You already stated the problem, only with the wrong conclusion. When you've played Renegade online, be sure to reboot (for any game actually). Most of the times games/OS will not free the resources used for whatever you played. I've noticed this and when a memory defrag all was okay (reboot would do the same). The connection speed one has, has absolutely nothing to do with the lag one experiances in a game. ACElethal is right, games like EBDF and Renegade do not send that much kbps per second (Although I think it's a bit more then 3 though), but almost any dial up connection is capable of running the game(s). Most people experiance lag (like vilgent stated) due to graphical settings. And if one joins a game with a ping of more then a second, I'd say you're begging for lag. In your case it could very well be that you needed to reboot (or defrag ram) before you started to play EBFD. Not saying that this caused the problem, but I've experianced the same prob. After I defragged ram the problem was gone. I also admit that Windows XP has a much better way of freeing resources after the program has terminated. i dont say the Connection it the reason for lags but it can be ! ya 56k is fast enough but what bring it when u have 56k and ya latancy is to high ? or ya ping is falling, rising, falling ... ??? ya nothing ! the speed must be constant and shouldnt have some "fluctuations"? when the game is only slow but the speed constantly then its the GPU or CPU/RAM but when the game is "laggy" going, stop for a while then again and again and again... thats the connection(all connection.. cable,dsl,56k...) when u have a good ping u could play with 36k or something likethat !