Choosing a server location for the lowest ping
Pick the Schokr location closest to your players for game and voice servers, and learn how to test ping before you commit.
Updated · 2 min read
Pick the location closest to most of your players. Distance is the biggest factor in ping, and for shooters like CS:GO, Rust and TF2 or for voice chat on TeamSpeak and Mumble, a closer server feels noticeably better.
Available locations
| Region | Locations |
|---|---|
| North America | New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles |
| Europe | London, Frankfurt |
| Asia | Singapore, Tokyo |
Quick rules of thumb
- Players mostly on the US east coast or in Canada's east: New York.
- Players on the US west coast: Los Angeles or San Francisco.
- Players spread across the whole US: there is no central US location, so pick the coast where more of your players live. Players in the central US usually get acceptable ping to either coast.
- UK and Ireland: London.
- Central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia: Frankfurt.
- Mixed Europe and US east coast group: London is a reasonable compromise across the Atlantic.
- Southeast Asia and Australia: Singapore.
- Japan, Korea, eastern China: Tokyo.
Testing ping before you settle
If you aren't sure, test it:
- Create a small server in a location and start it.
- Ask a few players in different areas to connect and check their ping in the game's scoreboard or net graph. In Source games, the
statuscommand in the console shows each player's ping. - For voice servers, TeamSpeak shows your ping in the connection info window, and Mumble shows it in the server information dialog.
- Try another location if the numbers are high, and compare.
Running a plain ping against the server IP from a terminal also gives a rough idea, although some networks don't answer ping requests.
Can I move a server later?
Pick carefully up front. If you want a server in a different location later, the simplest route is to create a new server there and copy your files across with the file manager, for example by downloading your config and save files and uploading them to the new server. Take a backup or snapshot first. The new server will have a different IP and port, so share the new address with your players.
Voice and game servers in the same place
If you run a game server and a TeamSpeak or Mumble server for the same group, put them both in the location closest to the group. Voice is very sensitive to latency and jitter, so it benefits from a nearby location as much as the game does.
Still stuck?
If players in your community are spread across continents, ask in the Schokr Discord for advice on the best compromise.