Rainbow Six Siege: What Do the Red & Yellow Plugs Mean?

Designed to warn you of a bad internet connection, there's truly nothing more frustrating in Rainbow Six: Siege than when the connection icon appears.

Siege has multiple different network icons that it can display, each meaning a different internet issue is occurring. If you notice the plug icon appearing during your game, you are having connection issues.

What Does The Plug Icon Mean?

The Plug icon, both in its yellow and red forms, means connection problems. In fact, you will most likely experience the symptoms of a bad connection before seeing the icon appear on screen.

The connectivity issues that the plug icon represents are typically packet loss, where some of your packets are being redirected along another internet route, as well as latency instability.

This packet loss is usually indicative of a bad internet connection, or most commonly a network congestion. This is where the bandwidth of your WiFi or network is not able to handle the amount of information being passed through it.

Because of this, data is delayed or lost, resulting in lag during your Rainbow six siege match.

What does it mean when The Plug is a Yellow Icon?

Whether it's poor internet or a lack of bandwidth, seeing the yellow plug icon will usually come hand in hand with rubber banding, abnormal induced latency, and the worst of all, hit registration issues.

If you see the yellow plug icon temporarily and experience rubber banding or bad hit registration, it's worth waiting a minute or two. It's possible your network simply experienced a spike of activity, and may return to normal fairly quickly.

Is the Red Icon Plug Worse?

When the plug icon is consistently red, you may need to take action. Seeing a red icon means the situation is really bad, and you will likely experience rubber banding so much you essentially can't move.

At this point, almost none of your shots will hit, and you are at risk of being removed from the game server due to your connectivity issues. If the issue persists for more than a few minutes, or if you get kicked out of the game server, you may need to find a solution.

To check your ping in-game, read our article on how to show your ping in Rainbow six siege.

How to Fix Connection Issues in Rainbow Six Siege

The first thing you'll want to do is restart all your routers and other hardware, as this is a standard fix if you are experiencing packet loss or other issues.

For people experiencing packet loss you should also check all your cables are connected properly, as well ensuring all your software is updated.

If you are on PC, you should also double check your firewalls and antivirus software, as they can sometimes interfere and block your game from accessing the internet properly.

Make sure Rainbow six siege is allowed to access your network, and if that doesn't work you may need to switch off your anti-virus while you play - this is a risky fix however, for obvious reasons.

If you are experiencing packet loss across all devices, you may need to upgrade your internet or router, especially if you have older hardware installed in your house. Switching from WiFi to ethernet can also help.

For an in-depth guide check out our article on how to fix PING in R6.

For additional information on other Rainbow six siege issues check out our article on how to fix freezing and crashing, or even improve your overall gameplay by increasing your FPS on Rainbow Six Siege.

Other Issues Rainbow Six Siege Icon Meanings

The connection icon is not the only icon to appear in Rainbow six siege, with several other network icons indicating different problems that Rainbow Six Siege is experiencing.

What the Red and Yellow latency Icon Means

The latency icon, which is the three exclamation marks, appears when you have abnormal latency and high ping. This means that the game server requires additional validation steps to stabilise your ping.

This will mean you experience hits being rejected by the server, making you feel as if you are shooting into thin air. With a yellow icon and 100 - 140 ms of ping only some of your shots will be rejected.

With a latency red icon and a high ping of 400 ms or more, almost all of your shots will be rejected, and you are at risk of being kicked from the game server because of your lag.

What is Happening When the Update Rate Icon Appears?

Appearing as a dotted square in between two solid squares, this icon means your frame rate is too low, and possibly that you are experiencing packet loss between your game and the server.

Because of this you will likely have bad hit registry and abnormal induced latency (this is latency created by the game server so other players don't see your character stuttering). If it becomes a red icon, you may also experience rubber banding.

What Does the Host Icon Mean?

The yellow and red host icons means that for once, it is not you but the game client or game server is experiencing a bad connection.

All other players connected to the same servers will see the same icon (an x or an L above three connected lines), and will usually also experience rubber banding and bad hit registration.

As always, experiencing issues like this will worsen when the icon is red, and if things are really bad there is a possibility that the server services will crash, kicking everyone from the game.

Other than the normal methods of fixing connectivity issues listed above, your best bet is to contact Ubisoft support or your relevant Console brand support for help. Also, don't forget to check if your game, network, or console is experiencing outages as well.

We truly hope you don't see any of these dreaded icons in your games, and can continue to frag out without lagging miles back!