Ping is in fact one of the main criteria for determining the quality of the Internet, and its low level is very important for online game gamers and people who usually watch online video. Ping is just as important as internet speed and bandwidth, and if your internet does not ping properly, it is not suitable for gaming at all.
In this article, we are going to examine the important issues related to Internet ping and its related concepts, and get acquainted with its applications, and finally see what is the difference between good ping and bad ping, and what ping is suitable for the game?
What is ping and how does it work?
The word “ping” is one of the specialized terms related to the science of voice tracking and sonar system or navigation and voice tracking (submarine tracking device using sound wave propagation). The word ping in specialized terms related to this device means an audible sound that is sent from a sonar device to find an object.
If the transmitted sound comes in contact with an object, it returns to the device, or in other words, the device receives the sound. The distance of the device to the location of the object hit by the sound wave is measured by measuring the time between sending the wave and receiving its echo, as well as the direction of the received echo.
How the sonar device works
Ping has a similar meaning in the field of computer and network and is in fact a network software and computer network management that is used to determine the availability or non-availability of an online server . In one sentence, ping means sending information from one computer to another.
This software, which is present in almost every operating system, sends the echo through the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and then measures the echo response. This measured value is known as latency and is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Although ping and delay are two different categories; But gamers and even developers use ping instead of delay; Therefore, in the world of online games, these two words are used instead of each other.
In the ping submission process, the request is sent as a packet from the user’s computer to the server, and when the server receives this request, it sends the response again as a packet to the source computer. To better understand the concept of ping, let us give a simple and perfectly understandable example. If your internet ping is 80 milliseconds, when you are playing online, for example, if you jump from where you are, this move will reach the server 80 milliseconds later and other players will see you jump 80 milliseconds after your jump.
When a user wants to measure their internet ping, the request or echo is usually sent four or five times. After submitting the requests, the answer to each of them is displayed separately on the user’s computer screen, and it is determined whether each of the requests has received a successful response or not.
Concepts related to ping
Ping-related terms include packet loss, response time, and Time To Live (TTL).
Packet loss , expressed as a percentage, refers to the amount of information that is lost when sending a packet from the source device to the server and receiving a response, and of course, the less, the better. If 32 bits of data are sent when sending a ping request as an example and 32 bits of data is received when receiving a response, the pocket loss rate will be zero percent. Response time also refers to the amount of time that a response to a sent request is received after it is sent. This parameter, which is measured in milliseconds, the lower the better.
Time To Live , or TTL , refers to the amount of time that a packet sent by your device is stored on the network before it is lost by the modem. The system of modems is such that to prevent the transfer of data packets from one modem to another indefinitely, the data packets are deleted after a period of storage.
TTL has a certain number of packets (for example, 57) and each time the modem receives this packet, it subtracts 1 TTL number and moves it to the next location. Whenever the TTL number drops to zero, the receiving modem deletes it and sends an ICMP message to the source computer.
Ping History
Ping software was written in 1983 by Mike Muuss while working at the Ballistic Research Laboratory, now the US Army Research Laboratory. Some time later, a computer engineer named David Mills warned Mike that the ICMP protocol (packets sent via the Internet Message Control Protocol) could be used to detect network IPs and related measurements.
Mike Moss; Inventor of the original version of ping software and the word ping
Immediately after hearing this idea, Mike decided to create a tool to solve network-related problems and chose the word ping from the terms related to voice distance to name his tool. The new term Packet InterNet Groper (or PING for short) coined by Mike has been in use for over 30 years. The first version of Ping software was actually public domain software, and all subsequent versions were released under the BSD license and are considered free software.
How to use ping
How to use ping or so-called ping in different operating systems is quite obvious and you only need to enter a short command in the command line window of your operating system .
Follow the steps below to ping in Windows:
- Press the Windows key and the R button at the same time, or right-click on the Start menu and click Run to open the Run box.
- In the Run box, type cmd to open the command line window.
- In the window that opens, first enter the word ping and after hitting the space bar, type the IP you want to ping (for example, 192.168.1.1) (you can also enter the URL of the site; for example, www.google.com ) And press the Enter button and wait a few moments to see the answer.
Follow the steps below to measure ping on Mac devices:
- Click the blue and gray smileys icon next to each other in the operating system dock to open the Finder window.
- After clicking on the Applications section, open the Utilities folder and click on the Terminal application to open the command line window.
- Then, like Windows, in the window that opens, first enter the word ping, and after hitting the space bar, type the IP you want to ping from, and press the Enter key.
Follow the steps below to ping in the Linux operating system:
- Press the Ctrl, alt, and T keys to open the Terminal.
- Hit raceroute with your desired IP to see the results.
You can also use free online tools to ping if you wish. Geekflare online ping tool is one of these tools. Of course, this tool does not work with IP addresses and you must enter the URL of your desired site. You can also go to https://www.speedtest.net/ and click on the Go ping your internet option to see how it uploads and downloads.
If you want to check the suitability of your internet ping for a particular game, you can go to https://gameserverping.com/ . In addition, in the settings of some games, there are settings called Show performance metrics or similar titles, through which you can check the ping service you want.
Ping applications
The most important applications are as follows:
- Ensure internet connection
- Ensure that the network card is problematic if the hardware
- Experiment with finding the desired domain using DNS or DNS name resolution
Ensure that the computer is connected to the Internet
To confirm this, just type in the command line window in front of the word ping the address of a site or search engine address like Google and press Enter. If you see the phrase Request timed out, your internet is down.
Ensure that the network card is problematic
If your computer has a network card and can not connect to the network you want and you have doubts about whether the network card is safe or not. You can easily be sure of this by pinging. To do this, just enter the IP command line 127.0.0.1 when pinging in the window. If the phrase Request timed out is displayed, the network card has a problem.
Ensure DNS is problematic
If you can not access a specific website and you are not sure if the problem is with DNS or not, you can easily find out by pinging. To do this, in front of the ping in the command line window, enter the flag a- along with the IP of the site you want; For example, if you can not log in to Google and you want to make sure there is no problem with DNS. In front of the word ping, you must first type a- and after hitting the space bar, the IP address is 8.8.8.8. 8.8.4.4. Enter (from right to left) and press Enter to see the result. Naturally, if you see the phrase Request timed out, the problem is the DNS connection.
The difference between good ping and bad ping
In the section “The importance of proper ping in online games” we will explain this in detail; But in this section, we only mention that in order to play online games in a completely smooth way and without getting stuck, delay and disconnection, you must have an internet with low ping.
This is very important in highly dynamic shooter games such as the Call of Duty series, and to get the most out of the online versions of these games, it is best to choose a service with the least possible ping. It should be noted that to watch online video completely fluently and without interruption, it is necessary to access the Internet with the appropriate ping.
The importance of proper ping and other related parameters in online games
The less ping the internet, the less lags and lags in online games, and on the other hand, the more pings, the more logs and changes increase, which is really annoying for online gaming; For example, if the latency in online games increases, when you instruct a character under your command to do something, the character does not respond quickly to the command and acts a little late (for example, moves with a delay) or when you press a button. You will see the result with a delay.
Low latency is very important in games where players’ quick reactions are important (such as shooter games, apocalyptic games, survival games, and racing games) or games in which time plays a vital role (such as strategy games) and may have long delays. Defeat players or kill them in the game world.
Let’s give an example to better understand this. Imagine that you are fighting alone with your enemy on the battlefield and you shoot at your enemy at exactly 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 50 milliseconds from the start of the game, and he shoots at his target at exactly 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 100 milliseconds. You shoot. If your internet ping rate is higher than your enemies, the firing data packet may reach the server in 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 200 milliseconds; But the moment your enemy fires, it reaches the server just at the time it fires, or, for example, it reaches the server in 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 150 seconds. If this happens, even though you fired earlier and acted faster, you will be killed and the game will end in favor of your enemies.
Another point to note is that the distance to the server has a huge impact on ping and latency. If two players use the same server and one player is 10 km away from that server and the other player is 100 km away from it, the ping and latency of the player closer to the server is much less. That’s why online game developers are trying to use different servers around the world; Popular PUBGI online game servers have been created in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world.
At the same time, we should not forget that we usually fight and compete with human rivals in online games, not artificial intelligence and having a delayed internet and pinging can be an important advantage for players. In a nutshell, the more ping and latency there is, the slower the data transfer rate from the gamer device to the server, resulting in responses to commands sent by gamers (either voice commands or commands sent by pressing buttons or touching the screen. ) Takes place later.
Log difference and delay
Regarding the two concepts of lag and latency, we must say that most people consider these two concepts to be the same; But in reality they are not the same despite the many similarities, and have a cause-and-effect relationship with each other (lag is a delay). In fact, delay is the time it takes to transfer packets from a user’s device to a server; But log means delay in sending data packets from the device to the server. If the internet lag is high, when you press a button or touch the screen, you will see its reaction in the game with a delay.
It is also possible that in such a situation the game will get stuck for a few moments and then you will see all your input information in one place (for example, the game character will make movements related to several different buttons that you hit at the same time!) And after watching this happens completely Get out of the game! The reason for too much lag is usually the instability of the Internet service and its interruption. High pocket loss can also be another reason for high lag. Other reasons for lag are high server congestion and low security.
Jitter and its low importance in online games
The concept of jitter or ping Spike is another concept that you should know about ping. Jitter is the variability of the latency when sending and receiving information. If the chitter increases, the unstable internet connection and the process of delivering the data packets to the server will be disrupted, and if you want to shoot accurately, for example, in shooter games, you must choose a service that has the jitter as little as possible.
packet loss and its importance in online games
Low packet loss is also very important in the game, and if the amount of this parameter is high, the game will be played in pieces and its frame rate will be reduced.
The amount of packet lost internet used for online gaming should also be preferably 0% or a maximum of one to two percent. Packet lost 2% means that if you make 100 moves in the game, 98 moves will be sent to the server, and this will cause the server to not be able to detect what happened and therefore will not process the received information. If Pocket lost is not in good condition, you may suddenly leave the game and can no longer enter it. In such a situation, even if you do not leave the game, you can not do anything, and such a situation is worse than leaving the game.
Even if Packet lost is not suitable for shooter games, other players who are actually your enemies may suddenly leave the space of the game where you are and move to another location in the game environment, in which case you are the best. You miss the opportunity to attack them. In some cases, even in such games, the enemy may be completely in your range and you can successfully target him, but the bullet will not hit him! Therefore, the high packet lost in shooter games is your biggest enemy! Of course, Packet lost may be suitable for your internet or even 0; But the server traffic you are using is high and many gamers are using it, and this will increase the Packet lost.
The latency, ping and packet lost rate are suitable for online games
To have an acceptable and suitable online gaming experience, we must have an Internet with a maximum latency of 500 milliseconds and a maximum ping of 150 milliseconds. Completely smooth components without any delay. Ping is 25 to 50 milliseconds). If the ping is longer than 150 milliseconds, the lag in the game will be annoying and the reactions will not be timely.
The amount of Pocket lost internet used for online gaming, as we said, should preferably be 0% or a maximum of one to two percent.
Tips for having internet with the right ping to play online
- Choose Internet service from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) company with acceptable service and support performance.
- Use the right internet service with high speed and bandwidth without disconnection (preferably 4.5G internet or fiber optic internet from a suitable ISP; however, if you want to use wireless internet and mobile internet, choose the operator internet Have the best and strongest coverage in your area); Of course, in some cases, even high-speed ping services with high bandwidth are not very suitable.
- Try to use a service that has as few port subscribers as possible. In all Internet services, the bandwidth of Internet ports is shared between a significant number of subscribers, and if a large number of port subscribers consume high bandwidth, the Internet ping of other subscribers will increase.
- Use ping reduction services (these services usually have a 24-hour game monitoring system to control the ping rate and select the best possible server to reduce ping to a minimum)
- Use VPNs dedicated to online games. These VPNs significantly reduce pocket loss even if the quality of your Internet is not good; Because they send packets to the server through multiple channels; So even if one path has a problem, packets are transmitted to the server through other paths, which increases the stability of your Internet and does not get stuck. These tools also reduce your internet lag and allow every move in the online game to be processed almost instantly. These VPNs include Nord VPN, Private Internet Access, Kill Ping and WTFast.
These VPNs, also called ping killers, usually have multiple servers in most countries (some of which automatically select the best server) and a dedicated DNS server. Some of them also have the ability to increase the security of your system and protect it against possible cyber attacks while playing. Other capabilities of these VPNs include protecting users’ privacy and hiding their IPs (sometimes IP hiding is intended to circumvent specific restrictions in a geographic area), increasing the firmware, managing heavy traffic on servers, and speeding up the game’s response. He pointed to the keys on the keyboard and the touch screen.
- Use servers close to where you live (we recommend using internal game servers for gaming instead of external servers if possible).
- Use online game servers instead of regular servers.
- Instead of a wireless connection, use a wired connection with a quality cable.
- If using a wireless connection, reduce the distance between the modem and the device as much as possible; Of course, increasing or decreasing the distance between the modem and the computer has no effect on increasing or decreasing the delay and ping; However, if the distance between the device and the modem increases, the data transfer speed and the strength of the received signals will decrease, which can lead to disruption of the data transfer process and eventually disconnection.
Therefore, we recommend that if you want to use wireless modems, use quality modems from high-end brands in sending signals and not be a barrier between modern and computer)
- If the modem can not support the maximum data available from the ISP, replace it and preferably use gaming modems.
- Use the latest game update.
- Update the modem firmware and if you use a network card, update its driver as well.
- While playing the game, do not watch online video at the same time on video streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix. This will greatly increase the ping. Also, if your internet does not have high bandwidth, it is preferable for only one player to play online.
- If the auto-update feature of Windows or any other operating system is enabled, disable it while playing online games.
- If your device is downloading large files or folders, stop downloading them while the game is running.
- Try to reduce your internet noise as much as possible by using quality wires to connect the modem to the computer (if you want to use a wired connection) and not placing the modem next to noise generators (such as cordless cordless phones).
- It is better that the wire that connects the modem to the computer or the ADSL or VDSL modem to the telephone socket is not with such devices or has a high noise resistance.
- If you use ADSL or VDSL or fiber optic internet, if possible, connect the modem to the main telecommunication input in your home; Of course, if your distance from the Internet service provider is long or the wires used to transmit the signal from the telecommunication center to your home are poor quality or rotten, a significant amount of noise will be created on the Internet and you can not do anything to solve this problem.
- Disable the firewall: Of course, this method should definitely be used as a last resort to improve ping; Because by doing so, the security of the device is endangered and becomes vulnerable.
Some common ping related errors
In addition to the Request timed out error, you may encounter the following errors when pinging:
- Unknown host: This error is related to when the server is not detected. To fix this error, make sure you enter your IP address or server name correctly. This error may also be due to a DNS name resolution problem, or in other words, the DNS service is not available.
This problem will probably be fixed by setting up DNS or so-called DNS setup. By doing a simple internet search, you can learn how to do this in different operating systems. You can also contact your ISP support to get help from experts.
- Destination host unreachable: When you encounter such an error, your computer has no way to transfer data to the server, or no way for the server to receive information from your device. If the message Destination host unreachable is displayed, the problem is related to the first case, and if the message “(name or IP server) unreachable reply from” is displayed, the problem is related to the second case.
To solve this problem, first disable the firewall, and reset the computer and modem. If the problem is not resolved. Next, disable the IPv6 protocol and reset the computer after doing so. With a simple internet search, you can learn how to disable the IPv6 protocol in different operating systems.
You can also try running the Tracert command. To execute this command in the command line window, enter the following phrase in this window:
tracert -d
In general, there are several tutorials to solve this problem, the explanation of which is beyond the scope of this article
- General failure: If you encounter this message, the problem is probably related to the computer, network card or modem, and the problem will probably be resolved by resetting the computer and modem. We also recommend that you update your modem or network card driver to make sure they have an IP address.
