How to Fix High Ping on a Minecraft Server

If everyone rubber-bands at the same time, the server is lagging. If only some players struggle, it's their network route. The fixes are different, so check the server first.

Check the server

On Paper and its forks, run /mspt in the Console. Above 50 ms per tick the server can't hold 20 TPS, and players feel lag no matter their ping. The usual causes:

• Chunk generation. Exploring new terrain is the heaviest work a server does. Pre-generate the world.
• Paper Anti-Xray in engine mode 2 or 3. The fake ores make chunk data bigger and slower to send. Mode 1 is much lighter:

# config/paper-world-defaults.yml
anticheat:
  anti-xray:
    enabled: true
    engine-mode: 1

Check the route

Our servers are in Frankfurt. Ping from Europe should be low. From other continents it will be higher, and no setting changes that.

If the server is healthy but some players have high or unstable ping, ask them to run a trace while it's happening:

1. Turn off any VPN.
2. Run WinMTR with only the server IP in Host, no port. Let it run for 2–3 minutes, then click Export TXT. On macOS or Linux, use sudo mtr -rwc 200 203.0.113.10.

Loss at one hop that disappears at the next is normal, because routers deprioritize trace replies. Loss that starts at a hop and continues to the end is the real problem.

Send the files to support with each player's public IP, which we need to check the route back, and your server's name.