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Hey Godz,

Well I don't have good news. In the after math of Napster and other peer to peer programs. Many colleges installed bandwidth limiters on their pipes. This was to discourage file trading/sharing. You maybe a victim of that. A well known member (Groid) here has that problem and can no longer play online at school. Well really he can, but it's a huge pain in the azz.

I don't know if you can find that out or not. Send an email to the network admin about playing games online. They may work with you to fix the problem.

On the good news, I could be totally wrong. It could be as simple as a config or hardware problem. First I'd head over to dslreports.com and do a couple speed tests. See what you are really bringing down. Then configure UT2K3 accordingly. If you're not pulling T1 speeds, don't set UT2K3 to use the T1 connection. Also try different servers, make sure the problem is you and not on the other end. It could be a routing problem. That is totally out of your hands. Unless it's the college's router that is the problem. If that is the case again contact the network admin. Using a trace route program like Whatroute could help in identifying the problem. If your pings are ok from hop 1-6 but after 6 go through the roof then that router at hop six or seven is the problem. Other things in your control are your network cable, try a different one. I don't know if you have other ports in the hub to try but if you do try a different port. Maybe the hub has a bad one. The best way to test all that is to move the computer. Ideally if you have buddy in a whole different building, go there and set up and see how it goes. If it goes well, then you've narrowed the problem down to the building. Next would to try some place down the hall. If it still goes well then you have narrowed it down to your room.
Which would be:
A) your NIC in the comp
B) cable
C) hub
D) wall jack
E) cable between wall jack & switch to the rest of the network
F) your roomies computer has a virus that is creating so much traffic it's gumming up the hub, which is affecting you.

I know network troubleshooting is such a pain in the azz, but you asked!

Good luck, work on it. You'll get it figured out. I do this everyday and still learning stuff.

Networking 101:
Ethernet cable can be no longer than 300 feet.
Keep cable away from electrical interference. i.e. florescent lights, space heaters The interference screws up the network traffic. Network cable should be at least two feet away from such things.
Don't cap your own cable, buy pre-made patch cables. They're tested at the factory.
Replace cable that has any tears in the insulation.

Do you see the ping problem whether or not your roomy is online? If it is occuring when he/she is on line but not otherwise then it may be a bandwidth problem since you are on a hub and not a router. If that is the case you might want to look at investing in a router to replace the hub (you'd have to check with your IT guys to see if you can do that) and route the proper UT ports to your IP. Just another thought.

erm..not a router...a switch (smart hub) I think you mean. Yes that would/could help manage the network traffic. You only need a router if you're trying to network with different sub nets.

erm..not a router...a switch (smart hub) I think you mean. Yes that would/could help manage the network traffic. You only need a router if you're trying to network with different sub nets.

Hmmm... wonder if he may already have a smart hub.

Dunno, didn't look at the specs of the one he mentioned.

Well....my roomate said that it's the firewall around the school. I still need to get in contact with the network admin (he's on my floor). The thing is......I can download at 500k using like AIM or Mozilla, yet any P2P stuff is really slow. I am afraid that UT2K3 has fallen under that. Does that extra info help?

Yeah, it proves the first thought. Your school has a bandwidth limiter on it. I think the net admin will confirm this. I hope he's an easy going guy and will work with you. If he needs to know the specific ports UT2K3 runs on, post back, we'll get them to ya.

Hey, if you guys can figure that out for me, that would be AWESOME. He's my age so I think if I can tell him the exact port and that I am not trying to pull something over, he might be able to help. Thanks guys!

The default ports are 7777, 7778, 7787, 7788, 28900, 28902

The default ports are 7777, 7778, 7787, 7788, 28900, 28902

These are it.

How to protect themselves!?! Having these ports open isn't any less secure than having port 80 open for web browsing. They do allow web browsing, correct? Can you do FTP? Same thing just a different port.

I mean c'mon they already have holes in the firewall. One or two more isn't going to be that much less secure.

How to protect themselves!?! Having these ports open isn't any less secure than having port 80 open for web browsing. They do allow web browsing, correct? Can you do FTP? Same thing just a different port. I mean c'mon they already have holes in the firewall. One or two more isn't going to be that much less secure.

lol dude......you, in a nutshell, wrote what I've been forced to deal with. I moved into the dorms last year for spring semester, and of course that was the semester they implemented this gay ass firewall. They allow NOTHING, besides port 80 for web browsing, and the port for AIM convo, NOT direct connect. Everything else is blocked. Pretty much what they don't know, they block. You can't believe how pissed I am at them.

Anyway, so these are all the ports huh, are these also for UT2K4? Finally, would you be able to tell me which ports do what, for example port 7777 is for browsing the online server list?