[size=2.65em]THIS POST IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND WILL BE REPOSTED WHEN FINISHED.[/size]

[size=2.65em]Server Owners guide on how to find and solve Minecraft lag issues[/size]



It is no secret that Minecraft is an incredibly laggy and un-optimized game.
This guide has been created so you can do something useful when your lagging besides saying "lag" in chat.
In this guide I will go over the following:
What lag is.
What kinds of lag there are.
Sources of lag & what kind of lag you may have.
How to solve lag.



What lag is:




What kinds of lag exist:
When it comes to Minecraft there are three main kinds of lag: PC/Computer lag, Network lag, and Host lag.


PC/Computer lag:

Network lag:

Host lag:


Summary of lag types:



Sources of lag & how to find it.
This section covers how to find what kinds of lag may be affecting you.


Computer lag:
As shown earlier in this post Computer/PC lag is lag that comes from your computer not being powerful enough to handle running the game. This lag is from your computer not having too many things using its power or if it simply doesn't have enough power in the first place.

If you feel like your game is choppy/slow at all to look around then it could be Computer/PC lag.
There's a simple way to tell if your computer is lagging which is by checking your FPS (Frames per second) any less than 30 FPS will make your game seem slow/choppy. To check your FPS do the following (Make sure to follow the tutorial for windows/mac depending on what you use).

If your game is frequently "locking up" and everything on screen freezes for a second then it is most likely your computer having performance issues. If this only occurs at one spot on the server then this is likely the server causing your computer to lag due to lots of entities/mobs. Look for "Resolving computer lag" below in this post if this type of lag occurs everywhere around the server map.

Check FPS on Windows (PC):
if you use Mac check FPS on Mac:


Network lag & Server lag:
Network lag & Server lag are very similar so it can be a challenge to differentiate them. This section of the post will help you identify and tell them apart. Both of these involve the information going between your computer and the server. Somewhere along the way something could be causing lag. Network lag is to do with your internet connection/provider while Server lag deals with the server/host.

Identify and differentiate Network lag

Identifying Random Disconnects
To identify if it is you or the server causing these disconnects follow these steps below

• Check if other players disconnecting: If you see other members frequently logging in/out then it is likely the server. You can confirm this easily by asking "is anyone else getting disconnected?" if other players say "yes" then it is likely server issues causing the disconnection. If this is the case feel free to let a staff member know. If no one else seems to be having issues then it is likely your home connection and you should follow the remaining steps.
  
• An easy way to check if it's your connection causing the issues is to try loading a different web page such as youtube.com. If youtube.com loads then this confirms your internet connection is working. 99% of the time this means the fault is on the server the other 1% of the time it means it is your internet service provider having issues connecting to our servers and there is nothing you can really do (fix this up later)