Don't assume ns is the problem with your server

Mellonpopr

I made a mistake and thought NS was the culprit to my uber laggy server.  with one player my server was fine but when the second player would join the ping rose to 2500+ for that guy until the 2nd guy left. I was connected via the lan and the ping for me didn't change (10ms)during all of this.

Here's my blurb on irc to blahman about my findings.

[8<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->9pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> ok here's some signs that assured me the connection was my problem
[8<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->9pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> normally I download at 2mb and upload at 768k
[8<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->9pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> now it's 1mb and 500k
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> drastic on the download part
[8:10pm] <u238|Blahman> the fact that cable is so dependent on factors outside your control ? <!--emo&:0--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> never ever goes below 2mb for the past 2 years
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> this cable isn't the typical
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> it's the business class edition
[8:10pm] <u238|Blahman> yeah
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> we have our own pipe
[8:10pm] <u238|Blahman> where do you live?
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> memphis tn
[8:10pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> another sign:
[8:11pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> usually I can ping 64 servers at a time in gamspy and get fairly accurate results
[8:11pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> now when I do that I get 5500+ pings from ALL servers
[8:11pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> another sign:
[8:11pm] <u238|Blahman> yep
[8:11pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> I shut down my server and joined yours
[8:11pm] <u238|Blahman> i have cable at home... used to be like that sometimes... usually in the evening
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> i watched other players ping 100's while my skyrocketed to moon 2500+ ping
[8:12pm] <u238|Blahman> we switched to earthlink, replaced the cable modem, its quite a lot better than with RR
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> I did a few commands
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> maxrate
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> and it said 20000
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> kinda high anyway
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> so I set it to 4000
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> ping dropped to 250's
[8:12pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> I set it to 300 ping rose to 2000
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> I set it to 3000 ping rose to 2000
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> typo
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> set it to 10000 ping went to 2500
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> set it back to 4000 and it never came back down to 250
[8:13pm] <u238|Blahman> heh
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> definately screwy
[8:13pm] joey` (joey_your-@66-215-95-42.pas-eres.charterpipeline.net) has joined. «14 people»
[8:13pm] joey` (joey_your-@66-215-95-42.pas-eres.charterpipeline.net) has parted. «13 people»
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> I called my isp
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> they show -15 on the line
[8:13pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> err
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> -14
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> -15 is the max
[8:14pm] <u238|Blahman> what are the numbers for
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> they're coming out tomorrow to tweak to -7
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> noise I believe
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> db
[8:14pm] <u238|Blahman> ahh
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> so basically my connection is on the ragged edge
[8:14pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> the old motorolla modem wasn't very picky
[8:15pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> the new switch that replaced it isn't happy
[8:15pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> zyxel brand
[8:15pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> ugh
[8:16pm] <u238|Blahman> wellp hope they can fix that
[8:17pm] <[WM]Mellonpopr> me2

Danik

I agree.  There are a number of people who think that they can start up their dedicated server and that is that.  Server Operators need to know the HL console commands.  maxrate is probably the biggest one of all. Try setting this to 5,000 to 7,500.  That will distribute the bandwidth fairly evenly, and it should be more than enough to have a very smooth game.  Keep in mind that this netcode is fairly good.  Even with rather high pings the game plays as if it were much lower.  As soon as the server code is tweaked a bit everything should be fine.