How To Reduce 'PING' In Video Games

PING usually refers to latency or the total time taken to send a request to the server, process it, and getting a response back from the server. This round time is often measured in milliseconds (ms). So, why gamers are so concerned about this? Because this also indicates how good is their Internet connection. Having high ping while you are gaming can be frustrating. Let's have look at some common problems in windows causing this and their solutions.

1.windows update

                     This is one of the most common causes of higher ping. You may be just switching on your PC and starts gaming on it. But windows update may be running in the background making more traffic in your network resulting in high ping. 

                  One simple solution for this issue is simply keeping your system up to date all the time. That is as soon as you start your system, do update windows. But if you are one of the guys who don't want to spend some data and time for it, you can do the following methods to temporarily disable windows update.

  Method 1:

     Go to settings>update&security>windows update and clicking in this option.                              

                           This will pause windows update for a maximum of 7 days.

       Method 2:
       Press WIN_KEY+R 
       Type the following in the pop-up window:
                             services.msc
              and press enter. You will get a new window like this. Select windows update from the list.

                             

                           then if the service status is showing as 'started', press STOP. Once it stops, change the startup type to DISABLED. Press Apply and then OK.                                       

                      This will temporarily disable windows update. But remember that this will last only till you restart your system. Thereafter you have to repeat these steps once again.

2. Third-Party Apps

                                                    These include all the applications that are installed in the system by yourself. Third-party apps can also act similar to Windows Update by running it in the background. To find which are the apps that are running in the background, go to the task manager by clicking CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. Here you can find all the apps and their network usage. 

                             Select the app that uses network and press end task to close the application. You can close any third party applications running in the background but do not close any of the windows processors.

3. Changing in-game settings

If your game shows an option to change servers,select the one corresponding to your country or continent. This can make ping significantly lower.

4.Antivirus Program

                                   Antivirus/anti-malware programs that are installed on your computer can also interfere with your gaming experience. Nowadays most of the programs have 'Real-time scanning' capabilities which will scan each and every data for malware that is being accessed by the system. Although this is a good security measure, it will create a minor latency as it is scanning all the data packets from the game server. 

                                                           You can solve this problem by adding the game to the exclusion file/folder. If you are using Windows defender, you can do the same by following these steps:

                     Go to settings>update&security>windows security >virus&threat protection>manage settings>add or remove exclusion

                                     select the game_file_name.exe or the folder and click add. And you are done!

    If you are using some other programs, you can find similar settings on those.

5.Optimizing your network

                                Having network issues can also be a reason. To optimize your network for the best performance, try the following methods:
        1. If possible, change your connection from WI-FI to Ethernet since wired connections are always more reliable.
         2. Disconnect any other devices within the network as they can create high traffic causing
             higher ping                             
                   
⏩Once you tried all of these tweaks, check your ping again. Less than 50 ms ping is really good, less than 100 ms ping is good to average, 150 ms is where you are going to start having problems within the games but still playable, and above 150 ms ping, you may experience a significant lag in certain games.

⏩If you still facing high ping issues, it might be the network issue itself. In that case, you may need a better data plan/connection to have a good gaming experience.

             Hope this solved your problem. If you have any queries regarding this topic, feel free to reach me at amalgeorge586@gmail.com. GG guys 😍