[SIZE="1"]note: This isn't directly a game guide per se, of course, but I felt it was related enough to the game to go here anyways. I hope this is alright.[/SIZE]
[SIZE="3"]What's a "ping" and why would I want to do that?
[/SIZE]
To put it simply, ping is a tool that sends a small amount of data to a server
to find out whether or it's responding or not, and also estimates the time it takes for
data to reach it and come back to you. This estimation of time is what we'll be looking at,
since quicker roundtrip times essentially means less lag.
[SIZE="3"]
Alright, alright. I get it. How do I do it?[/SIZE]
It's pretty simple to do actually.
If you're on Windows (and you almost certainly are, since you're playing Mabi.) open the
[Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/start.png]
menu and click [Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/run.png]
In the box that appears, type "cmd", like so.
[Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/runcmd.png]
The command line window should appear. Don't be afraid! It's your friend.
[Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/commandline.png]
The command to ping is easy to remember. Just type "ping [server IP]" (again, no quotes or brackets) Like so:
[Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/commandline2.png]
Aaand hit enter! Easy, right?
Here I've made a ping to Ruairi Ch5 as an example.
[Image: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/5m0k3y/misc/example.png]
I've highlighted the important stuff for us in red.
The "time=###ms" at the top is a measurement in milliseconds of how long it took the data to reach Ruari Ch5 and come back to me. At the bottom, it lists the Min, Max and average out of 4 tries. For me, it was an average of 121 milliseconds.
Note: This should go without saying, but while doing this test you should do your best to confirm there's no other intense network activity going on. Someone else downloading something on another computer on the network could cause the ping to be severely high (And innacurate, since surely you don't plan to be playing like that). For me, even a weak torrent can cause my ping to shoot up to 200-300ms
Important note to proxy users! If you aren't using a proxy that proxifies all applications (your web browser, P2P clients, etc) and not just Mabi, then this will likely be fairly inaccurate.
I'm not familiar with the popular proxy methods but I believe (hope) that the AOL method and any VPNs should work, just make sure the proxy is on.
If anyone can verify that pinging works with specific proxies, or if you have a method to be certain ping.exe is running through the proxy, please post and I will add it here. Thanks in advance.
[SIZE="3"]
Seems easy enough, what are the server IPs?[/SIZE]
Luckily, I just happen to have them! :D
Mari:
Ch1 - 208.85.108.21
Ch2 - 208.85.108.22
Ch3 - 208.85.108.23
Ch4 - 208.85.108.24
Ch5 - 208.85.108.25
Ruairi:
Ch1 - 208.85.108.41
Ch2 - 208.85.108.42
Ch3 - 208.85.108.43
Ch4 - 208.85.108.44
Ch5 - 208.85.108.45
Tarlach:
Ch1 - 208.85.108.61
Ch2 - 208.85.108.62
Ch3 - 208.85.108.63
Ch4 - 208.85.108.64
Ch5 - 208.85.108.65
Alexina:
Ch1 - 208.85.108.81
Ch2 - 208.85.108.82
Ch3 - 208.85.108.83
Ch4 - 208.85.108.84
[SIZE="1"]
Note: These might not be all separate machines (each ch could be a virtualization I think), but I've listed each individual one anyways, just to be safe. (and for the sake of exhaustion :p)[/SIZE]
I believe that covers the essentials. I hope this guide was helpful to someone! I'd suggest that those willing post their ping times, and whether you feel you lag or not in the game, so we can get a good idea of the average latencies for everyone.
If anyone has any suggestions, objections, misspellings or if there's something I've completely overlooked, please let me know. :)
Credits go to Sommer for the guide. I just copy+paste'd it.