What is ping?

The easiest way to talk about variable response rates is with gaming. Chances are most COD players have rage quit more than once, most Fortnite players have quit their server mid-game, and most of us have all but cancelled our Nintendo Online because Smash Ultimate is just the worst.But if you’re new to the gaming world or just browsing–ping is simply the delay of messages sent between any given set of hosts. Even the slowest ping won’t exceed more than a second or two (unless you’re using dial-up or DSL, which are all but obsolete at this point), and for that reason ping is measured in milliseconds.

Your ping rates can vary based on several things like the:

• Quality of your Internet connection,
• Distance between the server and your computer
• Quality of physical connection with the modem or router

Aside from determining how well your computer communicates on the world wide web, ping rates also can be used to troubleshoot Internet connections. Regardless of usage, platform, or need–connectivity, speed, and reaction time is improved with a lower ping rate.

Why does ping matter?

A low ping is crucial for those playing online, or live with other players. Slow internet amid the online gaming community can result in what seems like:

• Endless Lag
• Excruciating Buffer Times
• Can ruin the visual design of games

Or

• Worst case scenario–get you booted from servers

Many online games and interactions come down to single frame determining factors. Even the most hairpin millisecond can mean the difference between loss and victory for an entire community.

Interaction designing for multiplayer servers are programmed to kick out players with high ping to prevent lag and other performance issues. In some cases, high ping can even be used to determine if a user is trying to cheat or hack the programmers code.

However, ping rates apply to everyday internet activity. All types of social media use ping as a measurement for live streaming. Social Media Marketing can use ping as a measurement of how long their customers stay engaged on any given site or interaction. User Experience (UX) designers base their layout, compression, and overall interactivity on ping, so they don’t overload servers and ultimately ruin the user experience design. Even the everyday search engine has a minimal ping, so you can access your results as quickly as possible.

Since ping is an indication of how fast an Internet connection is, it can impact virtually everything in cyberspace. From user interface design to ladder climbing on the international scoreboards–ping is king.

What is a good ping rate?

Ideally, you’re looking for a ping of 50 – 100ms. Anything below 25 is considered exceptional. Die-hard gamers are working for a latency ping of about 10 – 15ms. Anything above 150ms is noticeable and considered a poor ping rate.