General

@BobR: Thanks a lot for the helpful information. My system has gotten better - I might need to work a bit more to get it to that point where I'm happy with it. Thank you all for the helpful advice in regards to the lag.

You should check for viruses more often.. I have my Microsoft Security Essentials set to update itself (extremely important!) daily and to run a daily scan.

You should also have "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" spyware scanner and update it and run a scan with it at least once a week. It can help find and remove things normal anti-viruses might miss because it's optimized to find spyware- things like trojans and keyloggers. The combination of an anti-virus and Malwarebytes (both regularly updated) is the best defense against the kinds of things that can damage and slow down a computer.

CCleaner is safe to use. The only time I've had any trouble with it is when I accidentally told it to delete all my Firefox cookies and all my "automatic login" cookies went with them. The new version of CCleaner allows you to tell it not to do that.
It's a valuable tool for keeping your hard drive cleaned up.

And yes, you're correct about Game Booster. It has the most effect on older, slower computers where the background Windows processes take up a lot more CPU power relative to the game you're trying to play. With a newer computer you probably won't see much improvement.
But it's free and easy to use and worth a try.

@BobR: Thank you very much for the information. I do a disk defragment every once and a while, but hopefully doing all that will keep my laptop performing at its best.

After I've finished this, I'll check the lag on the games and see if they improved.

@yeepzor:
- I am usually always on the high performance mode because most of the time I have my battery pack plugged in. It's probably not good for the life of the laptop because apparently the amount of time it can last while off of the battery decreases.
- I downloaded game booster today so I haven't seen it work yet. I do hear it only impacts older, low spec computers more than more up-to-date computers.
- I do an occasional virus check so I don't think I have any viruses.
- I don't use CCleaner but I wasn't sure if it would be safe for my computer considering some of the comments I read about it.
- I purchased the laptop a couple years ago so I'm not sure. I've not much of an expert with computers; I know some of the basics :l
- [url=http://imageshack.us/f/824/speedtestgq.png/]Here.[/url]

[quote=GeEmEs]I gave it a go by going upstairs into my sister's room which is where the router is and tried to give Dragon Nest a go. I ran around a town a bit; there was no lag. I attempted a dungeon; there was also no lag.

It seems like it could be network lag.

@BobR: The character simply jerks so it would freeze for a second then it would continue and freeze for another second. It kinda hard to explain.

Edit: A bit like a frame per second - like a flipbook.[/quote]That's weird... the "frame per second" lag sounds like computer lag, but moving around your house and getting no lag would sound more like network lag.

Your "video card" will be built into your laptop's motherboard, so it may be contributing to the lag, and if you haven't "tuned up" your hard drive in a while (or ever), that too could be contributing to it.

Except that would be consistent wherever you moved the laptop to in your house and wouldn't change... it would still "flip book" even with a better network signal.

I think I'd still try tuning up the hard drive just to be sure-

Do these things in this order:

First open the Control Panel, then "Add or Remove Programs".
Go down the list and look for things that you no longer use or need. Uninstall any you don't want any more.

Next open "My Computer", then RIGHT-click on the C: drive and select "Properties" from the popup menu.
On the "Properties" page click the "Tools" tab.
On the "Tools" tab click the "Check Now" button.
On the popup, check the top box, then click "OK".
If it says Windows is using the files and asks if you want to run the disk check when Windows starts, say Yes, then restart the computer.

This will scan the hard drive looking for file system errors and fixing any it can.

Next open "My Computer", then RIGHT-click on the C: drive and select "Properties" from the popup menu.
Click the "Disk Cleanup" button under the big "pie chart".
It will scan the hard drive looking for old junk, Windows log files, installation files, stuff that's just taking up wasted space on the hard drive.
When it finishes scanning check all the boxes in the popup and say "OK"

This will scan and remove any wasted space on the hard drive.

Next open "My Computer", then RIGHT-click on the C: drive and select "Properties" from the popup menu.
On the "Properties" page click the "Tools" tab.
Click the "Defragment Now" button.
On the defragment page click the C: drive to highlight it, then click "Defragment". This will take a long time to complete.

It will scan the hard drive and rearrange files which are broken up and put all the pieces back together to make the hard drive run at its best performance.

Do these steps in order because each builds on what the previous one did.
Do these things about once a month to keep the hard drive running at its best.

Also- don't turn your anti-virus and firewalls off. They may contribute to lag, but only a tiny bit and their protection is too important to risk being without them.

I gave it a go by going upstairs into my sister's room which is where the router is and tried to give Dragon Nest a go. I ran around a town a bit; there was no lag. I attempted a dungeon; there was also no lag.

It seems like it could be network lag.

@BobR: The character simply jerks so it would freeze for a second then it would continue and freeze for another second. It kinda hard to explain.

Edit: A bit like a frame per second - like a flipbook.

More details about the lag would be good to have.. actually what you've described so far sounds like client lag caused by your computer, not network lag.

The only thing is, being that far away from the game servers can have a measurable effect on your "ping", which measures the amount of time it takes for data to get to the destination server and back to you. When I was playing MSEA years ago, it was excruciatingly slow, like playing in slow-motion, because of the distance between my computer and the game servers in SouthEast Asia.

So it's hard to tell exactly.

When you try to pick something up off the ground, is there a pause before it grabs it..?
When you try to shoot is there a pause before the shot registers..?
When you use a portal is there a delay before it starts to change maps..?
Do the monsters ever "freeze in place" but continue to animate their movements, just not moving around the screen..?

When you jump is there a delay before the character jumps..?
When you move does the screen "jerk" as the character moves..?

And yes, I agree... it would really help to know if you lag in other games as well.

[quote=djpinc19]This is a very common symptom when the network is shared by multiple people at the same time. Your description of the problem is also more likely to be the fault of either wireless transmitter and/or wireless receiver. The easiest way to test for this would be to 1. move your computer closer to the router to determine if a weak signal is the fault 2. plug in with a physical cable such as an ethernet cord to determine if the router or reciever is faulty.

...trying a non-Nexon game is a big deal. I've measured 250-300 ms latency from Aus and NZ when connected to an American server.[/quote]

I ask my brother who plays on the bottom floor of the house if he experiences any lag playing online games. He's got into Mabinogi lately and he seems to have no problems with playing online. Infact, everyone except me seems to have great connection to the internet.

I use a laptop (Sony Viao) to do everything on which includes online games. There is a wireless receiver built into my computer and I'm wondering if that may indeed be the problem. I will try, however, moving my computer closer to the router and playing online games.

Thank you very much for this information. I really appreciate it. I also appreciate everyone's help with the problem. I'll try the things you've suggested and I'll get back to you.

This is a very common symptom when the network is shared by multiple people at the same time. Your description of the problem is also more likely to be the fault of either wireless transmitter and/or wireless receiver. The easiest way to test for this would be to 1. move your computer closer to the router to determine if a weak signal is the fault 2. plug in with a physical cable such as an ethernet cord to determine if the router or reciever is faulty.

...trying a non-Nexon game is a big deal. I've measured 250-300 ms latency from Aus and NZ when connected to an American server.

[quote=hairamoose]sounds alot more like network/interenet lag to me than it is your computer[/quote]

So it would be a fault of the internet provider? or is it the modem?

sounds alot more like network/interenet lag to me than it is your computer

I don't really play many online games outside of Nexon. As for the lag, I'll try to describe it as best as I can. The last game I played that wasn't published by Nexon was Elsword which I uninstalled a while ago because I didn't play it much.

Maplestory - Lag on this game is only from time to time. I get small lag spikes when I try to move the character.
Combat Arms - The old teleport lag and sometimes the screen will freeze for maybe 5 seconds and return back to normal.
Dragon Nest - Similar to the lag in Maplestory except it generally happens in instance dungeons when there are large groups of monsters around. It also happens in town quite frequently as well.

Can you describe the lag that you are experiencing?
Are you able to play other games besides ones from Nexon?