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How To Get Lower Ping For Online Gaming

how to get lower for online gaming

The ping time is what you need to look at if you’re experiencing lag when playing online games – here are steps to lower your ping time, reduce latency, and improve your gameplay. When playing online games, lag can occur when other players appear, disappear, and consistently move around. This could be caused by a high ping. Let’s have a look what the term ping means?

WHAT IS PING?

The ping is a measure of how quickly data travels from your computer to another player’s computer and back. Latency – also referred to as lag – is a measurement of the time between the computer and its server. Ping is measured in milliseconds.ping times
Pings help players gauge the speed with which their computer communicates with gaming servers and other online players. When a player performs a ping test, they can see if their gaming experience will experience dips in responsiveness. In the context of ping speed, the term ‘low ping’ or ‘high ping’ is used. Ping is generally preferred in online games, especially those requiring timing and positioning. A high ping could affect the outcome of the game for players with a high ping. The ping time of other players as well as the ping of servers is often displayed in online games.

HOW TO LOWER YOUR PING?

Here are some steps you can take to optimize your gaming experience by reducing your ping:

1. CHECK OUT FOR LATENCY

Internet signals are like couriers. In fact, the speed of your internet is really a measure of how much data you can hold at once. His route and the distance between his home and destination determine the length of his trip. It shouldn’t take long for you to travel if you play an online game hosted on a server that’s not too far away. It could take many hours for your signal to reach that server if it is located on the other side of the world or if it is not taking the most direct route. It is also a good idea to get a good gaming router. Fast speeds and powerful processors are just some of the features that help you beat your roommate’s Netflix binge without slowing you down. You should consider any other factors in your home that might be influencing the situation before spending hundreds of dollars on new networking hardware.

2. RUN INTERNET SPEED TEST

After you have made sure your router is up to par, it’s time to do a speed test to ensure that it’s not your internet connection slowing you down. Enter “internet speed test” into Google to run an internet speed test. The lower the speed score, the more likely the internet could be the culprit. There is a correlation between your Internet speed and the number of concurrent users on your network. It is therefore recommended that you run several internet speed tests during the day to determine whether your bandwidth has been overused. If you want to see how different the numbers are, you can also plug an Ethernet cable directly into your computer.

google speed test
It is recommended that you should always use a wired connection when you play online. If your computer or gaming console is located in the same room as your router, then the wired approach may sound appealing, but it might not be practical if you’re gaming in a bedroom or a back room. You may want to consider powerline adapters, which use your home’s electrical wiring to carry your internet signal without affecting its speed. Connect one to your router and the other to your gaming setup, and voila, you’ll enjoy nearly the same speed and latency you’d get with a direct connection.

3. REMOVE UNNECESSARY DEVICES FROM YOUR INTERNET

Similarly, our connected devices compete for our Wi-Fi just like the programs and applications that vie for our attention. We have to juggle a lot of things when considering the rise of IoT. Even our wireless gaming headsets can connect to smart TVs, computers, cell phones, and smart watches. When you multiply that by the number of people living under one roof, you might end up with an overwhelmed internet connection. You may need to disconnect those other devices or users from your network if you experience lag in your video game – one example is that annoying roommate who watches TikTok all the time.

4. CONNECT VIA ETHERNET CABLE

Online gaming usually requires a good Ethernet cable connection. Wireless connections are vulnerable to many interference sources in the real world, such as neighboring devices, walls, and distance from the router. A direct Ethernet connection eliminates all types of interference and gives you the most speed possible.

5. ADVANCE YOUR SIGNAL STRENGTH

A good cabling setup is nice, but perhaps you’re playing a mobile game that wouldn’t benefit as much from a wired connection. You might be better off upgrading your router in that case, but you must ensure that your current setup is performing as well as possible first. To continue our metaphor, a strong home signal allows the data courier to reach his destination faster and easier. This decreases ping.
The best way to optimize the signal strength of your network is to follow the basic best practices. Put the router in a space that’s clear and unobstructed. It is better to raise the Wi-Fi signal off the floor so that it will be angled upward. Angle matters, too, so try staggering the antennas every 45 degrees: diagonally first, straight second, diagonally third.
You may need to experiment a bit to find a connection that is much more stable. If you’ve optimized your router’s performance to the best of your ability, you’ll want to run a few final speed tests to see how much better it is.

FINAL THOUGHTS!!

The only thing left to do if you still have bad ping after following the above steps is to call your internet service provider. If you are not experiencing any issues with your connection, it might be time to consider switching providers, as your ISP is usually able to diagnose and fix most problems remotely. But we are sure that following our guidelines, you will experience a clear positive change in your games in the form of lowered ping and zero lag.

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Fortnite 2fa – How to enable it

Epic account 2fa
Epic account 2fa

What is 2FA?

2FA is short for 2-Factor Authentication. This means that instead of just using a username and password (Single Factor Authentication) to protect an Epic account, an extra step is added to make the process even more secure. The additional layer makes it much harder for hackers to gain access to a Fortnite account and the sensitive information it contains. We will be showing you how to protect your valuable Vbucks and cosmetic items.

What types of Two Factor Authentication are available?

  1. Epic account 2fa
    Epic account 2FA

    Knowledge factor : This when the owner of the account has an extra PIN or shared secret.

  2. Possession factor : This when an owner of account has some physical device that can help verify the person accessing an account. This is usually a mobile phone (Text Message or Verification App), Security token or smart ID card.
  3. Biometric factor : This is usually a fingerprint reader, facial recognition  software or some rare cases retinal eye scanner.
  4. Location factor : Tracking where the login attempt is being made from. This factor can take into account IP addresses, feo location  and GPS coordinates.
  5. Time factor : This factor forces a time window restriction on accessing an account. This is often used by parents to restrict access to mobile devices.

How to Enable Two-factor Authentication in Fortnite

First of all, there is a good chance you will be receiving emails asking you to change the password to your epic games account. These emails will often have links in them and the email will be asking you to click on the link to change the password. DO NOT DO THIS! Even an email is from Epic themselves it is never a good idea to click on a link that is asking you to change your Fortnite password. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

To protect your Fortnite account with 2 Factor Authentication do the folowing:

  1. Go to epicgames.com.
  2. log into your Fortnite account.
  3. Open account settings at the top right of the screen.
  4. Select password and security.
  5. Scroll all the way to the bottom and select enable Authentication App or enable Email Authentication. 

 

Fortnite 2fa selection screen
Fortnite 2FA selection screen

Epic Games offers two types of 2FA. Either through the use of a mobile or through an email address.

Enable Authentication App

Authenticator app selection
Authenticator app selection

This is possession factor authentication.

When you click on “Enable Authentication App”

You will presented with another screen asking you to download the authenticator app.

There are 3 common authentication apps that can be used with Fortnite. They are:

  • Google Authenticator
  • LastPass Authenticator
  • Microsoft Authenticator

It doesn’t matter which one you use they all work the same way. Download one onto a mobile device.  Either scan the QR code shown in the epic games account or manually enter the entry key shown. This will tie your account with that device. From now on when you log into your Fortnite account you will prompted on your mobile device to enter a security code.

Enable Email Authentication

Email 2fa
Email 2FA

When you click on the Enable Email Authentication button a screen will pop up which will ask you to enter a security code. That code should have already been emailed to the email account associated with the Epic Games account. The security code in the email will have to be entered into the field provided showing on the pop up screen.

Once this has been completed you will be prompted to enter a security code every time you log into Fortnite. This code will be emailed to you. While this will be a little bit of inconvenience. It will save the heart ache of losing your account, all your Vbucks and skins.

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Fortnite Battle Royale : V10.10 Content Update

Dusty Depot is Back
Dusty Depot is Back

So what’s new in V10.10 Content Update?

Dusty Depot is Back
Dusty Depot is Back

Dusty Depot is back but don’t get your hopes up it is only back as a prefab in creative mode. The full list of Prefabs and galleries is:

  • 5 New Prefabs
    • Dusty Depot Blue Warehouse
    • Dusty Depot Gray Warehouse
    • Dusty Depot Red Warehouse
    • Dusty Depot Visitor Warehouse
    • Dusty Diner
  • 2 New Galleries
    • Dusty Depot & Diner Gallery
    • Dusty Depot & Diner Prop Gallery

What’s new in Fortnite Save the World?

There is a new rocket launcher. The V6 Rocket launcher which is a 6 shot rocket launcher and part of the Rat Rod Weapon set. It does not consume ammo but has very low durability.

A new quest has appeared so make sure you run Hit the Road to activate your weekly quest!

There have been some bug fixes:

  • Mission details now correctly update when switching between different Missions with a controller.
  • Resolved an issue where objective information was not displayed for the current Mission.
  • Added some information that was missing from the Command and Armory tabs.
  • Fixed an issue where the map was not loading properly after changing tabs.
  • Game no longer crashes when launching a Mission through the “Play Now” button in the quest log.
  • The Record Dash quest no longer states to find five records instead of four when in a full party.

What has changed in Fortnite Battle Royale mode?

This is what most people are here for. The additions to the BR mode are as follows:

1) There is a new throwable item called the Junk Rift. It creates a rift in the sky that objects fall out of the sky and destroys things they land on. When thrown it breaks on contact with something (hopefully another player). It generates two types of damage.

  1. Direct Damage – It does 200 damage to players and knocks them back a little.
  2. Shockwave Damage – This causes a small damage radius that does 100 damage and immediately destroys vehicles and destructible objects.

The Junk Rift has Epic Rarity and max stack size of 4. it will be available from Floor Loot, Chests, Supply Drops, and Llamas.

2) Glitched Consumables: appear at the explosion site (explained below) and randomly switch between forageable items. The following items are included:

  • Apples – Grant 5 Health.
  • Mushrooms – Grant 5 Shield.
  • Coconuts – Grant 5 Effective Health (sum of a player’s Health + Shield).
  • Peppers – Increase player movement speed for a short duration.
  • Hop Rocks – Decrease player gravity for a short duration.

Shadow stones were supposed to be included as a Glitched Consumable but had a bug and have been removed.

The Rift Beacon at the Rec Center has malfunctioned, which has caused an explosion and crater. This is where the Glitched Consumables spawn.

There has been a change to the Green Toy Wrap which means players can get a refund on the Toy Soldiers Wraps bundle if they do not like the changes. Players have 30 days from their next login to get this refund.

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Fortnite Brute Mech Nerf

Junk rift temporarily removed
Junk rift temporarily removed

This week Epic Games has finally come to their senses and have nerfed the B.R.U.T.E.

Why are they Nerfing the B.R.U.T.E ?

The B.R.U.T.E is a mech that was introduced a few patches ago and was insanely overpowered. This was shown when Harrison  Chang AKA “Psalm” who came second place in the Fortnite Solos World Cup used the B.R.U.T.E devastate the field. He got to a high vantage point then proceeded to take out players from across the map.

What are the nerfs to B.R.U.T.E?

  • Decreased the maximum amount of rockets fired by the B.R.U.T.E. in a single charge from 10 to 6.
  • Decreased the rate at which the rockets are fired from the B.R.U.T.E. by 56%.
    • Our goal with these changes is to increase the back and forth between the users of the B.R.U.T.E. and the players they face. These changes allow the players on the receiving end of the missile volley to have more time to react and protect themselves.
  • Decreased the radius of the B.R.U.T.E.’s rocket explosion by 42%.
    • Our goal with this change is to improve consistency and understanding around focused barrages of missiles. B.R.U.T.E.s will continue to be a strong option against structures, but less lethal against players.
  • Increased the dash cool-down from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
    • The previous dash cool-down not only increased the B.R.U.T.E.’s mobility, but also made the B.R.U.T.E.s a harder target to hit from distance than we’d like. The adjustment here reduces the ability to close gaps quickly while in the B.R.U.T.E. while also increasing the ability to land shots on target for players facing the B.R.U.T.E.
  • Decreased the velocity gained from boosting while in air by 33%.
    • We want to reduce a B.R.U.T.E.’s ability to engage and disengage at long distances to encourage a more strategic approach to an encounter. In general we hope to shift B.R.U.T.E.s away from being highly mobile and put more emphasis on their already defensive nature.
  • The B.R.U.T.E. no longer grants materials to the driver and passenger when stomping or dashing through the environment.
    • Note: This change should roll out shortly following the other changes.
    • Our goal is to add more tension between being in and out of a B.R.U.T.E. as well as reduce instances where players can farm faster than intended without exposing themselves to danger.
  • Adjusted the variability of spawn rates for storm phases 1, 2, and 3 in core modes. Arena spawn rates will remain unchanged.
    • Storm phase 1
      • New spawn rates
        • 29% chance to spawn 0.
        • 14.3% chance to spawn 1.
        • 14.3% chance to spawn 2.
        • 14.3% chance to spawn 3.
        • 14.3% chance to spawn 4.
        • 14.3% chance to spawn 5.
      • Old spawn rates
        • 33% chance to spawn 2.
        • 33% chance to spawn 3.
        • 33% chance to spawn 4.
    • Storm phase 2
      • New spawn rates
        • 25% chance to spawn 0.
        • 25% chance to spawn 1.
        • 25% chance to spawn 2.
        • 25% chance to spawn 3.
      • Old spawn rates
        • 33% chance to spawn 2.
        • 33% chance to spawn 3.
        • 33% chance to spawn 4.
    • Storm phase 3
      • New spawn rates
        • 25% chance to spawn 0.
        • 25% chance to spawn 1.
        • 25% chance to spawn 2.
        • 25% chance to spawn 3.
      • Old spawn rates
        • 33% chance to spawn 1.
        • 33% chance to spawn 2.
        • 33% chance to spawn 3.
    • Previously, the early stages of a match were guaranteed a minimum amount of B.R.U.T.E.s. We’d like to provide a little more variance to that experience so that matches don’t always play out the same way. The overall average number of B.R.U.T.E.s per game is reduced slightly.
  • Decreased the material cost of using the gunner’s overshield from 200 to 75.
    • Our goal is to further emphasize use of materials for positive defensive benefit.
  • Junk rift temporarily removed
    Junk rift temporarily removed

    Increased the Health of the B.R.U.T.E from 1000 to 1250.

    • With the above changes, users of the B.R.U.T.E. need to play a bit more strategic than before, so we want to give a little bit longer of a window to do so.

Other changes

Epic games had  temporarily disabled the Junk Rift for the FNCS tournament and Arena playlists until the 10.20 update. the reason they are doing this is because of an Audio bug that occurred when the portal was high above the player.

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Fortnite DLC to be Sold in Stores Again this Holiday – Darkfire Bundle

Darkfire Bundle to be Sold in Stores

Fortnite Battle Royale is a free to play game but that has not stopped Epic from making billions from it. Epic has announced the Darkfire Bundle which be sold in stores this next holiday season. The interesting thing about this bundle is that the games developer Epic Games has partnered with Warner Brothers on this cosmetics bundle. There is a claimed $80 value to the pack but remember kids this is just pixels on a screen how much could it really be worth? the in-store price will be set at US$29.99.

The release date is the 5th of November 2019. It will include 3 Legendary dual-wield pickaxes, 3 Legendary Back Blings, 3 new Legendary skins, 3 Epic Wraps and one new emote. In total there are 13 new items making this the biggest Fortnite bundle so far. The bundles are console only for now and will be available on PS4, Xbox One and the Switch.

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Fortnite Black hole – Fortnite Servers have been down for hours

Twitch myth watching the black hole
Twitch myth watching the black hole

Fortnite is still the biggest game on the planet and when the servers go down Fortnite Server Status knows all about it. The traffic to this site has gone through the roof and our own servers are approaching meltdown. Whether you are Ninja or just a casual player you can not log into Fortnite right now. Every player on earth is in a holding pattern and what has Epic Games given us to stare at? A black hole!

Epic took Fortnite offline on purpose this is all part of a strategy to build up the hype around the new season. The meteor that appeared at the beginning of season 10 started moving and eventually destroyed the entire map. This meteor event was hard to be a part of and if you couldn’t log in then you had a space invaders style game to keep you amused but you needed the konami code to do this. The Fortnite Server Status has been off the charts!

It seems the event culminated into a black hole and everything including the lobby and character screens where sucked up by the gravity of the imposing black hole. The black hole seemed to even reach outside of the game itself. The Fortnite Twitter account lost all it’s Tweets! The Epic Trello board seemed to disappear. This black hole was truly decimating ever aspect of the game.

Will season 11 bring us the long rumored new Fortnite map? The speculation is rife amongst the community. Twitter, Twitch.tv and Youtube are all a buzz with these rumors. Epic has truly done a epic “pardon the pun” marketing ploy with this latest season introduction. It is still unclear whether this is the end of season 10 proper as the speculation mounts.

Twitch myth watching the black hole
Twitch myth watching the black hole

Twitch Fortnite Streamers like Myth are holding black hole parties while waiting for something to happen and chat is going wild. Here he is wearing his tinfoil hat as chat throws speculation at him faster than anyone could possibly read.

Many fans of Fortnite feel there has been a line drawn in the sand and that Fortnite Chapter 2 has begun. This black hole event has really got all gamers talking. Not only are the fans of the game watching the whole but players who left are coming back and even people who have never played the game are starting to talk about this latest development.

Whatever is happening to the servers and the game. One thing we can all agree on is that this is one of the most daring things Epic games has done and is probably the most daring thing any popular game has ever done. Another good place to check whether Fortnite is down is to check your Fortnite ping here.

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Fortnite is Still Down, Season 11 Not Starting Anytime Soon

Fortnite Server Status
Are Epic servers down

Is Season 11 Ever Going to Start?

As you probably know by now Fortnite has disappeared into Black hole. There is speculation that it will never come back but let’s be real. This is the most popular and possibly the most profitable game of all time. Would Epic Games really shut it down?

While Fortnite is still popular, the lustre has started to tarnish on the game. When the office managers 12 year old says he would rather watch Shroud play Apex you know that Fortnite is not flying as high as it once was. Maybe Epic should end the game on a high? but no that will not happen

What we are witnessing here is one “Epic” (pun intended) Fortnite promotion. Epic Games needs to get the world buzzing about Fortnite again and what better way to give the game a kick in the pants but to stop the players from playing their favourite game? Even if they are playing something else at the moment.

The biggest Twitch streamers like Tfue, Dr Lupo and Myth have been staring at a black hole for the last day or so but there has been some movement but over at Epic Games.

Fortnite chapter 2
Fortnite chapter 2

But of course as we write this THE GAME SERVERS HAVE COME UP!!! GO PLAY LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!!

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Is Fortnite Down? How to find out

Fortnite - Save the World
Fortnite - Save the World

“Is Fortnite Down?” is a question we have all asked ourselves at some point in our time playing Fortnite Battle Royale. What do you do when your connection to the servers seems to be down or laggy? A good place to start is to check if there isn’t a problem with your local network. Check your wireless or wired  connection to your router. If you can get to other sites but Fortnite is not working the the two most obvious answers to these problems are:

  1. The internet connection to the game servers is down.
  2. The servers themselves are down.

How to check you internet connection?

Pings to Fortnite
Pings to Fortnite

There are a few things you can do to check if your internet connection is down or if your connection to the epic games servers is having issues.

Check your Fortnite ping . This site will show you the pings to all available fortnite servers. If you know which server region is your closest and this site is saying that your ping to that server is bad. Then there is obviously problems with your connection to that region.

Fortnite Server Status
Are Epic servers down

If the ping seems OK then checking if the actual Fortnite servers are down is the next step. The site you are currently on is well known for checking server status. It does this by looking for social chatter about Fortnite. It checks the official Fortnite twitter account amongst many others to try and get a sense of if there is something wrong with the servers.

Where else can you check?

Epic used to have a great forum that kept players up to date on what was happening with Fortnite but recently they shut it down. We here at Game Server Pings think that was a mistake. It was a pretty vibrant little community and was a little more informative than reddit.com.

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Fortnite Battle Royale – The Game the World is Playing

Fortnite - Battle Royale

What is a Battle Royale Game?

Battle Royale Movie
Battle Royale, the original movie

The term “Battle Royale” was first popularized by the 2000 Japanese movie Battle Royale directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku. The movie was based on the book of the same name by Koushun Takami.  The film centers on a group of high school kids that are forced to fight each other to the death on an island that has been split up into a number of “death zones“. All the students are fitted with explosive collars to try and ensure that they fight each other. If a student disobeys this directive the collar is detonated and the student is killed.

In BR games there is a storm or circle of energy or similar that slowly restricts the playing area, forcing the players together. This technically doesn’t happen in the movie but does bring us to the next talking point.

What makes a BR Game different from a standard First or Third Person shooter?

Come along as we will delve a little into the history of BR games.

Other than BR there are a few styles of First/Third Person Shooter games.

Death match style games like Unreal Tournament. Where the goal is to get as many kills on the other players in the game.

In a standard First Person Shooter (FPS) there are usually 2 or more teams fighting each other. A good example of this is CS:GO. CS:GO is published by Valve Entertainment and is one the longest continuously running FPS games on the internet. In this type of shooter game one team will win if either of the following conditions occur:

    •  It kills the whole of the other team.
    • Completes an objective like planting a bomb or defusing a bomb.
Arma 3 - Battle Royale
Arma 3 – Battle Royale

Both Unreal tournament and CS:GO have long heritages that stretch back into the 90’s. However the history of BR games really only goes back to 2013 and the release of Arma 3. The team that developed ARMA 3 built it to be modifiable by the player base and modify it they did. the two biggest mods that came out of Arma 3 were Dayz which is a huge Zombie survivalist mod and the one we are interested in is “PlayerUnknown’s Battle Royale”. PlayerUnknown ( AKA Brendan Greene) is now famous for role in the development of PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds).

Brendan Greene is a huge fan of the Battle Royale movie and decided that it would make a great mod for Arma 3 which he was playing heavily at the time. He admits to not being a great coder but he cobbled together the battle royale mod for Arma 3 and the game was an instant success. he went on to help with the development of H1Z1 which is another standalone third person Battle Royale game. In the mode a

So how did Fortnite become a Battle Royale game?

Fortnite - Save the World
Fortnite – Save the World

Fortnite was never conceived as a Battle Royale game. Originally the only mode was called “Save the World”. In Save the World players have to cooperatively fight zombie-like creatures to achieve various missions across a number of different maps. In this mode “the Storm” from the BR mode actually caused the death of 98% of the world’s population.  players gain rewards by completing missions and their characters level up and improve.

Fortnite was never going to be a Battle Royale. It was actually conceived as cross between Left 4 Dead and Minecraft. The unique building element of the game was designed to be somewhat like Minecraft. Suffice to say this mode was not very popular.

So how did Fortnite morph into a Battle Royale? Epic Games had what was reportedly a consultative role in the development of PUBG. PUBG is built on Epic’s Unreal Engine. PUBG was pushing the limits of what the Engine could do so Epic was consulted heavily in technical elements of the PUBG implementation. It was at about this time that Epic got the idea to add a Battle Royale version of Fortnite. Bluehole, the developer of PUBG, sued Epic over infringement of intellectual property but that lawsuit was dropped around June 2018.

It has to be said that Fortnite adding a Battle Royale element at about the same time as helping out with PUBG can’t be a coincidence. No intellectual property was stolen, but you can’t help thinking the seed idea of Fortnite BR mode germinated at about this time. Epic might have gotten the idea from Bluehole, but the Fortnite implementation of Battle Royale went on to dominate the gaming world.

Why are Battle Royale Games so Popular?

It has to be the gladiator effect. The gladiator effect is that feeling a player gets when they are the last person standing. Knowing that 20, 40 or even 100 people dropped into this game, after all the many battles that have taken you are the last person left alive at the end is one of the best feelings ever in gaming history.

Another phenomenon has arisen at the same time as battle Royale games and that is Streaming. Twitch is the most popular live streaming service and twitch’s growth in traffic has developed  a definite spike since the introduction of the battle Royale formulae. Streamers like Ninja, Myth and Timthetatman almost exclusively stream Fortnite battle royale games. Streamers like Shroud stream other battle royale games almost exclusively. These streamers have millions of followers collectively. no other gaming genre comes close to matching these viewer numbers.

We can’t finish without talking about The Storm

What is the storm in Fortnite? It is a ring around the playing area that reduces in size as the game progresses. It’s main job is to force players together to encourage fights and to finally leave on player standing. In the history of BR games the storm has had many variants. In PUBG it is called simply the Blue Zone, which causes varying amounts of damage depending on how far the game has progressed. In H1Z1 it is called the gas. In Apex it is usually only referred to as the circle. Whatever it is called in the Battle Royale you are playing there is one thing they all have in common and that is the storm has the most kills. More than even the best player. Beware of the Storm.

 

 

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Fortnite Servers – Where are they located?

Fortnite - Battle Royale

Are you getting lag in Fortnite? You might not be connecting to your local server.

High ping or latency is only one of the many possible issues when Fortnite starts feeling laggy, although it is probably the most common. What is lag? It can be caused by a few things but the most common cause is connection distance/time between a players PC and the server the game is running on. The data being sent between the PC and server is being delyaed by a slow connection so both machines are often waiting for the next piece of information to arrive before being able to make decisions on that data. This ends up feeling like the game is reacting slowly to the players input.

Another possibility is that servers themselves are under load which can manifest as lag but more often than not you will notice this as in-game stuttering or as gamers have termed it rubber banding. In a third person shooter or Battle Royale like Fortnite, if an opponent is rubber banding the player’s character will make random jerky movements and can make them harder to hit. Often if someone else’s character is rubber banding then your own character will appear to be doing the same to them. It’s not a great experience for either party.

Another thing we need to take into consideration when discussing Fortnite servers is that Fortnite has inbuilt lag compensation. What is lag compensation? It is an inbuilt prediction formula that will let Fortnite guess where a player is at the time that another player takes a shot at them. What lag compensation isn’t is the throttling of fast connections to make everyone play on a similar ping. This is a myth that still prevails amongst some Fortnite players. Fortnite’s netcode and lag compensation is state of the art, while it will give the shooter priority and on occasion players will take damage or even dying behind cover. However, it is very rare especially when compared to other BR games.

Where are Fortnite Servers Located?

Fortnite and in fact most Epic games use AWS (Amazon Web Services) as the infrastructure to run games on. This cloud based service by Amazon is easily the biggest and most widely used cloud infrastructure at the time of publishing of this article. Although Google’s Cloud Computing Services is gaining ground on Amazon. What does this mean to the average player of Fortnite? It means that when connecting to Fortnite, there are a number of hops that every connections must take. Amazon’s world wide cloud computing distribution means that there are relatively few hops before you network packet finds its way to the entrance points of the Amazon cloud. Once inside the AWS infrastructure traffic flows across a very fast private fibre network. See the map below to find the closest epic games servers to you.

Fortnite Server Locations
Fortnite Server Locations

This isn’t the end of the story for a Fortnite players network traffic. Fortnite’s matchmaking will try and select the closest server to you when you load the game. This is not foolproof, occasionally Fortnite will try and connect a player to a server that is further away or the server closest you may indeed be laggy for some reason. If this happens the game can feel very laggy and you might want to try and reset the server connection. If this has happened to you do the following.

If one or both above checks are highlighting a problem with the closest region to you then you can change the matchmaking region in the game. Do this by doing the following.

  1. Enter game settings.
  2. Open the game tab.
  3. Select matchmaking Region.
  4. Apply the changes.
Use Matchmaking Region to select a new Fortnite server
Use Matchmaking Region to select a new Fortnite server

What are the Fortnite Server Regions?

Below we have listed all the known (as of publication) Fortnite server regions. Fortnite is constantly adding server capacity as the game’s player base is not reducing but holding steady and even increasing slightly in last few months.

 

Fortnite Server Regions (updated for 2020)

  • Ohio, USA
  • Virginia, USA
  • California, USA
  • Oregon, USA
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • South Korea
  • Osaka, Japan
  • Singapore
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Frankfurt, Germany
  • Ireland
  • London, UK
  • Paris, France
  • Sao Paulo, Brazil

We will be updating this list if Epic decides to change and/or remove any AWS regions. We will also update if Epic moves to another server provider.

Categories

Why Is a Good Ping a Good Thing?

Submarine at sea

In a multiplayer gaming world, there are a lot of things that go into the player having a good gaming experience – particularly if that good experience is dependent upon you winning.

‘Twitchy’ online multiplayer games like FPS (first-person shooters), racing and some MMORPG-type games, particularly depend on the player reacting to the feedback from the game in a timely and effective way. And that chain of feedback and reaction has many links, one of them being you, the player – and one of them being your ‘ping’.

There’s also things like mouse/keyboard input lag, CPU lag, GPU rendering time and monitor refresh rate – we’ll touch on those in a bit.

So What Is a ‘Ping’?

Submarine Ping
This expensively made graphic shows a submarine ping

If you’ve ever seen any of those old, World War II submarine movies, you’ll recall a lot of suspenseful scenes where the crew huddle in the darkness listening to a ‘ping’ sound getting faster and faster. That’s a sonar ping – a pulse of sound that goes through the water and bounces back to the emitter, to basically determine how far away something is.

To get technical:

An IP address is your unique internet address.

Information goes from one place on the internet to another in little packets, one after another.

In terms of the internets, a ping refers to latency – how long it takes for a data packet to go from your computer or gaming console to another IP address somewhere else on the internet. Got it?

There are two types of data packets; TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

TCP/IP is slower, as there’s a lot of back-and-forth to make sure the data is where it should be and that all of the data gets through. If a data packet is corrupted, it’ll be asked for again.

UDP is faster; it only checks to make sure that the data isn’t corrupted – if it is bad data, the receiving computer will just ignore it. Games that need to send a lot of data to keep your game updated use UDP.

Which brings us to ..

Packet Loss

Packet loss is something you’ve probably experienced; the game freezes and then suddenly everything is somewhere else.

This happens when the UDP data packets aren’t getting through to you in good shape, so your console/computer is rejecting them.

Why Is My Ping So Bad/Good?

So: your ping is the time it takes a message from your machine to reach the game server (or from the game server to your machine).

A game server is basically the judge of what all the connected players are doing. It knows where everything is and what everything is trying to do, and must decide who did what first – for example, two players firing a stream of bullets at each other.

As far as the server is concerned, the response time that matters is when your response is received by the game client (on your computer or console) and finally transmitted to the server. If you and your opponent both fire at the same, real-world time, but their message gets to the server 20 milliseconds before yours, bing bing! The win goes to your opponent.

(Of course, it’s not always that simple – many systems allow for a certain amount of latency, but hey, another time..)

The server also keeps your game client (the game program on your console or computer) up-to-date with necessary info about what’s going on around them in the virtual world; loot lying around, other players driving past, spells being cast on them, windows being broken. Your game is rendered locally for you to see, and generally shows you moving through this world quickly.

Your game also receives a lot more data about the world than you see – the server hands off the work of calculating that stuff to the game client. The simplest, hardest-to-beat game hacks are the ones that plug in to this information and present it to your sad, pathetic cheater-types, either on a separate program or as an on-screen overlay. Sad, sad people.

The Journey of the Data

The data you send to the server can go on quite an elaborate journey, depending on how far away the server is. If you’re running a server on your own machine, this will be on the order of 1ms. If you’re playing from Brazil and the server is in Iceland, that message takes quite a few jumps. Broadly speaking, here are the steps in the journey:

Start: Your PC / Console
> To Your Router / Modem
> To Your Local Internet Exchange / Node
> To Your ISP
> To .. Internets (this is where stuff can get complicated)
> To Internets > To Other Internets > (Add as needed)
> To Game Server Host / ISP / Data Centre
> To Network Switch
> To Game Server

Reverse the above for the journey from the server to you.

Improving Your Ping

There’s stuff you can do and stuff out of your control.

Your Local Network

Try to plug directly into your router with an Ethernet cable. If you’re paying on WiFi and other people are using that channel heavily, your data is going to have to compete and queue, which will slow things down and possibly cause packet loss.

Your Internet Connection

A complete, gigabit fibre connection is optimal here, but we can’t all have that (yet). When choosing a plan, remember that upload speed is a big factor here. Many people will ‘tether’ their phones – either by USB or by making their phone a wireless ‘hotspot’ – but be warned that some phone companies ‘de-prioritize’ gaming data.

Other Lag Factors

Finally, don’t forget that the complete performance picture is one where you are given the data as quickly as possible and that returns your response the fastest – that is, you see it on the screen as it happens and your controller / keyboard / mouse input is acted upon the fastest.

Essentially, this means getting the meanest, most expensive rig you can – but there are a bunch of cheaper ways to improve things somewhat.

  • Use a wired mouse rather than a cheap wireless mouse. Cheaper wireless mouses use older, slower technology to communicate with the PC (some modern, more expensive wireless mouses have pretty good response times, though)
  • CPU intensive games need a better CPU (all the better to work out where everything is)
  • GPU (graphics card). The more frames per second you see, the more data you have. But remember, a better GPU is only as good as the monitor that it outputs to – if you’re using a 60hz monitor, your graphics card only needs to render at 60 frames per second.

How We Measure Game Server Pings

The eagle-eyed may have spotted that you can’t ping a UDP connection – it only goes one way. So how does gameserverping.com DO it?

Well, it’s a bit of a hack, but it pretty much works.

We get your web browser to send little requests to a web address on a machine adjacent to the game server (or at least, in the same data center). This is about 10% slower than a TCP/IP ping, so allow for that and .. PING!

Thanks for reading. Check out your game pings now at gameserverping.com!