What kind of internet connection do you have?

[JoeyT]

50. The simplest explanation for ping time

is basically your computer saying hello to a server and the server saying hello back.

Latency is the amount of time from your computer sending the hello to the time it receives the reply.

The most simplistic example is a 500ms ping time means it takes a quarter of a second for your computer's request to get to a website, and a quarter of a second for you to get the response from the website.

The main value in low latency is online games. The reason I don't play online games now is because there's a 1.2-1.5 second delay in my reaction...so by the time I can react and the game acknowledges my reaction I'm already dead. Other than that you won't really notice it unless your latency gets really really high (into the thousands range).