Pilovali's guide on how to fix your lag and protecting yourself from viruses

[Pilovali]

Pilovali's guide on how to fix your lag and protecting yourself from viruses

Table of Contents

• FPS lag
• Network lag
• Anti-virus

[Pilovali]

FPS lag

Table of Contents

• FPS lag
• Network lag
• Anti-virus

What is 'FPS lag' and how to fix it?
FPS lag is simply having a low framerate or stutters.
Having a low framerate almost everywhere since you've bought the computer, is usually caused by a shitty/lowend computer. There are a lot of topics on the forum that helps with such issue. A few useful tips is to close all background programs, lower the quality, resolution of GTA SA and disable ALL mods by using the 'debug' feature, you can find it at Esc > Settings > Advanced > Debug setting and enable #6734 Graphics. You can also try to invest in better hardware (adding a cheap $50 modern videocard can offload the graphics stuff from your CPU and increase the FPS somewhat).

If you were always able to play on CIT without any issues and your framerate suddenly starts to lag or stutter, take a look at your taskmanager. There is a pretty huge chance that there are programs or services like Windows Updates (or even viruses!) doing stuff in the background. Try to reboot your computer and close all programs in the background. If that didn't solve it, check the computer temperatures with a program like Speccy. Play some MTA and check the temperatures when you start lagging. If the temperatures are higher than 80°C/176°F, you should worry and consult a technician (or if you are tech savvy, replace the termalpaste and remove dust). If the temperatures are fine, please take a look at the 'anti-virus' section, there could be something dangerous happening.

If you want to invest in a new computer, I highly advice you to take a look at CIT System Requirements made by Claire. Computer shops in some countries tend to lie or scam.

[Pilovali]

Network lag

Table of Contents

• FPS lag
• Network lag
• Anti-virus

What is 'Network lag' and how to fix it?
Network lag is having random ping spikes, high packetloss or random disconnects. It's usually caused by slow internet, bad wifi or viruses. I'm going to copy-paste my tutorial from Ping/FPS/Network/Packet Loss issues solutions because it's still relevant.

Before starting, make sure that your internet connection and ping is good enough for MTA. You can test your internet speed here. Select a server in Gravelines, France. For example this one.

Make sure that your speed is minimal 1024 kbps (1 Mbps) download and 256 kbps (0.2 Mbps) upload. Anything lower is not recommended. CIT is full with streaming online audio and billboards that loads from the internet. If you have 1024 kbps download and playing a MP3 via mplayer, your ping should only spike for a second and everything should be fine (I tested this myself with different speeds).

If your speed is below 1024 kbps download while you have a 1024 kbps internet package or higher, follow the steps below:

• Close all background programs (including the ones in the system tray (the icons near the clock)) and see if that solves the problem. A program could be downloading or uploading things in the background.
• Try to use an ethernet cable instead of WiFi. If it isn't possible, get a better WiFi router or move closer to the router.
• Scan for viruses. Check the 'Anti-virus' section
• Windows Updates could also be downloading updates in the background, so temporarily disable it by going to start > services.msc > right click 'Windows Update' > Stop.
• If that all doesn't work, try to reboot your modem/router. Some standard ISP modems/routers really suck and got to be restarted every week or so. Keep in mind that your internet gets disconnected for a few minutes.
• If you know that you have slow internet, make sure that nobody in your house is downloading, uploading or streaming things.
• Some /mplayer songs, speakers or radio's can take up a big amount of your download speed. Try to disable speakers in /settings and don't listen to the radio and /mplayer.
• Run a tracert to CIT (start > cmd > tracert s2.cit.gg and wait until it's finished). Check if there is a lot of packetloss or high peaks. This is bad, and this is a good tracert. If you have high peaks and packetloss afer a few hops, contact your ISP (or contact me and I'll check if a VPN might solve it).

If you aren't able to get proper internet speeds (for example, you live too far from the exchange, using mobile phone, dial-up or don't have enough money), you can try the following to make your life a bit easier:

• Connect to mtasa://s0.cit.gg:22003, this will disable some mods and other random stuff. You might see an error message, just ignore it

In /settings:

• Disable 'Custom Player Skins'
• Disable 'Custom Vehicle skins'
• Disable 'Custom Billboards'
• Enable 'Disable Music Speakers'
• Disable 'CITy Zone Music'
• Disable 'Custom Car Music'
• Disable 'Custom Apartment Music'
• Disable 'Custom House Music'

On your computer:

• Disable all background programs
• Disable Windows Updates by going to start > services.msc > right click 'Windows Update' > Stop
• Make sure that NOBODY else is using your internet
• Make sure that you have no shitty viruses (check the anti-virus) section)

If you have a monthly/weekly/daily datacap, it's good to know that MTA will use maximal 100 MB per hour in very crowdy areas. It's usually around 50-70 MB per hour. Keep an eye on /shownetstat.

[Pilovali]

Anti-virus

Table of Contents

• FPS lag
• Network lag
• Anti-virus

Why do you need an anti-virus and how to get one?
Here is a small list what could happen if you don't have an anti-virus:

• Getting hacked because you have keyloggers on your PC
• Lagging/slow/hanging PC because the viruses are mining a cryptocurrenty on your computer
• Files getting deleted/encrypted with ransomware
• High ping/packetloss because your computer is part of a botnet
• Random Windows/MTA crashes
• Annoying pop-ups/ads while browsing or using the PC

If you don't have an anti-virus, I recommend to scan your PC with HitmanPro (download) first, before installing a realtime anti-virus. If you don't know how to run a scan, please check this video. It's very simple.
After you ran HitmanPro, I advice you to install Bitdefender Free (download). This anti-virus is very powerful (using the paid Bitdefender engine), but very light, has no advanced stuff and is extremely simple. Again, if you don't know how to install a simple piece of software, click here for a video.

Now your computer should be clean from viruses. However, if you keep downloading 'crap', disable the anti-virus on purpose and not updating your software (yes, that includes Windows Updates), then it's completely your own fault. An anti-virus won't stop users from being stupid.
There is one thing that's you can do, in order to prevent crappy software to be automatically installed because you didn't uncheck the "FREE OFFER AND TOOLBARS" checkbox. Install Unchecky. You only need to launch the setup, and that's it. Click here for a video.

If everybody would do this, the world would be a much safer place with less DDoS attacks, smaller botnets and less people complaining about lag.