User:Ralta

This guide outlines the different types of "Lag" that you may get in SS13, and how to deal with each one.

1) Local Computer Issues

• How to identify it: Try opening another program (e.g. a web browser). You may find it takes longer to launch than expected, or fails to open at all. If other programs open without issue, try going to a website you haven't visited for a while (website data is often cached by your browser, so testing with websites you visit often won't work). If you can open programs and access web pages, the issue is unlikely to be an issue with your actual computer.
• What causes it: Any number of things; one or more programs could be eating all of your computing/network capacity. A virus may be causing performance issues. Your computer might be updating in the background (this is common in Windows). There are lots of causes for this and it can be difficult to diagnose.
• How to fix it: If your computer is generally running slow, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and look for any programs which are using a high percentage of your CPU, Memory, Disk or Network. Web browsers, for example, often send and receive data even while you're not directly interacting with them. Likewise, web browsers are notorious for eating memory and CPU (especially if you have pages with videos open). Close any programs that you don't need to have open and see if that helps. Failing that, a quick restart is always a good way to come back fresh and see if that makes a difference.

2) High Ping Lag

• How to identify it: Your ping shows in the top right of the chat window - for example: "51ms". This is how long it takes for your connection to reach the server, measured in milliseconds. The closer you are to New York, USA (where the server is located), the lower it should be. Typical pings are 0-100ms for Americans, 100-200ms for Europeans, 200-300ms for people in Asia/Oceania/Australia. The higher your ping is, the more likely you are to notice "lag" in the game. If your ping is abnormally high for your location, or it ever goes above 300ms, there may be a problem with your connection to the server.
• What causes it: Ping is affected by a number of things, including but not limited to:
  • Network speed
  • Bandwidth
  • Location
  • VPN/proxy usage
• How to fix it:
  • Ensure you have a reasonable network speed (if you can stream 720p videos without buffering, you're fine).
  • Use a wired connection (i.e. Ethernet) instead of WiFi, if possible. With WiFi, the further you are from your router, the longer it takes for the signal to reach it and the more degraded it gets (note that WiFi signals can be negatively impacted by certain electronics like microwaves).
  • Stop/pause any uploads or downloads while playing.
  • Disconnect from any VPN or proxy programs (they are designed to route your connection to one or more locations before they reach their destination, causing the journey to take longer).
  • Check your firewall settings - if you have a hardware firewall (if you don't know what that is, you probably don't), ensure it is not affecting your traffic to the Paradise server

3) Packet Loss Lag

• How to identify it: If you are using Windows 8 or 10, open your start menu and type 'cmd', then click the Command Prompt. You'll get a black-and-white terminal window. Type "ping -n 100 byond.paradisestation.org" and press Enter. Your computer will attempt to contact the Paradise server and once it has finished, it will provide you with statistics. If all goes well, you should have 100 sent packets, 100 received packets, 0 lost packets. You will also see a round trip time, measured in milliseconds - this is your ping to the server (see High Ping lag above). If you see any lost packets, that is a bad sign. Likewise, a high ping can indicate an issue as well.
• What causes it: Usually caused by a poor connection to your router, or a poor connection between you and Paradise's server. Sometimes this is beyond your control (such as if the server is experiencing issues, or if your ISP has line issues). It can also be caused by congestion; when lots of people in an area all use the same Internet Service Provider (ISP), there can be degradation in the connection which can cause packets to drop.
• How to fix it: As with a high ping, it is recommended stop any downloads/uploads and that you use a wired connection instead of WiFi. If you have to use WiFi, you can help avoid congestion by changing your WiFi channel to a less populated one in your router settings.

4) Server Routing Issues

• What causes it: A network outage somewhere on the internet, between you and the server.
• How to identify it: Typically, a huge chunk of the crew will disconnect / go SSD at once. You may also find that some websites stop loading, or take significantly longer to load than usual.
• How to fix it: Unfortunately, this is outside of your control, but it should be resolved after a few minutes. If it doesn't, poke our server host in Discord.

5) Server Lag

• What causes it: The physical server which is hosting Paradise is experiencing one of the above issues.
• How to identify it: Everything is slow. Not just you, but everyone and everything, and it all seems to be slowed down the same amount.
• How to fix it: Ahelp it. Admins are probably already investigating the cause.

Kyet's Troubleshooting Questions

• If you ask our host for help diagnosing/fixing your lag issue, expect to be asked these questions:
  • Have you noticed anyone else on the server experience the same issue, or complain about "lag", in the last 15 minutes? (this is asked first in case it tips us off to a server-side issue)
  • Have you quit any other heavy CPU/network programs that you are running? Any downloads, any other games?
  • Where in the world are you located? (country)
  • What is your ping to the server? (it should show up at the top right of chat)
  • What is your ping to somewhere else near the server? (e.g: any online ping test tool that uses a server on the US eastern seaboard, ideally New York itself)
  • What is your packet loss to the server? (find this out using the instructions above, it will take a few minutes to calculate)
  • What is your packet loss to some other server on the US eastern seaboard? (this question is going to be asked if you're connecting from outside the USA)