Lag: Issues & Resolutions

To define Lag: To fall behind in movement, progress, or development; not keep pace with another or others.

On this page we will describe the many things that factor into lag and what can cause lag for an individual or a group of individuals. Take your time reading this and make sure you understand it before asking the staff about why you’re experiencing lag.

Introduction
We’ve all been there before one time or another. No one likes to lag. Especially in PvP or WoE. Follow the steps and guidelines below to help reduce or eliminate lag from your game. Read each line carefully before making inquiries as each person may have different causes for lag. Your lag might not be affected by just one source problem. It may be affected by a combination of more than one.

Latency
As defined, Latency is the delay from input into a system to desired outcome; the term is understood slightly differently in various contexts and latency issues also vary from one system to another. This is measured in milliseconds (ms) which will give you the processing delay between each action you make from your end to the receiving end. Internet connectivity can affect this.

Bandwidth
Your bandwidth is how fast your internet connection is able to process data. The data is measured in kilobytes per second (KB/s, KBS). If your internet is receiving technical issues or a delay in services you will have a harder time sending a signal to the host. This can also be affected by your Internet hardware; your modem and wireless connections.

Hardware
If you’re having issues with your hardware you can always Release, Flush, and Renew your ipconfig settings in the Command Shell window. What these commands will do for you is refresh and renew your IP configuration on your network that might be blocking or ‘clogging’ up your connections. The ‘ipconfig /flushdns’ will purge the DNS Resolver cache; which Is a bad result that is cached and needs to be cleared from the cache in order to communicate with the host correctly. Another is ‘ipconfig /release’ which essentially releases all matching connections that are open. This is a useful option to take if you’re constantly getting disconnected from your internet. Unplugging your modem/router for ~10 minutes can also do this. And finally we have ‘ipconfig /renew’ which will renew all adapters so they can request a new IP. (Some providers don’t allow a new IP to be processed s this command will only renew the old one.)

Slowness and Other
Sometimes it’s not your Internet or connection to the server that’s the problem. Sometimes it’s just your computer slowing you down! If that’s the case then you’ll want to double check all active processes running on your computer to make sure they aren’t taking up all your CPU and memory. By shutting down processes that you aren’t using or don’t need to have running can help reduce lag for your game. If you’re running a bunch of connections, such as your phone, 3DS, other computers on the same network or any other device that might be actively using Internet and receiving updates then you’ll experience slowness because your network is trying to process so many things all at once.

Pinging the Server
For security reasons we don’t allow players to ping the server directly through the client IP, nor will we give anyone this information. What we do have, however, is an integrated website that you can ping off of since it has the same location as the actual server. You can process this with the Trace Route command. If you want to start the ping process you can open your Command Shell (CMD) and type in ‘tracert zealro.com’ and hit enter. It will ping your connection with the server.

NOTE: The website is located in a slightly different area that the server. If you're trying to find a more accurate reading on your ping to the server's location you can CLICK HERE and search for your nearest major city to get a closer read.

Host Issues
We do have some issues with the host, we won’t lie. Everyone gets them from time to time. Most of the time it’s just a small burp with the connection and sometimes we need to call in when there’s a major problem going down. We are always 100% aware of all major issues that are going on with the host and we deal with them immediately when discovered. We appreciate when players message the GM team regarding this issue, but it’s not entirely necessary. Small issues, like these connection burps, cannot be resolved by the host and just have to be waited out. Don’t worry, they rarely last more than a minute.

Server Backups
The server backs up all data frequently throughout the day and is very rare to ever notice any lag spikes with it. We keep these backups active so that we are able to keep your accounts safe and updated with the server to avoid any data loss or errors. It takes no more than a few seconds and doesn’t cause much, if any, lag spikes.

Scripts
Our server runs many automated scripts and events that activate every day. We are working on new scripts to help reduce the lag these older ones provide. We aren’t disabling any scripts during this process as we want to keep all the current events and activities available to everyone at all times. Just know that these will be changed and patch notes updated when new things are added and old ones removed.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
As a new and uprising private Ragnarok Online server we are right in the crosshairs of active and persistence DDOS attackers. We have, and will continue to upgrade, DDoS Protection for the server so that we can continue to provide you all with a protected and lag-free game that you can play without worry of data loss and security breaches. Our current DDoS protection has blocked numerous attacks on the server and will continue to do so. This protection has helped us through many instances and almost nullifies lag produced by DDoS attacks.

Server Limit
Some have questioned what our player capacity for the server is. We have one answer and one answer only. Limitless. You don’t need to worry about the player limit causing lag for the server as our server’s specs are more than capable of handling over 1,000 players easily. Should we ever need more RAM for the server, we will supply it based on player median.

Conclusion
Make sure you read and exercise these problem solutions before questioning the ZRO Staff about issues with lag. We appreciate all concerns regarding server lag, however, most of the time it’s simply just a player-end issue and can only be resolved by you. If you’re having issues understanding any of these resolution techniques please don’t hesitate to ask a GM about it and we’ll gladly do our best to make sure the issue gets resolved. We hope this helps you out and we hope you enjoy player Zeal Ragnarok Online!