Technical Help

[Minty_Cymru]

I wonder if Sony can help me here?

Everyone complains about lag etc when there is some, but I decided to take a more scientific approach and it lead me down the route of performing some tests.

I connected a laptop through a CAT5 cable to the router and performed a series of speed & ping tests. The result I was getting from pingtest.net was:

27ms Ping

1ms Jitter

Perform the same test on the same cable (using the same static IP settings (placed in a DMZ) as the laptop) on the PS3 and the results are consistently:

40ms PING

10ms Jitter

...ther is obviously a factor at play here that is slowing the ping from the PS3 - and it isn't the router. I tried 2 PS3's and the result was the same.

So, is the network adapter inside the PS3 slowing the ping? If so, how can I make adjustments?

I really hope that I get some help because, the events that lead me to this series of tests almost had me giving up online gaming altogether.

Thanks.

[mont348]

The PS3 tests presumably done via browser the reason for the difference is the PS3's prehistoric browser i know speedtest.net will not work fully for ping tests.

For example if i use http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bw.asp ill get 15 to 19ms ping via PC the PS3's browser results would be around 27 to 30ms ping thats with a wired connection on both roughly always +10ms when testing via PS3 on most test sites.

[Minty_Cymru]

Yeah, as part of the test I tried using Speedtest.net but the browser would not support Flash 10 (required) - although it was not required for Pingtest.net

Funnily enough, I used PCPitstop to do the speed test.

Bandwidth is coming out flat even across the board, but we all know it ain' about that. Latency is the cause of lag and Ping is a better measurement of latency.

The browser really shouldn't affect the ping, surely?

[mont348]

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Minty_Cymru wrote:

Yeah, as part of the test I tried using Speedtest.net but the browser would not support Flash 10 (required) - although it was not required for Pingtest.net

Funnily enough, I used PCPitstop to do the speed test.

Bandwidth is coming out flat even across the board, but we all know it ain' about that. Latency is the cause of lag and Ping is a better measurement of latency.

The browser really shouldn't affect the ping, surely?

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I dont think the browser technically affects ping as such but more likely it's capability of reading and running ping tests it's like some servers on speedtest.net jitter can be awful on servers close to me Birmingham and Coventry but good on others slightly further like Maidenhead and London.

[Minty_Cymru]

I see what you're saying.

Are there any Mods here who can take this up with Sony and advise what the technical issues I am facing here? I need clarification.

I am performing network tests and the PS3 is at the very bottom of the performance table - this isn't good for a console designed for network gaming.

[Minty_Cymru]

I see, so the answer is no then?

Please prove me wrong, I used to believe that the mods are there to help the community? In the same way that the Police once 'served' the public?

I guess that If I started posted anti Sony comments and being anti social I'd get a virtual slap off a mod?

....and there it is again, the mod/police similarity?

Come on guys, do the work you volunteered for.

[SuperFastZombie]

Hi Minty_Cymru,

The PlayStation 3 is not a user serviceable product so adjusting your consoles network adaptor or any other hardware modifications is not some thing I can help you with.

With a ping of 40ms you shouldn't be experiencing any problems with online gaming as any ping under 100ms is more then adequate for this.

Can you provide a bit more info on the issues you have been having? 

Cheers,

SFZ

[Minty_Cymru]

Thank you for the reply.

To bring this up to date:

ISSUES

On FPS Shooters (Mainly BF3, also MW3) I've experienced incredible latency issues - the age old complaint of shooting someone many many times without result, and being nulled by what seem to be single shots

I am mature enough to realise that lag/latency will always be an issue, particularly if there is a significant distance between yourself and your target, but on the whole it has been unacceptably bad for over a year (I had initially blamed the game and the servers, until recently)...

PREVIOUS CONDITION

I had experienced bad lag/latency with:

COD: Black Ops

BF:BC2

BF3

COD: MW3

A pingtest from my PC would yeild a result of around 15ms average (pingtest..net) - although testing from PS3 browser under the same conditions would return a ping of 40ms (plus an additional 10ms of jitter) - How is this so different?

Having discussed the subject at length on certain game publisher's forums I have learned that each game is written to include a 'counter lag algorithm' to level the playing field for those who have a weak connection. This relies on PING measurement and those with a 'good' (low) ping will suffer as a result.

CURRENT CONDITION

Working with my ISP I have raised my ping (when measured from PC) to 30ms (50ms when measured through the PS3 browser) in the hope that the 'counter lag algorithms' within the games' coding would take less notice of me and the lag/latency problem has become far less severe. A noticabe difference in gaming satisfaction - I no longer shoot 'rubber bullets'. However, it is not as good as I believe it can be - a number of members within my clan have a ping of 50ms (80ms measured from PS3 browser) and suffer no lag at all (so is the claim). So I have, this morning, requested the my ISP make another amendment to my connection to further slow my ping to determine if it can be further improved.

This is all good news, but I should ask once more - why is the ping measurement from a PS3 not as fast as it is when measured with a PC???