Hi I frequently play Age of Empires 2 across my home lan network (wireless) and although our internet speed is 1.5mbps with a download limit of 24gb a month it still lags. Sometimes we can get through an entire game fine, but othertimes it lags at every second step rendering the game unplayable. Im planning to have like 7 people round to mine to play a big game, how can I avoid it lagging? (other then the obvious: getting off msn, all programs using internet etc) Also if it comes down to it, what do i need 2 set up like a mini network just using hubs and stuff?

Thanks

Hello Elliot81,

If you can describe the lag in more detail, that would be helpful.

Firstly, you say you are running the game across a home network, so your internet bandwidth speed isn't at all a factor. Unless you mean you are playing the game over the internet and you are connecting to the internet through your home network which is wireless.

Second, if you actually are playing a game over the internet and I am misreading, then your internet lag is going to depend on all the other people you are connected to while you play a game. So sometimes you may connect to a fast host and sometimes a slow one. If the speed of the host's connection is slow, then so will your speed be.

Last, if it's video lag that you're confusing with bandwidth lag, then the only thing that will help the game will be to beef up the specs of your computer. RTS games will a lot of the time have tons and tons of units in one screen. So if your game actually starts slowing down (looking like it's in slow motion) that is a problem with your computer's performance. If the game only gets sluggish during large battles, that's a clear indicator it's your computer's performance.

Here is a simple way to look at it....

If the speed of the game stays constant and it always looks smooth, but it just takes a very long time for your units to respond to commands, then you have a lag problem.

If the game gets choppy and sluggish and starts going in slow motion, then you have a video performance problem.

Hope that helps!

that helps alot, because it only usually lags when i play against someone on an old(er) computer, that makes sense now. Thankyou