My Computer and I: One Way Out

My Dell Studio XPS 8100 has served me well for years now. Sooner or later, however, problems will arise, often ones that are difficult to troubleshoot. That goes with any computer system, anyway.

I have no formal training in information technology, yet I try to troubleshoot computer problems myself. With that arises a somewhat crude scientific investigation, testing one component at a time until the issue is located and fixed. So, what is the problem this time?

The problem:
While playing World of Warcraft, the game would go through random cycles of lag spikes and catch-up, lasting up to minutes at a time, sometimes disconnecting completely. While surfing the Web, webpages would randomly take minutes to load, if at all, and refreshing would sometimes retrieve the webpage in full.

Components of Latency

Latency (in computer networking) is the amount of time that passes between connected computer's sending an instruction to a server and its receiving of a response from it. In an MMO like World of Warcraft, it greatly affects how much a player enjoys the game. In a raiding scenario, a delay of more than 500ms (half of one second) is usually considered unacceptable.

While network latency is a significant component of the total delay, it is not the only one. In any case where signals need to be sent from one physical place to another, a time delay will exist, no matter how short the link or how fast the signals can travel.

My Computer and I: Connection Degeneration

My desktop is a 3-year-old Dell Dimension 8400. It was high-end at the time it was bought, but regardless is starting to show its age. I have upgraded some of its parts since then to keep playing World of Warcraft bearable, but of course it will need to be replaced eventually.

I have had my share of computer problems with my current computer (not suggesting that Dell is necessarily a poor computer assembler, mind you). Other than high school computing studies, I have had no formal training in maintaining a computer, so I usually need to end up experimenting when something goes wrong. Without further ado...

The Problem:
World of Warcraft's latency would be satisfactory when first logging on, but would increase over time, eventually causing WoW to disconnect.