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The closer your console or computer is to your router the better your connection will be, and the fewer “packets” you will lose. This will show you your ping, download speed, and upload speed, all of which influence your Internet speed for gaming. If you aren't sure what your latency is, use the Xfinity Speedtest. Many gaming routers specialize in reducing lag and allow you to choose the area it can connect to, which will stop the game from matching you with players too far away (however, this can mean longer wait times to find a match). One way to combat this is to improve your hardware. This is why playing on an Asian server when you're in America often results in a less-than-ideal experience. This helps mitigate the effects of latency, but if there aren't enough players nearby to populate a match, you may feel lag as the game matches you with players farther away. On the bright side, some games, like Call of Duty, attempt to place you in matches with players in your geographic region. If you are a long way from the servers or in an area with spotty Internet coverage, you will likely have high ping. Your Internet service provider and your geographic location are the biggest influences on the amount of latency you experience. Unfortunately for many gamers, latency is largely out of their control. "High ping" makes you an instant target in competitive games like Call of Duty, and for good reason. Latency, also called ping, refers to the amount of time in milliseconds it takes for data to travel between two locations. Here’s how to reduce lag, plus additional tips to improve your gaming performance and get the best internet for gaming. Lag takes away from the overall experience of the game and can be a major problem for competitive multiplayer games.
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It could be that your character jerks around the screen in unexpected ways, shots aren’t registering, or other players seem to be teleporting around you. “Lag” refers to the glitches in video games caused by communication issues between the game and the server. The word alone often induces fits of rage in gamers, and it’s the reason most people lose multiplayer games - or so they would have you believe.
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