Network Commands

Counter-Strike is a game that is best played online, where you can go against other real humans. However, the downside is that not everyone lives near you, as players can be scattered all around the world, in different countries. The distance makes it impossible for everyone to play a game of Counter-Strike in perfect ping, unless they are all in the same country or location.

Having a good network is incredibly important for Counter-Strike as rounds in the game can be determined by a mere millisecond, as a little bit of delay could make the enemy blow your head up just before you are about to. To ensure you have the best network connection possible to play Counter-Strike, here are some useful network commands you should try using.

Important Network Commands You Need to Know About

As promised in the introduction of this piece, we are going to hook you up with the most important CS2 network commands that are going to help you get the best out of your network. For more information about this topic, check out the commands below.

mm_dedicated_search_maxping 40

This network command is related to setting a maximum cap on the ping you can get in your matchmaking games. By setting the maximum ping to 40, you are telling the game to only put you in a match where the server gives you a maximum of 40 ping.

Setting the ping value to lower amounts is definitely recommended, somewhere in the range of 20 to 30, but this might make queue times longer if you are in a party with a friend who is living in another country. We believe setting it to 40 is the sweet spot, but you might have to increase it to 100 if your friend is far away.

cl_cmdrate 128

This network command will change your game’s default tick rate from 64, which is the default, to 128. Playing on a higher tick rate is recommended, as the game will feel more responsive and much smoother. However, this command will not work in online matches in Valve servers, and will only work in offline and private ones.

cl_updaterate 128

This command changes the update rate of your game from 64, which is the default, to 128. A higher update rate allows your game to update packets at a much faster pace, allowing the game to feel much smoother. However, you must have at least decent internet and download speed to feel the change.

cl_interp 0

This command changes the interpolation rate to 0, which essentially makes the game look more accurate and precise in terms of player movements. Using this command will help your game appear smoother and seamless.

cl_interp_ratio 1

This command is a follow-up command to the cl_interp 0 command, and is essentially used to set the ratio between interpolation commands. This command will help the previous one more effectively.

rate 786432

This rate command is quite a tricky one, as the value we recommend inputting depends on your internet speed. Setting your rate higher means more bytes will be processed every time you play the game, which would make the game feel smoother.

However, this command is entirely based on your internet speed, and setting the rate to a higher amount than your internet can handle will do the opposite and make your game feel worse. Refer to the table below to identify what rate you should be using depending on your network bandwidth.

With this table in mind, you can already make use of the maximum rate by having an internet speed of 6 Mbps and above, which isn’t too demanding in most countries. However, be careful of speed fluctuations – if you are barely getting 6 Mbps, you might want to consider the previous option. Getting 10Mbps or more should be extremely safe to use the maximum rate.

cl_lagcompensation 1

The lag compensation command is a great one to use if you have a poor internet connection and tend to lag out a lot. Using this command will give lag compensation, which could make the gameplay experience for players with poor network a little bit better and slightly more playable.

cl_predictweapons 1

This is another command for players who tend to lag, as it will allow players to see the predicted effects of rifles and other weapon shots when they are lagging, which will allow the game to be more playable while lagging.

cl_predict 1

This is a follow-up command to the previous predict weapons command, but is more focused on predicting the movement of players while lagging.

cl_resend 10

This network command comes in handy when you are facing the “Connecting to CSGO network” issue, as it is used to resend reconnect requests to the server. The value we displayed is 10, which means the game will try to reconnect you to the server every 10 seconds.