High ping, why?

[Vitalizer]

hi! 3weeks ago, me and my cousin had a lan at my place. He and i played a game(sof2) on the same server and he had 25ms and i had 50ms. Why?? i think it is my networkcard(onboard nvidia) that sux. So im thinking of getting a very good one instead. What should i buy?? ive been thinking of getting a "Intel PRO/100 S 3DES Desktop Adapter PCI" i dont need a 1gbit.

EDIT: we shared 512kbit connection on 2ppl.

[WesM63]

I wouldn't go out a buy a new nic card just because your ping is 25ms higher lol.

Plus at any rate, begin on the same connection and connecting to the same server you will have a loss in ping.

Even on a non-internet connected lan we seen pings reach 30-40ms using just a cisco 5550 switch.

[Smizack]

Yeah, and when you get 2 routers and 4 switches it gets worse, but it's usually not a big deal.

But, I have problems with my onboard nic, really bad lag, and it seems to bottleneck for no reason. Changing to any one of the 3 brands I tested fixed the problem. (c-net, netgear, and linksys)

[sjohnson]

A 25ms difference is highly significant to a gamer. The play is smoother and the server's predictive engine bugs have less chance to surface.

Nothing worse than thinking you just got a head-shot on an opponent just to have your ping plus the server-side prediction have you miss while he gets you in his sights and caps your butt.

I'd try a NIC to see if it improved my ping - simply because it's a cheap and easy thing to do. Also, thing about getting a better router or trying a different router. There's little else you can do since the ISP's have the same 'tude as WesM63 (no offense bro', I don't think that's your intent).