There are many good reasons to use Reduce the Lag, mainly the way it lowers your lag, but here are some of the finer details of why you should use RTL, and how it works. Enjoy.
Does it really work?
Yes!
The hardest thing we’ve found is convincing World of Warcraft players that we can really halve their lag. The results are too unbelievable. But it’s true!
We use our network and servers to fix the problems with Blizzard’s networking protocols. People forget that Blizzard and their ISP are only interested in the cheapest, highest profit, options available to them, leaving us a lot of room for improvement!
Reduce The Lag (RTL) can reduce your lag by approximately 50%. These are not doctored screenshots, try the free trial and see.
Many users also use Reduce The Lag to prevent dropouts, simply because their internet connection is not so reliable.
Who uses Reduce The Lag?
For starters, we do!
RTL is best suited for anyone who can benefit from knowing something in-game has happened 1/2 a second before everyone else does, and having their attacks, heals and other actions arriving at Blizzard’s servers twice as quickly…
PVP and Arena players
Raiding players, especially 10 and 25 man high level content
Leveling players wanting to quest and loot without lag
Players with unreliable, high packet loss, internet connections
RTL is not very suited to the casual social player, who spends most their time talking in chat.
>400ms latency is fine, I play with this lag all the time.
We suggest you give the free trial a go. Run through an instance, do some PVP or some questing. You might not even notice the difference.
When your free trial runs out, uninstall it and then You’ll notice the BIG difference.
It’s the way humans work, we only notice it when things get bad, not when things are good.
Most users of ReduceTheLag have used the trial for a while, and then tried to go back once it ran out.
But once you’ve experienced such an improvement in latency it’s almost not worth bothering to login without RTL ever again.
Will it also work for me in ___ country/location?
Yes. Our servers are located in USA very close to Blizzard’s, you can use RTL from anywhere in the world and get the benefits.
General rule of thumb is that it’ll halve your lag. You should use it too!
We started out by trying to aim for Australian and New Zealand based users. But we’ve found that RTL works just as well for users in any country just as much as it helps Aussies, as long as you are connecting to US based WOW servers – Give it a try.
Our top 10 countries are: Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Korea and Chile. We’ve even got a few happy paying customers who claim they’re from exotic places like ‘I’m Aussie Mate!’.
I have a Battle.net account – so what is my username?
We automatically detect your Battle.net username when logging in. So you should use your Battle.net account username when you create your RTL account.
This means that, once RTL is installed you only have to login to WOW as you do normally. No extra programs, no extra steps.
Your username is most likely the same as your email address, so you’ll probably have to type your email 3 times when signing up. At least you get some extra practice at typing it.
This includes if you have multiple linked/joined accounts.
How do I login and play now that I’ve installed it?
“Set and forget”. Just login normally. You never have to think about it again.
Is it Safe?
ReduceTheLag is not against Blizzard’s Terms of Service. It’s not against the rules.
World of Warcraft sends your username un-encrypted in the clear, but goes through a lot of effort to encrypt your password before it is sent out.
But just to be safe, Never tell anyone your WOW Password, not even us!
Reduce the Lag will not prevent you from using a Battle.net Authenticator. We encourage the extra account security.
Refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to Reduce the Lag. Many changes may automatically trigger WOW’s ‘account sharing’ 24hour suspension.
This includes logging into your account from other pc’s. (simply setup reducethelag on all pc’s you use for WOW)
We recommend taking at least a 15-30 mins break from WOW between installing RTL and logging in again.
Will this break anything?
Nope. Using our proxy will not effect any other programs, and the only thing that will change is your World of Warcraft latency.
Some other solutions break some features, including in game voice chat. This will still function correctly with our gateway.
Your pc’s ability to use and download from the internet will not be effected, our solution does not require you to modify your windows registry.
What servers can I play on?
All WOW-US servers are supported (United States, Oceanic and Latin American).
You don’t have to do anything special to start playing on a different server (change realm as you would normally).
I decided to give RTL a go, but when I logged in my lag was still very high!
After logging in each time it can take up to 10 mins for your latency to stabilise (especially after logging in to busy areas such as Dalaran).
While your computer is busy loading WOW, all the 3D models, sounds, music and all of your add-ons, it’s not able to respond to the WOW server very quickly. This makes your ping time skyrocket.
The ping time shown in your interface is calculated as an average of your ping times over the last several minutes. Meaning that even though you are on low latency, this false ping time that skyrocketed doesn’t appear go away for at least 10minutes.
How much will it reduce My Lag?
Aside from your network communication with the Blizzard’s servers there is an infinite number of other factors which can effect your lag. Such as your internet connection, usage and quality, WOW’s servers overloaded, Interface Lag (including slow computer), etc. So obviously we can’t guarantee a 50% reduction in latency, but most of our users using the gateway experience about a 50% reduction in lag. Sometimes better.
Remember, after logging in each time it can take up to 10 mins for your latency to stabilise (especially after logging in to busy areas such as Dalaran).
When do I have to renew my account?
An account can be extended at any time you like. But the renew function will be hidden if you have several months remaining on your account.
Payment options are available in the members area once you’ve logged into our website.
Our system automatically sends a reminder email three days before your account expires.
We suggest renewing early in order to avoid any gameplay interruptions. You wont lose any time, it simply adds to whatever you’ve got left.
What happens if my RTL account expires?
After your RTL account has expired we will reject your connection attempts and email you an ‘Expired Account’ email every time you try. Unfortunately because of this, each time you try to login it will instantly come up with ‘connection failed’ error messages in WOW.
If your account expires while you are playing we don’t kick you off. We’re not that mean!
I know what your thinking… Why not just stay logged in and never log out! If you went to all the effort and somehow managed to stay logged in for several days, we think you probably deserve the whole $0.20 worth of RTL time you just saved yourself, you cheapskate
“Omg omg it’s an emergency – one more day please?”
So you’re in the middle of a raid, your RTL account just expired and you need to get back online real quick?
We’re so nice, we’ve added a free one-time automatic 24 hour extension feature to allow for this.
If it’s available to you, your account will be automatically extended when you next try to login.
Obviously, it’s better if you renew your account before it expires so that you aren’t interrupting your gameplay.
Why do I have to pay to use it?
Because when you’re using RTL, you’re using our servers and our network to get better latency.
Like those “hackers” in the movies, we’re bouncing your WOW data through our network of servers before finally giving it to Blizzard’s servers at the other end. Obviously we cannot maintain this network for free.
I’m trying to pay via Credit Card, but it says ‘Session Aborted’
Our credit card processor is a little overprotective sometimes and might reject your card because your country doesn’t match your IP, or it doesn’t like your bank etc.
It’s not something we can easily get around (without getting yet another card processor).
Your best bet is to go via PayPal instead. It’s a little slower but works for pretty much everyone.
Will it effect other computers in my home network?
The software will effect only your PC, you’ll need to apply the settings on each computer you play with.
You can give the software to whoever you like – but they’ll an RTL account to use it!
Multiple simultaneous reducethelag.com accounts from the same location is permitted.
What if your software doesn’t work or crashes?
If our software isn’t working properly it simply won’t use our network, and won’t reduce your lag, you will still be able to play WOW.
It doesn’t matter if the ReduceTheLag-Battle.net component crashes, goes awol, pulls boss agro or does something weird. All it does is redirect you to our proxy servers instead. After you’ve logged into your account you can even close the Battle.net component if you like. Although, if you want to ever login again, you’ll obviously need it running.
If you have our software installed, but don’t have an RTL account, our servers will reject your login attempts. This will prevent you from playing WOW. Just signup for a free account to fix it
Note: In Dec 2009 we updated our software’s uninstaller to try to prevent an issue where uninstalling RTL left the system in limbo and players were unable to login at all! Obviously we don’t want that! If this happens to you – the simplest solution to this is to install RTL then to uninstall it again via the control panel. Weird huh..
I have multiple usernames / multiple people use my computer to play WOW
Each WOW account needs to have a reducethelag.com account, otherwise they cannot login.
You’ll need multiple ReduceTheLag accounts, or have to uninstall RTL every time you want to play.
You can have as many ReduceTheLag accounts as you like. Even with the same name and email/etc. We only check that the WOW Account Username is unique.
What about WOW’s Terms of Service?
Blizzard has confirmed that RTL is not against their Terms of Service.
Refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to reduce the lag. Many changes may automatically trigger WOW’s ‘account sharing’ 24hour suspension.
This includes logging into your account from other pc’s. (simply setup reducethelag on all pc’s)
One of our users queried Blizzard regarding their 24hour suspension after enabling/disabling the service many times: “After investigating this issue further it appears that the action was triggered by the use of a proxy to access the World of Warcraft servers. While doing so is not against the Terms of Use it can be problematic at times and trigger false hits for legitimate activities.”
Again we stress that you refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to reduce the lag.
Blizzard has been kind enough to work with us to help solve and prevent any problems from happening as a result of using RTL (like the one mentioned above).
But we feel its important that you still know this problem exists, for any proxy/tunnel type service.
Who’s this ‘Ireckon Pty Ltd’ that I’ve seen buried throughout the site?
It’s not a secret – Ireckon it’s us! ReduceTheLag is a web application by Ireckon Pty Ltd. Ireckon is an Australian company based in Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland.
RTL started out as one of those staff ‘idea factory’ things, but has evolved into a service used by many thousands of users. It is maintained by (and used by) Ireckon staff mostly in our spare time.
What do you do with all the latency you are removing?
We’re stockpiling the latency time we save for our own time-traveling experiments. It was all over the news in 2148, you must live in a cave if you didn’t hear about it.
How is Reduce the Lag Different?
There are many good reasons to use Reduce the Lag, mainly the way it lowers your lag, but here are some of the finer details of why you should use RTL, and how it works. Enjoy.
Does it really work?
Yes!
The hardest thing we’ve found is convincing World of Warcraft players that we can really halve their lag. The results are too unbelievable. But it’s true!
We use our network and servers to fix the problems with Blizzard’s networking protocols. People forget that Blizzard and their ISP are only interested in the cheapest, highest profit, options available to them, leaving us a lot of room for improvement!
Reduce The Lag (RTL) can reduce your lag by approximately 50%. These are not doctored screenshots, try the free trial and see.
Many users also use Reduce The Lag to prevent dropouts, simply because their internet connection is not so reliable.
Who uses Reduce The Lag?
For starters, we do!
RTL is best suited for anyone who can benefit from knowing something in-game has happened 1/2 a second before everyone else does, and having their attacks, heals and other actions arriving at Blizzard’s servers twice as quickly…
RTL is not very suited to the casual social player, who spends most their time talking in chat.
>400ms latency is fine, I play with this lag all the time.
We suggest you give the free trial a go. Run through an instance, do some PVP or some questing. You might not even notice the difference.
When your free trial runs out, uninstall it and then You’ll notice the BIG difference.
It’s the way humans work, we only notice it when things get bad, not when things are good.
Most users of ReduceTheLag have used the trial for a while, and then tried to go back once it ran out.
But once you’ve experienced such an improvement in latency it’s almost not worth bothering to login without RTL ever again.
Will it also work for me in ___ country/location?
Yes. Our servers are located in USA very close to Blizzard’s, you can use RTL from anywhere in the world and get the benefits.
General rule of thumb is that it’ll halve your lag. You should use it too!
We started out by trying to aim for Australian and New Zealand based users. But we’ve found that RTL works just as well for users in any country just as much as it helps Aussies, as long as you are connecting to US based WOW servers – Give it a try.
Our top 10 countries are: Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Korea and Chile. We’ve even got a few happy paying customers who claim they’re from exotic places like ‘I’m Aussie Mate!’.
I have a Battle.net account – so what is my username?
We automatically detect your Battle.net username when logging in. So you should use your Battle.net account username when you create your RTL account.
This means that, once RTL is installed you only have to login to WOW as you do normally. No extra programs, no extra steps.
Your username is most likely the same as your email address, so you’ll probably have to type your email 3 times when signing up. At least you get some extra practice at typing it.
This includes if you have multiple linked/joined accounts.
How do I login and play now that I’ve installed it?
“Set and forget”. Just login normally. You never have to think about it again.
Is it Safe?
ReduceTheLag is not against Blizzard’s Terms of Service. It’s not against the rules.
World of Warcraft sends your username un-encrypted in the clear, but goes through a lot of effort to encrypt your password before it is sent out.
But just to be safe, Never tell anyone your WOW Password, not even us!
Reduce the Lag will not prevent you from using a Battle.net Authenticator. We encourage the extra account security.
Refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to Reduce the Lag. Many changes may automatically trigger WOW’s ‘account sharing’ 24hour suspension.
This includes logging into your account from other pc’s. (simply setup reducethelag on all pc’s you use for WOW)
We recommend taking at least a 15-30 mins break from WOW between installing RTL and logging in again.
Will this break anything?
Nope. Using our proxy will not effect any other programs, and the only thing that will change is your World of Warcraft latency.
Some other solutions break some features, including in game voice chat. This will still function correctly with our gateway.
Your pc’s ability to use and download from the internet will not be effected, our solution does not require you to modify your windows registry.
What servers can I play on?
All WOW-US servers are supported (United States, Oceanic and Latin American).
You don’t have to do anything special to start playing on a different server (change realm as you would normally).
I decided to give RTL a go, but when I logged in my lag was still very high!
After logging in each time it can take up to 10 mins for your latency to stabilise (especially after logging in to busy areas such as Dalaran).
While your computer is busy loading WOW, all the 3D models, sounds, music and all of your add-ons, it’s not able to respond to the WOW server very quickly. This makes your ping time skyrocket.
The ping time shown in your interface is calculated as an average of your ping times over the last several minutes. Meaning that even though you are on low latency, this false ping time that skyrocketed doesn’t appear go away for at least 10minutes.
How much will it reduce My Lag?
Aside from your network communication with the Blizzard’s servers there is an infinite number of other factors which can effect your lag. Such as your internet connection, usage and quality, WOW’s servers overloaded, Interface Lag (including slow computer), etc. So obviously we can’t guarantee a 50% reduction in latency, but most of our users using the gateway experience about a 50% reduction in lag. Sometimes better.
Remember, after logging in each time it can take up to 10 mins for your latency to stabilise (especially after logging in to busy areas such as Dalaran).
When do I have to renew my account?
An account can be extended at any time you like. But the renew function will be hidden if you have several months remaining on your account.
Payment options are available in the members area once you’ve logged into our website.
Our system automatically sends a reminder email three days before your account expires.
We suggest renewing early in order to avoid any gameplay interruptions. You wont lose any time, it simply adds to whatever you’ve got left.
What happens if my RTL account expires?
After your RTL account has expired we will reject your connection attempts and email you an ‘Expired Account’ email every time you try. Unfortunately because of this, each time you try to login it will instantly come up with ‘connection failed’ error messages in WOW.
If your account expires while you are playing we don’t kick you off. We’re not that mean!
I know what your thinking… Why not just stay logged in and never log out! If you went to all the effort and somehow managed to stay logged in for several days, we think you probably deserve the whole $0.20 worth of RTL time you just saved yourself, you cheapskate
“Omg omg it’s an emergency – one more day please?”
So you’re in the middle of a raid, your RTL account just expired and you need to get back online real quick?
We’re so nice, we’ve added a free one-time automatic 24 hour extension feature to allow for this.
If it’s available to you, your account will be automatically extended when you next try to login.
Obviously, it’s better if you renew your account before it expires so that you aren’t interrupting your gameplay.
Why do I have to pay to use it?
Because when you’re using RTL, you’re using our servers and our network to get better latency.
Like those “hackers” in the movies, we’re bouncing your WOW data through our network of servers before finally giving it to Blizzard’s servers at the other end. Obviously we cannot maintain this network for free.
I’m trying to pay via Credit Card, but it says ‘Session Aborted’
Our credit card processor is a little overprotective sometimes and might reject your card because your country doesn’t match your IP, or it doesn’t like your bank etc.
It’s not something we can easily get around (without getting yet another card processor).
Your best bet is to go via PayPal instead. It’s a little slower but works for pretty much everyone.
Will it effect other computers in my home network?
The software will effect only your PC, you’ll need to apply the settings on each computer you play with.
You can give the software to whoever you like – but they’ll an RTL account to use it!
Multiple simultaneous reducethelag.com accounts from the same location is permitted.
What if your software doesn’t work or crashes?
If our software isn’t working properly it simply won’t use our network, and won’t reduce your lag, you will still be able to play WOW.
It doesn’t matter if the ReduceTheLag-Battle.net component crashes, goes awol, pulls boss agro or does something weird. All it does is redirect you to our proxy servers instead. After you’ve logged into your account you can even close the Battle.net component if you like. Although, if you want to ever login again, you’ll obviously need it running.
If you have our software installed, but don’t have an RTL account, our servers will reject your login attempts. This will prevent you from playing WOW. Just signup for a free account to fix it
Note: In Dec 2009 we updated our software’s uninstaller to try to prevent an issue where uninstalling RTL left the system in limbo and players were unable to login at all! Obviously we don’t want that! If this happens to you – the simplest solution to this is to install RTL then to uninstall it again via the control panel. Weird huh..
I have multiple usernames / multiple people use my computer to play WOW
Each WOW account needs to have a reducethelag.com account, otherwise they cannot login.
You’ll need multiple ReduceTheLag accounts, or have to uninstall RTL every time you want to play.
You can have as many ReduceTheLag accounts as you like. Even with the same name and email/etc. We only check that the WOW Account Username is unique.
What about WOW’s Terms of Service?
Blizzard has confirmed that RTL is not against their Terms of Service.
Refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to reduce the lag. Many changes may automatically trigger WOW’s ‘account sharing’ 24hour suspension.
This includes logging into your account from other pc’s. (simply setup reducethelag on all pc’s)
One of our users queried Blizzard regarding their 24hour suspension after enabling/disabling the service many times:
“After investigating this issue further it appears that the action was triggered by the use of a proxy to access the World of Warcraft servers. While doing so is not against the Terms of Use it can be problematic at times and trigger false hits for legitimate activities.”
Again we stress that you refrain from repeatedly enabling/disabling your access to reduce the lag.
Blizzard has been kind enough to work with us to help solve and prevent any problems from happening as a result of using RTL (like the one mentioned above).
But we feel its important that you still know this problem exists, for any proxy/tunnel type service.
Who’s this ‘Ireckon Pty Ltd’ that I’ve seen buried throughout the site?
It’s not a secret – Ireckon it’s us! ReduceTheLag is a web application by Ireckon Pty Ltd.
Ireckon is an Australian company based in Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland.
RTL started out as one of those staff ‘idea factory’ things, but has evolved into a service used by many thousands of users. It is maintained by (and used by) Ireckon staff mostly in our spare time.
What do you do with all the latency you are removing?
We’re stockpiling the latency time we save for our own time-traveling experiments. It was all over the news in 2148, you must live in a cave if you didn’t hear about it.