There are many situations in which lag can create significant problems. Voice over internet protocol use, video chatting, and gaming are the most common. While the amount of lag you have will often make doing these things either viable or totally impossible, there are still ways you can fine tune your bandwidth use in order to make the lag as marginal as possible. Some of these are tricky, some of them you will need to be cautious about – but all of them have a chance to decrease that threatening ms latency that threatens to disrupt your audio conversations, or lose you your next game of Counter Strike.
Thing #1: Focus Bandwidth
This is a commonly known way to increase your internet oomph, but it’s also the best place to start. Your latency, unless you’re using satellite internet or have a shoddy wireless router, is probably due to a bandwidth issue. If you are using too much compared to how much you have available, lag will happen. Make sure that you don’t have extra computers running internet software during your gaming time, save piracy for afterward, and otherwise reduce the number of devices connecting to your internet.
Thing #2: Reduce System Processes
Your computer isn’t just running your game. In fact, it’s probably running a few dozen processes, which all take their share of computer resources. Maximizing computer resources will, in and of itself, increase your game performance. However, it should be noted that many of these processes also take some small degree of your internet space. Background applications that check for updates, communicate to online servers, or otherwise tap into the power of the internet, all have the potential to slow you down. Close as many as you can, either using the extended services panel or MSConfig startup options for your computer. NOTE: Don’t do this if you’re clueless as to what you’re doing.
Thing #3: Disable Your Antivirus
ONLY do this if you are confident in your ability to protect your computer, and you understand the risks. Understanding that, your antivirus is one of the biggest bandwidth drains running in your background.
