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. :)

#oneLove
thejanraphaelbc

Redefining Television: How to Get Away with Murder Review

I'm not gonna go into details about what the show is about because lots of blogs and TV reviews have already done that. I'm here to give my opinion on how this TV series redefined prime time network television.

From the first to the current episode, this series has been breaking the norm for television dramas. I didn't feel comfortable with it at first but in the end, I accepted it because of our society now.

The first thing I noticed is that the events in the court room is really far off from what happens in the real world. Even then, this shows what lawyers are capable of doing. Remember, there are research teams that do this shows and no matter what other people feel, it can always happen in the real world (Grey's Anatomy have been doing it for quite some time and from a nurse's point of view, it may be exaggerated but most of it actually do happen.) 

The next thing that made me realize that this is really redefining TV is that it showed sex between men. It really was quite shocking at first but I realized, there was nothing shocking about it because it has been done over and over again with male and female couples. Some might say that it is very graphic but compared to the other TV shows, the scenes from How to Get Away with Murder is extremely mild. It is also done in a way that it runs with the plot and not just sex for the sake of showing sex on TV in which most of the other TV shows do. 

This show also went big especially with the final scenes of Episode 4 where Viola Davis started taking her wig off. This has not been done in other TV shows and it is a very powerful moment where it shows vulnerability and strength. This has been going on with Viola Davis' character ever since the show started. She deserves an Emmy for this.

Shonda Rhimes has really done it again. First with Grey's Anatomy then in Scandal and now, How to Get Away with Murder. People really do love suspense and drama. For those people who keep posting negative comments and keep wishing that this show is removed, well you have to just turn off your TV because with ratings like this, this show won't be going away anytime soon. Just ask Scandal.

My Final Scoreboard for this TV Show:

Plot:          5/5
Acting:     5/5

Storyline: 4/5

OVERALL: 5/5

That's All. Remember to keep watching How to Get Away with Murder.
US - Thursdays 10 pm on ABC
Philippines - Wednesdays 8 pm on Sony Channel

It's also available on Netflix, Google Play, iTunes
It is also available for streaming on Blink (Ph) No One's Here to Sleep - Naughty Boy ft. Bastille