Reply 140 of 353, by h-a-l-9000
It should say Internal error in serial port(1)(number) now? (number is the interesting part).
IPX should have an performance advantage: serial port produces an interrupt per character, IPX (well something similar to an interrupt) per packet.
Wit the serial stuff I have to buffer up some data (txdelay) before sending it or else there would be a huge network overhead... 48 bytes IP headers for one byte of payload.
About lag: On a serial connection there is no lag to be expected at all (expect if the other computer is a slug) but since the emulated one uses IP there will be some.
I don't really know how games handle the data stream internally but even on the serial port there will be some 'data units'. The game can only use such a unit when it is complete. In IPX it will make a packet of such a unit and send/receive it as a whole.
We could theorize a lot about this but practical experiences are a lot better... I must admit I only test on LAN or even on one computer and don't know how it behaves on the real internet.
1+1=10