help with getting different ping readings

[karmic tr]

so over the past couple years i have been gaming i switched isps once and the issue stopped for aabout 2 weeks then came back 

thats the ping i get on ookla 

ping on openspeed test
 

here is where the issue starts over the last couple years the ping on open wouls sometimes drop to 20 and id have an amazing time playing games then in about aa day it goes back to high ping the low ping only lasts for about 1-2  days and happends about 5 times every year probably more but im not always gaming 

my issue is why im confused why sometimes my ping is super low and i can have fun gaming then it goes back to this 60 ping garbage  im located in jamaica the games i play are valorant and fortnite 

[Hellowpplz]

12 minutes ago, karmic tr said:

so over the past couple years i have been gaming i switched isps once and the issue stopped for aabout 2 weeks then came back 

thats the ping i get on ookla 

ping on openspeed test
 

here is where the issue starts over the last couple years the ping on open wouls sometimes drop to 20 and id have an amazing time playing games then in about aa day it goes back to high ping the low ping only lasts for about 1-2  days and happends about 5 times every year probably more but im not always gaming 

my issue is why im confused why sometimes my ping is super low and i can have fun gaming then it goes back to this 60 ping garbage  im located in jamaica the games i play are valorant and fortnite 

1. One of these tests is miles off
2. 60ms ping isn't even that bad I would only be worried if it was 80-100+

[Skipple]

Pinging different nodes, in different locations, from different services results in different timings, yes.

I'm not seeing the issue here. 

[Mark Kaine]

Jamaica? sounds pretty remote...?

 

also those ping tests arent reliable and you aren't pinging the same server every time.

 

it would be better *and more reliable* to ping your game server with command prompt. 

 

but you gotta dig a bit for finding the correct ip adress, shouldnt be too hard though. 

 

6 hours ago, Skipple said:

Pinging different nodes, in different locations, from different services results in different timings, yes.

I'm not seeing the issue here. 

yup.

[LogicalDrm]

Adding to two above. Ping is measure of how long it takes package to get from your end to server (and some times back, though thats known as latency). Internet speedtests measure it as additional thing. It comes along the main measurements which are upload and download speeds. Speedtest.com selects closest server by default. You can also choose another server, either to keep results comparable or to simulate something. On OpenSpeedtest, server location is stated at the end but you can't control which is picked. From their FAQ:

Quote

Here is the very important point when you test your internet speed. Latency is an important factor and you and your isp server in-between latency is very small 3 to 10 ms. But when you are trying to connect a server that is 1000KM away the latency will increase.

https://openspeedtest.com/about-speed-test

 

22 hours ago, karmic tr said:

my issue is why im confused why sometimes my ping is super low and i can have fun gaming then it goes back to this 60 ping garbage  im located in jamaica the games i play are valorant and fortnite 

If you can choose servers, choosing US East or US Central would give you best results. However, most games will choose the server for you and if the closest server is busy or down, it will switch to next possibility. That would explain why you get good ping at some times and not so good on others. 60ms ping is really good still. Current gen online games handle netcode pretty good. So you would actually have bad ping when its over 150ms. 

 

Looking at this for Valorant, with good ping you are most likely connecting to Miami and since you get 60ms as bad day, its connecting to Mexico City probably. Here's update from August with your options with Valorant. With Fortnite, the servers are most likely US East and Central, maybe Brazil if you get very unlucky.

[Falcon1986]

On 3/21/2024 at 12:54 PM, karmic tr said:

my issue is why im confused why sometimes my ping is super low and i can have fun gaming then it goes back to this 60 ping garbage  im located in jamaica the games i play are valorant and fortnite 

Who is your ISP? Flow, Digicel, Starlink?

 

Are you running these tests over WiFi, ethernet, through any other medium (e.g. Powerline, WiFi extenders, etc)?

 

Is anything else running in the background (either locally or on the network) that might be consuming bandwidth at the same time?

[karmic tr]

On 3/22/2024 at 3:31 AM, Mark Kaine said:

Jamaica? sounds pretty remote...?

 

also those ping tests arent reliable and you aren't pinging the same server every time.

 

it would be better *and more reliable* to ping your game server with command prompt. 

 

but you gotta dig a bit for finding the correct ip adress, shouldnt be too hard though. 

 

yup.

so why does it sometimes go to 30 ping in game and even as low as 15 in fortnite i play on nae servers since thats my closest english speaking server

 

 

On 3/24/2024 at 5:15 PM, Falcon1986 said:

Who is your ISP? Flow, Digicel, Starlink?

 

Are you running these tests over WiFi, ethernet, through any other medium (e.g. Powerline, WiFi extenders, etc)?

 

Is anything else running in the background (either locally or on the network) that might be consuming bandwidth at the same time?

had flow and had this same issue so i changed it and im still having the same issue using ethernet on a extender thats connected to the actually box outside the house  and same ping wether im home alone or with my entire family

 

 

On 3/22/2024 at 6:27 PM, LogicalDrm said:

Adding to two above. Ping is measure of how long it takes package to get from your end to server (and some times back, though thats known as latency). Internet speedtests measure it as additional thing. It comes along the main measurements which are upload and download speeds. Speedtest.com selects closest server by default. You can also choose another server, either to keep results comparable or to simulate something. On OpenSpeedtest, server location is stated at the end but you can't control which is picked. From their FAQ:

https://openspeedtest.com/about-speed-test

 

If you can choose servers, choosing US East or US Central would give you best results. However, most games will choose the server for you and if the closest server is busy or down, it will switch to next possibility. That would explain why you get good ping at some times and not so good on others. 60ms ping is really good still. Current gen online games handle netcode pretty good. So you would actually have bad ping when its over 150ms. 

 

Looking at this for Valorant, with good ping you are most likely connecting to Miami and since you get 60ms as bad day, its connecting to Mexico City probably. Here's update from August with your options with Valorant. With Fortnite, the servers are most likely US East and Central, maybe Brazil if you get very unlucky.

no i use a american email adress so that i can connect to american servers and someties the ping is at 30 or 60 or even 100   rn its at 87  im confused why it keeps switching 

 

[LogicalDrm]

8 minutes ago, karmic tr said:

no i use a american email adress so that i can connect to american servers and someties the ping is at 30 or 60 or even 100   rn its at 87  im confused why it keeps switching 

There are other factors. Like I know how ping works. I don't know how Fortnite handles connections. It could be that you are actually connecting to VPN which equals ping to all. Which means that you don't see ping from you to server, but from VPN location to server. Which would explain why it varies so much.

 

But overall, as long as its under 150ms and you don't get any lag (yes, this is the only situation where lag is the correct description), don't worry about it.

[Mark Kaine]

looking this up Jamaica isnt even close to us east coast... almost 3000km!  there's no way on earth you're getting 10, 20 or 30 ms ping...

 

 

what happens here is that you're sometimes measuring ping to your node *in jamaica* which is ofc very close to you and you get maybe 5ms... but that doesn't help you at all as the signal still needs to travel the whole incredibly *long* distance to us mainland...

 

that's just how the internet works, the sooner you understand this the better,  there's literally nothing you can do about it except move to united states east coast or any other location where there's big internet structure close by (in a radius of 100-200km I'd say)

 

 

[karmic tr]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

looking this up Jamaica isnt even close to us east coast... almost 3000km!  there's no way on earth you're getting 10, 20 or 30 ms ping...

 

 

what happens here is that you're sometimes measuring ping to your node *in jamaica* which is ofc very close to you and you get maybe 5ms... but that doesn't help you at all as the signal still needs to travel the whole incredibly *long* distance to us mainland...

 

that's just how the internet works, the sooner you understand this the better,  there's literally nothing you can do about it except move to united states east coast or any other location where there's big internet structure close by (in a radius of 100-200km I'd say)

 

 

Now I'm talking about my in-game ping that would be as low as 29 and a Consta t 24 some days but that only lasts for a little while.like a day or 2 ping on Georgia servers would be 30  

[karmic tr]

5 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

There are other factors. Like I know how ping works. I don't know how Fortnite handles connections. It could be that you are actually connecting to VPN which equals ping to all. Which means that you don't see ping from you to server, but from VPN location to server. Which would explain why it varies so much.

 

But overall, as long as its under 150ms and you don't get any lag (yes, this is the only situation where lag is the correct description), don't worry about it.

Yea its just when ever it's low I'm carrying on what ever game I play then when it goes back to 60 I'm trash cand. Hit shots or edit 

[Mark Kaine]

39 minutes ago, karmic tr said:

Now I'm talking about my in-game ping that would be as low as 29 and a Consta t 24 some days but that only lasts for a little while.like a day or 2 ping on Georgia servers would be 30  

i mean besides i don't think these numbers are accurate even when its been shown to you - this could be some sort of "server latency" but that's surely on top of your overall latency,  hence the numbers do not add up... but regardless, that's not even important,  what i can believe that there's a certain threshold where it becomes "unplayable"... however im not sure how and if that can get fixed...

 

is there any local server to you?

or in other words *why* are you purposefully connecting to us east coast? a local server or maybe even like one in Mexico for example could possibly be better for you overall.  saying that without knowing if that's even possible/ available. 

 

 

The other thing is i think their servers are just trash, probably overloaded at certain times... again not much if anything you can do about that, unfortunately. 

 

 

lastly, just as a "reference" I've been playing tons on Japanese or Chinese servers (other games tho, for example Naraka) and had literally no issues whatsoever with lag (including fighting games) and from my recollection that's a minimum of 300ms (from Europe) and while its not "great" it certainly is playable *as long its nearly constant* 

 

ive been also asking my Japanese "buddies" (ie strangers) if im lagging and 9 out of 10 or so said "no" or "its not too bad" and it wasn't because we had amazing matches! 

 

(just a little story time that may or may not help you)

 

tldr, maybe the fortnite servers are just trash (pretty sure i heard that before) 

[karmic tr]

45 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i mean besides i don't think these numbers are accurate even when its been shown to you - this could be some sort of "server latency" but that's surely on top of your overall latency,  hence the numbers do not add up... but regardless, that's not even important,  what i can believe that there's a certain threshold where it becomes "unplayable"... however im not sure how and if that can get fixed...

 

is there any local server to you?

or in other words *why* are you purposefully connecting to us east coast? a local server or maybe even like one in Mexico for example could possibly be better for you overall.  saying that without knowing if that's even possible/ available. 

 

 

The other thing is i think their servers are just trash, probably overloaded at certain times... again not much if anything you can do about that, unfortunately. 

 

 

lastly, just as a "reference" I've been playing tons on Japanese or Chinese servers (other games tho, for example Naraka) and had literally no issues whatsoever with lag (including fighting games) and from my recollection that's a minimum of 300ms (from Europe) and while its not "great" it certainly is playable *as long its nearly constant* 

 

ive been also asking my Japanese "buddies" (ie strangers) if im lagging and 9 out of 10 or so said "no" or "its not too bad" and it wasn't because we had amazing matches! 

 

(just a little story time that may or may not help you)

 

tldr, maybe the fortnite servers are just trash (pretty sure i heard that before) 

It's  ause I don't speak Spanish so in order to have fun I have to play in America  servers also rn the ping is at 64 also should I make another thread to ask about a setting briking my laptop