While bandwidth and speed are important in day-to-day internet use, latency is arguably the most important networking factor when gaming.

-Latency: refers to the amount of time it takes for data to make the round-trip from your PC, through your network and to its goal, and then back to your PC. Low latency is important when it comes to gaming, as quickly sending and receiving information to and from a game’s server will result in a better connection, and fewer issues such as lag. One of the simplest ways to reduce latency when gaming is to select the in-game server that’s closest to you, as the data will have less distance to travel.

-Ping: is how latency is measured, usually in milliseconds (for example, 90.0 Ms.) The lower the ping, the lower the latency. Lower ping is better; less than 100ms is ideal.

-Lag: is the result of high latency and can be one of the most challenging issues when gaming online. If a player is sending or receiving information to a game server slower than another player in the same match, it can result in game-breaking connection issues such as input delay or connection errors.