Let's see what a VPN (Virtual Private Network) can do to our online games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

A lot of player experiance high ping on some servers. This has to do with your ISP'S routing.

What is "routing" ? With simple words it's the "road" you walk to reach the server.

An example:

Quake lives dkgz server IP is 84.200.38.142

Let's tracerout it: (open terminal and type "tracert 84.200.38.142",without quotes)

C:\Users\heavysmok>tracert 84.200.38.142

Tracing route to 84.200.38.142 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms pirelli.router [192.168.1.1]
2 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms 195.14.152.202
3 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms 178-103-41.brsl3.cyta.gr [178.59.103.41]
4 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms 195.14.131.94
5 15 ms 18 ms 15 ms 78-2-220.itr.cyta.gr [78.87.2.220]
6 18 ms 18 ms 19 ms 78-2-213.itr.cyta.gr [78.87.2.213]
7 71 ms 72 ms 71 ms 80.249.210.43
8 97 ms 109 ms 105 ms fra-eq5-01gw.voxility.net [109.163.235.189]
9 77 ms 71 ms 87 ms fra-eq5-01c.voxility.net [109.163.237.26]
10 71 ms 72 ms 71 ms fra-in8-01c.voxility.net [5.254.88.201]
11 63 ms 63 ms 63 ms lh28933.voxility.net [5.254.86.26]
12 63 ms 63 ms 64 ms fra4.xe-0-1-0.accelerated.de [84.200.230.81]
13 64 ms 64 ms 64 ms 84.200.38.131
14 64 ms 64 ms 64 ms 84.200.38.142

Trace complete.

As we can see i'm doing 14 hopes to reach the server. First 6 of them it's my ISP so i have very low ping. From 7 hope i'm starting to go outside of my country and the ping is going high.

Ping the server:

C:\Users\heavysmok>ping 84.200.38.142

Pinging 84.200.38.142 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=53
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=53
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=53
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 84.200.38.142:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 63ms, Maximum = 65ms, Average = 64ms

Average ping it's 64ms.

Now it's time to use a VPN client to see if we can get any better resaults.

Tracerout same server with VPN: (here comes the magic, i'm connecting to a Frankfurt server first inside my VPN client)

C:\Users\heavysmok>tracert 84.200.38.142

Tracing route to 84.200.38.142 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 54 ms 54 ms 55 ms fra-a04.ipvanish.com [81.171.75.4]
2 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms 74.209.135.153
3 54 ms 55 ms 55 ms fra-anc-02gw.voxility.net [80.81.195.144]
4 55 ms 55 ms 55 ms fra-eq5-02gw.voxility.net [5.254.68.145]
5 54 ms 55 ms 54 ms fra-eq5-01c.voxility.net [109.163.237.18]
6 55 ms 55 ms 55 ms fra-in8-01c.voxility.net [5.254.88.201]
7 55 ms 55 ms 55 ms lh28933.voxility.net [5.254.86.26]
8 62 ms 55 ms 54 ms fra4.xe-0-1-0.accelerated.de [84.200.230.81]
9 57 ms 55 ms 55 ms 84.200.38.131
10 55 ms 57 ms 56 ms 84.200.38.142

Trace complete.

10 hopes because we r going straight to the server.

Now test the ping:

C:\Users\heavysmok>ping 84.200.38.142

Pinging 84.200.38.142 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=59
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=59
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=59
Reply from 84.200.38.142: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=59

Ping statistics for 84.200.38.142:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 54ms, Maximum = 55ms, Average = 54ms

Average ping it's 54ms.

What we earn? way better routing and more stable plus -10ms average ping.

10ms maybe it's so little you can say. Sometimes my average ping it's at least 75-85 to that server, now it's morning and i have low ping but at night it's very very bad. So that's the reasong i went to a VPN solution.

P.S It's not working on every server better than your ISP. Sometimes on some servers like World Of tanks my ISP have little better ping.

P.S2 For my point of view the first step it's to call your ISP and tell them to change your connection from "interleaved path" to "fast path". This will reduce the ping but you will loose some of your download speed. And in some cases maybe you will have some dc's. The connection should be very solid to do that. Your ISP tech will explain to you. Second step it's to stop playing from WiFi and use an ethernet, if possible. If you do the two first steps and your ISP can't help you then think the solution of a vpn.

P.S3 THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT!!

DO NOT USE THE VPN TO BUY ANYTHING FROM STEAM. USE IT ONLY WHEN YOU WANT TO PLAY! IF YOU BUY ANYTHING WITH OTHER IP THAN YOUR COUNTRY YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE BAN! BECAUSE THERE ARE RESTRICTIONS TO THAT! WE OPEN THE VPN, CONNECT TO SERVER, CONNECT TO OUR STEAM ACCOUNT (ALWAYS ASK OUR PASSWORD), PLAY THE GAME. THAN WE CLOSE STEAM, DISCONNECT FROM VPN WHEN WE FINISHED OUR GAMES.

P.S4 USE IT WITH YOUR OWN RISK!


Chears!