in multi playing pc games whats all this about pings and whats the number mean?

Answer 1

Ping is used to measure the time, data travels between you and the server. It's measured in milliseconds (ms). The faster the data travels the better the connection.

For instance in world of warcraft it could show 300 ms ..This means there is a delay of 300 milliseconds. This is alot for a game. Other games it will just show ping (insert number) which is essentially the same where the number will be the milliseconds. The thumb rule is you want your ping to be a 100 or less if you want to avoid delays in your game


Ever seen a submarine movie where the boats above "listen" to see if they can find it. They send a sound signal to the bottom of the ocean called a ping ..If it hits the hull of the Sub it will be cast back and create an image on their sonar.

The time it takes for this ping (blip) sound to reach the sub and back measure's how close it is ..what shape and a lot of other information as well.

It works in a similar way with computers and data. Instead of sound its a packet of data


That's the simplest way i can explain it

Answer 2

In the context of online gaming, 'ping' is a measure in milliseconds of how quickly the server hosting the game responds to you sending packets of data to it as you play, for example when you fire a weapon. It's measured in milliseconds so the lower the figure, the better. I find when playing myself that you need a ping of 80 or less to play effectively. With a high ping you may experience jerky player movement around the map and have difficulty getting a direct hit against your opponent and may have to hit him 2 or 3 times to get a frag, whereas he may be able to kill you with just 1 shot while you're trying to take him out if his ping is lower than yours. So if you wonder why your opponent survives a hail of bullets and then seems to kill you with just one shot, chances are that Ping is the why.
Ping is affected by things like your distance from the server, so always play the server closest to you if there is a choice, network congestion can also be a factor in causing a low ping as can your connection speed. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Ping (which is geekspeak for "Packet INternet Groper") measures how fast can information travel from your computer to the "host" of the game and back. The faster your Ping is (i.e. as small as possible), the better connection you have with the game server, and the smoother your gameplay (assuming you have a good PC, of course). It's usually measured in milliseconds (1 thousandth of a second)

Answer 4

Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network. It works by sending ICMP “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “echo response” replies. ping estimates the round-trip time, generally in milliseconds, and records any packet loss, and prints a statistical summary when finished.

Answer 5

easiest answer:
the lower your ping, the less laggy you will be, which means lower the number better for your gaming experience.

Answer 6

ping is basicall to show your latency, or in even simpler terms, your connection speed to the game server by sending packets (small files) to your computer which get returned. the speed at which this happens is your latency (usually in miliseconds). anything below about 100 miliseconds is acceptable in online gaming