What Is Ping? Causes of High Ping and Fixes
What is ping and what counts as good? Latency, jitter and packet loss, what causes high ping, how to measure and lower it, and choosing a server location.
Ping is the time it takes a small packet of data to travel from your computer to a server and back, measured in milliseconds (ms). A ping of 30 ms means the data took 30 milliseconds for the round trip. In games, low ping means your key presses reach the server quickly; high ping shows up as delay, stutter and "teleporting" players.
This guide explains what ping is, what counts as good, what causes high ping, how to measure it, how to lower it and what to consider when choosing a server location.
Ping, latency, jitter and packet loss
Four things decide the quality of a connection:
- Ping (latency): the round-trip time of a packet. Lower is better.
- Jitter: how much the ping varies. If it jumps between 30 and 90 ms, jitter is high. A steady 60 ms usually feels better than a connection that swings between 30 and 90.
- Packet loss: the share of packets lost on the way. Even 1–2% loss causes sudden stutters and dropped inputs in games.
- Bandwidth (internet speed): how much data can be moved per second. It is a different thing from ping; a 1 Gbps connection can still have high ping.
For games and real-time apps, latency, jitter and packet loss usually matter more than bandwidth. A game server sends each player very little data; what matters is that it arrives quickly and steadily.
What is a good ping?
| Ping | What it feels like in games |
|---|---|
| 0–30 ms | Excellent; ideal for competitive games |
| 30–50 ms | Very good; most players notice no difference |
| 50–100 ms | Good; comfortable, slight delay in fast shooters |
| 100–150 ms | Noticeable delay; fine for strategy and roleplay games |
| 150 ms+ | Clear delay and stutter |
The type of game matters too. Fast shooters like Counter-Strike are very sensitive to latency; Minecraft, FiveM roleplay servers and strategy games tolerate somewhat higher ping.
What causes high ping?
1. Distance
Data travels through fiber at about two-thirds of the speed of light. That means every 100 km adds at least about 1 ms to the round trip. Istanbul to Frankfurt is around 1,900 km, so physics alone puts the floor at about 20 ms; with cables that don't run in straight lines and the equipment in between, the real figure is usually 30–50 ms. From Europe to a server in New York, ping is typically around 80–100 ms, because crossing the ocean makes going much lower hard.
2. Routing
Data passes through many networks and routers between you and the server. If your internet provider sends traffic along an indirect path, you can see very different pings over the same distance. That is why the same server measures differently from different providers.
3. Your home network
- Wi-Fi: wireless connections are prone to jitter and packet loss, especially through walls and with interference from other devices.
- Devices hogging the connection: a big download, 4K streaming or a cloud backup running at the same time fills your router's queue and pushes ping up. This is called "bufferbloat".
- An old or overheating router: the router itself can add delay.
4. The server itself
An overloaded game server can respond late even when network latency is low. Players then usually experience "lag" while the ping value looks normal; the problem isn't the network but the server's CPU or configuration.
How to measure ping
The ping command: open Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on macOS and Linux, and type:
ping nodesty.com
The time= value shows the latency, and the summary at the end shows the average and the share of lost packets. On Windows, use ping -t address to keep measuring and Ctrl + C to stop.
Tracert / traceroute: shows which stops the packet passes through and where the latency increases:
tracert nodesty.com
On Linux and macOS the command is traceroute. For a more detailed view, mtr continuously measures packet loss at every hop. When you report a connection problem to a support team, including tracert or mtr output makes it much faster to find where the problem is.
Note: some servers don't answer ping (ICMP) for security reasons. No reply doesn't necessarily mean the server is down.
How to lower your ping
- Use a cable. Connecting your computer or console to the router with Ethernet is the single biggest step to reduce jitter and packet loss.
- Pause bandwidth hogs. Pause big downloads, updates and cloud sync while you play.
- Check your router. Restart it and keep its firmware current. If it supports features like QoS or SQM, they reduce bufferbloat.
- Pick the right server. Play on servers in the region closest to you. No setting can remove the delay that distance adds.
- Contact your provider if it persists. If
tracertshows latency rising inside your provider's network, it isn't something you can fix; send the output to your internet provider.
For server owners: choosing a location
If you host a game server, website or app, you largely decide your users' ping. The rule is simple: put the server close to most of your users.
- For players in Europe and Turkey, Frankfurt is a strong choice. It is one of Europe's best-connected data center regions, players across the continent connect with low latency, and from Turkey ping is usually 30–50 ms.
- For users in North America, a location such as New York fits better.
- If your audience is mixed, choose the region where most of them are; no single location serves two continents equally well.
The server's CPU matters as much as its location: most game servers run their main loop on a single core. A server with low single-core speed responds late at busy moments even when network latency is low. Sudden spikes in ping and packet loss can also come from DDoS attacks; we explain those in What is a DDoS attack?
Latency on Nodesty servers
Nodesty game servers and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X VPS plans run in Frankfurt, with low latency for players across Europe and Turkey, and our VPS plans are also available in New York for North America. The Ryzen 9 9950X, which boosts to 5.7 GHz, keeps the server responsive at busy moments, and L3–L7 nShield DDoS protection keeps ping steady during attacks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good ping?
In games, under 50 ms is excellent and 50–100 ms is comfortably playable. Above 100 ms, delay becomes noticeable in fast-paced games, and above 150 ms it gets clearly frustrating. For websites and apps, lower latency simply means faster responses.
My internet is fast, so why is my ping high?
Internet speed (bandwidth) measures how much data you can move per second; ping measures how long data takes to make a round trip. A fast connection can still have high ping if the server is far away, the routing is indirect or your Wi-Fi is struggling.
What ping can I expect to servers in Frankfurt?
From most of Europe, ping to Frankfurt is low because it is one of the continent's best-connected data center regions. From Turkey it is usually around 30–50 ms, depending on your internet provider and routing.
I can't ping the server but I can join the game. Why?
Some servers and firewalls block ICMP, the protocol ping uses. The ping command then gets no reply even though the server is running. Check latency with the in-game indicator or a TCP-based measuring tool instead.
Is ping the same as FPS?
No. FPS is how many frames your graphics card draws per second and depends on your computer. Ping is network delay. Low FPS makes the screen stutter; high ping makes your actions register late and causes rubber-banding.
Does a VPN lower ping?
Usually not; traffic passes through an extra server, so ping often goes up. Only when your internet provider's route to a particular destination is very poor can a VPN that takes a better path occasionally reduce latency.
About the author
Nodesty Team · Infrastructure & Support
The Nodesty team runs our servers, network and DDoS protection day to day and answers customer support requests around the clock. These guides come from that work.
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