I'm sure that if you've played Starcraft on Battle.net, you've experienced lag even on a high bandwidth and low latency connection such as a T1, T3, or cable modem. Lag is basically a fact of life; it's impossible to completely erradicate. Even if you have a good connection and a reliable ISP, you can still have extremely lagged games. Currently, the Internet backbone is already overloaded and cannot reliably handle the number of simultaneous Net users around the world (even during off-peak hours.) However, this page will help you find solutions that will reduce unnecessary lag.

General.

- Close down all other programs (especially Internet programs such as Netscape, ICQ, mIRC, AIM, GetRight, etc.) when playing Starcraft.
- During a game of Starcraft, you can set the type of Network Latency Starcraft should adapt to. If there is little or tolerable latency (lag), then set it to Low Latency which is the default. Set it to High if the lag is horrible but typical. If the lag is so bad that the drop screen appears, then set it to Extra-High latency. There is no reason to set to Extra-High latency whenever you feel like it; it'll make your gameplay even WORSE if lag is minimal.
- In 1on1 games, Low latency works great when your opponent's latency status is green. If it's yellow, then set to high latency, and set to extra high latency if his status is red.

Your Modem.

- Go to My Computer --> Control Panel --> Modems.
- Highlight your modem and select properties.
- Set the Maximum speed (port speed) to 115200bps or the highest speed supported by your COM port. Even if you have a 14.4 modem, you should still set it to 115200bps. If there are problems, then you can reduce it to 57600bps.
- Next, go to Connection.
- Click Port Settings.
- Slide the settings all the way to the right for maximum performance. In many cases, this SHOULD yield maximum performance. If there are many problems with your connection, sliding it to the left usually makes the situation even worse.
- Click OK and go to the Advanced settings for your modem.
- Make sure you have Error Control checked as well as Flow Control with Hardware flow control selected. If you're absolutely sure that your ISP uses compatiable software compression, then you can uncheck Compress Data.. Otherwise, you should select this option.

Dial-Up Networking (DUN).

- Go to My Computer --> Dial-Up Networking.
- Right click on your DUN connection icon and select Properties.
- Make sure TCP/IP is checked. When adjusting your modem settings previously, if you did not select Compress Data, then Enable Software Compression should be checked.
- Click on the TCP/IP button.
- Check Enable IP header compression as well as use Default Gateway.

The MaxMTU fix.

Use MTUspeed. to change the MaxMTU from 1500 to 576 in your Windows registory. (You might try changing the MaxMTU to 520; it may work better with certain ISPs.) Also, be sure to set the RWIN to 2680 for a 28.8 modem and 3216 for a 33.6 modem. Leave it alone for modems of other speeds. If you have ISDN or cable modem (not ethernet), then you can try the highest RWIN value that they allow.