Dedicated Server Lag Spikes

RogueDog

<div class="IPBDescription">Question about lag spikes</div> I occasionally run a dedicated server on a cable modem. Before the patch, everyone in the server used to get major lag spikes. The ping would be perfectly fine for a certain amount of time, and I mean pings from 50-100 for people with cable modems, and 190-250 for people with dialup. Then seemingly out of nowhere, bam, everyone gets 1,000-3,000 ping. The lag spike lasted for anywhere between 1-5 minutes, and at that time, I lose half the people in the server. After the patch, I still have the same problem, the only difference being the horrendous lag spike only seems to last for about 30 seconds, to 2 minutes, but they are more frequent (or seem more frequent, I could be wrong about that).

Does anybody else have this error? I'm fairly certain that it's not my machine. I'm running a:
P4, 2.4ghz
GeForce 4 (I don't remember what kind, but it's the "good" kind)
512mb of RAM
WinXP

Nothing else is running on the machine while the dedicated server is running too. Nor is anything else running on the network. Are there any sort of network bottlenecks I should look for, or any programs that I should close..? I'm fairly certain that the problem lies within either the network, or the machine. Has anyone else had any issues like this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks :oP

-Also, I have tried experimenting with lowering the number of max people allowed on the server, and I get the same results for anywhere between 8-16 max people (I haven't tried more than 16 ppl max).

Tweedle

As always, the question is, are you running behind a general-consumer router? If so, which one?

Smellslikefeces

I have, or have had, the exact same issue. You'll be playing along and then BAM 3000+ pings for a period of time and then everything goes back to normal. I did some extensive testing (3 weeks of continous ping tests) and it turned out to be my ISP (Insight Communications). They had oversold the cell and after 6:00pm to 11:00pm I would get this spike every 10-15 minutes. The lag all came from the first hop to the gateway of my cell. I told this to Insight and I got into some heated arguments with them. They of course said it was everything on my end and nothing on their end. Mind you I had just come from the other side of town with the exact same home setup just on a different ISP without any problems. Fact is they won't do anything about it. If you complain enough you might get some money back but they really don't care. My advice is to either dig down and get ready to have a 2 month game of phone tag with your ISP or get a new ISP.

cracker_jackmac

<!--QuoteBegin--Smellslikefeces+Nov 13 2002, 12:31 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Smellslikefeces @ Nov 13 2002, 12:31 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I have, or have had, the exact same issue. You'll be playing along and then BAM 3000+ pings for a period of time and then everything goes back to normal. I did some extensive testing (3 weeks of continous ping tests) and it turned out to be my ISP (Insight Communications). They had oversold the cell and after 6:00pm to 11:00pm I would get this spike every 10-15 minutes. The lag all came from the first hop to the gateway of my cell. I told this to Insight and I got into some heated arguments with them. They of course said it was everything on my end and nothing on their end. Mind you I had just come from the other side of town with the exact same home setup just on a different ISP without any problems. Fact is they won't do anything about it. If you complain enough you might get some money back but they really don't care. My advice is to either dig down and get ready to have a 2 month game of phone tag with your ISP or get a new ISP.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I run on cable and i have almost ZERO lag spikes. My server us usally full too. I think i have had 2-3 total lag spikes in the past 5 days. So i can tell u its not my router or mysetup.

I use to get them alot with dod about 7 months ago, but since then Road Runner has upgraded alot of stuff out here and the spikes have seemed to disappear.

RogueDog

I'm actually not running it through a router, I'm being a cheap **obscenity** and running 2 computers, and the cable through a switch, which are sharing the same connection. The thing is, I'll get massive lag spikes when I start a Specialists server, but not when I have a Day of Defeat, or Counter-Strike server... Which royally sucks, because I'm getting sick of DoD and CS, and I'm only just getting into TS and NS.

I'm also aware that my ISP won't allow me to have more than 3 computers sharing the same connection, and once a 4th one is connected, then one person loses their internet. That's all I know.

Anyways, I'm pretty naive about how to test where the lag is coming from... Does anybody have any suggestsions?

<!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> <-- Awww, aren't they cute!? Puppy skulk/gorge love.

RogueDog

By the way, your icon matches your name PERFECTLY smellslikefeces, hah!

Mellonpopr

ok it's cable but what speed download and more importantly upload ? If you're running a large server with a small amount of bandwith you might be all over your upload cap which will cause intermitent lag spikes

to give you an Idea of what it takes to run a NS server

PIII 1.2ghz w/512mb ram 2mb download and 500k upload on win2k advanced server
after an hour of a map:
cpu=80-90%
ram=350mb in use
upload=350-480k with an occasional spike (caused by tremendous fire fights , turrets firing etc..) to 500k which makes the pings rise for a few seconds.

you should set your maxplayers lower and lower until you do not get spikes.