Campus ping?

[Fenwayb]

Not really sure if this should go here or in the tech section, but I have a quick question about your average campus internet.

When I first got here, both my roommate and I did speedtests and found that the internet was fantastic: 40+ mb/s download, 30 or so mb/s upload, 7 or so ping, etc...But when I load up a game (Tribes: ascend), it's laggy as all hell and my ping isn't anywhere where it should be. Is there anything about about the average college campus that might contribute to this anomaly?

I recognize that it might not be the interent; This is the first time I've tried playing it on my laptop, but my laptop is nearly as high of a quality machine as my desktop, so I'd be surprised if I can't run the game in minimal graphics settings when I'm fine for very high on my desktop. The other problem could simply be their NA west (my current location) servers are worse than their NA east (my original location).

[Nazgûl Killer]

Moved from the PH&A to the Basement.

[Fenwayb]

Moved from the PH&A to the Basement.

Thank you

[removeduser_4536284751384]

Just a guess, but could the college have configured it to prevent people playing computer games online?

[Fenwayb]

Just a guess, but could the college have configured it to prevent people playing computer games online?

I doubt it...How would they do that? The only thing that's not working is the ping, which doesn't seem to match up with my speedtest ping.

[Nietzsche]

Not really sure if this should go here or in the tech section, but I have a quick question about your average campus internet.

When I first got here, both my roommate and I did speedtests and found that the internet was fantastic: 40+ mb/s download, 30 or so mb/s upload, 7 or so ping, etc...But when I load up a game (Tribes: ascend), it's laggy as all hell and my ping isn't anywhere where it should be. Is there anything about about the average college campus that might contribute to this anomaly?

I recognize that it might not be the interent; This is the first time I've tried playing it on my laptop, but my laptop is nearly as high of a quality machine as my desktop, so I'd be surprised if I can't run the game in minimal graphics settings when I'm fine for very high on my desktop. The other problem could simply be their NA west (my current location) servers are worse than their NA east (my original location).

Since no one has responded, I will.

First, speedtests really mean very little. The type of traffic is what matters in some cases. Traffic may be throttled depending on port, ip, hell, any number of reasons that the provider dreams up.

Secondly, it may not be the connection, it could be your laptop. I would eliminate that as a cause first by checking drivers, turning off unneccessary applications, etc.

Finally, if you changed locations, then your original speed test means nothing. You've changed the equipment/location of your original connection.

I would make sure your laptop is capable of performing to your expectations. Then I would test other applications/games using the same connection. Finally, if you are still having issues, contact the IT support staff of the school and see what they have to say.

[Fenwayb]

Since no one has responded, I will.

First, speedtests really mean very little. The type of traffic is what matters in some cases. Traffic may be throttled depending on port, ip, hell, any number of reasons that the provider dreams up.

Secondly, it may not be the connection, it could be your laptop. I would eliminate that as a cause first by checking drivers, turning off unneccessary applications, etc.

Finally, if you changed locations, then your original speed test means nothing. You've changed the equipment/location of your original connection.

I would make sure your laptop is capable of performing to your expectations. Then I would test other applications/games using the same connection. Finally, if you are still having issues, contact the IT support staff of the school and see what they have to say.

I appreciate the response, but I think I covered most of that in my OP.

I can appreciate speedtest not meaning all that much, but the internet has been fantastic (streaming 1080p) outside of that, so it's definitely a good internet. Also, it's a pretty small campus which, while in city limits, isn't really urban. Also, upperclassmen aren't even here yet, so I'd hope the traffic wouldn't be too much.

As I said, my laptop is as high quality as my desktop, and is just as up-to-date. Yes, there might be something peculiar about a particular part, but I don't think simply turning of applications would fix that, would it?

And yeah, "when I first got here" meant that I did the speedtest here, not at home...

[irishron]

Why not ask the Uni's IT? Campuses can and have been known to throttle and even block some sites.

[Bolkonsky]

Run winmtr and see where the slowdown is.

Sent from my SGH-T499

[PoleCat]

Just a question - is your desktop slow as well? Or only your laptop?

[Fenwayb]

Just a question - is your desktop slow as well? Or only your laptop?

My desktop was amazing (as long as the internet wasn't ballsed up, which wasn't all that often, tbh)

[PoleCat]

My desktop was amazing (as long as the internet wasn't ballsed up, which wasn't all that often, tbh)

The reason I brought it up was that I want to know what kind of connection you're linking to. I'm guessing it's something along the lines of a T3 link - but I could be wrong.

Also - when did you try your Speedtest test? Was it far before any other students moved into the dorm? If so then you may just be experiencing the normal lag from hundreds of people sharing the same network channel.

As far as I remember Cable and ADSL are two different animals. Cable allocates shared bandwidth across multiple users - this means all users share the same pipe and have to make due with what slivers of bandwidth are given to them. That might be a different experience for you if you come from a DSL household.

You said your Desktop worked fine. Are you still seeing a difference in performance between your laptop and desktop even after everyone has moved in to the dorm and things have settled down? If there is still a difference then your problem may be hardware related on a local level. Otherwise it's probably a crappy connection on the university side. In any case good luck!

[Doono]

When I went to university it seemed the net connection was treated differently from certain locations, in labs the connection went all the way up to around 150mb+, in halls (dorms) the connection plummited to a barely useable 0.25mb per room. They do it to stop certain users just ruining the connection for the rest of the campus by torrenting 24 hours a day, the approach was a bit too heavy handed though, made the connection useless for anything other than checking static sites.

[Fenwayb]

When I went to university it seemed the net connection was treated differently from certain locations, in labs the connection went all the way up to around 150mb+, in halls (dorms) the connection plummited to a barely useable 0.25mb per room. They do it to stop certain users just ruining the connection for the rest of the campus by torrenting 24 hours a day, the approach was a bit too heavy handed though, made the connection useless for anything other than checking static sites.

This is the speedtest from my room (admittedly, at 8 on a sunday morning, but still)

[Bolkonsky]

This is the speedtest from my room (admittedly, at 8 on a sunday morning, but still)

Download this:
http://winmtr.net/

Run it and put in the ip or address of the Tribes: Ascend server. Then paste where the packet loss is coming from. It will show you whether or not it's your internet. If your router is dropping tons of packets, complain like hell to the ISP or university.

After looking up states by population density, not population, I'm starting to see your point better.

Exactly. And like Ron said, Rhode Island's totally different as it's the second most densely populated state in the country. New Jersey is first. East coast is much different than the west coast. If you go to south California, I bet you'd find it a different story with all the cities.

[irishron]

Download this:
http://winmtr.net/

Run it and put in the ip or address of the Tribes: Ascend server. Then paste where the packet loss is coming from. It will show you whether or not it's your internet. If your router is dropping tons of packets, complain like hell to the ISP or university.


Exactly. And like Ron said, Rhode Island's totally different as it's the second most densely populated state in the country. New Jersey is first. East coast is much different than the west coast. If you go to south California, I bet you'd find it a different story with all the cities.

On I-10 Santa Monica to San Bernadino, yeah. East of there to Phoenix, dialup only.

[irishron]

My DSL speedtest came in at close to 800kb/s
My real download speed was 150bk/s for abot 80mb, then tanked to 80kb/s and less.
Don't put too much stock in it.

[Fenwayb]

My DSL speedtest came in at close to 800kb/s
My real download speed was 150bk/s for abot 80mb, then tanked to 80kb/s and less.
Don't put too much stock in it.

But I'm still streaming 1080p videos with ease, so it's definitely not entirely fictional

[irishron]

Could it depend on the site you're viewing, then?
Is it just sites you're trying to play online?

[Fenwayb]

Could it depend on the site you're viewing, then?
Is it just sites you're trying to play online?

It's not a site, it's a video game (Tribes: ascend). As I said before, I guess it could be the game, but the game worked fine on the other side of the country, so it's weird that it's not working here.