Ping masking and one of the easiest ways to spot it.

[StarsMine]

For some reason, people dont know this about CSS(or any source game that I know of for that matter), but when you hit tab and look at latency, if someone is <5 they are ping masking. It does not matter where you are, even if you are playing ON the server, your latency can NOT be below 5.

So next time you see someone do such a thing, Ask them to fix there rates, because it does effect game play and it is against the rules. If they dont listen kick them, if they come back without fixing there rates ban.

Proper rates
Rate 20000 or 30000 (20000 is for people running really slow internet)
cl_cmdrate 67
cl_updaterate 67

There is also another way to spot ping masking. When you type ping in console and what comes up is significantly greater then 40 between what is shown in tab and what is shown in console, something is up. This is harder to tell since ping can bounce around rather quickly.
If the tab latency shows 5, ping will show 45 or less. So my assumption is that "latency" it ping -40.

Edit:
Valve be fucking with net codes, Use this as a way to spot potential ping masking, and not an end all be all tool. However dont give me shit in the server when I bring it up either, <5 still should not happen save for a glitch.

[Assassin]

Vote for sticky.

[BladeTwinSwords]

Nice little tidbit StarsMine

[thecat]

Thanks Starmine, I will look out for it.

[emouchet]

thanks man !

[CYBER]

Nice little tidbit StarsMine

who the fuck are you?
Blades' are long extinct on ibis, motherfucker.

[-=Toy=-=Québec=-FR]

Proper rates
Rate 20000 or 30000 (20000 is for people running really slow internet)
cl_cmdrate 67
cl_updaterate 67

Mine :

rate 30000
cl_cmdrate 101
cl_updaterate 101

Ping -29 to 54 max... I guess it must depend on internet connection?

[StarsMine]

101 was for when people used 100 tick servers. everyone runs 66 tik servers (we are 66 tik now) now so you dont get any benifite from going with 101 packets a second

[StarsMine]

Going to bump this as I ran into again today.
Though a valve update seems to have fucked this tell up.

[Bruce Dern]

bruce dern here, i am a regular on both the gungame and zombie mod servers. i understand the server is located in washington dc, and i happen to live less than 5 miles from washington dc. therefore i always have low latency. i usually get anywhere from 2-15 on any given day or time. i was accused of ping masking by starsmine several weeks ago, and was kicked. i explained to him where i live and that i would not know the first thing about how to ping mask. i was told to change my rates to server specifications (which were already pretty close) cmdrate 67(i had 66), updaterate 67 (i had 66) and rate 30000 (which i had). several other players told him that my latency was always low and fluctuated and that even if i did ping mask i didnt lag, so it didn't matter. eventually he gave up and we continued playing. today i was accused of the same thing by 5 lb gummybear. i again explained to him the exact same things as i had in the previous incident. he kicked me and told me to fix my rates, which i did. (because for some reason they set themselves back to 66 instead of 67) and came back. he was unsatisfied. i was banned for not listening to an admin. basically i am here today to say YOU CAN have a latency below 5 and not be ping masking. you said it yourself latency = ping -40. this being the ping that you find in console by typing "ping" which from my understanding cannot be manipulated. i usually have a ping of around 35-40, which from your explanation would give me a latency of -5 to 0, which i am above. i do not know how to ping mask, and seeing as how i live right next to the server, i have no reason to. please inform your admins that you can have a latency below 5, and that i should not be kicked and banned for no reason. for reference, here is my ip address: 108.28.102.135. if you search that you will find that i am located in kensington, maryland, which is about 5 miles from washington dc. i understand the ban was only an hour, so i am not asking to be unbanned, but please do not ban me in the future for something i cannot control