Leatrix Latency Fix

[CiscOH]

So i have been away from WOW for 2 years. I am looking at this site for the first time in a long while.

I am a network engineer and am trying to understand how this app improves latency. In reality, all it is doing is hiding the problem.

Has someone actually seen performance improvements with this?


CiscOH

[MidgetMage55]

I have. Server responsiveness has improved. Though the new in-game option does essentially the same thing.

[litesung]

My latency decreased from 50ms to 5-10ms. On other computers (same network), it has decreased from around 80-100ms to 30-50ms. (not sure why they have higher latency)

----It's not an app(lication?), it's a registry tweak. As leatrix has mentioned,

Leatrix Latency Fix will reduce your online gaming latency significantly by increasing the frequency of TCP acknowledgements sent to the game server. For the technically minded, this is a program which will modify TCPAckFrequency

[haylie]

Made a huge difference on all 3 computers I have used to play WoW on.

[Vlad]

In short all it does it adds TcpAckFrequency to the registry with the value of 1.

1. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328890 (XP era)
2. http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=295511 (talk about effects in W7)

The problem I found when I google is that most are about "how well this works" and not much research or real evidence if it works or not, it looks mixed as some say it works and some say it don't. The factors are many, the reasons are many too, in any case;
There are many registry entries one could tweak around to alter how the network works tough the TcpAckFrequency is perhaps most safe to change. Chances are if Leatrix adds a ton more variables it may cause problem for many and make people grumpy at the fix. :P

One thing I can say, the new leatrix patch made the vbs into exe, not longer as safe as before. I can't inspect the source before I run it, not cool.

[semlar]

I know this post is old, but the OP is essentially correct; modifying the ack frequency would appear to drastically lower your ping times, but only in very specific circumstances will it improve communication with the server.

Judging by the number of positive comments about the addon, it really is an amazing placebo though. Unfortunately "it feels more responsive" is just confirmation bias. Objectively measuring any effects this causes, positive or negative, would be fairly difficult.

[Rilgamon]

While technically true I still was able to drastically increase my healing output with the fix running. But my tests were before networking changed so much with cata ... and in cata I feel it does not matter anymore so I've not run any tests.

[Petrah]

Before Leatrix Latency fix was added here for download, there was a huge thread (if memory serves it was roughly 100 pages or so long) over in the tech suppport forums. This was way back before the new community forums existed. At any rate, adding TcpAckFrequency to the registry with the value of 1 had such a positive change for those who tried it that the forum techs stickied the thread. It had definitely worked for me.