Getting the best out of your internet connection.

[currentlemon]

When it comes online gaming, it really depends on how powerful your current internet connection.  Good interent connections lead to good, consistant online play and bad connections lead to bad, inconsistant online play.  For fighting games, it's not that simple.  With fighting games that have online matchmaking, it is the utmost importance that your interent connection is good.  Even the slightest lag can affect input delay when playing online.  Guilty Gear Xrd's online matchmaking is subpar.  It's not bad, but not very good.  Not as strong as Arc System Work's other fighting games like Blazblue and Persona Arena.  With matchmaking not very strong, you need a stable connection in order to get the best out of the game.  Sure there will be some guidelines like playing in your own region like only doing playermatches in the east or west coast that might make it better, but it won't have much affect since your interent connection is still bad.   Many of us don't really know much about networking, and I hope this article will provide some insight on how to get the best out of your internet service.  Mind you, I'm still a learning IT student, so there are things that I might not know.  If you know something, please reply and add to the discussion.

 

NETWORKING: WIRELESS VS POWERLINE VS ETHERNET

 

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO REGARDING THIS TOPIC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sue1Zvmh8JA

 

We've all heard about NAT's and port forwarding.  Lots of wireless connections need open NAT's and port forwarding in order for wireless connections to be stable.  But let's be honest, wireless connections are not that strong and when it comes to fighting games, wireless is not good enough.  People have suggested doing a wired ethernet connection.  What this means is that you are connecting your console to your computer's ACTIVE router by using an RJ-45 ethernet cable.  However, not all of have our consoles right next to our computers.  The people who do are dedicated gamers that constantly stream their own gameplay online and post videos.  Not to mention you need lots and lots of cables if your doing ethernet, which can be a hassel. 

 

Wireless is so much easier and less of a hassel because you don't have to deal with long cables connecting to your console.  But like I said, wireless connections are not very powerful for online gaming and can be inconsistant.  Wireless is good for connecting multple devices together in one router, but for games, especially fighting games, its not good enough.

 

There is an alternative to wireless connection and that other alternative is powerline adapters.  What is powerline.  Let me put it this way.  Powerline adapters, when connected to a wall outlet and connected to a working router and your game console using RJ-45 cables, treats the wall wiring like an ethernet cable. You have two adapters that should be plugged in a wall outlet (no socket strips/extensions).  One adapter is plugged into your router and the other into your console.  The console will read it as a wired connection.  As long as UPnP is turned on, you should have an open NAT connection (there are probably some exceptions on some routers that I might not know).  Powerline connections are not as strong as standard ethernet cabling, but it is around 10 times faster than wireless.  You get a consistant connection with powerline and it's better for gaming.  You can find any powerline adapters online and in computer hardware stores such as best buy, but the problem is that these adapters are expensive.  So lets sum up what I just said...

 

ETHERNET CABLES

THE GOOD: Cheap and the most reliable connection.

THE BAD: Lots and lots of wires and cables that need installing.  Not to mention that your console may not be set up near your PC and router

 

WIRELESS CONNECTION

THE GOOD: Conveniet, good for multiple devices to connect to internet using one router

THE BAD: Inconsistant online connection, bad for games, especially fighting games.

 

POWERLINE ADAPTERS

THE GOOD: Better consistant online connectivity than wireless, and much better for gaming and easy to set-up

THE BAD: It can be expensive.  Online connectivity is not that powerful that ethernet.

 

IF YOU HAVE AT&T U VERSE AS YOUR HOME ROUTER, PLEASE READ THE BOTTOM SECTION

 

Now that we have that out of the way, lets talk about which connection is best for you and your games.

 

WIRELESS

Check out this link: http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/best-networking-devices/

 

We all agree wireless is bad for your games, but if have no choice in the matter, go ahead and use wireless.  You need to have UPnP on in order for you to get the best possible connection.  To do this you need to go into your router's system configuration.  There are many articles and online tutorials, but I'll tell you what you need to do.  If you want more info look up articles and tutorials on routers and UPnP.  To turn on UPnP you need to do the following...

 

1. Go to your PC and open the command prompt. (You can search for it on the Windows start button and type "command prompt" or "cmd.") (For Mac's or other operating systems, there should be command prompts, you have to dig into you PC).

2. Enter "ipconfig"  This will tell you your IP address and gateway that will allow you to enter your router's system configuration.

3. Go online and one the address bar, type your ip address or gateway to enter system configuration for your router.

4. Check your router's manual.  Reading will tell you how to turn on UPnP.  Not all routers are the same, they have different configurations.  You can look up your router's model number and research online

 

After you turn on UPnP, your online connection to your console should be at an open connection.  Port forwarding may be needed, but to many routers it is unnecessary.  I don't have much experience with port forwarding, but still if you need it, check articles and tutorials online.  Don't worry they're there.  Here is a link: http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/

 

POWERLINE ADAPTERS

 

Check out this link: http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/best-networking-devices/power-line-adapters/

(Instructions on how to install may verify depending on the adapter you buy)

 

For powerline adapters, you need to connect two adapters on a wall outlet.  No socket strips and/or extenders.  One adapter plugs into the router (that is currently connected and working on a PC), and another to the game console using RJ-45 cables.  Like wireless, you need UPnP on for the best connection so follow look up and read my instructions or research online.  Test your connection on your console and see if your connection is working.  Your console should be connected to the internet.

 

ETHERNET CONNECTIONS

 

Pretty self explanatory.  Connect your console to your router using an RJ-45 cable.  Again UPnP needs to be on for the best possible connection.  Make sure your cable is long enough to reach your console.

 

FOR AT&T U VERSE USERS

 

It is unfortuate for me to inform AT&T U Verse users that their routers do not support UPnP.  After some researching and talking with their employees, the reason for not supporting UPnP is due to security reasons.  Even if you use Ethernet or Powerline connections, your online connectivity will still be limited.  To solve this, you need a third party router to connect to AT&T's router and from there you can create your own router connection.  Unfortunately I'm not familiar with this process and still researching on this subject.  I have AT&T U Verse and I'm still experimenting with it, so I will try and update this post once I'm done.

 

Thank you for your time for reading this article.  I hope I have enlightened you all on the subject of networking despite my inexperience on the subject.  I wish you all best of luck on playing Guilty Gear or any video game out there.  Stay salty my friends.

 

[Killnetic]

A couple other majorly important factors for getting the best internet experience in anything.

• Properly configured MTU
  While a large portion of you are going to be fine with your hardware default configurations, there are still some of you who will be running with your MTU set too high. The TLDR on what happens is you will be fragmenting your packets and it can impact your throughput by a significant amount. To find your optimal MTU size in windows open the cmd prompt and execute the following command > ping -l 1500 www.google.com
  If you get output that says 'Packet needs to be fragmented' then it means that your connection doesn't support a MTU of 1500 or higher. You need to step it down and try again until you find the maximum MTU size that doesn't require fragmenting. More here http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks/MTU
  
  Finally, you need to go to your router configuration and set your max MTU to the highest MTU that doesn't require fragmentation. Alternatively if you only care about your console, you can actually set the MTU size in the playstation custom internet configuration settings. This means the playstation won't transmit packets larger than the max MTU you found.
   
• Modem quality
  The modem your ISP gave you is most likely a dirt cheap refurb which may be notorious for poor signal stability or whatever else ails modems. I haven't read up on the latest cable hardware in a long time since I am on a fiber optic connection but a while back, motorola surfboards were all the rage. I suggest doing some research and considering buying your own modem after you confirm with your ISP that they will support the specific model you are interested in. Some ISPs actually charge you monthly to rent your current lame modem. You might actually pay off your own purchased modem from the saved costs on your bill.
   
• Router quality
  You most likely don't have a good router. I really should put this up as the #1 offending issue but it costs money. If you are experiencing any poor internet performance, always remove your router from the equation and plug straight into your modem to rule out your router. The primary tests I know of for judging your router's capability is:
  - http://www.speedtest.net/ for testing throughput stability and capacity
  - http://www.pingtest.net/ for identifying packet loss (super bad) and packet delivery fluctuation/ jitter
  - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/view for picking out a <good> router
   
• Line quality
  This one is pretty technical unfortunately. For cable modems, you must go into the modem's control panel (not the router's) and compare your line signal to noise ratios, types of bound channels and more. Most of this stuff is something that an ISP technician can work on or understand. You can absolutely find peer support on http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all . If you call phone support for your ISP and ask them about QAMs or SNR, you will probably be talking to people who don't understand any of it. Your best bet if you actually do your research and need help is to escalate your phone support call to a tech who gets it. Good luck with this one, a lot of multi-home or apartment complexes will have a small internet hub dedicated to the whole complex and they can get pretty shoddy due to lack of maintenance. Your neighbors probably don't know squat about the internet and just deal with it when there is poor service.

 

Real talk about wireless

If you are on wireless and your game uses UDP, you are going to be dropping outgoing and incoming packets. The UDP protocol inherently implies that the packets transmitted do not need to always reach their recipient. Unless explicitly designed to account for packet loss, you will have a bad time in a fighting game based off of UDP. That weird hiccup you notice that feels like it is eating your inputs? You got it, it is packet loss. Don't even bother with netplay if you have it, I certainly won't play another round with anybody who has it.

 

Good luck and happy fragging.

[heavymetalmixer]

A couple other majorly important factors for getting the best internet experience in anything.

• Properly configured MTU

  While a large portion of you are going to be fine with your hardware default configurations, there are still some of you who will be running with your MTU set too high. The TLDR on what happens is you will be fragmenting your packets and it can impact your throughput by a significant amount. To find your optimal MTU size in windows open the cmd prompt and execute the following command > ping -l 1500 www.google.com

  If you get output that says 'Packet needs to be fragmented' then it means that your connection doesn't support a MTU of 1500 or higher. You need to step it down and try again until you find the maximum MTU size that doesn't require fragmenting. More here http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks/MTU

 

One of the problems when you try to set the MTU is that even if you set it on the router, Windows still has the default number. So I recommend you first set the MTU in Windows and then experiment with the router one, and finally setting the obtained number into the PS3 Net Settings.

 

Another thing are the DNSs servers: these things make possible we connect to IPs and people, if they're not reliable, the our connection is not reliable.

 

I already put more details on these two matters on this thread: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4967-netplay-connection-improvement-guide/page-4#entry864150

[Killnetic]

One of the problems when you try to set the MTU is that even if you set it on the router, Windows still has the default number. So I recommend you first set the MTU in Windows and then experiment with the router one, and finally setting the obtained number into the PS3 Net Settings.

 

Another thing are the DNSs servers: these things make possible we connect to IPs and people, if they're not reliable, the our connection is not reliable.

 

I already put more details on these two matters on this thread: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4967-netplay-connection-improvement-guide/page-4#entry864150

 

 

Fortunately, nobody has a domain name associated with their IP address. This is why Domain Name Servers have zero impact on your ability to play a peer to peer game outside of talking to PSN for matchmaking. Blocked ports do, however. Configuring a max MTU on your game console as a smaller size than your in-between hardware will not result in fragmented packets.