My latency is too high

[LisaDale]

MY LATENCY IS TOO HIGH HOW DO I FIX IT?????

[Sean]

Which type of Internet service do you use and how are you connected with the router?

 

With wireless Internet providers including cellular networks, the latency will usually increase as the traffic load increases, particularly if you are near the edge of reception.  With satellite Internet based services (HughesNet, Tooway, etc.), it physically takes around 300ms just for the signal to reach the geostationary orbit and back and again in the return direction, i.e. around 600ms total additional latency.  This is the reason overseas telephone calls relayed over satellite had a noticeable delay. 

 

With Wi-Fi connections, traffic load and interference will cause the latency to increase.  For example, your router could be on the same Wi-Fi channel as a neighbour's router, which means if they have a busy network (e.g. multiple kids streaming on Tablets), this will cause the latency to spike as your devices struggle to communicate over the noisy Wi-Fi channel.  In this case you can try changing the Wi-Fi channel on the router to see if another channel improves the latency.