HOW TO: Optimize your Network connection for less desync

DISCLAIMER: You will need to use a third party application to make registry tweaks to your system and you will need to change several advanced hardware settings in your control panel to get full effect from this guide. If you aren't comfortable with any of this, stop reading now!

WARNING: Fully applying the changes in this guide will require the system to reboot and will most likely also cause the system to momentarily disconnect from the internet until you have completed all the steps. Please make sure you aren't in the middle of a map when trying this.

Path of Exile's frequent issues with desync are only partly derived from the game itself - a large chunk of the problem stems from the default settings used in Windows that control the behavior of the system's Network adapter. The operating system is built with the assumption that most users will not be doing a large amount of gaming, and hence the settings are not configured well for the fast-paced data streams that online games use.

You will need one third-party application to make some of the changes, called TCP Optimizer, available from SpeedGuide.net (click here for their downloads page). When you launch TCPOptimizer, make sure you RIGHT-CLICK on it and select "Run as Administrator" or else THE CHANGES WILL NOT BE APPLIED SUCCESSFULLY!

In the TCPOptimizer window, you will need to configure the settings under the first two tabs as shown in the picture below, with important parts circled in red. If you know your internet connection's speed in megabits, please also feel free to indicate it with the slider at the top of the first tab. If you don't know, leave it alone. For the PPPoE checkbox, you will want to check PPPoE if your internet connection uses DSL (runs through the phone lines), or leave it unchecked if your internet connection uses cable. Do not change the MTU box unless you know what your internet connection's MTU is. If you don't, it's best to leave it alone. All other circled settings should match exactly what is shown in the picture.

Once you are finished configuring TCPOptimizer as shown, click Apply changes. If it informs you that the current user account does not have the permissions required to change all the settings, please re-read the second paragraph. Select 'Ok' to the dialog box that appears. The program will inform you that a reboot is required to apply the changes - select restart later.

Next, you will want to open your Control Panel (usually accessible directly from the Start Menu). You will need Control Panel to be in the Advanced view to find the Device Manager quickly.

Under the 'Network adapters' category, you should see one or more adapters listed. If there are more than one, you are looking for the one you use with your internet connection. Any adapter showing "1394" in its name can be ignored. Double click on the adapter you believe to be the correct one. If unsure, please post a screenshot of your Device manager window in this thread and I or someone else should be able to tell you which one you use.

In the Properties window for the network adapter, change to the Advanced tab. If there is no advanced tab, your networking drivers are out of date, and are probably contributing to your desync problems. Contact your system manufacturer or consult your documentation for more information on how to update your drivers. You should see a page similar to what is shown in the picture below. The rule you will be following when configuring these settings is fairly straightforward. Select each item in the property list in sequence. If the only configurable setting is a drop-down box, check the list of options for "Disabled". If "Disabled" is an option, select it, and continue to the next setting. If "Disabled" is not an option for the setting, ignore it, and continue to the next setting. When you reach the end of the Property list, you are finished. Click Ok to apply the changes. This will cause your system to reconnect to your network - this is normal. Now, reboot your system, and you are finished.

Click for full-size image

Thank you for this, lordbean!

I'm all for improving my network connection in order to have a better game-play experience. Although, I'm a little leery of third-party programs. Still, I decided to give this a try.

I've already tried a list of things to improve my connection for PoE, as you can see in my thread, Constant Disconnections and Latency Spikes. (Don't bother reading through it. I only post the link to point out that I've done a lot).

It appears from the images you posted that you are on a DSL connection over a telephone line. You also have a different network adapter than I have. (Mine is an Intel card). There were some differences, but I tried following your instructions based on what was listed in my card's Properties->Advanced tab.

Being that I'm connected by cable, some of my settings were different from yours, as you noted in your instructions. And, I did some research to find out how to determine my optimum MTU.

After applying the changes and restarting my system, I began some tests. Just browsing the internet, I could tell the difference. Checking speed and latency on Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net didn't show any significant difference, but the pages loaded faster and the tests ran smoother and faster.

For my next test I ran WinMTR for about 15 minutes using US.login.pathofexile.com as the host. (I log in to PoE through the America Gateway). Even though I did not have the game running, it produced the best trace route I've gotten so far (without the game running).

I don't know if I'll get any game-time in tonight. Hopefully, I will tomorrow. Then, I'll be able to test further. (And I'm currently playing a dual-wielding Ranger that spams Cyclone and Flicker Strike. So, I should be able to give my connection vs. PoE a pretty good workout).

I'll let you know how it turns out.

If I remember correctly, TCP Optimizer does nothing in Windows 7 and above.

It's expected that most peoples' advanced network settings will not look quite the same as mine, which is why I wrote my instructions as I did. Any setting that comes with an option to disable it should generally be disabled for the purposes we are trying to achieve. This will include things like checksum offloads, jumbo frames, power saving features, interrupt moderation, rate control, all kinds of things like that. All of it is designed to either save energy or reduce overall load on the system, but it all comes at the expense of packet delivery speed - effectively, the more of the advanced features you turn off, the more responsive your network card will be in a gaming scenario.

A zoomed-out summary of what all these tweaks do is to make the computer spend a lot more of its time (relatively speaking) paying attention to packets going in and out of the network card, even when they're just little ones. That being said, you should not notice a significant drop in graphics performance as a result - the optimizations we are disabling are more intended to reduce the strain on the system in an extremely high-throughput scenario (eg. the computer is being used as a database server or a web server for a busy site). They have little to no impact in an everyday scenario.

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linkstatic wrote:

If I remember correctly, TCP Optimizer does nothing in Windows 7 and above.

This is not entirely correct - you may be thinking of the Legacy versions of the application, also listed on their download page, which do in fact state that they do not work with Vista or windows 7. Versions 3 and up of the program do work with windows 7 and 8.

Well, all I can say is,



I just finished an hour-long PoE game session. Short for me, but still long enough to test my dual-wielding Ranger, spamming Cyclone and Flicker Strike. I can't believe how smooth the game-play was! Best experience I've had yet!

I must say, playing PoE has forced me to do a lot of things, which resulted in improving my computer system, that I may have never known about otherwise. But, this thread is like the "icing on the cake" or the fine-tuning I needed. And it's showing everywhere. Not just in PoE!

Thank you again, lordbean!

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Edit: Oh... And by the way, let me remind you that I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. (It seems to work for me).

Glad to hear it worked for you, Perusoe. By mere coincidence I'm also playing a dual wielding ranger mostly at the moment (wings of entropy, gogo) and my main attacks are Dual Strike and Cyclone. This guide is actually just the result of some farting around I did yesterday, and then surprised the living hell out of myself by how much of a change I had managed to make. I went from rubber-banding like mad if I used cyclone to being practically able to spam it without going out of sync. The results were so dramatic for me that I decided I had to share it with the rest of the community.

I recommend that this thread be pinned!

Users should

• Update their video drivers
• Update their sound drivers
• Update their network adapter drivers
• Resolve any issues they may have with their ISPs
• Read this thread!
• And finally, enjoy your adventures in Wraeclast!

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Edit: I no longer fear Flicker-Striking into unexplored hostile rooms!

Would AT$T Uverse be considered DSL or cable? It comes over the phone line but includes television, so I don't know if the infrastructure is similar to cable.

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mark1030 wrote:

Would AT$T Uverse be considered DSL or cable? It comes over the phone line but includes television, so I don't know if the infrastructure is similar to cable.

As far as it effects you, Its DSL.


Also, great thread lordbean, I didnt realize windows was so aggressive nowadays at screwing with the traffic. Imagine how amazingly fast your machines would be with a fixed version of win98 on it.