This means that a DSL modem on the west coast of the United States, tracing to a server on the east coast of the United States should expect somewhere around 120 ms (depending on the route and a number of other factors, but this is a rough ballpark) – 25 ms for the DSL modem and 100 ms for the distance. Normally, it’s more like 75 after the data zig-zags around a bit and goes through numerous routers. With traceroute, we have to send the data there and back again, so roughly 1 ms of latency is added for every 60 miles (96km, although with the level of accuracy we’re using here, we should say ‘100km’) of distance between you and the target.Ĭonnecting to a web site across 1500 miles (2400 km) of distance is going to add at least 25 ms to the latency. Data travels at (very roughly) 120,000 miles (or 192,000 kilometers) per second, or 120 miles (192 km) per ms (millisecond) over a network connection. For a T1, this is normally 0 to 10 ms.Īnother factor that affects the latency is the distance the data is traveling. For a cellular link, this can be from 200 to 600 ms. For a dial-up modem, this is normally anywhere from 100 to 220ms. For a DSL modem this is normally 10 to 70ms. For a cable modem, standard latency can be normally between 5 and 40 ms.
Latency under 100ms is normal while a latency of less than 30ms to 50 ms is required for gaming. For gaming, the minimum ping speed should be