Hi,
Thanks in advance for any help I may receive. My son likes to play StarCraft on BattleNet however he "lags" (very slow game play) whenever he tries to play it. We have a Linksys router and a DSL connection with three PC's networked into it. So far I have opened ports for the game to no avail. I have also ran a tracer route and sent the results to StarCraft tech help and our ISP tech help. Both say the trace results look good. Any suggestions? Should I post this in "hardware" questions instead?

Here's a little background info. We used to have Time Warner Roadrunner with the same router we're using now and he had no problem with the game. We moved and can not get Roadrunner so went with DSL and since then have encountered the lagging problem. He can log on and "message" in the message area with no problem but he can not host a game because of the lagging.

Check the DirectX diagnostic to see if there are any identifiable problems. The most current version is DirectX 9.0c and this is updated through the Windows Update page (Internet Explorer/Tools/Windows Update)

Click Start
Click Run
Type in: dxdiag
Click OK

OK the WHQL dialog box

Check to see if your DXDIAG utility version is the most current.

Once the diagnostic tool loads look for any noted "problem" files.

Run the tests for both the graphics display and the sound.

If there are problems noted, try using the More Help section.

If no problems are indicated, try turning down the (grahpics and/or sound) acceleration rate slightly (if that is an option). Try the game again and see if that made any difference.

If nothing here helps, please post again with the test results. Also, please provide some information about the computer (make/model/Operating System, etc.).

I hope something here will help and welcome to Answerpool.com.

Dwight

I'd suggest a few simple ideas:

1. Close as many programs as possible before starting Starcraft. You'd be surprised by how much a minimized browser window will affect a game.

2. Audit your system tray and startup programs. These too are programs running in the background, draining your PC of precious CPU time and RAM.

3. Defragment. If you haven't defragmented in a while, do it now!!!

4. Double-check your firewall. You apparently have configured your hardware firewall, but what about any software firewalls? (Zonealarm, Windows Firewall) Make sure they allow the port to be opened as well.

5. Upstream bandwidth. Hosting games relies on your upstream/upload bandwidth, which is often less than your download rate. If you have "DSL lite" or something similar (less than 256kbps upload) you may not have the necessary bandwidth.

I believe Star craft and War Craft both have a minimal requirement of 512 - but that is the minimum - 256 will not work too well (although you can play but will be hit with massive lagging - been there done that).

RAM is rather easy to upgrade and not too expensive, recently we upgraded to 1 GB of RAM, it was a simple process of switching out the 256 with the one GB. Since that time WarCraft has played without a single lag - and other online games, at home CD-Rom games.

Go to http://www.memoryx.net/ and check your memory, it will also give you options for your computer when it comes to memory upgrades. It will tell you how may slots you have too.

We got a single 1 GB RAM for 110.00 (including shipping and handling) by shopping around and checking prices on the net.

what i found worked for me was a setting once you are in the same. you can play with the latency settings for the game and find what works for you. i cant remember the exact types of settings available, but i do remember having that problem and fudging with the latency settings fixed my problem