Lima.- While online games have come a long way since their debut, they still have their fair share of technical challenges. One of them is packet loss, which unfortunately affects end users (players) and can ruin a pleasant experience in seconds.
More often than not, connectivity issues are to blame, with high latency, jitters, and packet loss hampering a gamer’s ability to get flawless games. But what is packet loss? Network activities, such as gaming, involve the transfer of data, conveniently divided into small units called packets.
When one or more data packets do not reach their destination, we call it packet loss. This phenomenon mainly occurs due to network congestion, but can also be triggered by data transmission errors or faulty hardware.
Packet loss occurs primarily as a spike and is ephemeral in nature, making it easy to go unnoticed. However, in real-time applications, media streaming, and online gaming, even minor packet loss can affect the quality of the end-user experience.
How to reduce packet loss?
First, you need to determine if your connectivity problem is actually packet loss. Unfortunately, this issue is similar to high latency, so it can be easily confused. Fortunately, modern games including VALORANT, Fortnite, Rocket League, Modern Warfare, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Battlefield V have built-in packet loss indicators.
After you establish that packet loss is indeed the problem, you need to isolate the cause. This is where it gets tricky, as many vectors can trigger it. If it’s caused by network congestion or server-side issues, your best course of action is to simply wait. However, if the problem is on your side, there are some ways to effectively counteract it.
Advantages of using VPN
In some cases, your internet service provider (ISP) may limit your connection to avoid network congestion. This essentially means that you are given a bandwidth limit that you cannot bypass. Your ISP may limit your connection by temporarily interrupting your connection if you exceed a predefined quota or by reducing your connection speed.
Using a reliable VPN can help you counteract packet loss caused by ISP connection throttling. A VPN redirects your connection through a secure tunnel, away from your provider’s default network.
Crucially, VPN allows you to bypass network congestion, but only if the problem occurs on your ISP’s side of the connection. If the game server is saturated, a VPN won’t do much good in this situation.
In the event that a VPN does not immediately solve the problem, Bitdefender, a leading cybersecurity brand, provides the following suggestions to minimize packet loss on your system:
- Use wired connections (if possible) instead of wireless while playing online games
- Update your system drivers to the latest version to avoid compatibility issues
- Flush DNS or change DNS provider
- Check local connection hardware (cables, routers) and replace faulty or outdated components
- Contact your ISs if you suddenly experience severe packet loss
- Avoid running bandwidth consuming applications while playing online games
- Change the game server you are playing on (if possible)
For more information about the industry you can visit www.bitdefenderperu.com.