Tech help: New computer and freezing

[Tarn]

Howdy all,

Recently got a new computer and since that time have been getting random 10 second freezes. I don't think it is my internet connection or router since those are the same as before I got my new computer. I have switched clients from MudMaster to Mudlet. I can't really mud like this, since it has directly led to my death multiple times. Any tech people have any suggestions for stuff to check out? I am using mudlet on a windows 10 machine.

Thanks!

[Sybrina]

Describe what is meant by "freeze". Is it like really bad MUD lag or waiting a long time for a web page to load, or is it more like your computer seizing up and not being responsive to mouse and keyboard input?

[Tarn]

It is like really bad mud lag and the rest of my computer is working fine. It is not the mud because other people on haven't reported lag and when I look at the backlog when it does load other people are bashing and chasing so aren't frozen. Never had problems like this before with old computer so don't think its my connection. Tried running Mudlet as administrator but that hasn't helped

[Sybrina]

I think that suggests a problem with the client or the network between you and the mud. Here are some possibilities to look into:
1. Check into network reliability. Dropped packets can result in the symptoms you are seeing especially since MUD clients sit right on top of TCP and so require in-order delivery of packets to the application itself (so when packets get lost, things get backed up at the network level as TCP starts sending retries on missing frames). Meanwhile, your web browser may seem to be fine, but they may be losing packets too. They are just better coded to handle errors because they live in the reality of today's mobile internet where reliability is a rare luxury. MMOs on the other hand often lean on UDP and their own error recovery algorithms, so the problem may be masked there as well. If you are connected via Wifi to your router, check that connection by pinging your router a hundred times or more. ping -n 100 router_ip will usually do the trick. Then try the same thing with an external address ping -n 100 www.google.com for example. Anything works here as long as it forces packets through your connection to your ISP.
2. It could be the client, but this is less likely. I've used mudlet on Windows 10 with no issues. If you are using customizations (mudlet scripts) turn them all off, or start with a fresh install of mudlet and see if the problem recurs. Run task manager and see if Mudlet causes any CPU spikes during the 10 second lag spikes. Try using another client. I might even do that first. If when using a client like Putty (a telnet client), you still see the freezing issues, then its not mudlet.

[Tarn]

Thanks for all the help Sybrina! I appreciate it.

[Benjain]

Its an Eviscerator virus. Its the only way he gets kills.

[Tarn]

Tried out zmud on a fresh install and I'm still getting the spikes.

I did the 100 pings as well:

For google I got: Minimum 15ms, Maximum 62 ms, Average 19ms
For my router I got: Minimum 1ms, Maximum 35ms, Average 3ms
For both I didn't lose any packets.

So I dunno!

[Sybrina]

If you tried a different client but with the same results, then that removes the client as the cause. That's progress.

I'm still thinking its network related. 100 pings would probably take a minute or so to complete. That may not be a long enough window to capture periods of network degradation that might occur every few minutes or maybe even as long as every 15-30 minutes. Its ok to just ping google endlessly. I've dont it before and they dont seem to care. So just run ping with a big number of iterations (instead of 100, bump it up to 10000) and have it going while you play the mud. Then when you start seeing the lag in the mud, look over at the ping and see if its changing at all.

Hope this helps get you closer to solving this problem!

[Tarn]

You are correct. I mudded while pinging and when I got the lag spikes the ping requests timed out. But that didn't happen on my old laptop, so maybe it is something to do with my network card rather than my router. Gonna have to quit mudding till I figure this out though, have died multiple times while completely frozen.

[Tarn]

Also if it helps I went back to my old laptop and didn't get the spikes. So its something to do so my computer I think.