Ping / Internet

[leroe]

Hi all...

Can somebody please kindly advise as to what is meant by ping and how necessary it is to in running trading in terms of fast pics, prices on API etc? Apologies for the question, but being a non tech person I am trying to get my system set up to be able to run as quickly as possible, as obviously it is vitally important to IR trading. I have BT infinity which according to the last 3 speedtests today is running anywhere between 12-40mb download, upload 5-7.5 and ping has been between 33m/s and 103 m/s (which I have no idea what that means!).

If somebody would please tell me how to best set up the Toy (any settings I need to adjust to get best speed from Betfair??) and also my PC to ensure maximum speed possible, I would be really grateful. Many thanks.

[RManPT]

I'm sure there are others with greater knowledge about betfair API and fast pictures etc so wait for their posts too but what can explain to you is that ping is the time a packet of information takes to go to a location and come back. What you see in the API information is the mean time you are able to send and receive information to and from the betfair API. Ping varies for many reasons, one of them is that one packet can go to the same destination by a different route than the previous, that also applies to the return trip.

About the tune up, I believe most of it, if possible, is made outside the toy as the settings that come by default were certainly thought to ensure performance. You can change those figures to get more updates in the same time but it won't make your bets go in faster. The only way to ensure that is to improve your ping (which is sometimes wrongly related with download speed) which means to improve the overall quality of your connection. You can have a 24Mb connection with high noise that will give 100ms pings while a 4Mb (perfect) connection is able to debit 20ms pings. So if you want to know if you can improve your internet connection aim for quality and stability.

My connection is a 12Mb/1Mb ADSL interleaved. I live in the middle of nowhere and the (old) wires come to my house from poles that extend for a couple of miles. My download speed is 10Mb MAX and my upload is only 800Kb and I get 70-100ms in the Toy. The only way I could improve that is by cutting of the wires, burn the poles and ensure the phone company would be forced to install brand new wiring so I would be allowed to hav 4Mb UPLOAD and the best quality possible download.

Another thing: it is perfectly acceptable high spikes in the pings when you place a bet or if some application starts an auto update etc... so if you really want the best at every time disable them (that's what I when i play AA3) Don't do it to trade because don't really think that I've lost 10€ in a trade because by bet was taken that late, I was the one who reacted late.