Every online gamer understands the pains that come with lag or low-quality graphics due to high ping rates. These pings can determine your victory or defeat during an online game.
Usually, gamers overcome this ping challenge by purchasing the latest and typically expensive hardware. However, playing a game can be a little inexpensive. A better gaming experience is one with an improved speed and lower pings, which you can achieve in many affordable ways.
In this post, we will talk about three (3) easy ways to improve pings on windows 11.
Source: Unsplash
What is Ping?
The term ‘ping’ is often used interchangeably with ‘latency.’ This is because ping is the unit in which latency is measured.
Latency, on the other hand, is the speed of your internet connection and the time it takes for data to travel from your device to a server and back.
Ping, the latency unit, is measured in milliseconds (ms).
What is the best ping level?
Ping levels differ from game to game. However, there is a general guide to knowing good ping levels. The lower the ping value, the fewer in-game lags you will experience.
A ping value below 20 milliseconds (ms) is excellent. It usually produces clean and crisp visuals with quick response/reaction time. There is barely any lag on games with this ping level.
Ping values between 20ms and 50ms are still good. However, ping values above 50ms but below 100ms are characterized by occasional lag and low-quality performance.
The worse ping level is one above 100ms. They are poor, bad and can be highly annoying. The games become unplayable with pixelated or stuttering graphics. In most online games, the ping is displayed in the server list or leaderboard.
The Ways to Improve Pings on Windows 11
When you experience a lag or delay while gaming online, here are a few things you can do to fix the problem:
Tweak Network
The first and general step to reduce pings on Windows 11 is to try tweaking your network. Since high pings are usually the result of slower network connections, check your internet and WiFi connection. Resolve the issue either by switching off and on your internet connection or changing from wireless mode to wired.
If you have a good internet connection and still have high ping values, other ways you can improve the ping value on your windows 11 are:
Minimize Background Network Processes
Another way to improve pings is by checking for programs, applications or processes running in the background. Disable some that aren’t needed at the time, freeing some network bandwidth for your game.
To do this
- Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut keys to bring up the Task Manager menu.
- Scroll to the Background process session and notice the process that is consuming a large amount of bandwidth
- After taking note of those that are not needed, select and End the task, and repeat for all unnecessary processes.
This process should reduce ping on windows 11.
Enable IPv6
There is an updated version of the internet protocol. If you are still using IPv4, check out IPv6. IPv6 is a newer protocol that uses a 128-bit IP address, as opposed to IPv4, which uses a 32-bit IP address.
To switch from IPv4 to IPv6, follow these steps.
- Using the shortcut keys Windows + R, bring up the Run Dialog box
- Type in “ncpa.cpl” in the box and click enter. This opens up the Open Network Connection. Right-click on your network and select properties
- A list of options will be presented; check the IPv6 (TCP/IPv6) option and hit OK.
This change from IPv4 to IPv6 should fix the high ping value issue on your windows 11 PC.
CONCLUSION
You can now enjoy playing multiplayer online games on your windows 11 PC with improved pings and reduced lag. These easy ways require no technicality.