Hi, I''ve been put in charge of testing the online components of some games. I have a tool I can use to simulate packet loss and latency on the network. What other kinds of things can you guys think of that I should be testing for? I was thinking of using a packetsniffer and make sure the important packets are encrypted and such. Anything else you guys can think of that would make good tests?

anyone?

Elo,

One thing I would test for is cheats.. ie is it possible to send edited packets which tell the server false information to let the client cheat.. like send a packet which conforms to the your standard packet which informs the server of say your position or something and tell it that you have just moved an impossible distance. If the server excepts these un believable packets then IMHO thats a big bug ! there are people out there who will work out your protocal no matter what so the server has to only accept believable data

hope thats given you some ideas

Some suggestions off the top of my head and IMHO -

Cheats are to be dealt with by the server. NO update is good just because it''s believable, ALL updates must be verifiably correct and tested by the server. The client is in the hands of the enemy. There is very little sense in putting the load for testing this on the network tester.

Other issues to deal with, apart from connection quality which you already mentioned, may include connectivity across NATs and firewalls, handling more than one client behind the same IP (as done by for instance many NATs), and all the standard network security issues - buffer overflows, DOS attacks etc.

If there is a real back-end to the system (a la MMORPG servers with database and other services), there should be tests of the private network''s security as well.

That any help?

(My projects and ramblings...)

Great suggestions...thanks!