How to kick high-ping players fairly on a WARDOGS server

One player with a high ping can wreck a whole match on your WARDOGS server, and plain RCON tools won't stop it: they show each player's ping, but nothing acts on it. RCON Hub fixes it: its WARDOGS Manager pack has a high-ping kick that sends a private warning first and kicks only if the ping stays high. Short lag spikes never count, and players still loading in are left alone.

Why high ping hurts on WARDOGS

In a team shooter, one laggy player drags down everyone around them. They warp around corners, their hits land late, and both teams feel it. Your regulars blame the server, not the player.

So the manual fix looks like this:

• Keep the player list open and watch the ping column.
• Message the player and hope they see it.
• Kick by hand, and guess whether it was real lag or a one-off spike.
• Get it wrong on someone still loading in, whose ping always looks high.

And when nobody from your staff is online, nobody does any of it.

What the game and other tools leave out

• Pings you can see but not act on. WARDOGS reports pings over RCON, but a plain RCON tool only shows them, so someone has to watch. WARDOGS Manager checks every player's ping each time it reads the player list, and acts when it stays over your limit.
• No warning. A plain kick tells the player nothing until they're gone. WARDOGS Manager sends a private warning with their ping and how many seconds they have left, so they can fix their connection first.
• Spikes treated as lag. One bad reading is enough for a simple ping kicker. Here, the ping has to stay over the limit for a set number of seconds in a row, and dropping back under it resets both the warning and the kick.
• Loading players look laggy. A player who hasn't got a team yet always shows a high ping while loading in. WARDOGS Manager never warns or kicks them for it, and their time over the limit only starts once they're on a team. Their loading pings stay out of the host performance chart too.
• Admins get caught. Your admins are never kicked for ping.

How RCON Hub fixes it

The high-ping kick lives on the Who can join page, next to the level limits and Steam account checks. You set three numbers: the ping limit, how long it has to last, and how long after the warning the kick comes. Out of the box that's 250 ms for 60 seconds, then a kick 60 seconds later if it's still high.

It doesn't need the kill feed: pings come straight from the server's player list. You can also make it apply only when the server is busy, and every kick is logged with the player's ping and your limit.

Step-by-step setup

1. Install RCON Hub. Download it from rconhub.gg and run the installer. It's free for Windows 10 and 11.
2. Add the WARDOGS game pack. Open RCON Hub. On Your games, click Add game, pick WARDOGS and click Install.
3. Add your server. Open the WARDOGS card and click Add server. Enter the Server IP address and RCON password, click Connect, name it, then click Add server.
4. Open Who can join. On your server, open the Settings tab, then Who can join.
5. Turn it on. Tick Kick players with very high ping.
6. Set your limit. Fill in Ping over (ms), For (seconds in a row) and Kick if still high after (s). The line below spells out what happens: a private warning, then a kick.
7. Fine-tune it. Open More options. Set Only when at least … players are online if you only want it on a busy server, and edit the Warning message and Kick message. The warning can use {ping}, {seconds} and {limit}.
8. Save. Click Save. From then on, WARDOGS Manager handles laggy players for you.

Start with a generous limit and tighten it once you see who it catches.

Is it safe?

Yes.

• It runs locally. RCON Hub and WARDOGS Manager run on your own Windows PC and talk to your server over the game's RCON.
• No injection. RCON Hub never touches the game client or your players' games. There's nothing for anti-cheat to flag, so it won't get anyone banned.
• A kick, not a ban. The default kick message tells players they're welcome back once their connection is better.
• Your secrets stay put. Your RCON password is kept encrypted on your PC, and your admins never see it.
• Nothing runs until you say so. The high-ping kick is off until you turn it on.

It's beta software. Back up your server's settings before you change things.

Keep the lag off your server

Smooth matches keep players coming back. Download RCON Hub, add the WARDOGS pack, and let it deal with high ping fairly.

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