What kind & speed of DSL is best for Inf?

[TheViper]

OK, I played around a bit with that on SOB #2. I set the connection to LAN, then went into the server and typed stat net. That turned out to the the same as hitting F6, btw. There are TWO sets of numbers, a left and right column. The bottom number for me was 10000. That's two 10000s, one each in the left and right columns. Just above those numbers were what you indicated is my actual performance, and those were not the same. The left column number was around 1050, the right was closer to 1200. I typed in netspeed 1200. I ran out of time and didn't have time to see how much difference that made, but I have a couple of questions:

1. What significance do the two columns have? Which is for what?
2. Why am I seeing 10000 when I set for LAN, rather than the 20000 you mentioned?
3. I have dsl...not a good dsl, but dsl nevertheless. Given your knowledge of the SOB #2 settings, what does my actual speed of 1050 (or 1200, whichever column is relevant) tell you...does that sound close to what it should be on that server? You were discussing numbers closer to 7000, so I was surprised to see mine so low...does that reflect a really crappy connection, or is that close to the SOB #2 settings?

BTW, my packet loss was 0, if that gives you any valuable information. It's always 0. I've never seen any number but 0 for packet loss on any of the 3 broadband connections I've dealt with (if you can call my old isdn connection broadband). That's good I guess, but OTOH, my pings generally suck. I think I could live with a little bit of packet loss if my ping were 50, LOL!

 

[DaddyBone]

Ok! Take a look at the attached image, below.

1) Lol, yes, F6 in UT shows the same thing as Stat Net - heh, I guess I'm just too OldSkool to know these things.

2) The bottom numbers, in this example 20000 for each, are what the server admin has set the server's netspeed to. In this case, I was on one of the ILCR servers messing with the netspeed, and found out that LAN is in fact 20000. (Crap, I've got to set that back now, lol)

3) According to the header, the first column is the Net IN, the second column is the Net OUT - so you were only receiving ~1.1K/s and sending ~1.2K/s out of a possible 10/Ks each way on #2. (Incidentally, thanks for pointing that out - about a month ago I messed with the netspeed on the INF servers to see how that affected Net/CPU usage - 10k didn't do anything for the users, I need to switch it back to my standard 7500)

Ok - overall, what this means is that in no place does it actually show what YOU, as the client, has set the netspeed to - but it does tell you what the server is capable of. I'm not sure why you were getting such a low connection speed, tho, especially in light of 0% PacketLoss! What I'd really like to know now is what your ping was! I'd say that what you should do now is play around with your netspeed setting to see if it affects your ping at all - I'd be interested in the results. Let me know if you'd like me to do anything at my end to help!

 

[DaddyBone]

BTW - your Net IN will always be less than your out - heh, I won't pretend to fully understand that - but as you can see in my example, my Net OUT is over 3 times higher than my IN - and the others I've asked gave me the same answer. So if yours stay as it is, about the same, I guess that says there's a problem somewhere.

 

[Nightmare]

<BTW - your Net IN will always be less than your out - heh, I <won't pretend to fully understand that

Perhaps the server is telling what things look like from there?

 

[DaddyBone]

From what I've read, its the client reporting on what it does, not the server... Except for the bottom numbers, which, of course, are what the server has told the client it's MaxClientRate is set to.

 

[TheViper]

"Ok - overall, what this means is that in no place does it actually show what YOU, as the client, has set the netspeed to - but it does tell you what the server is capable of."

Hmm. But when I execute a netspeed xxxx command, the bottom number of the stat net box always reflects what I enter. If I enter 2500, the bottom number of both columns says 2500.

"I'm not sure why you were getting such a low connection speed, tho, especially in light of 0% PacketLoss! What I'd really like to know now is what your ping was!"

It has generally been around 180 - 200 on SOB #2.

"I'd say that what you should do now is play around with your netspeed setting to see if it affects your ping at all - I'd be interested in the results."

Done that. Neither ping nor framerate is affected by how great or small a number I put in for net speed.

"BTW - your Net IN will always be less than your out... ."

Mine varies. Neither number ever exceeds about 3500, regardless of where I have my netspeed set, but sometimes IN is more than OUT, sometimes vice versa. It might say 1200/3200, or it might say 3500/1000. My packet loss always reads zero.

 

[DaddyBone]

Ah... ok - did some checking - the bottom number reflects the MAX speed in and out that you, the client, can use - so if you set yours to 20000 and the server is at 10000, it'll show 10000 - but if you then change it to lower than the server's max, it'll show what you've limited yourself to.

As for in and out - my in never gets more than about a 3rd of my out - I'm not sure what this is saying about your connection, tho - maybe that the server 'catches up' sometimes? When your in goes over your out, do you experience any weird affects like stuttering or ping spikes? I wonder if how you set your client up affects this - I mean, if you turn off dynamic lighting and muzzle flashes, does the server just have less to send? I'll need to test that further. Only time I can think of that the IN has to be more is when you're downloading maps n' stuff, of course, but I can't see my netspeed at that time, lol.

Overall - your ping is in the decent zone, with no PL, so I'd say that the only thing affecting it is the routers along the way. From everything we've tried I'd guess that your connection is fast enough to take whatever the server can throw at it - and at the same time, its saying that my server isn't maxing out its network connection or CPU.

Therefore, to modify my earlier comments - if a server is running at its max, setting its client speed too high will result in clipping while the server tries to catch up (and at the same time, setting it lower will help the server use its resources better) - however, if a server isn't maxing out its resources, client speed doesn't have much affect except that neither the server or the client will see the speed that both are capable of - except of course, in a LAN environment, where both can send and receive with virtually no obstacle except that defined by the server's CPU, or the network itself... Of course, since I have no servers with really limited CPUs or network connections, I can't really test out the low-end theories except by reflection on my machines from the past - I used to run a 16player CTF on a PII 400, and if I set the maxclient to over 5000, the CPU would max out.

 

[wrdaniel]

lower netspeed

--> better ping, less lags, less information (dead enemy runs a bit also he's dead, ...), less packetloss (you cant lose what you don't get), server sends important infos


higher netspeed

--> higher ping, more lag possible, more infos, more packetloss possible (you can also loose important things), possible means it depends on INet connection.

thats what i know

 

[TheViper]

Thanks Firestar. The running ghost after the target is dead was extremely disorienting, so I increased my netspeed back to 10,000. I didn't notice any ping difference to speak of.