How Can We Troubleshoot Connection Issues?

[redregon]

I know of the basic steps:

-close any other programs

-reboot computer

-reboot modem/connection

but past that, what i'd like to know is what we can do to figure out whether a connection issue is on our end or on DE's end. Reason i would like to know is that although my ISP is a decent one, getting help from their tech support department is a hit-or-miss kinda deal and if i can avoid having to call them when i don't need to, my day is infinitely better because of it.

So, any other steps i may have missed that i can do to see if connection issues are from my end? I ask because sometimes if it's later some odd behavior will surface. things like enemies jumping from one spot to another (which makes me think that they're movement status isn't transferring well) or weapons will lag and even pick-ups might need me to stand over them for a couple seconds for it to register that i've picked them up.

If i can go through as many steps as i can before coming to the forums with a "this game is lagging, plz hlep!!1" post, i'm sure it'd be a huge weight off of the dev's shoulders (so y'all can keep on working on really sweet stuff rather than having to pour over system dumps trying to find a bug that might not even be there.)

[Theorydt]

Its just crappy that the game is peer to peer. So many people run out of date modems and routers and dealing witht the lag and no being able to connect is part of that.