Posted by Dowanhowee on May 19, 2000 at 20:58:43:
In Reply to: Re: What exactly causes lag? posted by dan on May 19, 2000 at 20:45:51:
> As you probably know, your piece of data jumps across ten or twenty different machines before it'll reach cf.
>
> If one of these machines is doing some really intensive stuff (whether it be network intensive [downloading] or processor intensive [compiling a new kernel for unix]) your packet will take longer to pass through the machine.
>
> If a few machines along the line are like this, then you've got a problem as your data is significantly delayed.
>
> Take a look at how many times you "hop" to cf by loading the MS-DOS prompt and typing TRACERT carrionfields.org
>
> In a tracert I did during this severe lag, that one piece of data didn't even make it, so your computer will recognise that and send it again, hopefully getting a different routing path. Sadly, each of these retries takes even longer.
>
> The problem with this particular bout of lag seems to lie with Bell Southwestern as my tracert makes it all the way over there, then gives up.
>
> I hope everything I've said here was correct, I think it is but I'd welcome any "proper" TCP professionals to correct me
>
> dan