Step one Speeding up your internet to make your game faster

First off if your a horde on the Ner'zhul server this info is not for you. Stay slow, go elsewhere! these are not the tweaks your looking for! lol

Speeding up the internet is crucial to making Warcraft faster. Some people point to latency as being the only thing that slows down Warcraft. Not so! 


I am talking to you "background virus scanner!" 


There are many slowdowns and bottle necks but latency is a major one.


If you just want to do a quick fix and skip the whole show I am putting on here then just install Leatrix Latency restart and play. It should speed up Warcraft quite a bit. 


However, if your like some of my guildies and you can't walk through a crowded area like the Stormwind business district without fits and starts then let's get our "tweak" on.  

One of my guildies hearthed in goldshire cause hearthing into Stormwind or dalaran was too laggy. Yes, its sad. Enough said. 


Your "ping" or "latency" is how fast your computer can communicate with Warcraft servers.
How close you are to a sever can have a big effect, more on choosing the "right" server on later posts below. 

TESTING ONE,  TWO,  THREE

First we need to test your current speeds and latency. 


Start up warcraft and note your current latency. Its easy to find.


You could even install a "add on" to tell you what your latency is and log values for you from a site like curse.com  More on add ons later. 


There is a little bar on your Warcraft interface you can click on to see your latency. Write this value down.

Next check your internet web speed and write it down at a site like speedtest.net. Make sure that you have turned off Warcraft and the only internet program running is one browser. 


On the speed test site click a place on the map near you and the start the test. 

Write down the values. 

Make sure no one else is using the internet in your house at the time. 


These values can go up or down depending on the server you choose and web traffic at the time.

Do you know what speed your supposed to be getting? Does speed test tell you your getting close to that speed? 


Its good to know what speed you are actually paying for and a call to your internet server provider can let you know that speed as well as the temperature and weather conditions in India.

 

(Just kidding AT&T you're all right.) 

If you live in place where you have many choices for internet service you could (gasp!) choose a faster one. 


Netflix has recently published the speeds of many providers so shop around. Netflix would know. (think about it)

There is also the national broadband map by your pals at the united states government. 

Next make a system backup with windows built in "System restore". If you don't know what that is or how to use it go to you tube and put in "how to use system restore" and your current operating system. Watch the video and do what it says then come back to this page. 


Once we have the speed values for the internet connection and the warcraft ping.  We can start monkeying around with your settings. We will download some registry values to speed up your connection. You download the settings for the type of windows you have then click on them to install them. Then after restarting the computer we can test again and compare the two values.

TWEAKING YOUR CONNECTION PAINLESSLY

The settings come from this excellent site SpeedGuide.net

For Windows XP

Next we download and install the right registry tweaks for your system. 


For cable:

 sguide_tweak_2k.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP and Windows 2000 (all versions). This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect. 
OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3 | version: 1.0 | date: 12/18/01 | filesize: 1 KB

For DSL:

 sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP/2000 and DSL connections using PPPoE. This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. It is specifically designed for PPPoE DSL connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect. 
OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3 | version: 1.0 | date: 12/18/01 | filesize: 1 KB

Click them and say "yes" when it says "do you want to make these changes"

For Windows vista, Windows 7 and 2008 Server 

This runs as a batch file. Scary I know but it's legit. 


 SG Vista TCP/IP Patch
Description: The SG Vista TCP/IP patch us a quick way to optimize Vista TCP/IP settings for broadband internet connections. It sets both netsh auto tunning levels and modifies the Windows Registry as recommended by our Vista Tweaks article. It is recommended to run the patch when logged in with administrative priviledges. The patch allows for reverting all settings to their respective Windows default values as well. Note you may have to right-click the link above and choose "Save Target As..." to save to your computer. To apply, save to your desktop and run as administrator (right-click -> run as administrator). Type Y when prompted to optimize parameters. 
OS:  Windows Vista 32/64, Server 2008 | version: 1.5 | date: 01/24/2010 | filesize: 4.86KB


Next we go back to speedtest.net and run our internet tests again. You might run them three times and average them and pick the same server or place you tested last time.


Is it faster?


If your running Windows 7 or vista or Windows XP you can restore the old settings easily by using the system restore back up you made. 

You should always make a system restore back up each time you make major changes or install a new program.

For most people the registry entries from speed guide will be fine and are very easy to install. 

However, If your technically inclined and you want to tweak your internet even more or you have super fast internet like "fios" you can down load a free program called "Cablenut" 

This program lays out all most all your internet settings and you can download pre-made settings files and change the values that way. You can also find settings for cablenut by googling "cablenut settings" and "fios", "cable", "DLS" etc. 

People write settings for all kinds of internet pipes and save them to a settings file. 

Cablenut comes with some settings all ready in the program. You need to choose the operating system and your current connection type and speed. I used this program and found a fios cable nut settings file  and installed those values with good success for a friend of mine. 


Here is the step by step from the good people at cablenuts. Be for warned there is a little bit of technical knowledge needed here so keep that in mind.

THIS NEXT TIP COULD EASILY DOUBLE YOUR PING, DON'T SKIP IT. 

Next after restarting your computer I would absolutely run this program called leatrix latency. This makes your computer and Wow's computers communicate quicker. We do this one after the above tweaks because we don't want the previous tweaks to interfere with this one. 
heres how this program works (taken from their site)


If you could listen to a conversation between your computer and the game server, this is what you would hear.

Before Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:

• Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over to you, got it?"
• Your computer: ...
• Server: "Come on, answer me! I don't have all day! Stop wasting time!"
• Your computer: ...
• Server: "Ok, forget it, I've waited long enough, sending another one over! Got it?"
• Your computer: "Yep, got that one, also got the one you sent before, thanks."
• Server: "Well, why didn't you acknowledge the first one when I sent it? I was waiting ages!"
• Your computer: "Sorry, I'm just trying to make the network more efficient by bundling the acknowledgements together in pairs. This is how I'm setup by default."

After Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:

• Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over, got it?"
• Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"
• Server: "That was fast! Ok, here's another, got that?"
• Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"
• Server: "Wow! What an improvement! Now that's more like it!"
• Your computer: "Yep, it's certainly keeping me on my toes, thanks!"

Leatrix Latency

Installation video 

After installing the Leatrix latency reboot! 


Don't skip the reboot or I will send out someone with your "noob" badge with your name on it right this very instant.   

Once rebooted turn on wow again and check your ping and compare it with the ping value you wrote down just like I told you to. Faster? If not you can undo the changes using system restore.

Please post in the comments the results you get from trying these fixes.

Oh and about the fees, you can save a little cash by using the prepaid warcraft cards advertised at the right margin. $10.95 a month instead of $14.00.. $36.00 a year savings.

World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-Paid Time Card 

$10.94 a month   

. 

 

Next some software speed ups.

(Roll gratuitous ads)