Please help me with my HIGH ping! :(

[joule]

I have had the same problem with Counter-Strike: Source. Every server I go to, I get a ping from anywhere between 200 and 1000. I don't know what the problem is, and I am tired of it. I have done many things to fix the problem, but no luck has arrived. Can someone please help me with this?!
I really want to experience Counter-Strike: Source and, especially, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch in all of it's glory.

Here are my PC specs:

P4 2.26 GHz
768 DDR-SDRAM (PC-3200) [CORSAIR]
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO @ XT speeds
Updated everything
I run Half-Life 2 @ 2X AA and 4X AF in High Detail.
It runs rather smooth in Half-Life 2.

The things I have done to try to resolve this frustrating problem :flame: :
-Called Comcast (my ISP) and told them about the problem. They were no help at all and barely knew what I was talking about. :hmph:
-Turned down most of the video options and resolution to see if I would see an improvement in latency. Nope. Not at all. ;(
-Took speed tests online and ping tests. The results were superb.
-I have set my Internet connection speed in Steam to LAN/T1 > 1M. Where it should be.
-I have pinged many sites, also resulting in superb results.
-I have inputted the following into the console: "cl_updaterate 60", "rate 20000", "cl_cmdrate 60", and others. Again, no such luck.
-With "net_graph 3" enable in the console, my "choke" and "loss" stays a steady 0.

Any suggestions on helping me with this annoying and frustrating problem of mine?! ;(

[Archangel]

same here. I join a server with a ping around 90, within a minute its at 500. Maybe just bugged netcode or steam being overworked bigtime.

[JimPanzee]

I have the exact same problem, I have 3.3Mbps ADSL internet and I get great pings in Call of duty, UT2004 and Battlefield vietnam, but in Counterstrike source or HL2DM my ping is always between 300 and 1000 ;(

at least now I know I'm not the only one with this problem.
I hope someone can help us...

[Edcrab]

It makes you feel stupidly paranoid but check the "Properties" of every game in the "Play games" section, and ensure they're set to "Do not automatically update this game".

Even then you can sometimes see that Steam is trying to download content via the Monitor, but note that even if a game/tool is at 100% completion "Always keep this game up to date" can cause laggy effects, presumably because Steam is continually checking for extra content.

[brisck1]

Only way I fixed this on mine was to disable my firewall alltogether. For some reason it was trying to access an unknown port.

[StAtiC]

Dedicated servers only.... thats all i can say.

[Unfocused]

Firewall! Disable the firewall! And when it helps think how to keep the firewall active and have a good ping (I can't help you on that one, though; it's something with ports).

[ManHacks]

also try right clicking on steam, going to settings, then internet and make sure the connection isnt set to dial up or something. I had problems with this when steam first came out, I had it on 14.4k and I was wondering why my game was acting lagged.

[Hypno]

Firewall! Disable the firewall! And when it helps think how to keep the firewall active and have a good ping (I can't help you on that one, though; it's something with ports).

Keep your firewall.... unless you wanna get some trojans...
Online players are a very easy target; don't make it easier for them.

[cowfists]

go to console and enter rate 25000

[IIIPROIII]

i had bad lag problems and my game was freezing i found that zonealarm was the problem (zonealarm is a firewall for those who dont know) maybe conflicting i dunno ...i dont run zonealarm at all now when playing halflife2 or counterstrike and i have no problems. my game was choking and ping would rise within a minute or so to about 1000m/s to see if your game is choking type net_graph 3 in console and watch choke count as u play. 0 or closest to 0 is best. mine was getting up to 30 or 40 when i had lag problems... choke is kind of like a countdown until next data packet can be sent, so choke of 0 is best so data isnt waiting :)

for those who dont know...

type in console
net_graph 3 :to see fps choke and otherstuff ingame
net_graph 0 :to turn it off (lol)
cl_smooth 0 :helps with mine stops the slight flickering wont fix major lag but smooths game for me slightly

to enable console goto options/keyboard/advanced/enable console/apply ... in game that is

hope this helps, definatly zonealarm on mine was the problem still does it if i forget to turn it off before playing. might not just be zonealarm might be a firewall thing so check your choke then try disabling firewall and check again gl ;)

[IIIPROIII]

just re read first post and seen u say your choke and loss is at steady 0 hmmmm well its not same problem as mine then :( so my 1000 word reply probably wont help...might help someone:) what the others say about checking that steams not updating isnt a bad plan... apart from that its trial and error...disable all programs running in background, clean pc, maybe even reformat i did 3 times :) run adaware spybot and ccleaner get them all at www.majorgeeks.com try disableing all firewalls just to test it gl dude.

i should have read the first post better :)

[HateCrime]

Spyware, perhaps?

About six-months ago, I had a similar problem with Unreal - I ran Spybot and discovered some NASTY stuff on my PC. Cleaned it up, updated my virus definitions and got a firewall...no more problems!

[joule]

Spyware, perhaps?

About six-months ago, I had a similar problem with Unreal - I ran Spybot and discovered some NASTY stuff on my PC. Cleaned it up, updated my virus definitions and got a firewall...no more problems!
I have ran the following:
CCleaner
Spybot: Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware SE Personal
AVG Anti-Virus

Those help clean up my system. But do not improve my ping, sadly enough. ;(

[badbot]

I too have the same problem and my pc is a bit better than yours. I have 2.8 2 gigs of dual chanel ram and high speed internet connection. I tried everything u did and more and nothing seems to work in removing lag for CS:s and HL2:DM.

[JimPanzee]

It got a bit better for me now, almost playable, but my ping is still over 150 when it should be 30

[Argonaut]

if youre dsl user or are connecting via vpn client, you can try this solution, detailed description in this thread:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=58988

[neptuneuk]

will laughing help?

bwahahahahahahaaahhahahaaa!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
no? oh well....

[Firkat54]

i too am having this problem. But i didn't have this problem yesterday. Yesterday i remember having a ping of 96 in CS:S but today i've had 500 - 600 :angry: . Some help from a professional would be nice.... ;(

[Abhorsen]

i have the exact same problem :) any1 who helps with this shud be a god!!! i have 1 mbps connectiion via AOL (i know i know :( infinate Dloads, what can i say???)

ive tryed nearly everything!!! no firewalls, anti virus etc... but no luck. ive tryed nearly every code tht mite help :( my Call of Duty ping rox and is normally at like 18-30, so why is it so cruddy on CSS???

[TAU neutrino]

I've had this problem... Try changing the Steam's internet settings. Change the speed to ISDN, or DSL 256 and see if that helps.

[RC-73]

maybe playing servers local to your region would help. i only play on EUropean servers and my ping is never higher than 19 (since last steam update) my modem speed is 300k with NTL. i think 19 on a 300k connection is pretty good

[HydraEater]

Do you have a lot of useless processes running in the background... like P2P file-sharing programs or something like AIM or ICQ?

OR maybe it's just the crappiness of DSL?

[ether]

There is a thread called "How to Reduce Choke" on the Steam DM forum that has a number of suggestions. One that comes to mind in particular is to run tracert to see how many hops you have in your connection and whether one particular hop is causing the problem.

[Seagull]

Make TOTALLY sure that you're internet settings in Steam>>Settings is set to your correct connection.



I was totally lagging hardcore today, and I noticed it went blank! I switched it back and i'm totally fine now.

[ether]

Polar_Bear -That happened to me too, but it caused choke, not high ping. My understanding is that ping is the time it takes a single packet to get to the server, whereas a faster connection (eg cable versus dialup), really isn't faster from a ping perspecive, it's just a fatter pipe, so it can handle more data.

Run tracert from the DOS prompt and it will show you each hop in the path to the server and the time for each in ms. Look for hops with problems.

[holsten]

im new to this kind of thing been looking ye had the same problem with half life 2 and firewalls there seems to be a spyware file actually in half life 2 best thing to do scrap the game no offence to people that play it why play games if its just going to mess u about

[TechnoHippyChic]

Best. Join/first post. On an HL2 site. EVAR.

[sinkoman]

im new to this kind of thing been looking ye had the same problem with half life 2 and firewalls there seems to be a spyware file actually in half life 2 best thing to do scrap the game no offence to people that play it why play games if its just going to mess u about

Hahaha.

Go screw yourself. There is no spyware in HL2. How the **** did you come up with that bullshit?

EDIT: Oh I get it now. You didn't buy the game! DER! Only reason anybody would just go "scrap the game", cause if you paid, then you'd definetly want your money back.

That explains how the spyware got there!

Now go **** yourself.

[TechnoHippyChic]

The thread list shows this as - Please help me with my HIGH... heh..

(on the main forum page)

[honky]

hey guys having trouble with hl and hl2 in deathmatch. i dont know why cos i used to get better pings like 4 years ago with dialup. my hardware is more than enough and the weird thing is that in CS i get pings of 10 or 15....in halflife i get between 250 and 500. i read through the messages on here and turned off updates and my virus program but nothing fixes halflife. hope someone can help. cheers