Curse

snaek · Jan 26, 2009, 06:54 AM // 06:54

jus came accross this a few mins ago
wondering if anyone has heard of it, or can shed some light on its effectiveness

essentially, nagle's algorithm reduces the number of small packets to be sent
apparently for certain interactions (i.e. online gaming), this is bad
so far, it seems to be mostly only popular in wow (world of warcraft)
and has proven to have good results by many players

too tired to do any testing myself...
but im curious if this will help improve connection quality in gw

further reading:
background on nagle's algorithm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagle's_algorithm
general tcp/ip tweak guide that mentions nagle's algorithm & gaming: http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=2574
wow-specific guide on disabling nagle's algorithm: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....58205848&sid=1

Darq · Jan 26, 2009, 08:22 AM // 08:22

Well, it would make sense, and in theory it would reduce lag as our computers wouldn't hold onto each packet until it is completely full. But it would greatly reduce efficiency overall, as each computer with the algorithm disabled would be sending more data to the server far more often, and that could cause the actual servers to struggle.

This also assumes that the Guild Wars Client doesn't send a specifically sized packet, and that the Guild Wars servers only accept packets of that size, fixed packet sizes are easier and faster to work with.