L4D: Booted from Steam server for "excessive ping"... fix needed.

Hey all,

I am new to MP play and only recently tried playing L4D. When I played a few weeks back, I used Versus "Quick Match" and everything went well (except for the fact that I was getting slaughtered! ). This morning, though, I tried Campaign and selected a Steam dedicated server. I was looking for Normal difficulty with few ppl, and found a 4-person game. I started in, being the first one, and played through the first map of No Mercy with only bots. Then, on the second map, someone else joined the game, and the next thing I know I am getting booted for "excessive ping"! WTF?!? I went back in to try to contact the server mod, but within a few minutes, I got 3 warnings and jumped out before I could get booted, lest I get perma-banned (which I read some servers will do). BTW, the guy that joined in my game was still there, though "idle".

Anyway, I didn't even know what "excessive ping" meant at the time, so I posted on their forum and some guy told me that I needed to get a better connection. Well, I have FiOS 15/5 (here are my SpeedTests) and a very low ping. His second suggestion was to "work on my rates". I asked him what he meant, and he told me to Google "rates", "tutorial", and "CSS". OK... that helped. I found an article which has a lot of info (Rates in CSS - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net), but I don't understand it and still don't know what to do with the info, if that is even the correct way of addressing this.

Does anybody know how I can improve my ping rate in L4D so that I don't get booted from Steam's dedicated servers? Like I said, I am a n00b at this stuff, so if I have to fix a "rate", please tell me what rates I need to fix, what are good values to use, which file they are in, and where I can find said file.

TIA!

VSP

I think I may have found the answer here... "lag" in online games with Windows 7. Will have to wait until I get home to try it.

BTW, is there anyway to check and see if I am having lag issues other than trying to join a game and waiting to see if I get booted?

How often does it happen? Is it every game? Or just some of them? Or is it just their server?

Could try joining several other servers to see what kind of ping you're getting in different group servers. I used to have this problem when I was low on ram and running too many processes, but it doesn't look like you have the same problem from your specs.

Also, do you have any background applications running when play? I know that I have really bad problems with my mouse and lag when I run Displayfusion while playing L4D, so make sure you exit everything before trying.

Also, you need to ping their server to see how long it is. When you use speed test or ping test, try to ping the one closest to them, instead of closest to you.

Suburban Atlas, thanks for your reply.

Suburban Atlas said:

How often does it happen? Is it every game? Or just some of them? Or is it just their server?

I haven't played many MP sessions in L4D, just a few Survival and Versus Quick Matches (I am guessing on non-Steam servers), then I played a 6-player game on a Steam server. Both went well, with no ping issues (but that was before I had the "excessive ping" issue, so I didn't know to look for it), but I only played a few Quick Matches and the 6-player Steam server match that one time since either some or most of the players weren't being very cooperative (generally not sticking together, not helping up fallen survivors, running ahead to the safe room and not returning to help, and the worst gunning down other survivors that they felt weren't being cooperative ). That was why I looked for a 4-player game, the one I started this thread about. The one I joined was called Hardcore, even though the difficulty was listed as Normal. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I went ahead and tried the MMCSS fix in the "lag" thread, but that did not work. I also tried a TCPIP fix (don't have the link with me now, but can provide it later if requested) that was given to me over at the Steam forum (finally someone who actually wanted to help did), but that did not work, either. I was told how to check my ping (hold Tab) and saw that I was and still am getting on avg 350+ (though I start out around 575 and then it settles down a bit), and I am listed as red (I was told that when you have a good ping you are listed as green). This is when I am alone on the server.

Suburban Atlas said:

Could try joining several other servers to see what kind of ping you're getting in different group servers. I used to have this problem when I was low on ram and running too many processes, but it doesn't look like you have the same problem from your specs.

I am going to try to go back and check the other servers (got fed up this morning with regediting and rebooting, so I spent the rest of my "free time" playing my new copy of Nation Red instead), but after the actions of the players on the other server, I am a little hesitant.

Suburban Atlas said:

Also, do you have any background applications running when play? I know that I have really bad problems with my mouse and lag when I run Displayfusion while playing L4D, so make sure you exit everything before trying.

The only apps I had running in the background was the Steam client (of course) and Opera browser. I will try it without Opera browser to see if that changes anything.

Suburban Atlas said:

Also, you need to ping their server to see how long it is. When you use speed test or ping test, try to ping the one closest to them, instead of closest to you.

Just for kicks, I tried SpeedTest again this morning to see if things had changed since I posted my results here before, and they haven't much. I also went to PingTest and tried out several, both local and Seattle, WA (I don't know where Steam's servers are, but I am guessing WA since ppl in WA have to pay sales tax on games), and then Washingtion DC. Seattle results were almost the same as local, and my DC test reported my ping up to 50.

Since I mentioned I was able to play on other servers just fine, I realize that the quick and dirty answer is to just use those, however, I preferred the gameplay I was getting on the one I was getting booted from. And the players who showed up, while I wasn't able to play long with them, seemed more cooperative. Maybe when I am more experienced I can go back to the other servers. Too bad the majority of my "real-life" friends are either console gamers or non-gaming PCers, otherwise I wouldn't have to worry about that.

Thanks again for the help. If you or anyone else has any other ideas, please chime in.

VSP