[Info/Guide] Your Network, Your gaming, and You

[Echoa]

So, Decided Im going to share information Ive been looking up and applying to my own network with the rest of my BnS bothers and sisters. Hopefully this helps you with your gaming experience not just in BnS but in other games.  Im not claiming to be an expert, just sharing positive experience and info Ive gathered and used.

 

 

 

Router:

----------------------------------------------------

So you got yourself router obviously (or maybe perhaps you dont?) in order to have wireless and any number of connected devices in your home. One thing Ive heard questions on regarding routers is regarding QoS settings aka Quality of Service. Now Ive seen some make the claim that you get better performance by disabling QoS but this isnt entirely true (maybe higher consistent speedtest throughput), and mind you we're talking on the router.

 

QoS is supposed to give a more consistent and pleasant internet experience for all users on the network, it prioritizes certain traffic over others. Another thing its supposed to help eliminate or reduce and is something many may not know of is "Buffer Bloat" http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Introduction

 

I personally use OpenWRT firmware on my router with SQM Scripts installed and set to use 90% of my up/down stream speed. This has reduced my buffer bloat SUBSTANTIALLY, with it consistently staying bellow 10ms of increased latency. 

 

You can test your buffer bloat here http://speedtest.dslreports.com/

 

Now if your router is supported by OpenWRT (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start)i highly recommend you install it and the SQM Scripts, if not then you can also try enabling and tweaking with your routers QoS settings. These will be different for each but you can do a before and after test to check your buffer bloat with/without QoS.

 

Another thing to do is if you are on Wireless try to stick to N mode only (unless you have devices that wont use N or you have a faster type than N), and using proper password settings. I use WPA2 Personal, and if you do like me make sure to not use a mixed WPA/WPA2 as this can decrease your wireless thoughput somewhat. Another thing is that youll hear its better to use the 40mhz setting, this is only sort of true in areas that arent congested with other networks. If you have alot of other wifi networks around continue to use 20mhz. In regards to channel I generally keep it to auto and let the router find a clear channel for me, but you may feel free to pick your own if you wish.

 

Doing these things in your router should help with latency and lag spikes 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Ethernet /Wifi/ NIC on your computer:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Next is your ethernet/wifi or NIC (Network Interface controller)

Now most of this is going to apply to Intel based NICs but you should be able to figure it out for other vendors

 

I like to keep CPU cycles as free as possible so I make sure to enable all offloads for UDP and TCPchecksums,etc.

This may add a little latency but not enough that Ive noticed

 

Also Disable Inter-Frame Spacing and increase your RSS Queues as well as disable power efficiency options.

 

The settings for maximum throughput as per intel (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005811.html)

Reduce Interrupt Moderation Rate to Low, Minimal, or Off

Enable Jumbo Frames to the largest size supported across the network (if all devices support it)

Disable Flow Control

Increase the Transmit/Recieve  buffer size

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Software Tweaks:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I dont do too much on the software side, but one that many probably already use but ill just recommend it again is Leatrix Latency Fix

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13581-LeatrixLatencyFix.html

but another thing you may tweak if you like is your Network Throttling Index. More info and Tweaks here

http://www.speedguide.net/articles/gaming-tweaks-5812

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Well Thats it guys, hopefully this helps to improve your network performance and in general just helps improve your experience

[GoatSploat]

Pretty good basic guide, it's all little stuff, but the little stuff adds up!  I have a couple tidbits to add, the delve a little deeper for anyone who cares

 

40 minutes ago, Echoa said:

Enable Jumbo Frames to the largest size supported across the network (if all devices support it)

So most ISP, and the tier1/2 providers, support Jumbo frames.  Chances are, if you have a really fast connection it is required to be turned on.  I have a 1Gbps up/down and I have to have 9000byte frames enabled to get the speeds I pay for.  The last place I lived had Verizon FIOS and I had 9000byte frames turned on, and it actually hampered the connection.  Their network in my area didn't support them end to end so the fragmentation was causing latency and some pretty bad windowing, and eventually congestive collapse.

Easiest way to figure it out, is to contact your ISP and ask them what the MTU across their network is, and what the recommended size is.  If you want to figure it out yourself, and you have the ability to (equipment wise), just set the DF bit in a packet and do an ICMP ping to like the google or L3 global DNS servers, and raise/lower until you find the max MTU.  Generally host/clients for windows will do PMTU discovery automatically, but it regularly tries to increase the MTU to whatever max you have set which can decrease performance some in spikes.  It really isn't much unnoticeable in most cases, but with this game being action MMO, you can feel it if you pay attention.

Ah, and on the note of your QoS points, you are mostly correct.  A few tidbits to add/point out:  If you are not maxing out your connection then QoS will not have a positive effect; and when I say maxing out your connection I mean the speed at which the dataplane of your router goes, and not the advertised speed of your internet.  Fun fact, a lot of SOHO routers that tout "gigabit" ports can't even support the 1Gbps speeds whether it is a LAN or WAN transfer.  My recommendation is to look up the spec's of your router and see what the max through put is (if they don't give it to you just do the math, its PPS(packets per second) times MTU.  If your throughput is lower than your ISP advertised speed AND you are maxing out the speeds while playing, then QoS can have a positive effect.

If your throughput is lower than ISP advertised speed, and you do NOT max out, QoS will serve no purpose.

If you are connecting a switch to your router for port density or remote connectivity, you can turn the switch to cut through mode instead of store and forward to reduce latency a little.  I don't recommend this for your router (if your router even supports it), because what this does is, send the packet through the port with out doing error checking on it, so the switch receives it, does the forwarding look up, and passes it on.  If you have a layer1 issue it wont get caught as there are no CRC checks, so you need your router to catch any problems, else if there is an issue it will be caught much later and the retrans will degrade your connect significantly (make sure your cables and optics/ports are good if you try this.)

Wireless is inherently half duplex (the 802.11 does not permit full-duplex), but that really isn't an issue anymore except with 802.11b. 802.11b is not really good for gaming if you have more than one person on the wireless network, as it doesn't support OFDM, and theoretically you lose 60% of your bandwidth, and when you add more clients it can be detrimental (always wired gaming!)  Even if everyone is g/a/n, that one 802.11b will murder them because it will force all clients to use CSMA/CA.

[Preciousss]

On 3/29/2016 at 10:02 AM, Echoa said:

So, Decided Im going to share information Ive been looking up and applying to my own network with the rest of my BnS bothers and sisters. Hopefully this helps you with your gaming experience not just in BnS but in other games.  Im not claiming to be an expert, just sharing positive experience and info Ive gathered and used.

 

 

 

Router:

----------------------------------------------------

So you got yourself router obviously (or maybe perhaps you dont?) in order to have wireless and any number of connected devices in your home. One thing Ive heard questions on regarding routers is regarding QoS settings aka Quality of Service. Now Ive seen some make the claim that you get better performance by disabling QoS but this isnt entirely true (maybe higher consistent speedtest throughput), and mind you we're talking on the router.

 

QoS is supposed to give a more consistent and pleasant internet experience for all users on the network, it prioritizes certain traffic over others. Another thing its supposed to help eliminate or reduce and is something many may not know of is "Buffer Bloat" http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Introduction

 

I personally use OpenWRT firmware on my router with SQM Scripts installed and set to use 90% of my up/down stream speed. This has reduced my buffer bloat SUBSTANTIALLY, with it consistently staying bellow 10ms of increased latency. 

 

You can test your buffer bloat here http://speedtest.dslreports.com/

 

Now if your router is supported by OpenWRT (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start)i highly recommend you install it and the SQM Scripts, if not then you can also try enabling and tweaking with your routers QoS settings. These will be different for each but you can do a before and after test to check your buffer bloat with/without QoS.

 

Another thing to do is if you are on Wireless try to stick to N mode only (unless you have devices that wont use N or you have a faster type than N), and using proper password settings. I use WPA2 Personal, and if you do like me make sure to not use a mixed WPA/WPA2 as this can decrease your wireless thoughput somewhat. Another thing is that youll hear its better to use the 40mhz setting, this is only sort of true in areas that arent congested with other networks. If you have alot of other wifi networks around continue to use 20mhz. In regards to channel I generally keep it to auto and let the router find a clear channel for me, but you may feel free to pick your own if you wish.

 

Doing these things in your router should help with latency and lag spikes 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Ethernet /Wifi/ NIC on your computer:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Next is your ethernet/wifi or NIC (Network Interface controller)

Now most of this is going to apply to Intel based NICs but you should be able to figure it out for other vendors

 

I like to keep CPU cycles as free as possible so I make sure to enable all offloads for UDP and TCPchecksums,etc.

This may add a little latency but not enough that Ive noticed

 

Also Disable Inter-Frame Spacing and increase your RSS Queues as well as disable power efficiency options.

 

The settings for maximum throughput as per intel (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005811.html)

Reduce Interrupt Moderation Rate to Low, Minimal, or Off

Enable Jumbo Frames to the largest size supported across the network (if all devices support it)

Disable Flow Control

Increase the Transmit/Recieve  buffer size

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Software Tweaks:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I dont do too much on the software side, but one that many probably already use but ill just recommend it again is Leatrix Latency Fix

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13581-LeatrixLatencyFix.html

but another thing you may tweak if you like is your Network Throttling Index. More info and Tweaks here

http://www.speedguide.net/articles/gaming-tweaks-5812

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Well Thats it guys, hopefully this helps to improve your network performance and in general just helps improve your experience

Very good basic guide! Thanks for sharing ..