he only way we can know our enemy is to study him. Yeah, that’s right – him. Lets start thinking of Lag not as an “it”, but rather as a fat, ugly, nasty, and disgusting monster that rears its head and ruins our games. Lets capitalize the L in his name, and give him the respect that an enemy of his caliber deserves -- Lag.

So how do we learn about Lag? The hard way is to study network traces and performance logs on your PC, and link each Lag you experience in a game to an event on your system or on the net. Does that sound like fun? Hell no! But fortunately somebody has already done it, and posted his findings on the causes of Lag for all to see. Check out the white paper written on the Causes of Lag by Bigfoot Networks CEO Harlan “Tytus” Beverly here (PDF). Its really interesting stuff!

Great! You read it! Most Lag is caused by the game server! A lot of good that does us, right? Wrong!!! Even though most of the Lag is caused by game servers, there are still things that we can do to minimize the Lag we experience. Now some of this may sound obvious, but lets face it – we’d all be better off if everybody followed these simple guidelines to reducing Lag. Here are EndLagNow.org’s top tips to taking control of your lag!


Don’t use a router, and for heaven’s sake don’t use a switch! Plug the internet straight into your computer, because every time data hits a piece of hardware on the net your latency goes up. More latency could potentially mean more Lag. If you follow this tip, please make sure your computer is protected with a good firewall software when connected to the net.


We all hate viruses, but anti-virus software eats up valuable CPU cycles that could be spent helping you frag your enemy. Turn it off, and free up your processor to focus on the game. Don't forget to turn your anti-virus software back on or run regular scans when not playing!


The faster your ISP service is, the lower your latency will be. The lower your latency is, the less Lag you’ll experience.


If there are applications or background tasks running, it’s a sure bet that your machine is going to devote some CPU to it. Don’t let it happen!!!!


Nothing can slow down a machine like a good dose of Spyware. Don’t let those murderous bastards who write Spyware ruin your game.


When you decide between playing on a server with a ping of 36, or a server with a ping of 150... choose the 36!!! Seriously, if you connect to the server with a high ping you will not only expose yourself to potential Lag, but you will expose everybody else as well. Everybody loses when somebody with a terrible Ping signs onto the server.


This is a well known trick to improve system performance.

Got other ideas on how to educate ourselves on Lag? Know some other research that we should post? Submit it here.