Lag Switch

Question: What Is a Lag Switch?

Answer: A lag switch is a piece of equipment installed on a home network that allows you to insert delays into the flow of local traffic to the Internet. Lag switches are normally used by unscrupulous players wanting to cheat at online video games. Lag switches are unrelated to normal network switches.

When a lag switch is activated, the device runs for a few seconds on a timer, effectively blocking the connection between the local game device and the Internet for that temporary period. The device causes the person using a lag switch to appear to their opponents as frozen while in fact they are still able to locally make moves to gain advantages in the game. When the lag switch timer expires, the local game device will re-synchronize with the online game , which appears to opponents in a sudden burst.