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Martian · 10-03-2005, 12:18 AM

Lag is not likely to be caused on your end. It just means that the connection is too slow or not stable enough to keep up with what's being transmitted. There's myriad things that can cause this. It could be your complex, but without a good look at the topology and traffic statistics it'd be hard to say definitively. It could also be some funny routing, try running a tracert and see what comes up. I know I once had a friend who's connection would change from routing through Ottawa to routing through Houston between 6 and 7 every night and since they had a VPN going it was very noticable how the lag changed. Unfortunately if that's the case it's way out on tha intarweb and there's really not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it.

You can't change ports because the server is set up to connect to a specific one and if you switched it wouldn't let you. I don't know what IRC network the TFP chat uses (I've logged on twice through the Java applet) but you may be able to use a different server in the network and see if that helps any.

Also, keep an eye on your network for the next little bit. The goal is to figure out the extent of the lag. Is it just IRC that's affected, or is it all internet applications and are there specific times of day? You may consider asking the administrator for your complex's network too and find out what sort of traffic shaping he has implemented to keep one or two tenants from eating up all the bandwidth. The problem might just be someone turning on bittorrent before they go to bed each night and stealing your pipe.

Our network at work (ironically at a tech support office) has similar issues that stem entirely from bad topology. The whole thing runs off a 1 GB trunk with 1 server and 1 gateway and a whole bunch of switches. As soon as it gets busy people start accessing the server more and entire subnets go to lunch. Not pretty. Your complex could be experiencing some sort of similar issues.

10-03-2005, 12:18 AM	#2 (permalink)
Martian Young Crumudgeon Location: Canada	Lag is not likely to be caused on your end. It just means that the connection is too slow or not stable enough to keep up with what's being transmitted. There's myriad things that can cause this. It could be your complex, but without a good look at the topology and traffic statistics it'd be hard to say definitively. It could also be some funny routing, try running a tracert and see what comes up. I know I once had a friend who's connection would change from routing through Ottawa to routing through Houston between 6 and 7 every night and since they had a VPN going it was very noticable how the lag changed. Unfortunately if that's the case it's way out on tha intarweb and there's really not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it. You can't change ports because the server is set up to connect to a specific one and if you switched it wouldn't let you. I don't know what IRC network the TFP chat uses (I've logged on twice through the Java applet) but you may be able to use a different server in the network and see if that helps any. Also, keep an eye on your network for the next little bit. The goal is to figure out the extent of the lag. Is it just IRC that's affected, or is it all internet applications and are there specific times of day? You may consider asking the administrator for your complex's network too and find out what sort of traffic shaping he has implemented to keep one or two tenants from eating up all the bandwidth. The problem might just be someone turning on bittorrent before they go to bed each night and stealing your pipe. Our network at work (ironically at a tech support office) has similar issues that stem entirely from bad topology. The whole thing runs off a 1 GB trunk with 1 server and 1 gateway and a whole bunch of switches. As soon as it gets busy people start accessing the server more and entire subnets go to lunch. Not pretty. Your complex could be experiencing some sort of similar issues. __________________ I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said - Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame