Online Multiplayer Lag on PS4... Why?

[lewis91]

Hello,

Having some issues with playing my PS4 online and hoping someone can shed some light on what's happening.
 

Pretty much any game I go online with has stuttering, lag or rubberbanding issues. Some games are worse than others, but it's not enjoyable to play in any case.

 

I'm in Chiang Mai and my apartment has it's own router. The provider is 3BB. In terms of speed, I've not had any problems and I can stream movies in full HD, no problem. I don't know the exact package I'm on because the owner had it all set up when I moved in.

Speed test on my PS4 shows: 18.4 mbps up. 1.2 mbps down.
Ookla speed test shows pretty much the exact same, with ping at 35ms.

So far I've tried...
 

• Changing to Google DNS (helped a bit)
• Using a wired connection (made it worse)
• Restarting the router (lol... no difference)

I've read that my internet speed is plenty fast enough, and my problem is latency. How do I fix that? I'm starting to wonder if online gaming in Thailand is just unrealistic. Like I said, hoping someone can shed some light.

Thanks in advance!
 

P.S. I would have called the ISP,  but since it's in the owners name I figured they wouldn't be able to help me. But If I can pinpoint the issue, it'll make things much easier.

[Jdietz]

You cannae change the laws of physics...

 

Problem is you are in Thailand and most of the server you are playing on are not.. download and upload has nothing to do with it, it's all to do with ping time, which if you are lucky will be around 200 to the US, instead of the 10..20 or so you're used to.

 

Solution: Find a more local server to play on, or move.. can't go faster than the speed of light, and of course your packets will go a bit slower than that even in optimal conditions.

[lewis91]

Hey Jdietz,

Thanks for the quick reply!

Hmm, I get what you're saying. I should say though, I recently took my PS4 to Bangkok for a few days and it didn't lag at all on the hotel wifi. It was smooth as butter in pretty much every game.

So there must be some way to make it work like that in my Chiang Mai apartment...

Edited April 6, 2017 by lewis91

[Jdietz]

You can start by doing this test:

 

https://sourceforge.net/speedtest/?source=slashdotannouncement

 

which should give you a bit more geeky info about your connection, see what that comes up with.

 

[lewis91]

Thank you.

I've tried to run the test multiple times and it fails every time.

This is the error I keep getting:
There was unrecoverable error while running the latency test.

 

I tried it at a local coffee shop and the test ran fine. I guess it just doesn't like my connection.

Would this offer a clue as to what's going on with my PS4 online?  I feel like these issues could be tied. I'd love to know what you think.

[Jdietz]

As your issues as described definitely have to do with latency I would say they are related to your connection indeed.

Can you try a couple of pings and traceroutes to some US hosts, and see what happens, try for instance

ping -n 20 www.amazon.com

tracert www.amazon.com

 

and see what happens. 

 

Other than having your connection checked out, I don't have any obvious solutions though.

[rapom]

If Speedtest shows 18.4 up and 1.2 down, there is definitely something wrong. But, I think you are confused and have reversed the up and down.  My 3BB fiber stats are over 32 down and 9+ up after the system upgrade from the original 20/4. Ping is usually 13ms. I live in the country, about 12 km's NE of Surin and almost 1km from the village were my connection originates. Are you the only subscriber connected to the service. If there are other tenants or people using your service that could contribute to lag. I game on a PS4 daily and have no performance issues. Hardwiring your conneçtion should not reduce performance, just the opposite. Ther may be other issues, such as set-up. I know the original post was in April and you have probably solved your internet issues, but if you have not you can contact 3BB in Bangkok by dialing 1530. Follow the prompts and ask to speak to tech support. They can analyze your connection and reset if it is not correct.   Most of my PS4 games connect automatically to the servers in Singapore

Edited July 1, 2017 by rapom

[rapom]

On 4/6/2017 at 11:48 AM, Jdietz said:

You can start by doing this test:

 

https://sourceforge.net/speedtest/?source=slashdotannouncement

 

which should give you a bit more geeky info about your connection, see what that comes up with.

 

I tried this servive and received conflicting results compared to Speedtest. Speedtest shows 13ms ping, 33.06 down and 8.46 up connecting to their server in India. Their test shows 84ms ping, 21.2 down and 7.90 up to the same server. ???

[Jdietz]

Speedtest is well known and proxied at the provider usually, so the results are mostly lies. 13ms to India would be quite optimistic I'd think.

 

[rapom]

11 hours ago, Jdietz said:

Speedtest is well known and proxied at the provider usually, so the results are mostly lies. 13ms to India would be quite optimistic I'd think.

 

Well, I have tested my internet conneçtion speeds thru my PS4 to their server. They are about 7% less than my laptop test to Playstation's website. So it appears to be somewhat credible. 

[Bardeh]

Internet speed doesn't really matter - you don't need high bandwidth to play online games at good speeds. What you do need is a good ping, and that's where the trouble comes in with Thai ISP's. Your opponents are likely to be in Europe or the US, and if that's the case your ping is going to be 200-250. Depending on the game, this can be tolerable or a horrible disadvantage. What makes it worse is that the international gateway out of Thailand gets clogged up in the evenings and weekends, and that will often add an EXTRA 200ms of latency to your connection outside of Thailand. This is most likely what's causing lag or rubberbanding issues, because I rarely see that happening at the 'standard' 200+ ping. Your only real option is to use a VPN (but I'm not sure how easy that is with a console) try a different ISP to see if their international routing is better, or find games that have servers located in or near Thailand and play those.

[ilovebkk12345]

Any luck on this? My true internet kind of sucks for online gaming. Sometimes it's ok for gta5 ps4 but other games not good. Especially sports games 

[Jdietz]

Edited August 25, 2017 by Jdietz