:( 160ms ping...

[Laws]

man this sucks.

ive done the speed check thing on the xbox dashboard and the lowest ping i get it 160, i got better pings on my 56k modem!

im sharing the connection with my PC and its not using any of it.

im on XP, maybe its limiting bandwidth to the xbox? any settings i could fiddle with?

would getting a straight ethernet cable from my xbox to router speed up things?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally posted by Laws
man this sucks.

ive done the speed check thing on the xbox dashboard and the lowest ping i get it 160, i got better pings on my 56k modem!

im sharing the connection with my PC and its not using any of it.

im on XP, maybe its limiting bandwidth to the xbox? any settings i could fiddle with?

would getting a straight ethernet cable from my xbox to router speed up things?

Don't worry about it - the XBox speed test is complete shite. Even M$ admit it.

The ping is high 'cos it's connecting to an M$ server in the US.

The UL/DL values are often complete crap too: e.g. do one test, get normal values, do another test, get bugger all DL & a stupidly high UL (1000s) or vice versa. It's something to do with how the test is done, & as said above, even M$ admit it isn't accurate.

So...Just ignore the XBox dashboard's speed test.

Download Dan Elwell's BB Speed Test from here: http://www.vantage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/v2/v2.htm

... and run it on your PC. If it gives a good speed, then your connection is fine, & the XBox speed also should be fine.

If you do have a NAT router, though, then I would recommend using that rather than ICS through your PC.

EDIT: Just thought.... although the XBox speed test is crap & not to be trusted, it may still be possible that XP is reserving some bandwidth if you're sharing the connection through your PC. Something called "QoS Packet Scheduler" I think. There's a way to zero the amount reserved... I'll try & find it.

EDIT 2: Found it. I don't know where I found this originally, so can't give credit to whoever wrote it, but I saved it as a text file & have quoted it below:


This is for broad band connections :

1.make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges.

2. start - run - type gpedit.msc

3. expand the "local computer policy" branch

4. expand the "administrative templates" branch

5. expand the "network branch"

6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window

7. in right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth"
setting
8. on setting tab check the "enabled" item

9. where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0
reboot if you want to but not necessary on some
systems your all done.

Effect is immediate on some systems. some need re-boot. I have one machine that needs to reboot first, the others didn't. Don't know why this is.

This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, XP
seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for its self. Even with QoS disabled, even when this item is disabled. So why not use it to your advantage. To demonstrate the problem with this on stand alone machines start up a big download from a server with an FTP client. Try to find a server that doesn't max out your bandwidth. In this case you want a slow to medium speed server to demonstrate this. Let it run for a couple of minutes to get stable. The start up another download from the same server with another instance of your FTP client. You will notice that the available bandwidth is now being fought over and one of the clients download will be very slow or both will slow down when
they should both be using the available bandwidth. Using this "tweak" both clients will have a fair share of the bandwidth and will not fight over the bandwidth.

[Laws]

i followed the directions you gave me and i was still getting 160 pings, i then uninstaled the qos from windows and still got the same.

what pings do you guys get on your xbox, if its ping'ing an american site then suppose a 160 isnt too bad.

anything eles that windows could be doing ?

[Tezcatlipoca]

If you uninstall QoS, I think the 20% bandwidth reservation stays in place. That's why you need to actually enable QoS & then zero the amount reserved, rather than disable it or uninstall it.

Can't think of anything else Windows could be doing. Just make sure you don't have anything running on the PC, that uses the net, when you want to play XBox Live.

Anyway, *don't* worry about the ping. It's to a US server, so isn't too high. What matters is the ping when you actually play XBL, & that should be nice & low as long as you play with other Brits. (can't be measured, but if your games are OK, then don't worry)

Can't remember what ping I got last time I did the test on the dash - I don't bother with the test anymore, as it's crap & pointless.

As long as your PC's connection is fine (try that BB speed tester), then your XBox's connection should also be fine.

What kind of performance do you get when you actually play Live games? That's what matters, not the values the XBox speed test gives.

I'd still recommend using a router though, rather than ICS. If you stick with ICS, then make sure you use ethernet for modem>PC rather than USB (unless you already do anyway).

[Laws]

well i just connected my xbox to the router with a straight ethernet cable.

still getting 160ms returns.

oh well, rtcw isnt too bad, guess ive just been playing on US hosts.

can anyone tell me what kinda of pings they are getting on thier xbox so we can compare?