It’s one of those technical discussions that never really seems to get to a definitive conclusion.
The recent wobbly that some of us have discovered is on the 102nd dedicated server currently used for the Lvov SE and we all get warnings that our connection speed is too LOW!
Cmirko has recommended that we all set our client rate to the maximum our individual connection can handle:
http://seowhq.net/seowhqforum/viewtopic.php?p=1596#1596
By Cmirko’s calculations I have a pretty steady 5,000kbps download from Zagreb so should set clientRate=500000.
As far as I can remember, our own tests for mostly EAF hosting was to have host running at 28.8kbps if he had enough upload bandwidth (e.g. I have 768kbps so can host 26 players in theory, though in practice my CPU would have problems dealing with that) and all the clients at the same to ensure nobody was trying to grab more packets by having a high clientrate compared to somebody who might have only 14.4kbps. 28.8kbps is set in hl.ini as clientRate=3000.
As for skins, that’s another kettle of fish. Rumour has it that the server has become a lot smarter and only sends out skin packets if there is nothing more important to send, i.e. positional packets. Therefore, skins should be less of a problem, but should still be switched off if there are any concerns at all.
The second option to improve warping was to have all reduce the host to 14.4kbps.
Anybody have any more up to date anaylses?
As for 102nd’s server, I have always set network to ADSL once ingame and have had no warping problems.
I am not convinced the question will ever be answered. The settings you make in conf.ini or hlpro.ini will allow you to fine-tune to a particular set of parameters - which is fine if nothing ever changes.
However, even over short distances in the UK, the explosion of broadband use means that there will be a massive variance in your connection speeds between slack and peak times. I have a “8MB” :rolleyes: line, for example, which downloads anywhere between 3Mb/s and 0.4Mb/s. Now add in all the other factors and your line speed tests are just a snapshot of a constantly changing situation.
The only guidelines that I ever found to work in online wars were to get everyone to adopt “average” sort of settings. And it must be said, if the same group of people get consistently worse performance on one particular connection and server than on others, that rather indicates where the problem is…
I also have to say that I don’t understand what is meant by
our connection speed is too LOW!
. If that means ping / latency, then there is nothing you can do about it - it is determined by the speed over the route your packets take. If it means nominal connection speed, it is irrelevant. You could still, in ideal circumstances (and ignoring skin downloads) play Il2 on a 14.4K modem. If it means the delay in joining a game, that would only be a problem if you had your settings so far out of kilter that you had the same issue on every server.
I think fine tuning your .ini files may be addressing the wrong part of the problem … 
As Peegee has said its never been really answered. Partly due to Oleg changing the netcode several times through the evolution of IL2.
Personally I wouldn’t set your hlpro.ini “clientRate” parameter to 500000 as I don’t believe IL2 can handle it. The maximum speed being “Cable xDSL”…
A couple of years ago when I was hosting Normandy '41 DCG - tests that Brigstock and I ran gave the ServerRate set to ISDN (at least) and ClientRate to 28.8, this was with skins. This was ok for a while, then I think another patch came along which spun it on its head.
For now, I have my clientRate set to ISDN, that stops any warnings from any of the servers.
With skins, again the coding changed. Pre-1946 I ran some tests on my LAN with skins as to when they are sent out and downloaded. This happened on spawn and depended on network settings. If the skin was different (even with the same filename, but different pixels) the skin was downloaded.
After 1946 came out, there seems to be a message sent to the clients to query the skins library and netcache. Meako had skins off in our North Sea SE the other night yet I could see Swoop’s 19 Temperate Earth skin and he could see my 92 grey/green skin.
For historical interest if nothing else, this was the “standard” we recommended for czechwar and similar -
Recommended Host Settings
The following HyperLobby settings are recommended. In your main HL folder (usually C:\Program Files\HyperLobbyPro3) find the file hlpro.ini and edit it with Notepad or any text editor as follows:
[Forgotten Battles]
joinDelay=20
clientRate=1500
serverRate=1500
(This sets the join delay from HyperLobby to 20 seconds, and forces a client and host connection speed of 14.4kb/s).
Because CMirko is on a dedicated server running out of a datacenter rather than a tinpot PC running out of his girtlfiends bedsit 
he will have an enormous amount of syncronus bandwidth available. The only bottleneck he’ll suffer is if the clients do not use their maximum potential netspeed. IE if you are on superfast BB (10mb +) you can set you netspeed to LAN/T1, if on a basic BB (2mb-8mb) run it at cable/adsl.
All our previous tests host/clients do not apply here as we are not being limited by a host connection. If you are suffering any lag it’ll be because someone is using to low a netspeed setting and isn’t getting their data back to the server promptly. My own personal preference for hosting at the moment is me hosting at 56k and clints at ISDN, My 15mb up 1mb down connection can take those settings. IL2 is very much a balancing act. To low a setting will cause lag and so will too high a setting. You also have to take other variables in their too. Skindownload is a pig because it piggy backs the data flow. Hence my preference for players to download the skins beforehand or go without.
AFAIK (my presumtion) the netspeed setting is related to the packet size that IL2 will use. High bandwidth=large packets low bandwidth=small packets. So using a high bandwidth setting you are sending and receiving large amounts of data. While we are hosting on our home PC’s over our BB connections we are limited to what our PC can process while running the game and also by how much data we can get through our BB connections. CMirko’s dedicated will only be number crunching and not the allocated resources needed to run IL2. Even if his server is lower spec than the average game machine as long as it has a mid range processor and at least a gig of ram it is more than enough to run the dedicated IL2 package.
As I’ve mentioned because you are using a dedicated datacenter server, previous user host settings do not apply. Forget about what works for us under normal ops. You are on a different setup than what you’d normally use. Cmirko has also been running his server for at least a year (that I know of at least) and should by now be able to gauge the best netspeed by now.
AS a footnote I built 30 odd servers for RBS’s disaster recovery site in blackfriars a couple of years ago. All for SQL databases. Specs were HP Prolient with 4x175 Opterons, 32gig of ram and Terrabyte in a raid5 array. I couldn’t help thinking at the time what one of those would have done for EAF hosting, but I was sure RBS wouldn’t have approved
running out of his girlfiends bedsit he will have an enormous amount of syncronus bandwidth available
I’m not touching that
“Yeah that’s what she said”
Ming