Question What can i do to reduce packet loss and lower ping (ms) in game

[BLAZNGCOLDBACON]

I currently play alot of Rainbow Six Siege but my connection can be quite unreliable. On average, i get 1.7 mbps download speed and my in game ping can range from 60 ms to 100ms. I notice there is quite some packet loss as indicated by an icon. I heard that a VPN can help reduce packet loss. Is this true and if so what can i do to improve my connection. We cannot afford much faster connections because of the area in which i live. I now mainly use my phone's hotspot to play and get 50 ms ping with zero packet loss but i want to move back to avoid using much data.

 

[bill001g]

You do not need much bandwidth to play games as long as that is all you have running. Most games need around .5mbps up and down. When you have a very small connection you want to be sure nothing else is running on your pc and no other pc are sharing the connection. Even simple web pages can over use a connection as small as yours.

What you need to do is run a tracert to say 8.8.8.8

Then leave a constant ping run to hop 2 in the trace. This should be your ISP router. If you see loss here with low load on the connection your ISP should fix it.

VPN can not fix loss and latency if the vpn must travel over the same path. This is very complex and for most people vpn increases the latency. There are special "gaming" vpn that optimize connection to some of the large data centers where games are hosted. These services mostly help people say in asia where some ISP do not have good access to undersea fiber.

I will assume you not running on wifi since delay and loss are a expected result when you use that technology.

 

[anotherdrew]

All of what Bill said, but I would also run a constant ping ("ping /t x.x.x.x) to your first hop. This should be your router and this will identify any issues with your own network (ie. problems you probably can fix). Most of the time the issue is with the ISP, but it's good to check anyway.

The only exception to what Bill and I said is if you have 2 routers (or an access point and a router). In this case you would want to check the 2nd and 3rd hop.