After failing a few glyphs in a row due to spikes, I come to you, the LS populous, for advice on combating the lag epidemic that has been plaguing us for some time now. This has affected others as well, not only the glyphers, but the fishers, transmuters, suffusencers, as well as plaguing the hardcore ladder. I am just now frustrated enough to attempt to form some sort of battle plan against the plague...

Let me tell you some of the steps I have taken to try to deal with lag:

*Have used the '/clear' command before ever attempting to glyph
*Made sure to uncheck the 'I am looking for a group' box to avoid having catacomb invites
*Made sure all other programs that use bandwidth are closed (example: MSN/AIM/Ventrillo, other websites, P2P programs, etc.)
*Check my pings before attempting to glyph, if they are anywhere near 100ms, I don't bother
*Constantly clearing my internet cache, as well as using programs such as CCleaner/Spybot/AVG to keep my PC fresh and malware/virus free (as these can rob bandwidth and system resources)


After doing all of the above, on a consistent basis, I still get spikes. Sometimes they are manageable, causing a brief .5 second 'delay' from when I click to when it actually reads in LS, but other times it can cause catastrophic meltdown of said glyph, causing an INSTANT fail, even if I have not miss-clicked any up to that point. Not that it should make much difference, but I am on a fast, reliable, cable connection, not dial-up as some of you may suggest. I am also located in the USA.

This is annoying to say the least... but alas, this is not a cry topic. I have learned to cope, I just wish there were a better way. Comments such as 'log out' or 'deal with it' are not exactly welcomed here, but if that is the extent of your intelligence, by all means let them fly. This is meant to be a constructive topic, as I hope to continue my glyphing career, but would like to do so MUCH more efficiently.

Keep it constructive and on topic please.
-Jesse

EXECUTE

command prompt -> ping -t ladderslasher.d2jsp.org

IF STABLE

Play Hardcore
OR
Skill up (Glyph, Fish, Suffuce. Cook)

IF != STABLE

Play Hardcore
OR
Skill up (Transmute)



This is actually serious I always run the ping to see if the connection is stable if it is stable I can do anything, if it isn't the only skill I can do is transmuting as it works even with crazy lag. And I always play hc but when it is laggy I don't well / play 65+ (usually sometimes i do)

This post was edited by benell on Mar 11 2010 04:13pm

deal with it, we all do!

You did not read the bold part..... or maybe you did?

p.s. this topic isn't a joke, for all that may think it might be.



@ benell, that was more directed at the jokester from my crew.

I do check my pings all the time. I don't play hardcore for the simple reason of seeing the gear that a few people have lost... used to play HC on D2 and I raged when my 95 light sorc died due to lag, I don't feel like breaking another keyboard... plus I have grown up since those days.

The only real skill I like to work on is Glyphing, which is severely halted by any type of spike in the system. I just want to know if there is anything else I can do, besides move into Paul's basement and have a dedicated line.



well if that is the case, something should/could be done about that, but it is outside of my control.

This post was edited by jlhromeo on Mar 11 2010 04:24pm

doing all the things you do to prevent lag is useless because the problem is not on your pc or inet provider. pauls internet provider cogentco causes the problem because it is getting attacked by botnets or whatever and lags like hell every few days. there is nothing you can do about it.

If ping is still too high... and you have done all you can...
Task Manager
Turn off your Explorer.exe
And only play LS

That kills all the other junk you get...

Should / could be done about what?

Between your PC and the LS servers is about 25 places for things to get lagged up or go wrong.

It seems you forgot to defrag your hard drive, update browser features (and disable extra add ons), update flash and running your browser in lowest priority and set quality to 0.
Those will all help a bit.

This post was edited by przy on Mar 11 2010 05:39pm

Drive gets defragged usually once a month, more if I do a lot of heavy file moving. Browser is up to date and has zip for extra crap, and flash is as well. Will try the priority bit, and also quality even though it looks... ugly.



I am aware of that. Probably more than 25.

This post was edited by jlhromeo on Mar 11 2010 06:26pm