What would my ping be if a game server is located 5000km away?

[st0nnec0ld]

I checked gamtrackers and the nearest ARMA 2 server is 5000km away. I'm going to get the game and I don't want it to be a waste.

Also, will I lag? I have a 1M connection(download speed=128KBps)

[Ceron]

Your ping will be high but probably playable at that distance. 5000km is close to the distance from the west coast to the east coast of the United States, and I can play on servers located on the opposite coast alright.

[benetti32]

I guess you know the server's ip so you can test it - open cmd (press Win + R and type cmd), then type
"ping *server ip without port* -t" and you should see your latency.

[st0nnec0ld]

Oh no . Ping is higher than 600

[kudoboi]

Originally Posted by st0nnec0ld

Oh no . Ping is higher than 600

no way. it has to be something at your end

[seigen]

Theoretically, it will certainly be higher than 16.678 ms :P.

[Washell]

Distance in itself is fairly irrelevant. A trip to the opposite end of the earth would take ~66 milliseconds. What adds latency is the number of hops in between. Each hop is a router throwing your packages from one network to the other. If you're lucky, both your ISP and the datacenter the server is in are connected to the same backbone, giving you a minimum amount of hops. If you're unlucky, you end up with a ping above 600 because there are too many crappy routers in between. Routers add a ton of latency because the signal has to from fiber (light) to copper (electrons), read for destination, routed, and transferred back to fibre again.

Oldie but goldie explanation on how the net works: Warriors of the net

Edit: Ping isn't all that representative either. Most of the networks set ICMP traffic (which ping is) to lowest priority. So the actual game may perform much better.
Edit2: Checking Gametrackers, it lists 44 pages of Arma 2 servers with 50 items per page. I have a hard time believing the nearest one is 5k away from you.

[Bague]

I have a 1M connection(download speed=128KBps)

yeah, just for future reference, this has nothing to do with your ping.
For example, how wide a water pipe is does no change how long it takes weter to get trough it

[MC Salo]

I'm from Europe (France) and have a 100Mo connection.
When I play TF2, I usually have a 5 ping on european servers. About 20 on Valve servers.
I can play on US servers without any problem (about 80 ping, certainly eastern servers where people are waking up while it's very late for me...), on some asian (japanese at least) servers with about 100 ping, but I can't play on some more near servers for any reason...

[st0nnec0ld]

Originally Posted by Bague

For example, how wide a water pipe is does no change how long it takes weter to get trough it

Really?

[azzonie]

Originally Posted by st0nnec0ld

Really?

He is correct. A larger pipe will move more water but it is still traveling at the same speed.

[Chirimorin]

pingtest.net is a good test for what your ping is. You can select a server 5000km away if you like.

[mistertropical]

Originally Posted by azzonie

He is correct. A larger pipe will move more water but it is still traveling at the same speed.

ya but moving MORE in the same amount of time is what we perceive as 'speed'

thus a larger pipe may not have water travelling faster, but it will sure get more moving in the same amount of time as a smaller pipe

thus the pipe analogy here is a little flawed


but as said, ping isnt dependent on distance as the speed of light/electricity is PRETTY DAMN FAST

[Bague]

Originally Posted by mistertropical

ya but moving MORE in the same amount of time is what we perceive as 'speed'

thus a larger pipe may not have water travelling faster, but it will sure get more moving in the same amount of time as a smaller pipe

thus the pipe analogy here is a little flawed


but as said, ping isnt dependent on distance as the speed of light/electricity is PRETTY DAMN FAST

well, i guess my water pipe does not enlighten everybody.
But success rate still higher than that cat thing!

[Chirimorin]

Originally Posted by mistertropical

ya but moving MORE in the same amount of time is what we perceive as 'speed'

thus a larger pipe may not have water travelling faster, but it will sure get more moving in the same amount of time as a smaller pipe

thus the pipe analogy here is a little flawed

The wider pipe can indeed move more water in the same amount of time. This represents internet speed.

The time it takes for a specific drop of water to reach the other side takes the same time no matter how much water around it moves also. This represents ping.

thus the pipe analogy isn't flawed, you understood it wrong.

speed isn't ping and is completely unrelated.

Originally Posted by mistertropical

but as said, ping isnt dependent on distance as the speed of light/electricity is PRETTY DAMN FAST

Time for math! yay!


Ping IS dependant on distance because the speed of electricity isn't infinite.
Ping is measured in milliseconds, light travels at 300*10^6m/second (rounded up, meaning in favor of the "distance doesn't affect ping" theory)
meaning 300*10^3 m per millisecond (/1000) which is 300km per millisecond.

5000 km would take about 17 ms for light, in a straight line.
I'm not 100% sure about at what speed an internet signal travels through a cable, but the max speed is the speed of light

So let's assume the speed of light for now.
Already, in a perfect case with straight cables and electricity at the speed of light the ping would already be 17 higher at 5000km away.

But, as I said: perfect case. Which isn't the case. So the ping different is even higher.

Why higher? The cables don't lie in a straight line to your destination, meaning a longer total cable length then your 5000km. On the way it will encounter numerous routers (the one in your home, at your ISP, which goes to a higher level router maybe multiple times, which then send it back to lower level routers all the way to your destination)

None of these routers are perfect with a 0ms delay, so each of them increases the ping a bit more (even if only by 1 or 2).

Further away means more routers to travel through meaning more and more delay before your signal arrives.

I agree that the speed is still pretty damn fast (5000km away gives me a ping around 100 which is only 1/10th of a second.) but distance certainly makes a difference for ping.

Kudos to everyone reading my long post. If you find any errors in my math, feel free to point them out.