The Video Game Critic

I'm hoping someone can either help me or at least explain a problem I have been having lately. The problem only seems to appear in Call of Duty:World at War (zombie mode) although to be fair, I don't play many other games online with friends.

Basically, if my friend sets up the game, I experience a painful amount of lag - to the point that I can't even play. If we immediately switch and I set up the game, he experiences the lag to the same degree. We both seem to fluctuate between 1 and 3 bars (1 bar being unplayable). The problem has only started in the last week and it is not 100% of the time although it is to the point where I won't even attempt it anymore - it's that frequent.

I can't find anything on the Xbox forums so I assume it is my issue but I don't know enough about servers, etc to determine what is wrong. I always hear people who have PS3 say their online is better because of x, y, & z. Well, what is x, y, and z? and is it different for certain games (multiplatform vs. 1st party).

I should mention one potential factor. I did just switch from Comcast cable to AT&T U-verse for assorted reasons. While I would not equate my Xbox issue to that switch of providers, the timeline is about the same. The odd thing is that my connection is not only more stable, but it is faster with AT&T.

There are a lot of smart people here so I'm hoping someone can help me at least understand how things work.

Are you using a wireless connection or is there a cable connected to your 360? 

I can't help sadly, but I can comment on one portion of your post.

"I can't find anything on the Xbox forums so I assume it is my issue but I don't know enough about servers, etc to determine what is wrong"

Most every Xbox title, including the Call of Duty titles, don't use company ran dedicated servers. Xbox Live is just a matchmaking service, once you guys are in a game, your interaction isn't going through Xbox Live and it's only function is to run in the background so you can still recieve messages and your friends list can view your status, etc. The packets being sent between both of you when one of you host a server is never being channeled through any Xbox Live server that MS runs so it couldn't be a Microsoft problem.

One reason some say that online for the PS3 is superior when you're actually in a game (Although you don't hear that too often due to all the other benefits Xbox Live brings to the table) is that PS3 games generally (Perhaps even usually) don't utilize player hosted servers. You're playing on a company ran dedicated server that has the bandwith necessary for the task and the computing power is dedicated to running the server itself, unlike your 360 when you host that still has all the other functions it would normally need to do (Such as graphics) in addition to hosting the server itself.

Although it's my understanding that the PS3 Call of Duty titles also utilize player hosted servers, so in this case you're not missing out on anything.

Thanks Leo

That was useful information to me. At least I understand it better now. FYI, I was playing earlier today with the same person and had no problems.....go figure.

Do you know what type of connection your friend has?  I'm wondering if that might be the culprit.

Honestly, I don't know what kind of connection he has. I do know that sometimes (mostly BEFORE this problem started) when his kids were using the computer, he would have serious lag. He kicked them off the computer and then things were fine. That is not the case lately though.

Thanks for continuing to try and help me

Stop torrenting while you play on xbox live

Make sure nobody in your house (or his) is uploading anything, that's what really saturates your bandwidth and causes your latency to go through the roof.