I don't have a lot of experience with online flying, and am having a problem with a time out in ATAG. I noticed when I joined that their ping was at 56, I was warming up and got a time out kick. I joined another server whose ping at the time was 437, I had no problem with that server. So the question, what does the various ping numbers mean, and do I have to join only servers with a high value?...thanks for your incredible wisdom!

Lower ping is better! Might be a server specific issue. I'm not sure how many ATAG guys are on here, so it might be worth either posting in their server thread at 1c, or on their forum (think you have to register first)

Ping is the round-trip time, so a lower number is better.

What might be happening is that your internet traffic is inconsistent, as in if you open up a Windows console and type:

> ping -n 10 216.52.148.29

..then you should see something like this:

Pinging 216.52.148.29 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.52.148.29: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=116
Reply from 216.52.148.29: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=116
(edit..you get the idea)

Ping statistics for 216.52.148.29:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 66ms, Maximum = 72ms, Average = 69ms

So if your connection is inconsistent (say your 'Maximum' value is big, or you have lost packets), you might see long pauses which is causing the server to kick you.

Someone from ATAG might be able to say what the kick limit is set up on the server.

If you need to do some diagnostics, to figure out if it's your router, ISP or something else then you can do a command of:

> tracert 216.52.148.29

..and you'll see the steps your connection uses to get to the ATAG server in Chicago.

Thank you guy's! I will try each of your idea's...another strange deal is ping test fail even though the firewall has a rule to allow. Also tried with the firewall turned off.

Just include the IP address part, and not the port number (the bit after the colon), i.e. as I wrote it in my post.

Don't turn off the firewall yet

Edit: I should have said more clearly, the command:

> ping -n 10 216.52.148.29

..is in three parts, (1) the 'ping' command, i.e. the program to run, the (2) the '-n 10' part, to say 'do this 10 times' as the default is 3 and you might miss a dropped packet and (3) the IP4 address of the ATAG server, which is 216.52.148.29 (I think, I didn't double check for real).

What do you think fearless

It looks good. Maybe run a '-n 30' in there just to see it for longer just in-case.

It might be a server issue, i.e. a brainfart on the software side rather than your connection.

Yea, I'll try and flag one of them down and ask at their site, thanks Fearless!

I've linked your post on the ATAG forum slipBall, maybe one of their guys can have a look if theres anything obvious.

Thanks very much Uther