Help Desk: Playstation 3 Multiplayer White Plug on Screen

Have you ever experienced a white plug appearing in front of your screen while playing online multiplayer with your PlayStation 3? It happened to me multiple times and I thought it was my HDMI cable bugging out. So I went and bought a new cable and yet it still appeared. I looked for answers on the internet and nothing came up until I came across one forum, I forgot where, and I found the answer to my problems.

What is the white plug onscreen symbol and what does it mean?

The white plug symbol is a message telling you that you are lagging. It is also known as the Lag Detector Message. It appears onscreen to tell you that your game is lagging and it disables you from playing so that you don't get an advantage against other players during the game.

Why does it appear?

There are multiple reasons why the lag detector appears on you.

1. Your internet speed is sub par and it doesn't meet the other gamers' internet speed.
2. You may have a very speedy connection but the ping* of your internet speed does not meet the requirements for online gaming
3. You are in a country where you are far from gaming servers.
4. Your DNS** server does not support online gaming.

How do I fix it?

There are many ways on how to fix the lag detector symbol but to fix it, you must know what the problem is. Here are the steps on how to avoid getting the lag detector.

1. Know what your internet speed and ping are. if you have a smartphone or a tablet download the Ookla speedtest app and start testing your internet speed. It is recommended to have at least a download speed of 5mbps and an upload speed of 1mbps. Any lower and the risk of getting the detector increases. Also, the ping should not be higher than 100ms. The lower the ping is, the better your internet is for gaming.
2. Use a wired connection for your console. this will ensure non fluctuating internet speeds. It is not recommended to play if you are using a 3G or 4G wifi modems. Network internet has a reliability of only 70%. 
3. If you have slow internet, it is best to upgrade your plans. Changing times call for changing speeds.
4. Manually set your DNS on your Playstation to a different server. I use Google DNS servers because it is more open and reliable
5. Play at peak hours. usually, internet is very stable during peak hours and speed and ping are usually very high at these hours because few people are using the internet.
6. Do not use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) because it can interfere with gaming and it can interfere with looking for compatible players around you.

*Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer  

**The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most prominently, it translates easily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of locating computer services and devices worldwide.

That's it! Enjoy your white plug free multiplayer gaming.
Don't forget to leave comments and suggestions below if you know a better way. :)

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thejanraphaelbc