This is because when you play on LAN rate is ignored and it uses sv_lan_rate instead, and by default, yes you guessed it, it is set to the maximum - 20000. When you play on LAN rate does nothing at all, in fact you could have rate set to 100 and it would have no effect on LAN. People also say 'rate 25000 is for LAN and 20000 is for online', wrong again. Half-Life 1/CS actually has a maximum rate of 20000, it has been proven many times and setting your rate to 25000 is pointless. This is why today most players use a rate of 25000. Quake has rates too! And in fact the max rate on Quake is 25000. Quake, the game engine that was used to make Half-Life and in turn CS was created using the same engine. First we will start off with a quick history lesson. Ah rate, the setting that is set wrong by 95% of people who don’t have a clue and just copy everyone else.