Editing Cheating in online games (section)

===Artificial lag/lag switch===
In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging is what happens when the stream of data between one or more players gets slowed or interrupted, causing movement to stutter and making opponents appear to behave erratically. By using a lag switch, a player is able to disrupt uploads from the client to the server, while their own client queues up the actions performed. The goal is to gain advantage over another player without reciprocation; opponents slow down or stop moving, allowing the lag switch user to easily outmaneuver them. From the opponent's perspective, the player using the device may appear to be teleporting, invisible or invincible, while the opponents suffer delayed animations and fast-forwarded game play, delivered in bursts.<ref name="about lag switch">{{cite web |url=http://compnetworking.about.com/od/consumerelectronicsnetworks/f/lag_switches.htm |title=What Is a Lag Switch? |author=Bradley Mitchell |publisher=About.com |access-date=2012-12-15 |archive-date=2011-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074829/http://compnetworking.about.com/od/consumerelectronicsnetworks/f/lag_switches.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some gaming communities refer to this method as "tapping" which refers to the users "tapping" on and off their internet connection to create the lag.

The term "lag switch" encompasses many methods of disrupting the network communication between a client and its server. One method is by attaching a physical device, called a hardware lag switch, to a standard Ethernet cable. By flipping the switch on and off, the physical connection between the client and the server is disrupted. The designers of [[video game console]] hardware have started to introduce built-in protection against lag switches in the form of voltage detectors, which detect a change in voltage when the switch is flipped. Some manufacturers have taken counter measures to bypass or trick this detector.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://premiumlag.com/competitors/ |title=What Our Competitors Won't Tell You |date=September 3, 2009 |publisher=Premium Lag |access-date=2012-12-15 }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Source is a lag switch seller and does not back up claim.|date=May 2019}} This can also be achieved by simply unplugging the Ethernet cord going to the client, causing a disruption in the player's internet connection. Other methods, called a software or wireless lag switch, involve using a computer program. In this method, the cheater runs an application on a computer connected to the same network as the client. The application hogs the network bandwidth, disrupting the communication between the client and its server. However, one cannot do this for an unlimited amount of time. At some point, if no traffic is being received, most game clients and/or game servers will decide that the connection has been lost and will remove the player from the game. In some P2P games, it can result in all players lagging or being disconnected from the game.

Simpler methods are firewall or router rules that apply bandwidth shaping and network latency, a cheat is able to adjust limits on both bandwidth and latency to stay relevant to a P2P network yet have considerable advantage over other players.