any tips to reduce ping?
any tips to reduce ping?
there’s limited data on ping performance. you’re aiming for minimal latency, even if it means reduced bandwidth. what options exist? switching from wifi to ethernet is straightforward, but are there other ways? your router plays a role—can a slow router impact ping more than just speed? is it realistic to have a sluggish router when it comes to latency? can your ISP assist if you contact them about this? generally, there’s no plan designed specifically for low ping or latency. some VPN services claim to offer better game connections by routing through optimal paths, but that’s more about gaming than everyday browsing. your friend’s connection is impressively fast—only 1 ms away—and yet you’re seeing 45ms on direct p2p. who’s responsible? (you have the fastest plan available: 50 megabits, fiber-based.)
Before reacting, check where the delays occur. Try using the free Pingplotter version to examine the connection. Note that latency varies based on round-trip time and the specific IP you're testing. A 45 ms might actually be a solid ping. Just a quick tip: when I ping my company router through VPN, it's 14 ms, whereas pinging Google comes in at 56 ms... The numbers change depending on the situation.
Are you both connected through the same provider? The distance you need to travel before reaching your friend depends on how deep into their system you go. Cable usually handles this at the street level, giving very low latency between homes, while other services might differ. If you're using PPPoE, it's likely handled in your ISP's main network, which is much farther away. When using different providers, you're probably passing a significant amount of data across the Internet before connecting, since they rarely directly exchange traffic. I think a 50Mbit connection on ATT is likely DSL-based—they might be mislabeling their fiber offerings as being slower than they actually are.
we don't share the same internet provider. no matter what, 45 milliseconds is unrealistic. you could hop across the entire country in that time. that’s why you might feel stuck—just switch providers or change your location and see if things improve?
Have you ever checked the route using traceroute and noticed the ping rise? Could be a specific issue with your 45ms result. Are you certain your connection is fully fiber? Usually I see speeds between 2-5ms on speed tests with my 100/50Mbps fiber.
I've tried using traceroute but I'm not sure what to take from it. I don't have fiber internet. The instructions were hard to understand. "wtb fiber" means I want to purchase fiber, but unfortunately it's only offered in a few areas. I likely have cable instead. I'm trying to play competitive games over Parsec and just general competitive games.
Explanation of residential internet setup: When you leave your house, you connect to either a node (like cable) or your local CO (DSL). Fiber optic acts like DSL, delivering speeds around 70% of light speed over copper, with slightly better performance over fiber. Your connection shares bandwidth with other users at the node, resulting in minimal delays—typically just a few milliseconds. The path then follows your ISP’s fiber network, guided by BGP routing, and passes through peering connections to reach your destination. Large providers often have multiple peering links, but distance isn’t always a factor; for instance, AT&T and Comcast may not be directly linked. Connecting to services like Facebook might route through nearby data centers, offering near-instant response times. Home routers add some latency, usually 3-5ms, but can rise to 1-2ms with a solid wired connection. Copper Ethernet also contributes delay, so it’s best to connect directly to your router rather than through switches. Each switch adds another 1-2ms, making fiber or direct connections preferable for speed. Testing ping times from your device can help you understand internal versus external delays, giving you insight into where the bottleneck lies.
A switch contributes very little. For example, PING (192.168.1.253) 56(84) bytes of data. Just 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.058 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.077 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.071 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.074 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.082 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.073 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=0.078 ms 64 bytes from Server.lan (192.168.1.253): icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=0.070 ms --- ping stats --- 8 packets sent, all received, no loss, average 0.058 ms PING god.lan (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.185 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.281 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=0.241 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=0.194 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=0.232 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=0.212 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=0.485 ms 64 bytes from God.lan (192.168.1.1): icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=0.483 ms --- god.lan ping stats --- 8 packets sent, all received, no loss, average 0.185 ms Bearing in mind some results stem from higher speeds on the same switch and others from different link types, the gap narrows significantly when switching to Gigabit connections."
Ping refers to network delay, measuring how long data takes to travel between devices. Latency isn’t a fixed value—it varies based on the route and devices involved. For instance, a 0.2-second ping to your router might be much higher, like 50 milliseconds to an Amazon server or 140 milliseconds if you’re connecting through a different ISP. Ping depends heavily on the specific points and paths used. Most routers typically handle this in under a millisecond. It mainly impacts performance and bandwidth, not security. Issues like packet storms or faulty ports can increase latency, but changing your router location is usually only practical if it offers a better route. International connections often use VPNs with nodes in different regions to reduce delay. The actual speed also depends on the technology—copper cables slow things down more than fiber, and light travels faster through glass but still has limits. In short, latency is shaped by your network setup and routing choices, not just a single number.
The Cisco 2960X introduces roughly 80 microseconds of copper delay, while your standard consumer switch offers around 200 microseconds from port to switch plane in each direction. The cheapest switch chips can add 1-2 ms of latency. With NBaseT and SFP+ connections, you're not relying on typical consumer gear.