Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
Cross-continental friend groups
100-200ms for inter-continental P2P- P2P sessions between players on different continents mean one player always has very high ping
- No official regional servers to mediate — ping is entirely determined by the host's physical location
- A US host and EU guests will see 100-180ms latency with no way to improve it short of renting a server in a neutral region
Southeast Asia / Oceania
150-300ms to US/EU servers- No community-operated official servers specifically for SEA/Oceania
- Players often connect to US or EU community dedicated servers with 150-300ms latency
- P2P sessions depend entirely on host location — no regional server infrastructure to fall back on
What players commonly report
- Rubber-banding in co-op when host has slow internet
- Building and item de-sync between host and guests
- P2P connection failures when NAT is strict
- Host performance degradation in large late-game bases
- Multiplayer not working errors after game updates
- World save not persisting correctly in P2P when host crashes
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Switch to wired Ethernet instead of WiFi
1. Plug a Cat5e or Cat6 cable directly from your PC to your router 2. Open Windows Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi → toggle off 3. Your PC switches to the wired connection automatically 4. Reconnect to your SOTF session and check if rubber-banding improves
WiFi adds 5-30ms of unpredictable jitter. In a host-authoritative game like Sons of the Forest, jitter causes visible rubber-banding and building placement failures even when average ping looks acceptable. Wired connection is the single cheapest hardware fix.
02 Close background apps consuming bandwidth
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc → Task Manager → Performance → Open Resource Monitor 2. Click the Network tab → sort by 'Total (B/sec)' 3. Common culprits: Windows Update, OneDrive sync, Dropbox, Spotify, Discord video calls, cloud backup tools 4. Right-click the offending process → End Process, or pause sync in the app 5. Before sessions: Settings → Windows Update → Pause for 7 days to prevent background downloads
In P2P sessions, the host's upload bandwidth is the bottleneck. Even moderate background uploads on the host's machine can cause all guests to experience lag spikes simultaneously. For guests, background downloads can cause your own connection to spike.
Sons of the Forest uses Steam Datagram Relay. PingAim optimizes the path your ISP controls.
General network tips (not Sons of the Forest-specific)
03 Check your actual ping to the host or server
1. While in a multiplayer session, press F3 to open the debug overlay (or check if the game shows ping in the HUD — this varies by version) 2. Alternatively, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) → Performance → Open Resource Monitor → Network tab — look for SonsOfTheForest.exe and observe bytes sent/received 3. For a more accurate reading: use Windows PowerShell and run: Test-Connection -ComputerName [host IP] -Count 10 4. In Steam: open the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab) → check Net Graph if available 5. Watch for consistent high values or large spikes — spikes of 100ms+ indicate a network problem, not hardware
Confirms whether rubber-banding and de-sync are caused by your network connection or by the host's hardware struggling to run the game. If ping is stable and low but the game stutters, the issue is on the host's end.
04 Have the player with the best internet host the session
1. Discuss with your group — whoever has the fastest upload speed and lowest ping to the others should host 2. To check upload speed: visit fast.com or speedtest.net and run a test 3. The host's upload speed is divided among all connected guests — for 4 players you need at least 5 Mbps upload 4. If the current host has slow internet, save the world file and transfer hosting to a better-connected player 5. As an alternative, consider renting a cheap dedicated server (providers like Shockbyte, Nitrado, or Survival Servers offer SOTF hosting) — this removes the upload burden from any player entirely
The most impactful change in P2P mode. The host's machine runs the world and must upload game state to every guest simultaneously. A host with 5 Mbps upload serving 4 players is already at the limit — any household bandwidth use causes everyone to lag.
05 Enable port forwarding on the host's router
1. Open your router's admin panel (usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in a browser) 2. Find the 'Port Forwarding' section 3. Forward these ports to your PC's local IP address: - UDP 8766 (game port) - UDP 9700 (blob sync) - UDP 27016 (Steam query) 4. Save and restart the router 5. Find your PC's local IP: open Command Prompt → type: ipconfig → look for IPv4 Address under your active adapter
Without port forwarding, guests may fail to connect or experience higher latency due to NAT traversal overhead. Port forwarding creates a direct path for incoming connections, reducing connection failures and improving host reachability.
Regions with good connectivity
Players in these regions likely won't benefit much from a network optimizer.
- North America and Western Europe — Most community dedicated servers are hosted in the US and EU. P2P sessions within these regions typically achieve 20-80ms between players. Best experience for players who can find a host or server nearby.
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects Sons of the Forest automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies Sons of the Forest by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.