News 1 9 - Lag information

NEWS article 1-9:

Dateline 7/22/2008: LAG INFORMATION

Simutronics continually monitors our network performance. We take quick action to adapt to any changes in the speed or quality of our connections to the Internet.

When players report "lag" or "fog" they are usually experiencing problems in their own connection to the Internet, or in the operations of their Internet Service Provider (ISP). Occasionally users will also experience lag due to delays between your ISP and Simutronics as the data flows over the Internet. However, given modern Internet design this type of problem is relatively rare.

Here are some things you can check if you experience lag.

• Are other members of your household making heavy use of the Internet?

• Is the weather affecting your connection? High winds as well as wet weather can cause serious Internet connection problems.

• Dial up connections are very prone to lag. The connection speed is slow to begin with, and any static or other type of extraneous noise on the line can seriously degrade performance.

• If you use a cable television system to get your Internet, then you are probably sharing your connection with others in your neighborhood. This can cause lag, especially in the evening when residential Internet use is high. If you believe this is the problem then you should contact your ISP and ask them to monitor traffic volume on the connections in your neighborhood. The cable company may be able to rearrange the configuration of your neighborhood network to improve performance. This is generally not a problem if you have DSL, fiber optic, or satellite service.

• If you're using a satellite connection to access the Internet, you will experience some minor lag simply due to the limitations of the speed of light. It takes a minimum of 1/4th of a second for the signal to travel 22,000 miles up to the satellite and back down again to the planet, in addition to any conditions on the ground that may cause further lag time.