huilun02]

If its within that range of internet speed then a new faster router isn't going to change anything.

Downloading torrents while playing online is a big no-no for me even with bandwidth prioritization.

Try using Leatrix Latency Fix: http://www.leatrix.com/leatrix-latency-fix

And/or occasionally clearing your DNS cache: http://www.wikihow.com/Flush-DNS

 

[BrandonK123]

Thanks man, unfortunately my sister isn't downloading but I will try them as soon as she is and i'l report back.

 

[MeteorsRaining]

Any router, weather cheap or decent, from a good brand would be able to create a network of 10Mbps w/o issues. DNS cache clearing is a fine option, but if your sis must download torrents when you game, the best is to prioritize, won't yield you fantastic results, but would be atleast better than giving away all your bandwidth for downloading torrents.

 

[Kewlx25]

For a $300-$400 you can build a PFSense box and split the bandwidth with traffic shaping. You may be able to do this cheaper with an off the shelf, but it's more hit-and-miss unless you do a lot of research.