Hi all, just a suggestion to those who play xbox live and aren't very technical. I keep coming across players who do not know what an Open NAT is, that their modem has an options menu, how to forward ports, add the xbox to a DMZ or even know what their internet speed or connection is e.g ADSL1, ADSL2+ or Cable. With many thinking having a wireless connection to a wired modem, is "wireless internet"

I was motivated to do this after a guy in my country hosted a game, everyone except him had 1 red bar, when I asked what his connection type and speed he had, he had no idea.
So if you aren't a technical person here's some things you can do. It's something to seriously consider with Crysis 2 having such bad lag issues.

Know your connection:
If unsure of what type of internet you're on, check with your ISP, or ask your parents if the situation applies.
All the tweaks in the world won't help you if your on a 256/128kbps internet connection.
I'd recommend at least a 1.5mbps with 512kb upstream Broadband connection. This is at the bare minimum despite what Microsoft says.

Test your speed
http://www.speedtest.net
This is one of many popular sites that will give you a good idea of your upload and download speed, just click begin test, sit back wait for it to run and it'll tell you your upload and download speeds.
It can provide extra information like comparing how other ISP's rate as well as average speeds other users with your ISP get. It can be also good to teach you how "PING's" work in relation to server distance.

Read reviews of your ISP related to gaming:
Google your ISP's name with the words "review" and "gaming" thrown in. A lot of things can effect your internet and just because you're on a high speed connection, it doesn't necessarily mean you're on a GOOD connection.

Do some research it may be time to change providers, You can get some really cheap plans out there, but they usually come at a price, odds are a $9.95AU ADSL2+ Unlimited plan will have worst connection for games than a $60AU traffic limited plan.
You might have high speed and can download fast, but with games it comes down to how direct you connect to the host/server in milliseconds. A high ping will not be helped by a fast download speed.

Technical Stuff
Get to know your hardware, knowing what your modem/router can and can't do is just as, if not more important than how fast your internet is.

Wired Vs Wireless
Many people have wireless internet these days, while better than in the past it is still not as good as any wired internet. It's open to interference and drop outs like any wireless device, like mobile phones for example.
It might be convenient having no wires laying about, but rest assured you're going to get a more stable connection using cable, or a land line based Broadband service like ADSL2+. If possible try and avoid wireless internet and ethernet connections when gaming.

Hardware: Modem/Routers
Read some reviews about your hardware, some modems are better than others, if you take your gaming seriously it might be time to upgrade. What are it's features? Can you easily modify most of it's settings?
Many casual gamers do not realise via your browser, you can open a menu on your modem where you can "tweak" things. It usually means having to enter an IP address into the browsers address bar. For example a D-LINK modem it might be 10.1.1.1 a Netcomm it may be a 192.168.1.1
It varies with make and model, check the manufacturers website, or the manual that came with it for more info on how to get to the menu.

When accessing it, you'll be asked for a user name and password 99.9% of the time it will be by default:
Name: admin
Pass: admin


Open NAT
Do you often get a message form xbox live stating you have a "moderate NAT" and that while you can use live and play, you may experience problems like with voice?
If so you need to access your modem and make the xbox an Open NAT

Here's a brief article on it.
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/677706/tip-open-your-nat-for-a-better-xbox-live/

Again google some thing like "open NAT xbox 360 (modem model and brand here) guide" or "configure (modems name and brand) for xbox live"

There are a tonne of guides online to rectify this, and as every modem is different the settings will be different and it is important to find one that matches your hardware.

Adding your xbox to what is called the "DMZ" can fix many problems most xbox live users have.
Try and avoid using an automatic IP and manually assign one to your xbox, because you will need a locked in IP for the DMZ to work to avoid having a new IP assigned every time you reboot your console, which will make your DMZ and open NAT fail again.


Well that's it, I realise it's not the most indepth guide but as I said every ones setup is different and it's impossible to get too detailed, this is more designed as a starting place. With a bit of research and tweaking you could have the best xbox live experience since owning the console.

and if you don't know what you're doing or it seems complicated ask a techy friend for help, everybody has at least one person on their friends list who knows what to do ; )

Feel free to add any advice and links to this and let's try and make every ones Crysis 2 experience better.

Thanks for this, I always have my NAT Type as Moderate and do experience alot of 1/2 bar connection and considerable lag.

Will check this out later today and post my feedback.

Regards

TwistedBuddha X

So, what are the stats for a good connection anyways? I'm hitting a 12.55 mbs Down speed, and a 1.03 mbs up speed.

i allways get 3 bars green nat open love it hhahaha usually host of the game and no lag wht so ever so the people who complain actually got rap download speed and crap provider lol

Speed rarely has anything to do with a "good connection".
Latency and packet loss is the biggest issue and the ping bars (latency indicators) the 4 green or 1 red people talk about are about ping and your response time to the host.
As I have mentioned before you can have 20Mbps down and 2Mbps up cable connection but lag like hell.
If you say you have a “fast connection”, are you sure you are even getting this speed? What is theoretically possible and almost always advertised may not be what your connection is synching at.
Log into your modem and find your actual speeds and then perhaps perform ping and pathping tests.
Speedtest.net is not exactly the best sites to test from as the host severs are public and can be congested, but it does give a rough indication.
An accurate test is to download some files from your ISP's file share site, most good ISP's should have test download files or even speed test files from there "free zone" or online tools zone.
To test ping / latency and packet loss open a command prompt on your PC (START / RUN / CMD) and type ping http://www.WEBSITENAME.com and look for millisecond response time and loss %. Type ping /? for further options.
A good test for packet loss is pathping (START / RUN / CMD) and type pathping http://www.WENSITENAME.com. Do this while your connection is idle and a second test under load while you are downloading a file or streaming a video from YouTube during the test and look for loss at the end.
Console Gamers (most PC gamers will probably understand all this and more) and especially online gamers should really try and educate themselves about these things as the "quality" of your connection is of the utmost importance.
Reducing latency, packet loss and hops to a host is the key, not just speed.
Although after all this if the host has an absolute garbage connection then nothing will help and this is an issue with host selection and the region you are playing in / with. That is why console client side hosting is so precarious and why PC gamers demand / get server managed connections and they connect to the closest server to their region for a better experience.
If you wish to educate yourself about this and more check out this site http://whirlpool.net.au/. It is an Australian site so info regarding the ISP's are not relevant to anyone but Aussies, but check out the Knowledge Bases and Forums, they can really open your eyes to the technical aspect of the internet and connection issues and troubleshooting.

Thanks for this, I always have my NAT Type as Moderate and do experience alot of 1/2 bar connection and considerable lag.

Will check this out later today and post my feedback.

Regards

TwistedBuddha X

Please do let us know, also look at port forwarding.

i allways get 3 bars green nat open love it hhahaha usually host of the game and no lag wht so ever so the people who complain actually got rap download speed and crap provider lol

Well being host will obviously give you 4 bars, but when hosting what are the bars like for connecting users?
Also depends on the countries players are from, if I play a game with all Aussies with a decent Aussie host, most will have better bars than if they are Aussies connecting to an American for obvious reasons.

Just because they have a bad connection to your game,doesn't necessarily mean they have a crap ISP.


So, what are the stats for a good connection anyways? I'm hitting a 12.55 mbs Down speed, and a 1.03 mbs up speed.

Well I think that's pretty good speed wise. But like I said things like having your modem set right is important, a moderate NAT setting even with that speed can still give you serious xbox live issues.

Speedtest.net is not exactly the best sites to test from as the host severs are public and can be congested, but it does give a rough indication.


Hey ODEED, good to see you again ; ) and thanks for the extra info. Yeah speedtest.net isn't 100% accurate but it gives a good idea in a quick and simple format. And I find it a bit more real world than downloading test file from my ISP (Internode) as I get an extra 2-3 mb/s downloading from them, but elsewhere on the net the speeds I get are closer to what Speedtest tells me.

Sort of makes sense as you are downloading from the first place you connect to online. My ISP's tech always get me to test on their "download" site but I sort of feel like it's a cheat, or rigged to make me feel I'm getting the best speed possible.

I've even calculated my distance from the exchange and still I'm getting about 4mb's under what I should be getting from my service in real world usage according to my modem.
They changed my "profile" upon request apparently, but nothing changed at all in my modems stats. (and for the first time the girl I spoke to seemed clueless, something I've never experienced with my provider)

But alas I will continue to strive to get as much as I can towards the mythical 24mbps limit lol

So, what are the stats for a good connection anyways? I'm hitting a 12.55 mbs Down speed, and a 1.03 mbs up speed.
Thats a fine connection, I tested bandwidth usage when I *wasnt* host, and Crysis 2 only uses anywhere from 40 to 80 Kbps. So you have plenty bro..

You seriously did not advice people to change providers because game netcode is **** up right ? Router forwarding might be actually helpful because tons of people have no idea what to do and how to maintain open NAT I've tested this game on my 20/5 home connection and 100/100 work one and difference was none ! Many times game was looping @ "receiving game session data" message or it chose host with poor upload/ping or location on other continent I guess... because dude is running on 4 rest of lobby on 1-2. Also this is my 1st time when I did actually play couple of games with people from Africa or Singapore, Hawaii, Ireland, Germany, Spain in the same lobby paired by matchmaking.Its like there is no regional filter/ local search feature which should pull me list of players accordingly to my location closest etc (located in central US for me)

You seriously did not advice people to change providers because game netcode is **** up right ? Router forwarding might be actually helpful because tons of people have no idea what to do and how to maintain open NAT I've tested this game on my 20/5 home connection and 100/100 work one and difference was none ! Many times game was looping @ "receiving game session data" message or it chose host with poor upload/ping or location on other continent I guess... because dude is running on 4 rest of lobby on 1-2. Also this is my 1st time when I did actually play couple of games with people from Africa or Singapore, Hawaii, Ireland, Germany, Spain in the same lobby paired by matchmaking.Its like there is no regional filter/ local search feature which should pull me list of players accordingly to my location closest etc (located in central US for me)

no ****. i'm tired of playing with germans and red bars.
I had to leave 7 games in a row today that were all 4bar host 1bar everyone else.

My connection is fast, has excellent ping results (Grade A on pingtest) and from day one I've only really been in matches with fellow UK players. It's still a disgraceful laggy mess.

The tips you've listed are excellent and very noob friendly, but people should be aware that in it's present state, the MP in Crysis 2 is flawed at its core regardless of individual connections. Obviously decent ping and open NAT are an essential requirement of smooth online gaming, but don't go changing ISP/buying a new router just because this game is lagging.

My friend has 50meg fibre optic with the best pings I have ever seen.. he's stopped playing Crysis2 because the lag was driving him mad. Also, last week my broadband had a fault and as such my connection temporarily dropped to 400kb down/200kb up.. my ping results were pretty bad.. but I tried playing Crysis and I seemed to have less lag along with 3-4 connection bars. I put Black Ops in and I was getting 1-2 bars.

Like I said, I don't want to take anything away from your guide, I think it's great.. but people do need to be aware that Crysis 2 seems to break all the rules when it comes to matchmaking.

This **** should be stickied.

Hey,

Ok, like previously mentioned I have my NAT on Moderate. As the OP placed that link I followed it but it wasn't helpful for me at that point. However, I went to portforwarding.com and looked for my modem and how to setup it up for my xbox. There was a guide on how to setup a static IP and then it I forwarded my ports by going into my routers browser address and allowing access to certain xbox ports, the full details would be on the guide. I cannot obviously forward a link as we all probably have different routers.

Now my NAT has been constantly Open since I did it (couple of days ago), and the difference it's made is like night and day. I find people easier, I host alot of the time, and I rarely get under 3 bars unless the host is really bad and everyone suffers equally but this is to be expected if this host is awful then no-one is going to get a good connection. It was definitely worth the 30-40 mins it took me to do it as I don't need to do anything again and all my multiplayers games run alot better.

Thanks to the OP for raising the NAT issue as it's allowed me to enjoy Crysis 2 alot more.

Theres nothing the wrong with my connection...the game is BROKEN...the problem with one bar connection even happens if the host has a 100/100Mbit connection...as it did when me and my friends played the game and one of us got host...only the host had full green bar and the rest red/yellow, he has a 100Mbit connection and we all live in the same country...sooo the game is broken.

Theres nothing the wrong with my connection...the game is BROKEN...the problem with one bar connection even happens if the host has a 100/100Mbit connection...as it did when me and my friends played the game and one of us got host...only the host had full green bar and the rest red/yellow, he has a 100Mbit connection and we all live in the same country...sooo the game is broken.

There is nothing broken with the game, since I did the above most of my connection issues are resolved. Doesn't matter about speed of connection it's about quality you need to test your ping on pingtest.

In a recent post of mine called "Crysis 2 and ping" I did some experiments and concluded that what they need to do is add regional filters and pick better hosts but the game is not broken.

I've currently level 13 after prestiging so have alot of experience and the game is FAR for broken. It may seem like a lot of people are complaining but considering the 100's of thousands of copies they've sold only a 100 or less people on this site are biching all the time. The game is not perfect, but it's very good.

learn to evaluate objectively.

The netcode is broken.

I have a 15Mb Down, 1.7Mb up, 12ms ping (Pingtest.com) connection. I have Open NAT, everything wired, a high end Billion Router, and my ISP is BE who do not shape or throttle traffic and my KD is constantly below 1 in this game. What really annoys me is that when I played the demo for 2 weeks, I had no lag at all and maintained a 1.6KD. With the retail game, my KD is 0.82!

I lose every 1v1 encoubnter. The only way I can get kills is either from behind someone before they see me or a long range sniper shot at a stationary target. It is soooo frustrating.

The guide is good but I don't think it will solve the underlying problem with this game.

The netcode is broken.

I have a 15Mb Down, 1.7Mb up, 12ms ping (Pingtest.com) connection. I have Open NAT, everything wired, a high end Billion Router, and my ISP is BE who do not shape or throttle traffic and my KD is constantly below 1 in this game. What really annoys me is that when I played the demo for 2 weeks, I had no lag at all and maintained a 1.6KD. With the retail game, my KD is 0.82!

I lose every 1v1 encoubnter. The only way I can get kills is either from behind someone before they see me or a long range sniper shot at a stationary target. It is soooo frustrating.

The guide is good but I don't think it will solve the underlying problem with this game.

KDR is not a measure of a broken game necessarily. I have not suffered from terrible lag and the game is perfectly playable. Losing every 1:1 might be down to playstyle. Or it could even be lag introduced locally in your system, e.g. input lag with your tv for example. Few games I play in suffer from lag. I suppose its location dependent, but it seems like there are issues but then many more seem to be enjoying lag free games!

The netcode is broken.

I have a 15Mb Down, 1.7Mb up, 12ms ping (Pingtest.com) connection. I have Open NAT, everything wired, a high end Billion Router, and my ISP is BE who do not shape or throttle traffic and my KD is constantly below 1 in this game. What really annoys me is that when I played the demo for 2 weeks, I had no lag at all and maintained a 1.6KD. With the retail game, my KD is 0.82!

I lose every 1v1 encoubnter. The only way I can get kills is either from behind someone before they see me or a long range sniper shot at a stationary target. It is soooo frustrating.

The guide is good but I don't think it will solve the underlying problem with this game.

KDR is not a measure of a broken game necessarily. I have not suffered from terrible lag and the game is perfectly playable. Losing every 1:1 might be down to playstyle. Or it could even be lag introduced locally in your system, e.g. input lag with your tv for example. Few games I play in suffer from lag. I suppose its location dependent, but it seems like there are issues but then many more seem to be enjoying lag free games!

I'm not sure what to make of this issue. For some people with amazing internet connections like planetmatt which are vastly superior to mine, they have many issues with lag while mine is intermittent but not game-breaking.

The term "Netcode"is very abstract I'm not sure many people know what this "really" means, myself included and there is no proof that it is wrong, were only inferring it is from the lag some people have been experiencing and getting on the virtual bandwagon. Unless an unbiased game developer who is obviously qualified to make accurate evaluations could take apart the netcode and point out it's poor design then I think it's best we don't make interpretations beyond the data.

My lag is simple - bad host = bad lag, good host = no lag.

Again, get regional filters, better hosts or even dedicated servers and then make sure your NAT is open if not already.

The netcode is broken.

I have a 15Mb Down, 1.7Mb up, 12ms ping (Pingtest.com) connection. I have Open NAT, everything wired, a high end Billion Router, and my ISP is BE who do not shape or throttle traffic and my KD is constantly below 1 in this game. What really annoys me is that when I played the demo for 2 weeks, I had no lag at all and maintained a 1.6KD. With the retail game, my KD is 0.82!

I lose every 1v1 encoubnter. The only way I can get kills is either from behind someone before they see me or a long range sniper shot at a stationary target. It is soooo frustrating.

The guide is good but I don't think it will solve the underlying problem with this game.

KDR is not a measure of a broken game necessarily. I have not suffered from terrible lag and the game is perfectly playable. Losing every 1:1 might be down to playstyle. Or it could even be lag introduced locally in your system, e.g. input lag with your tv for example. Few games I play in suffer from lag. I suppose its location dependent, but it seems like there are issues but then many more seem to be enjoying lag free games!

I'm not sure what to make of this issue. For some people with amazing internet connections like planetmatt which are vastly superior to mine, they have many issues with lag while mine is intermittent but not game-breaking.

The term "Netcode"is very abstract I'm not sure many people know what this "really" means, myself included and there is no proof that it is wrong, were only inferring it is from the lag some people have been experiencing and getting on the virtual bandwagon. Unless an unbiased game developer who is obviously qualified to make accurate evaluations could take apart the netcode and point out it's poor design then I think it's best we don't make interpretations beyond the data.

My lag is simple - bad host = bad lag, good host = no lag.

Again, get regional filters, better hosts or even dedicated servers and then make sure your NAT is open if not already.

I'm no expert. But I'd suggest that speed and quality of connection is only part of the story. Location surely is crucial to getting a good ping. Perhaps this is too simplistic but if you live hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the majority of the game community you're going to be connecting to hosts and getting lag?

Yeah in recent topic called "Ping" - I showed some results of tests my ping against a UK, Canadian and US server. My ping with a UK server (I live in the UK) is 32, connection to Toronto, Canada and Washington DC, US my ping ranges from 100-120. Showing that distance can effect the amount of ping by 300-400%. Take into account they the other players and host may also have bad connection, things get worse and worse.

I thus conclude that if we had regional filters then my connection could be 3-4x times better than it is currently or dedicated servers. The formers seems alot more easier to implement and cost's Crytek practically nothing, except man hours. If I was qualified in the computer field I don't see why it's so difficult to program something that states "If regional filter is on, then don't connect to other connections outside that region". But what do I know...

The guide is well explained and all, but it is totally useless. Might help some people that use google to search for google, or those who erase a whole sentence when they make a typo on the first word.
Having knowledge wont solve the problem, I know the world is screwed but does my knowledge of it being screwed make it less screwed? No, something has to be done, and believe it or not, if so many people are having problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems and problems (yes, this was necessary).... with the game, the problem is most likely the games fault (like 99% of chance of being the game's fault).

In fairness if peoples connections are fine with other games LIKE MINE IS.. then I shouldn't really have to be delving into my Modem options.. the Netcode is not working and the whole "well Crysis 2 is throwing a lot of effects a jazzy stuff around so it will choke your connection " is complete bollox. Crytek must be aware that the MP isnt up to scratch and at this moment in time very tempted to trade the game in

Think a few people with there oh so uber l33t fiber optic connections need to get a grip ..seriously.. My connection is fine ..Open NAT ..wired and works flawlessly with every other shooter I play Like BFBC2 ..COD ..even AC:Brotherhood plays fine

Crytek need to Patch the MP ASAP or I can foresee a lot of people wanting to trade this game in ..

In fairness if peoples connections are fine with other games LIKE MINE IS.. then I shouldn't really have to be delving into my Modem options.. the Netcode is not working and the whole "well Crysis 2 is throwing a lot of effects a jazzy stuff around so it will choke your connection " is complete bollox. Crytek must be aware that the MP isnt up to scratch and at this moment in time very tempted to trade the game in

Think a few people with there oh so uber l33t fiber optic connections need to get a grip ..seriously.. My connection is fine ..Open NAT ..wired and works flawlessly with every other shooter I play Like BFBC2 ..COD ..even AC:Brotherhood plays fine

Crytek need to Patch the MP ASAP or I can foresee a lot of people wanting to trade this game in ..

But how do you explain people like myself who get far better results from Crysis 2 MP than I do from say BlackOps. 95% of my games with Crysis 2 are spot on. There are plenty of other people in the same position.

Perhaps there aren't enough people playing near you, so you're ending up with high pings?

Im not sure what the actual issue is but Im betting there isn't a regional filter in place so best part of the time that may be the High Ping issue as not once last night did I even hit a 4 bar connection ..Had a few matchs with 3 bars but still lagged like sh**** with the full clip to kill someone then they spin round and kill you with 3 bullets or so and some pretty god awful hit detection to deal with .

It is this game I struggle with ONLY as everything else is fine as mentioned..

There is a region filter. When I join a game I always find a bunch of people from the same country, and this is not from shear amount of players. Where I live there is most likely less than 500,000 players.
And I still get a **** game experience.

8/10 games, I am host and I still have a terrible experience. I have the same problem in BOps but COD4, MW2, All BF games, and Monday Night Combat are totally fine.

To the person suggesting Input Lag. Yes, this is a consideration. My TV is a Sony Bravia KDL32EX603 and is set to Game Mode which I understand reduces the visual processing and the input lag is 33ms. Not great but considered acceptable and coupled with me being host most of the time should not affect my gaming experience. I have tried the 360 coupled to the TV with both HDMI and VGA (some people report that VGA reduces input lag to just the LCD response time (appox 8ms) but there is not firm documented evidence that this works on Sony TVs only some Samsungs. The gaming experience is identical on either HDMI or VGA.

I will at some point try it on a Dell LCD Monitor and see what happens but I don't expect much difference.

Regarding "netcode". My understanding of this term is how the game processes prediction. Most FPS games move too fast for every frame to be in sync across every client simultaneously. Subsequently, key frames are used and frames in between are interpolated to predict where the player was during the missing frames. If this is off, you get bad hit detection. Another technology that was introduced in BOPS is lag compensation. This was put in to stop host advantage and introduce similar lag for all players. I have no idea if this is in Crysis2 but it's a terrible idea which punishes players with fast low latency connections.