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Question

Gaming bandwidth issue

Mar 21, 2016 2:37PM PDT

So when I'm playing a video game my task manager shows I'm getting as low 60kbps-200kbps out of the 3mbps so you can imagine I have intense latency issues. But even when the game is still running and I load a video to see if my internet is the problem, my task manager starts telling me its getting like 2.6 mbps bandwidth and then that stops as soon as I close the video. Is there some way to make my computer give more bandwidth to the game?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
This does not sound like a bandwidth issue.
Mar 21, 2016 3:03PM PDT

This sounds more like latency or what gamers call lag. Most games only use the 60 to 200 kbps for gaming. It's the latency or lag that gamers mostly gripe about.

Did you try it wired to see if it's your internet?

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It is wired
Mar 21, 2016 8:26PM PDT

My connection is wired. Are you saying latency is not effected by bandwidth at all? Is it packet loss then? And how would i fix that?

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You tested speed. So it's most likely lag or latency.
Mar 21, 2016 10:10PM PDT

Many games give a ping time. My bet is you are on some cheap DSL. The ISP should get calls like yours all the time. Until more is known, this sounds like it's working as expected.

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DSL
Mar 22, 2016 1:26PM PDT

It is century link 3mbps down and 1 mbps up. Century link is dsl so yea. But when no is in the house besides myself its normally not that bad. Would a QoS not help this problem?

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No.
Mar 22, 2016 1:40PM PDT

About all I can suggest is to disable WiFI if it's on in the router to make sure you have every last drop of what this DSL offers. 3 megabit is the slowest DSL I've heard of this year.

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Packet Loss
Mar 22, 2016 4:41PM PDT

We are the furthest distance away from the century link box possible so the DSL losses a lot of speed. They said were on the border of it not even working. There is actually a closer box but apparently we are hard wired to the further one. Are they lying about us being able to connect to the closer box or is that something that is possible? And could the distance explain the intense packet loss?

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I'm not there
Mar 23, 2016 11:58AM PDT

So if they are lying, I can't know. Packet loss is from many sources. In this case I'd wring the last drop from the DSL by the above methods. It's very important you turn off the router WiFi in this case.

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Answer
let's hear about what your paying for
Mar 21, 2016 9:12PM PDT

And where you live.
What kind of connection to the net you have.

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Location
Mar 22, 2016 1:28PM PDT

I live in the county maybe 2 miles from a city on the outside of the Minneapolis metro. We are literally 1 mile from having the same internet speeds as in town but because we are not Im stuck with BS that is a maximum of 3mbps download. Century Link is DSL also.

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check the phone line
Mar 22, 2016 6:01PM PDT

turn off modem, put phone to ear and press a number, listen for static. It should have NO SOUND on it. If there's static, then insist on a new line to the house, or maybe they find where there's a problem on a poles to your area. Some old phone lines get water in the cabling and after every rain it causes shorting and static too, so if this gets worse after rain, there's another thing they can look for. When I had POTS, the problem often was a wet wasp nest in a junction box on the pole. Just make sure the phone line is clear before wasting a lot of time trying everything else.

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Sounds about right to me
Mar 22, 2016 1:46PM PDT

Hows the cell phone reception there ?
Maybe look at a portable internet device like one of these Here