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VERY simple question: why is my Steam ping so slow?

5

50548

Guest
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
5,039
2
Currently in Switzerland
I normally get 230ms when most players are under 40ms...besides, I have a normally very speedy 25Mbps connection.

Is it because I am living in Europe and there are not many servers here or what? Tips for improving this, please?
 
distance to servers is on thing, the quality of your modem (especially if your on some sort of DSL) and router is an other. your wifi signal quality is important too. I'm in europe and i usually get pings below 20ms, but i'm one fiber optics.
 
mulo said:
distance to servers is on thing, the quality of your modem (especially if your on some sort of DSL) and router is an other. your wifi signal quality is important too. I'm in europe and i usually get pings below 20ms, but i'm one fiber optics.
Click to expand...

Well, Cablecom is supposed to send me a new modem, dunno how this could help if Speedtest already shows a 25Mbps speed with 30ms ping or so...

Alaerian said:
Steam itself doesn't have a ping. Are you thinking of specific servers for a specific game?
Click to expand...

Sure, Left4Dead2 in this case...
 
mulo said:
throughput has nothing to do with it in this case. its all about ping, jitter and packetloss, try do a pingtest.net
Click to expand...

Thanks, there you go:

39576884.png


What is your opinion?
 
BRLawyer said:
Thanks, there you go:

Image

What is your opinion?
Click to expand...

both your ping and jitter are high so its on your side things aren't working properly.

this is my results, the furthest away i can get from my router while not going outside.
39577360.png


notice how your ping is almost twice that of mine, but more importantly your jitter is all over the place, basically jitter is variation in ping, and is a good indication of an unstable connection.

try connecting your mac directly to your modem and do the test again.
 
Anyone else in the house? Maybe someone is torrenting?

Cable modem can differ in speed depending on neighborhood load. For example, evening (busy hours) will definitely be slower.

Distance to server definitely makes a huge difference.
 
Consultant said:
Anyone else in the house? Maybe someone is torrenting?

Cable modem can differ in speed depending on neighborhood load. For example, evening (busy hours) will definitely be slower.

Distance to server definitely makes a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Just me and my wife, no torrenting...she has her PC laptop where she watches streamed movies, but not all the time...I hope the new modem will rectify the issue; otherwise there seems to be no other factor apart from distance to server.
 
Stick to nearby servers, since upgrading to a really good connection my ping maxes out at 9 on most games because I play on UK based servers. Once I start using mainland Europe or US servers it jumps up considerably.

Wireless interference.
Poor wifi reception. It's easy to check in Windows what speed your wifi connection is (just highlight the connection icon) but I'm not sure how you do that in OSX.
Bad connection.
Interference from phone lines (if so contact your ISP).
That's all I can think of.
 
Dagless said:
Stick to nearby servers, since upgrading to a really good connection my ping maxes out at 9 on most games because I play on UK based servers. Once I start using mainland Europe or US servers it jumps up considerably.

Wireless interference.
Poor wifi reception. It's easy to check in Windows what speed your wifi connection is (just highlight the connection icon) but I'm not sure how you do that in OSX.
Click to expand...
option click the icon in the menu bar.

Dagless said:
Bad connection.
Interference from phone lines (if so contact your ISP).
Click to expand...

lets add bluetooth to that
 
mulo said:
both your ping and jitter are high so its on your side things aren't working properly.

this is my results, the furthest away i can get from my router while not going outside.
Image

notice how your ping is almost twice that of mine, but more importantly your jitter is all over the place, basically jitter is variation in ping, and is a good indication of an unstable connection.

try connecting your mac directly to your modem and do the test again.
Click to expand...

How would I add the picture of my ping test?
 
You are probably trying to access servers too far from you. For me:

US East coast servers can be as low as 20ms
US West coast > 100ms
EUrope: > 200MS
 
I haven't played L4D for awhile. Can't you sort by ping time?

There might be more people playing L4D2.
 
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