# Online Connectivity and Performance Troubleshooting

Online gaming is a fairly involved process. Several factors can contribute (or take away from) a fun online experience. When troubleshooting online performance, you have to keep in mind that you are not only dealing with your computer, but also the computer you are connecting to. Every computer your signal passes through can also affect the speed and overall quality of an online game.

Information transfer on the Internet is handled by shuttling bits of information known as packets. For example, when you visit a web page, all the parts of the page are passed to your modem in packets. Playing online games is simply a matter of passing packets back and forth between your computer and a server.

One issue possibly affecting high-speed connections to our online games is one of packets. Many high-speed modems have no minimum specified packet size for outbound packets. When given a smaller packet, a correctly configured router will pad the packet to an acceptable size and then pass the information along. In the case of the older Internet router code, these packets may not be padded and can be discarded or corrupted before continuing along to the game server. The information passed through your modem to our servers may be corrupted or discarded - resulting in lost information, disconnects, lag, and other problems.

To check into this packet loss, you can run a trace route program to see if there is any major loss on the way. We use a trace program, UO Trace, that was originally made for one of our games. This program can be used for any online trace.

How to use UO Trace

Another issue is the speed at which your system processes the data and sends it our again. If your system meets the minimum requirements for the game, make sure the system also meets the requirements for playing on the Internet. These extra requirements can include:

- Proper connection speed

- Higher memory requirements

If your system has any virus scanning or Internet security software running, these too can slow down your signal. These programs check every packet that goes in or out of the system. Make sure that all non-essential programs are turned off before starting the game.

How to end your background tasks

Along with background tasks, make sure the system is running at top performance. Make sure all of the drivers are up to date. If the drivers are up to date, then it reduces the chance of system hang ups which could create lag.

How to update drivers

In-game details and options can impact packet size and speed. The more details you have turned on, the more information the game has to process. If you have any filters for text, these can also slow down the game. Try lowering options to speed up game play. Here is a small example list of things that could slow down online games:

- Translation filters for incoming text

- Error logging

- Obscenity filters

- High end lighting effects

- High graphic details

- In-game viewing distance

Although this is not as big of a problem now as it was in the past, some older Internet routers can slow down due to online traffic. This most often occurs during peak traffic times, from 3 PM PST (GMT 8 PM) to 10 PM PST (GMT 6 AM).

Make sure that you have all the required ports open so that the game can successfully send and receive information, thus improving your online experience. The full port information can be found in your manual.

How to configure routers and firewalls

Be sure that your connection meets the speed requirements for the game. The minimum Internet connection speed is listed with the minimum requirements on the bottom of the box.