You may be wondering what Latency is, It’s the amount of delay it takes to send information from one point to the next. Latency is usually measured in milliseconds or ms.
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How is Latency Different from Bandwidth?
Latency is only a way to measure speed whereas bandwidth isn’t, although most people think bandwidth is speed.
- Bandwidth has to do with how wide or narrow the pipe of transmission is.
- Latency has to do with the contents of the pipe; how fast it moves from one end to the next.
In this tutorial today, we shall learn how to lower your online gaming latency and this will help you reduce lag since your Internet connection will be improved. Ping refers to the number of milliseconds it takes for a real-life action to register in the game server you’re using.
How to reduce Latency and increase internet speeds
If you are using a Wi-Fi connection, move close to your gaming device and your router will increase your Internet connection strength, which will in turn decrease your ping. Items such as walls, floors, and other physical obstacles will impede your wireless signal
You must also close background programs and websites for example YouTube, torrenting services, and even other games running that may severely affect your ping.
Reduce the number of connected devices
You can as well reduce the number of devices using Wi-Fi since the router cannot support so many devices at the same time. You want fast internet, so if you have multiple connected devices, this might be impossible.
Use a local server
You can also choose to use a local server, but this will dramatically decrease your ping if you’re used to playing on other countries’ servers. You may have to wait for some good time before you can join a game, the higher performance is worth the wait, anyway.
Connect using Ethernet cable
Also try to connect your device to your router via Ethernet cable. your ping will almost always be lower on a wired connection than on a wireless one.
Restart your router and modem
Another way is to restart your router and modem. If your network equipment has been running non-stop, it may not be functioning properly. Remove the power cables from both the modem and the router and wait for thirty seconds then reconnect.
call your Internet Service Provider
If all this does not help you to fix or lower your latency to increase your internet speed, then call your Internet Service Provider’s line before thinking about replacing your router. They may have a less expensive answer for you.
Replace your router
After contacting your service providers and ensuring there was no assistance extended to your needs, then it’s okay to replace your router. Note that replacing your unit will have a noticeable effect on your Internet connection strength, speed, and consistency. Similarly, your ping will also likely go down when you install a new router.
upgrade your Internet package
Another feasible alternative is to upgrade your Internet package. This is the last thing you can think about if not of the above steps has helped decrease your ping, you’ll have to select an Internet package with higher upload and download speeds from your ISP.
Disable your firewalls.
Firewalls filter all outgoing and incoming network traffic which takes up time. Often, this will not become a problem, but if your firewall program has become corrupted or mis-configured, it can noticeably add to your latency. In addition, if you are running more than one firewall program, it can also add to your latency, as each program will be working over your connection.
Bypass faulty network hardware.
Occasionally, lag can be due to faulty network hardware. To see if this might be the cause of lag, temporarily bypass hardware that you don’t need to use at the time. For example, you can try bypassing hubs, switches or routers and connect to your modem directly using an Ethernet cable. This might help you identify if a faulty piece of network hardware is the cause of the lag you’re experiencing.
Other Types of Latency
We now know that Latency occurs in many various environments including audio, networks, and operations, but i will add a few more for you, below is the list.
Fibre Optic Latency
Latency in the case of data transfer through fibre optic cables can’t be fully explained without first discussing the speed of light and how it relates to latency. Light travels slower in a cable which means the latency of light traveling in a fibre optic cable is around 4.9 microseconds per kilometer.
Audio Latency
This form of latency is the time difference between a sound being created and heard. The speed of sound plays a role in this form of latency which can vary based on the environment it travels through e.g solids vs liquids. In technology, audio latency can occur from various sources including analog-to-digital conversion, signal processing, hardware / software used.
How best to Measure Network Latency
Network latency can be tested using either ping, Traceroute or MTR. Each of these tools is able to determine specific latency times, but i would prefer using MTR since its more detailed in giving results.
The use of MTR allows a user to generate a report that will list each hop in a network that was required for a packet to travel from point A to point B. The report will include details such as Loss%, Average latency.
Methods generally used for measuring Latency
- Round Trip Time (RTT)
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)