1. Play on a wired connection

Having an Ethernet cable, connecting your computer or games console to your Hub, is the best way to lower your ping. The difference will be dramatic. You’ll get the fastest connection possible from your home broadband and your ping will stabilise (say one game was getting 30ms, another 90ms). There’s two ways to set up a wired connection for gaming… - Get a really long Ethernet cable. If you’re set up far from your Hub, this is your cheapest and easiest option, just be careful having an exposed cable around your home. - Or try Ethernet powerline adapters. Got kids or pets at home or just don’t want a wire under your feet? To lower your ping without causing a tripping hazard, get a pair of Ethernet powerline adapters and two Ethernet cables. Connect an adapter to your Hub and plug it into the mains in one room. Elsewhere, connect the second to your computer or games console. See our step-by-step [setup guide](https://www.virginmedia.com/content/virginmedia/dotcom/en/shop/bundles31/powerline-setup.html).

2. Turn off automatic updates

By default, your computer’s reserving about 20% bandwidth for updates and this can cause your game to lag a bit. So rather than having updates running and files downloading in the background, causing your game to run slower, do it manually, such as by removing the Windows Update Optimiser or switching off automatic updates.

3. Choose the closest game server to you

If you’re given the choice, pick the one nearest you to lower your ping and speed up the connection from your computer to your online game. Fortnite player, go to your Menu, find ‘Matchmaking Region’ and join the server with the lowest ping, because ‘Auto’ will have you jumping around different servers, inconsistently.

4. Try a gaming VPN near you to avoid latency

If you’ve chosen the nearest gaming server to you and your ping still isn’t as low as you’d like, consider paying for a gaming VPN. Rather than taking the scenic route, your data will use the shortest, most direct path to get to the gaming server, drastically reducing your ping time and lag. League of Legends has a network specially for their gamers.

5. Upgrade your broadband bandwidth

Love online games and play often? With [M500 fibre broadband](https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/fibre/m500), your gaming stays smooth and competitive even when Netflix is being streamed in the other room, so you won’t have to beg the others to get offline before your session or wait for them to go to bed – there’s enough bandwidth for everyone. Meanwhile, you could carve out more time to actually game – spend less of your precious playing time waiting for updates as these will be downloaded at 516Mbps on average.

What is a good ping? | Testing ping

Q: Professional ping: 10ms (0.01 seconds)

For competitive gamers in battles and tournaments, the slightest mistake could be game over for you and your teammates. You’ll want the lowest possible ping, so you’re not dropping points or shots because of lag or glitches.

Q: Pretty decent ping: Under 20ms (0.02 seconds)

If your idea of fun is streaming your gameplay to Twitch, aim for a ping as quick as this. You’ll enjoy crisp visuals and quick, instant actions, no lag or choppiness.

Q: Perfectly average ping: 20ms to 50ms (0.02 to 0.05 seconds)

Try to get below 40ms for ultra-competitive Apex Legends. But for almost all first person shooter and racing games, under 50ms would be ideal, whether you’re switching weapons on Fortnite or playing Valorant.

Q: Poor ping: 50ms to 100ms (0.05 to 0.1 seconds)

Connecting to international servers? You’d expect this range and the occasional lag, depending on your game and settings. A 100ms or lower ping can be tolerable. But when you’re lagging 80ms, you’ll lose the sense that you’re playing in real time. For looting and driving on PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (PUBG), you’ll want 60ms or lower.

Q: Unplayable ping: 100ms to 300ms (0.1 to 0.3 seconds)

Long delays are almost guaranteed in this range. In fact, some online games reject your connection when you’re at 170ms or more. Massively multiplayer online games are playable with a high ping, but still, you’ll want to stay below 250ms. Under 150ms for your real time player vs player or strategy games.

Q: 1. Sharing your home WiFi

When your broadband is busy with a lot of devices or windows, your gaming can lag. Whether you’re in a shared home with Netflix streaming in the next room or a [smart home](https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/technology/future-technology) on your own, having too much connected at the same time, competing for bandwidth, will slow down your gaming. You’ll probably notice your commands taking longer to play out on screen, especially if your home broadband isn’t at least as fast as our [M100 speed](https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/broadband-only). If your internet isn’t the fastest, you might have to schedule some one-on-one time with your Hub or wait for the house to go to bed before you challenge your mates to a rematch or start winning, level after level, on a lower ping. Wait, better still – you could switch off as many devices as you can while you’re playing or pop them in aeroplane mode. And remember that closing the programs and websites you have running in the background will also free up memory and bandwidth for your game.

Q: 2. Having an unstable connection

The further away your gaming set up is, the more you could be adding to your lag time as the data’s journey, from the gaming server to your device, is that bit more complicated. If your computer or games console really can’t be in the same room as your Hub, is it as close as it can be? Alternatively, your ping could be high because your broadband provider is having problems with their network in your area or your device is disconnecting and reconnecting to the internet for another reason. When this happens, the gaming server won’t get the information sent by your computer or console, which could feel like a high ping.

Q: 3. Being infected with malware

Meanwhile, have you considered that maybe a [virus or worm](https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-security/what-is-malware) has infected your device and that’s what’s slowing down your game? Perhaps your [antivirus](https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-security/what-is-antivirus-software) software or firewall? It’s worth a check. Perhaps your ping isn’t to blame for your frustrating gaming experience after all.

Q: 4. Selecting a far-away gaming server

A gamer 10 miles from the server will have a better ping rate than you if you’re 100 miles away. So for a lower ping rate, always choose the closest to you.

What is a ping?

It’s Mike Muuss’ invention. His way of measuring lag time in milliseconds (ms), inspired by submarines. Data packets, from your computer or console, are pinged to the gaming server and back to you. The quicker your ping, the smoother and more competitively you can play online games, and the bigger the advantage you’ll have – players with lower pings than you will struggle to keep tabs on you and you’ll seem to hop around their screen.

What is lag?

It’s the time delay measured by the ping. The longer it takes to send and receive messages, the less they make sense. Lag can cause your character to jerk about while moving (fighting, driving, jumping) and your gameplay could freeze or rollback, if you haven’t already been disconnected from your online game because of lag. Perhaps you’ve heard gamers complain about latency? Well, this is what most people mean.

With practice and saint-like patience, you could get used to a lag. But it’s better to try to improve it so you can level up faster and have more fun. You’ll react quicker to what’s happening and land your skill shots on target when you’re seeing the most recent, live gameplay. You can also game on instinct, as you’ll see where you are on the map and what players are up to in real-time without having to imagine it all in advance.

For slower, turn-based games, lag isn’t the worst thing in the world because your moves can be less precise and perfect timing isn’t crucial. But high ping is a real killjoy for first person shooters (Call of Duty, Battlefield) where a delay could stop you getting the headshots you need to win the game. It also sucks the fun out of questing on multiplayer online battle arenas (League of Legends), playing real-time strategy games (Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Northgard) or massively multiplayer online games (World of Warcraft, RuneScape).

What’s a good ping for gaming?

The lower your ping, the faster your connection and the more competitively you can play. That’s the general rule. But let’s see what you should really aim to have for your style of gaming…

Professional ping: 10ms (0.01 seconds)

Pretty decent ping: Under 20ms (0.02 seconds)

Perfectly average ping: 20ms to 50ms (0.02 to 0.05 seconds)

Poor ping: 50ms to 100ms (0.05 to 0.1 seconds)

Unplayable ping: 100ms to 300ms (0.1 to 0.3 seconds)

How to test your ping

So, how good is yours right now? And how much room do you have for improvement? Let’s find out. There’s two ways you can do this…

Check your ping in your game

For an accurate measure of your network performance, specific to the game and server you’re playing on, go to your game settings and find something like ‘Display performance stats’ or ‘Display network options.’ Most games, especially first person shooters, let you check your ping and some even colour code your connection, green being ideal. Yellow, average. Red, tragic.

Use an online ping test tool

Take your pick of the online tools and run a few tests at different times and in different rooms. SpeedTest.net is one of the most popular for gamers. Or there’s SpeedSmart to measure the ping to servers all over the world and SpeedOf.me which includes a latency measurement.

For your first test, connect your computer or games console to your Hub with an Ethernet cable and measure your ping. Afterwards, unplug your cable and retake the test around your home to see how the numbers change. This will help you get a sense of your average ping, while showing you where your gaming set up could get the fastest connection. Ping in milliseconds also appears on our broadband speed test.

What impacts your ping?

Unhappy with your test result? Perhaps your ping is higher than you’d like for one of these reasons…

1. Sharing your home WiFi

2. Having an unstable connection

3. Being infected with malware

4. Selecting a far-away gaming server

How to reduce lag

Ethernet vs. WiFi gaming

Internet speed for gaming

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What’s a good ping and how do you test yours?