Ping Jitter
 

Ping jitter/difference/range:
Modem upstream/downstream stats:
Tracert stats:
How it effects my game (quake 3 arena example). Here; C=Connection, S=Server. I don't quite understand how this process works in real time, and especially because i receive the same results on every server, regardless of location and provider. However other people i have played against do the same test and results come back with good values. Concluding that it's definately a problem with virgin media.

I've had this problem for 3-4 years now, with it worse at some times of the year.... but alas i do not pay the god damn bill and the parents are adamant that they do not care for the poor service they have consistantly received (to put it politely). As a player of online FPS games, this really stresses the hell out of me, it's perfectly fine for uploading and downloading.. however it's got to the point where i cannot find opponents in games because they whine 24/7 about my "warp" (teleportation from x to y). Yet for me, the game looks fine... however some shots do not register due to this ridiculous ping range which therefore not only ruins other users internet experience, but also my own as it's not fun aiming my ironsight at somebody only for the bullet to do nothing, or emptying a full clip at a player but only 66.66666666% of that actually doing anything due to the ping differences constantly changing the true position of said opponent.

Do not doubt that i havn't contacted virgin media, because i have and they never come back with anything. Even their top technical guy suggested i move ISP but quite frankly, despite how funny that is coming from one of their own employees, is not an option until i move out (which isn't for a short while yet!).

Essentially it has completely ruined my gaming experience, and quite frankly i'm also fed up of the abuse childish 13 year olds give me when i play against them too, it's going to turn me into one of those parents who will not let their children play any kind of computer game in fear that they would replicate the game in real life, or alternatively it's going to put me in a padded room. See the following quote:

So can anybody help? I'm in Leicestershire (Loughborough to be specific), and on the 20mb package. I really need some good leverage to use against whatever clueless assistant they decide to put on the other side of the phone next time, perhaps what will clear my own case is the following sentance;

"By now, i must have had 3 pcs, with 3 different network cards, in 3 different locations, using 3 different cables, on 4 different modems and with 3 different packages on 1 same provider, yet i still suffer from this problem."

Thanks

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Not being a customer of Virgin Media what do you expect of them?

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Sorry i was not aware that being the son of the bill payer therefore entitles virgin media to give me a poor internet connection, or have i missed something? That's the type of attitude that virgin must have to give out such a service to their users. What a great start to this forum you have blessed me with in regards to such a reply.
But no, really, a massive thanks for your input.. it was very constructive and so i'll respond to it by answering honestly and in a non-sarcastic way to conclude:

When they state, and i quote;

I expect them to do as they say and provide a "PERFECT" package for online gaming, however as my post clearly suggests, that's not the case. I've come here for advice, if you're going to do nothing but add sarcasm and irony with your pointless replies then you're not welcome.

Thankyou.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Perhaps it would've helped if you'd've put "My Parents" instead of "the rents". I would also add that being sarcastic is no help to anyone least of all yourself.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Yea i suppose that would have made sense to more people, so sorry for the perhaps aggressive tone in my reply, i've just lost my patience with everything internet related in the time i've spent trying to resolve it over the years. It's now the wost it has been and thankfully i've discovered this forum which could lead to some useful ideas.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Firstly, if you expect a "perfect" service for gaming, you must be joking.
There are other varients involved for gaming.

How are you connected?

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Not a problem, you will get help and advice here just I'm not techy enough.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Haha yea i know what you mean, but i'd atleast like the ping range to be alot smaller to the point where it's playable without the hassle. I've been on other networks (granted, not in the same area) and i've seen how they should all look so i know what i want is possible, but perhaps getting that out of virgin is where the joke is at, hehe. I do remember one phone assistant stating that he had a ping of 100 in counter strike to a UK server and that was fine!

Right now i'm going through an ethernet cable to a router, connected directly to the modem. Though i still get the same result if i just go directly to the modem. The engineer had also tried adding and removing an Attenuator (i think that's the correct term) - which didn't make any difference either.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

The PING results arn't that bad to be fair. I've seen alot worse. Is there any specific time / pattern to this "lag"

Where is the server and what game is it you are playing?

Any firewalls etc?

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Yeh i'm lucky i can still play to some level, however the issue now is that people simply refuse to play against me, that and they throw lots of abuse at me when the game starts if they didn't realise (i.e. i stood still until the game started so they didn't see the teleporting, and so they decide to throw every naughty word out of the sun at me and quit, or just leave their pc and i'm sat there like a lemon and have to leave myself). So it's more the issue of being unable to play due to reasons i cannot help.

It does seems to be student (traffic) related to some degree though, i'm a university student myself but i'm not on the uni network. However, when the students return to the area it seem to be worse, which is also what one engineer they sent out suggested that it could potentially be, but he didn't know. He said line upgrades where going to happen, which passed, however nothing got better. Being exam period right now and seeing the library packed full of people on the computers i can only assume it has something to do with traffic load. However there are some nights at 3-4am where it is just as bad which leads me to beleive that the effect is just amplified depending on the different time and day of the year. But i just don't know, support always says current line load is fine.

Primary games i play are;

-Quake 3 Arena
-Quake Live

However, people also notice my teleporting in Call of Duty aswell. I've tried dropping rates to between 3000 and 25000 as requested by the technies from virgin but to no benefits. I'm at a loss. Firewall is off/everything required is allowed.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

You can check this yourself (go to the Advertising Standard Authority web site and search on Virgin Media adjudications).

They recently lost a case because their headline claim (e.e. "perfect for gaming" - actually it was a different claim, but no matter) conflicted with their "up to" small print. The ASA ruled that the headline was the wieght given by the cutomer. In this case, the word "perfect" puts VM into some disrepute (IMO) when set agains the "up to" small print.

So you could complain to the ASA. It won't improve your gaming experience but itf you win, it'll settle a score at least.

Next to your data. Are all your multiplayer games the same? Quake 3 is quirky IMO. My son stopped playing that and plays CS Source and COD2 with not a murmur of lag or poor FPS at peak times.

Looking at your game stats, those pings do not look shocking to me. A series of PATHPING to verygames.de might be instructuve - we get more info from pathping than from tracert.

Also, what can you tell us about how your router is set up? Looking at the IP address you're on, might there be any special settings in the router (which model is it)? Is the firewall turned ON in the router?

Let us know.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Well the router is a crappy sitecom one, with the firewall and everything turned off. The only reason i've settled for it is because it's no better without it.

Infact, be right back, i'm going to run a couple of pingtest.net's directly and post them, in addition to the pathping.

10mins.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Don't bother with pingtest.net. It's utterly useless for your purposes.

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Not sure how to read this one atall so hope it's enough

First: Germany gameserver host: Verygames
Second: UK gameserver host: multiplay.co.uk


---------- Post added at 13:41 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------

Lol this was amusing too mate, just went on Quake Live (the new quake 3 but in a browser) www.quakelive.com and i went straight into a game in 1vs1.

Any ideas?

Re: Ping Jitter
 

Yeh can confirm that same lag happens up in leeds where im also a student. I find its worse on some games than others, call of duty 4 and css for example are unplayable but quake live and cs 1.6 are just about.