Quiet Logic

Lag, disconnects and slow downloads

Six questions about ping, packet loss, dropped matches and downloads that run far below the speed you pay for.

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Starting points

Lag, disconnects and slow downloads have one thing in common: the cause is usually somewhere between your computer and the game's servers, in a place you cannot see. These answers work through that space in order, from the part you control to the part you do not.

Two measurements matter more than the rest. Ping is how long a round trip takes, and distance sets a floor under it that no equipment removes. Packet loss is data that never arrives, and small amounts of it ruin a game even when the ping figure looks fine. Where a game shows both, watch the second as closely as the first.

Why is my ping high when the servers are overseas?

Short answer

Because distance costs time. Data travels through cable at a finite speed, and a round trip from Australia to Europe or North America cannot be made shorter by paying for a faster plan.

What usually causes it

Ping measures how long a small packet takes to reach the server and come back. A connection from an Australian city to a server in Asia typically adds well over a hundred milliseconds to that round trip, and one to Europe considerably more, before any equipment in your home is considered. This is a property of the route rather than a fault.

What your connection does control is the part that varies: congestion on your own line, Wi-Fi interference, and other devices in the house using the connection at the same time. Those produce spikes on top of the fixed cost of distance, and spikes are what make a game feel unplayable.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Choose the closest server region the game offers, which for players in Australia usually means an Australian or Asia-Pacific option.
  2. Connect by cable instead of Wi-Fi, which removes the most common source of spikes.
  3. Pause downloads, backups and video streaming on other devices while you play.
  4. Restart the modem and router once, and leave them off for a minute before switching them on.
  5. Watch whether the problem follows a schedule. A regular evening pattern points to congestion rather than your equipment.

When to ask for official help

If ping and packet loss are poor at all hours on a cabled connection, that belongs with your internet provider, and asking them to test the line is reasonable. If they cannot resolve it, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman handles complaints about internet services in Australia. The game publisher can tell you which server regions exist, but cannot change the distance to them.

Where a paid option comes in

A faster plan raises how much data you can move, not how quickly each packet makes the trip, so it rarely lowers ping. The purchases that do help are ordinary ones: a cable instead of Wi-Fi, or a router placed somewhere sensible.

What happens if my connection drops during a match?

Short answer

Most games keep your place for a short reconnection window and then treat you as having left. Repeated drops often attract penalties, so it is worth finding the cause rather than living with it.

What usually causes it

Short drops have mundane causes: a Wi-Fi channel shared with neighbours, a router rebooting itself overnight on a schedule you never set, a power-saving setting that switches off the network adapter when it looks idle, or a line fault that shows only under load.

Drops that happen at the same time each day usually point to something scheduled, whether that is your own backup software or maintenance by the provider.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Reconnect straight away if the game offers it; many keep your position for a minute or two.
  2. On Windows, open the network adapter's power management settings and stop the computer turning the adapter off to save power.
  3. Use a cable for a few sessions to establish whether the drops are a Wi-Fi problem or a line problem.
  4. Check the router's log, if it has one, for restarts and disconnections and note the times.
  5. Move the router away from other electronics, or change its Wi-Fi channel if neighbouring networks crowd it.

When to ask for official help

Record the dates and times of the drops before contacting your provider. A log of specific events moves a support call along far more effectively than a description of the feeling. If a penalty was applied to your game account because of a line fault you can evidence, the publisher's support team is the place to raise it.

Where a paid option comes in

A mesh system or a better router helps where Wi-Fi coverage is genuinely the problem, which the cable test above will have shown. Buying one before that test is a guess.

How do I tell whether the problem is my internet or the game?

Short answer

Test something else at the same moment. If a video call and a large download are both fine while the game stutters, the problem sits with the game, its route or its servers rather than with your connection.

What usually causes it

Games and other services use the connection differently. A video stream buffers several seconds ahead and hides a brief interruption completely; a game cannot, because every packet matters within tens of milliseconds. A connection that looks healthy on a speed test can therefore be poor for games.

The route matters as much as the connection. Traffic to one company's servers can travel a congested path while everything else on your line is unaffected, which is why one game is bad while another is fine.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Note whether other devices in the house have trouble at the same moment.
  2. Try a second game or an online service while the problem is happening.
  3. Check the publisher's service status page before assuming the fault is yours.
  4. Use the game's own network statistics display, if it has one, and look at packet loss rather than ping alone.
  5. Test on a cable and on Wi-Fi, since the difference between them narrows the cause quickly.

When to ask for official help

Publishers post outages and server problems on their own status pages, and that is the first thing to check. Where everything on your connection is affected, your internet provider owns the problem, and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman exists for complaints that the provider has not resolved.

Where a paid option comes in

Nothing sold to consumers improves a congested route between two countries. Services that claim to do so are discussed in the next answers but one, and the claim deserves scepticism.

Why is the game download so much slower than other downloads?

Short answer

Game launchers often limit their own speed, split the download across many small files, or pull content from a distant server. Each of those makes a download far slower than a single large file from a nearby source.

What usually causes it

A launcher that downloads thousands of small files spends much of its time asking for the next one rather than transferring data, and the apparent speed falls well below what the connection can do. Many launchers also apply their own speed limit by default, left over from an era when a download would otherwise take over a household's entire connection.

Where the content is served from matters too. A launcher that has chosen a distant region will be slower than one serving from within Australia, and some launchers let you choose.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Look in the launcher's settings for a download speed limit and remove it.
  2. Check for a download region or server setting and choose the nearest one.
  3. Pause other devices and downloads for the length of the install.
  4. Use a cable rather than Wi-Fi for a large download.
  5. Let it run overnight if the connection is busier in the evening.

When to ask for official help

If downloads from every source are slow at the same times each day, that is a question for your internet provider. If only this one launcher is slow while everything else is fast, it belongs with the publisher's support team, who can say which content servers serve this region.

Where a paid option comes in

Download accelerators have little to offer here, because the limit is usually the launcher's own behaviour or the distance to the content, neither of which a third-party program changes.

Does Wi-Fi really make that much difference?

Short answer

For games, yes. Wi-Fi adds small, irregular delays and occasional lost packets, and games feel those far more than a video stream does.

What usually causes it

Wi-Fi shares the air with your neighbours' networks, cordless devices and anything else on the same frequencies. When two devices transmit at once, one waits, and that wait appears in your game as a spike. A cable has none of that competition.

Distance and walls matter as well. A connection that reports a strong signal in the next room may still be retransmitting constantly, and retransmissions are invisible in the signal bars.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Run an ethernet cable for a few sessions, even temporarily along a hallway, as a test.
  2. If a cable is impossible, use the 5 GHz band rather than 2.4 GHz where both are available.
  3. Move the router off the floor and away from metal, appliances and other electronics.
  4. Change the Wi-Fi channel if your router's settings show neighbouring networks on the same one.
  5. Keep the game device and the router in line of sight where you can.

When to ask for official help

Your internet provider can usually see whether the line itself is stable, which separates a Wi-Fi problem from a connection problem. Equipment supplied by the provider is also their responsibility to replace when it is faulty.

Where a paid option comes in

Powerline adapters and mesh systems are reasonable purchases where running a cable is genuinely impossible. Try the temporary cable first, so you know what improvement you are buying.

Should I use a VPN to lower my ping?

Short answer

Usually not. A VPN adds a step to the journey, so it more often raises ping than lowers it. The exception is the occasional case where your provider's route to a server is unusually poor.

What usually causes it

A VPN sends your traffic to its own server first and on to the destination from there. That extra leg costs time. It can help only when the detour happens to take a better path than the one your provider was using, which is uncommon and impossible to predict without testing.

Services marketed specifically as gaming accelerators work on the same principle and are subject to the same limit. A claim that one of them reduces ping by a fixed amount cannot be true for every connection, because the result depends entirely on your own route.

What to try first, at no cost

  1. Measure your ping to the game server over several sessions before changing anything, so you have a baseline.
  2. Check first that you are using the closest server region and a cabled connection.
  3. If you do test a VPN, use a free trial and measure the same route at the same time of day.
  4. Read the game's rules before using one. Some publishers restrict connecting through a VPN, and account action is a real risk.

When to ask for official help

The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general guidance on choosing and using a virtual private network safely, which is worth reading before you choose one for any reason. Whether a particular game permits a VPN is a question only that publisher can answer.

Where a paid option comes in

This is one of the few places on this site where a paid service is actively marketed as a fix for a problem it rarely fixes. Treat ping-reduction claims as untested until you have measured your own connection with and without it.

What to watch out for with connection problems

Claims worth checking before you believe them

Connection problems attract more marketing than any other category on this site, because the symptoms are frustrating and the causes are invisible. A few patterns are worth recognising.

  • A fixed number attached to a ping improvement. Your result depends on your route, so a universal figure cannot be accurate.
  • A download that promises to optimise your connection. Changing network settings without knowing your line can make things worse, and some such tools bundle software you did not ask for.
  • An offer that arrives by message or advertisement after you complained about lag publicly. That sequence is a common approach used by scammers, and reports go to Scamwatch.
  • Anything requiring your game account password to improve performance. No legitimate service needs it.

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