How is Reduce the Lag Different?

There are many good reasons to use Reduce the Lag (aka RTL), mainly to lower your in game latency, but here are some of the finer details about RTL, and how it works. Enjoy.

ReduceTheLag at a glance

When every millisecond counts, you need Reduce The lag

Up to a 50% reduction of latency – for all players, anywhere in the world.
Supported Games:

  • World of Warcraft (32bit & 64bit) – All US Realms
  • World of Warcraft (32bit & 64bit) – All EU Realms
  • Aion (32bit & 64bit) – All US and EU Servers
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic – US, EU and Aus Servers
  • Tera – US Servers
  • Diablo 3 – US and EU Servers
  • Guild Wars 2 – US and EU Servers
  • Final Fantasy XIV – US and EU Servers
  • Dungeons & Dragons – Neverwinter – US Servers
  • Wildstar (32bit & 64bit) – All US Realms
  • Elder Scrolls Online – All US Realms
  • Archeage – US and EU Servers
  • Blade & Soul – US and EU Servers
  • Black Desert Online – US, EU and South American Servers
  • Tree of Savior – US and EU Servers
  • Riders of Icarus – US and EU Servers
  • Smite – US and EU Servers
  • Revelation Online – US and EU Servers
  • League of Legends – All servers
  • Maplestory – All servers
  • Lineage 2 – US servers
  • Ragnarok Online – US servers
  • Other games? If you have any suggestions please Contact Us

Supported Platforms:

  • Windows 10 32bit & 64bit,   Windows 8 32bit & 64bit,   Windows 7 32 & 64bit
  • Windows Vista 32 & 64bit & Windows XP 32 still function, but we are no longer actively supporting these operating systems


  • (Note: Wow 64bit on Windows XP is no longer supported/functioning with RTL)

Cost?

  • 30 day unlimited use free trial
      Our trial account has no time limits – You play WOW 24/7 ? That’s a little weird … but we don’t care!
  • 3 months – $9 ($3/month)
  • 6 months – $15 ($2.50/month)
  • 12 months – $24.95 ($2/month)

How does it work?

  • Both our server and client software are completely custom written in house.
  • RTL automatically detects whenever you open your game, and instantly goes to work.
  • ‘Elegant Solution’ – No need to login or open RTL every time, that’s just annoying!! Just install RTL and get on with playing.
  • Automatically chooses the best of our servers with the least load, least users and best latency
  • No socks cap / freecap / proxy cap / putty / ssh tunnel / etc, not even hidden in the background. It’s a totally different & custom solution!

Free stuffs?

  • Details on our Refer a Friend and RTL Guild Reward System is available here: referral-program

 

Does it really work?

Yes!

The hardest thing we’ve found is convincing World of Warcraft players that we can really half their lag. The results are too unbelieveable. But its true!

How?

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.

What do I do?

Our client software automatically detects when you have Wow running. So using it is really simple.

  • Create an RTL account
      (you don’t have to give us your Wow email)
  • Install our client software
      (it asks for your RTL account details, not your wow details)
  • Play Wow.

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 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 25man 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, unless you can type really really really really fast!

Will it also work for me in ___ country/location?

Yes. It will almost halve your latency, no matter where you are.

Our servers are located very close to Blizzard’s. So you can use RTL from anywhere in the world and get the benefits. General rule of thumb is that it’ll halve your lag, sometimes more than half (If you live far away from the servers) sometimes a little less (if you live in USA).

We started out aiming for Oceanic realm based users, because that’s where we play. But we’ve found that RTL works just as well for users in any country just as much as it helps Aussies – Give it a try.

Our top 10 countries are: Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, South Korea and Chile. We probably should have restricted what people can put for their country, because we’ve even got a few paying happy customers who claim theyre from exotic places like ‘Im Aussie Mate!’.

>400ms latency is fine, I play with this lag all the time.

If only it were fine. You don’t know what you are missing.

We suggest you give the free trial a go.  Run through an instance, do some PVP or some questing. You probably won’t even notice the difference.

When your free trial runs out, uninstall it and then You’ll notice the BIG difference.

Its the way humans work, we only notice it when things change for the worse, not when things are good.

Many 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 its almost not worth bothering to login and play without RTL ever again.

How do I login and play now that I’ve installed it?

“Set and forget”. Just install Reduce The Lag and login to WOW like you would normally.

No programs to run, no extra logins to do every time time.

You never have to think about it again. You’ll might even forget you are using RTL. (This hasn’t worked out to be the best marketing policy for us, but its very convenient for our users.)

What about Blizzard’s Terms of Service.

It’s not against the Terms of Service. But just to be safe we contacted Blizzard to confirm. After lots of effort in getting contact with the right people we were able to double confirm that proxying your WOW connection is not against their rules.

Do I use my Wow / Battle.net username for my RTL account?

You can if you like. But its not required.

Some people are more comfortable using a different email address 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 think they’re awesome and encourage you use the extra account security.

Can I ‘login using my IP’ ?

To prevent ‘suspicious activity’ lockouts RTL always uses your IP address for the login process.

If your IP changes dramatically Blizzard may automatically lock your account to protect it from hacking. Since our changes to address this issue it’s become extremely rare for an RTL user to experience a lockout.

Will this break anything?

Nope. Using our proxy will not affect any other programs, and the only thing that will change is your World of Warcraft latency. But you may notice a second or two extra delay when logging into each WOW realm server, its just our network setting everything up so your ready.

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.

RTL is custom written software, We don’t use any sockscap / freecap / proxycap or any cap software, putty or other ssh programs, not even hidden in the background.

What about Firewalls / Security Software?

RTL needs internet access to do its stuff. And any firewall/security software you may have running might be preventing it from doing this.

We’ve tested RTL on several firewalls, but we cant cover all the virtually unlimited combinations possible.

Try disabling your firewall and/or security software to confirm that that is the issue. If so, you may need to add rules rules as exceptions in your software’s configuration. All ReduceTheLag traffic is over TCP port 6112.

Advanced Users: You can change RTL’s registry entries to use port 1120 if you are having issues with the port 6112. However RTL will overwrite this setting every time you restart your computer.

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), but for best results you should select which Realm you are using from our members area.

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 minutes for your latency to stabilize (especially after logging in to a busy major city area or auction house).

While your computer is busy loading WOW, all the 3D models, sounds, music and all of your addons, its 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 we cant gaurantee a 50% reduction in latency.

But most of our users using the gateway experience about a 50% reduction in lag. Sometimes better.

After logging in each time it can take up to 10 mins for your latency to stabilize (especially after logging in to busy areas).

The latency number has only gone down by a little bit

Summarizing the entirety of your connection’s quality into a single number is a great idea …. not!

While reducing the actual latency recorded in game is an important part of RTL, it is only half of the story. Behind the scenes RTL is still doing a heap of other stuff while it learns and tunes itself to better your connection.

For example, World of Warcraft’s new world and home latency info now only shows a 5-10% drop in latency when using RTL. But players still notice a difference when they’re using RTL. The difference is especially noticeable after you’ve used RTL for a few weeks and then turn it off – without it everything just feels slower and spells and attacks take longer to cast.

When can I renew my account?

An account can be extended at any time you like.

Payment options are available in the members area once you’ve logged into our website. We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Paypal.

In case you haven’t discovered the plans page yet, here are the prices again:
$9 for 3 months.
$15 for 6 months.
and $24.95 for 12 months.

Our system automatically sends a reminder email three days before your account expires but we suggest renewing early in order to avoid any gameplay interruptions. You won’t loose any time by renewing early, it simply adds to whatever you’ve got left (all time calculations are done down to the second).

What happens if my RTL account expires?

Before your account expires we will send a reminder email 3 days out, and another reminder email once it is expired.

After your RTL account has expired we will reject your connection attempts and email you an ‘Expired Account’ email every time you try. Each time you try to login it will instantly come up with ‘connection failed’ or ‘disconnected’ 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 – When my RTL account expires 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 :)

We’ve also added a feature to give expired accounts a once off few extra hours to play for free. If its available to you, your account will be automatically extended when you next try to login, and an email will be sent to remind you to renew your account.

I upgraded my expired account but I still have high latency

Once your account expires the RTL service that is still running on your computer checks several times before finally giving up, and no longer reduces your lag.

If you renew your account after it has given up it does not know that your RTL account is now working again. The fix is simple, either restart the RTL service, restart your computer, or reinstall RTL.

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/etc.

It’s not something we can easily get around (without getting yet another card processor). We suggest your use your credit card via Paypal instead.

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 need an RTL account to use it!

What if your software doesn’t work or crashes?

We’ve worked pretty hard to make sure the RTL client doesn’t get stuck or mess up anywhere. But if it does and you cant login all you need to do is uninstall it from the control panel.

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.

I have multiple usernames / multiple people use my computer to play

Your RTL username may only be logged in from one computer at any one time. You can use your RTL account with as many different game accounts and computers as you like, just not in use at the same time.

Multiboxing (multiple clients / dual client) is permitted on a paid account (up to 5x connections) however the connections must be the same game, and all be from just one computer. Trial accounts are limited to only 1 connection at a time.

Please see the ‘Simultaneous Logins’ feature in our members area if you would like to be able to use your account on multiple computers simultaneously.

Quote: “Notice – One or more of your sessions were disconnected recently because you have too many simultaneous connections for your account”

This message is added to Wow’s breaking news box after anytime RTL has disconnected someone. There are multiple reasons why that might happen.

It’s main purpose is to help people who are trying to use RTL on multiple computers simultaneously and find themselves wondering why they are getting disconnected constantly.
The second most common is when a user’s internet connection drops out, their IP has changed, and they login again. Our servers can take some time to register the disconnect so it looks as if you are using your account twice, so our system attempted to disconnect the old connection (which was actually already disconnected).

There’s no problems or penalty for getting the message.

Why did my 30 day trial account expire/close suddenly?

No doubt you’ve thought of it by now – Why not just keep signing up for free trial accounts forever!

We have systems to automatically close trial accounts if it appears you’ve already had your free 30 day trial. If you signup a 2nd account it will get closed almost immediately, even if your original trial is still going.

In short – After you’ve used the free trial if you wish to continue using RTL you’ll need to purchase a paid account.

I can’t signup – Email account invalid

We do some basic checks to make sure the email account you’re signing up with is valid.

It’s a pretty relaxed check. But if the server where your emails are housed does weird stuff, then our system may think your account isn’t real.

See our comments regarding trial account above for reasons why.

Does my Email or Name need to match my Credit Card or Paypal details when making a purchase?

No

Your account can be upgraded by anyone, their details don’t need to match your account.

Many RTL subscribers don’t have access to a credit card or a paypal account, often they will get a friend to purchase an upgrade to their account for them.
If you have a friend that is going to upgrade your account for you we suggest that you temporarily change your password, let them login to our website for you, and make the purchase from there. Once done you can login again and change your password back.

If you change your password while playing a game you may get disconnected when you change zones / change instances / or change servers because the RTL client doesn’t know your new password. To update it, simply reinstall RTL.

If you and your friend both use RTL you should use our refer a friend or guild system to get some free upgrades to your account – RTL Referral Program details.

Who’s this ‘Ireckon Pty Ltd’ that ive seen buried throughout the site?

Its not a secret – Ireckon it’s us!   ReduceTheLag was created and is run by us at Ireckon Pty Ltd.

Ireckon is an Australian company based in 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. But its also been a really good excuse to play games during work hours!

RTL uses Ireckon’s servers and network and has grown to have its own dedicated range of servers all over the US, Europe, South America, South Africa and in Australia. RTL is managed and supported by Ireckon’s staff and RTL has the backing of a company that has been around for more than 10 years.

What do you do with all the latency you are removing?

We’re stockpiling the latency time we save for our own time travelling experiments. It was all over the news in 2148, you must still live in a cave if you didn’t hear about it.