pings go up as more players join....why? :?:

[Homerlovesbeer]

Hi all,

I've just got rcon to my isp's server. Were having fun getting it up and running which it is now. BUT....When I am alone on the server I ping at 20-35. With 8 on the server I'm pinging at 60+ with 14 on the server I'm pinging 100-200. why would this happen? The server is on the isp backbone (OC3 connection) and has no bandwidth restrictions so I can't imagine it being a speed issue. Here are the pc's specs.

Duron 800
128 meg memory
linux

server configs
SV_maxping 400
SV_MaxRate 12000 (was 3000...12000 seems better)
sv_fps 20
g_maxintermission 15
etc etc

all other setting are standard. Ihave read that a pii with 128 can run on linux quite ok so the duron should be more than adequate. So......I'm at a loss. Anyone got any ideas? PS....the server seems to ping higher than other servers on other ISP's here in the UK. Using ASE to ping it says ping 37 flux 7 with nobody on the server. The EAUK servers and other main isp's are pinging at 17-25...thats with people playing on them. I can ping my isp directly and ping 14ms. So it isn't my connection either.

Why would the pings on our MOHAA server be so high (compared to other isp's)?

I really am at a loss!!! :?

Thanks guys
Homerlovesbeer

here is server address if u want to check it out.
212.159.6.206:12203
Plusnet/Force9 server in the UK

[SNYPE]

I would have to say that your ISP has some connection problems. Go to the Guides section and read up on using Tracert: http://www.mohadmin.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=11
Its a handy tool for analyzing your connections on the net. I am pinging your server from San Diego and I get dropped packets and an avg of 167ms. Running Tracert to your server shows quite a few potential conection problems. Check it your self and see, do a Tracert from your client to the game server and see where the connection problems are (pings<50ms are ok, anything >100ms is not) and then save the info and contact your ISP or server host.

[SNYPE]

One other thing, do the tracert tests at various times throughout the day, and do them several times (maybe 3x in a row, every 30 mins). I did 3 on your server and one of them shows the router nearest the server went to over 600ms on one check!

[Shockwave]

I have successfully run a Linux game server on a PIII800 using RedHat 7.2 on a T3 line so I think that your hardware specs are reasonable. I've heard of others running the game on lesser systems with success too.

From what you are describing, it appears that with increased system load you experience increased ping. One thing that would cause this to occur would be additional processes running concurrently with the game server that are competing for resources. Another possibility is that you are short on free memory and are dipping into your swap file. Here are some things you can do to get more information about what is happening:

(1) Use the top program to analyze what is using system resources on the system when the game is running. Here's an example of what it looks like on my system when the game isn't running:

<pre>
31 processes: 29 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 4.9% user, 9.7% system, 0.0% nice, 85.3% idle
Mem: 514108K av, 37488K used, 476620K free, 0K shrd, 5520K buff
Swap: 522072K av, 0K used, 522072K free 12964K cached

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND
1 root 15 0 508 508 440 S 0.0 0.0 0:04 init
2 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd
3 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kapmd
4 root 34 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
5 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd
6 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 bdflush
7 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kupdated
8 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 mdrecoveryd
12 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald
88 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 khubd
211 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald
212 root 16 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald
213 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald
214 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald
614 root 15 0 584 584 488 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 syslogd
619 root 15 0 1124 1124 452 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 klogd
768 root 15 0 1272 1272 1136 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 sshd
</pre>


It will default to listing processes in decending order ranked by CPU utilization. Additionally, you should also press M and sort everything by memory usage too. Be sure to make note of anything consuming a decent hunk of system resources and examine the values for mohaa_lnxded under the various loads you mentioned.

I would also make a note of the information at the top of the screen where it displays system memory statistics. If you are running out of free system memory and dipping into the swap file, performance will take a big hit.

(2) Use the following command on the system to get a complete list of processes:

ps -ef | less

If you are running low on available system resources for the game server and there are any processes running for things you don't need, you can disable them and free up some horsepower. The X server is something that instantly comes to mind. For security reasons alone, it's a good idea to shut down anything you don't really need running.


Start with these two things and let me know what happens.

[FredG]

Try lowering your maxRate to around 8000. With the maxrate set to high it can actually allow other players on high bandwidth connections to grab too much bandwidth. If everybody is grabbing more data than they need at the same time... it MAY cause some people to get lagged.

Here's an article that explains this concept:
http://www.planetquake.com/rocketland/haqsau/serversetup.shtml
...seems to hold pretty true on my 1MB line. I haven't had the opportunity to try it out for higher bandwidth connections yet tho. So try it out and let us all know if it helps any. If not there is either a routing/connection problem with your host (*as mentioned above), or there are problems with the machine itself when it comes under load (*also as above, ya posted that while I was writing! LOL). Good Luck!

[Homerlovesbeer]

Thanks Snype....I've done a few tracerouts from a major UK isp (British Telecom) and it seems to be ok. Here is what I get on a 128 ISDN connection. I tried pinging your server and couldn't ping you at all....hmmm

MaxRate was initially set at 3000 and when set at 12000 a noticable improvement was noticed.


1 60 ms 65 ms 53 ms imsnet-cl12-hg6.ealing.mdip.bt.net [213.120.208.136]
2 56 ms 48 ms 53 ms 192.168.254.200
3 50 ms 52 ms 48 ms 172.16.95.28
4 51 ms 49 ms 51 ms host213-1-119-149.btinternet.com [213.1.119.149]
5 58 ms 54 ms 60 ms core1-pos4-3.ealing.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.9.241]
6 56 ms 55 ms 50 ms core1-pos7-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.74.65.113]
7 51 ms 53 ms 65 ms lon1-9.nildram.net [195.66.224.59]
8 59 ms 55 ms 59 ms lon1-10.nildram.net [195.149.20.141]
9 51 ms 54 ms 51 ms plusnet-gw4.nildram.net [213.208.106.26]
10 59 ms 68 ms 60 ms atm.core.plus.net [212.159.1.65]
11 63 ms 65 ms 59 ms 212.159.15.250
12 70 ms 71 ms 65 ms stella.games.plus.net.uk [212.159.6.206]

So everything seems ok....although the highest ping is from the actually game server.....

about the memory issue.....when I type rcon meminfo the report I get is that 72meg of the 128meg is currently being used.

I'm not actually at the linux box so I can't run the top program or check system resources accept through rcon. I'll pass this on the the ISP admin who is on site.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks guys
Homerlovesbeer