Your location, connection, and the location of a game’s servers affect your ping in-game. You know about all this bit, so let’s just skip forward to what latency reduction services/tunneling services/latency proxies are and whether or not they’re worth the cost for you.
I personally use WTFast and have for the past few months to reduce Aion‘s innate server lag, which can get pretty bad at times. I get between 130ms and 200ms without WTFast on, depending on how the servers are feeling that day. With it on, I get between 50ms and 80ms. The difference may seem small, but it is noticeable in-game.
So, what do they do exactly?
Just as with a proxy you may use with web browsing, latency reduction services tunnel you through their proxy service to a server location nearer the game server’s location. It connects you to the game server from there, which effectively cuts down on the amount of hops you are going through to connect. L-L-Layman’s terms!
Yes, I am aware this explanation was very basic.
What services are available?
Two other services I’ve heard about are Lowerping and Battleping. Lowerping looks geared toward Australian users based on the $7.95 AUD banner on their site, while Lowerping and WTFast both display their prices in USD. All three of these services have servers across the United States and elsewhere, so their country of origin should not be a real factor in your decision.
I do recommend you try each service out to see if you do get real results.
Having tested WTFast first and had a good experience with it, I stuck with their services. They offer two account types, one basic ($5.99/month) and one advanced ($9.99) with the option to add multiple simultaneous computers to one account for an additional fee. They also offer a 30 day trial with no restrictions.
Battleping also has a free trial, which allows users to try their service for 20 minutes at a time. I cannot vouch for their simultaneous computer options or subscription tiers, but their services are $5.45 a month.
Lowerping looks to have the lowest compatibility of the three options listed here (Though there are certainly more out there!) and there do not seem to be any advanced account options when paying. They also offer a trial with periodic disconnects, and their services cost $7.95 AUD a month.
If you know of any more of these services, let me know and I will add them to this article. There are more out there, but they tend to be elusive when you’re out looking for one — that, or they don’t like me.
