Configuration Variables

These are only a few of all the possible configuration variables. They are the ones that I like to adjust.

Variable	Values	Description
cl_backspeed	0-9999	Adjust the speed that you move backwards at. Setting to the maximum (9999) means that you will use whatever the server uses as a maximum.
cl_cmdrate	0-?	This sets how many updates per second to send to the server. This should be set to the average number of frames per second (FPS) you obtain while you play. this should apparently be approximately equal to the FPS you're getting (use netgraph to monitor your FPS). If your value is too high or too low you will get choke, so find a happy median.
cl_forwardspeed	0-9999	Adjust the speed that you move forward at. Setting to the maximum (9999) means that you will use whatever the server uses as a maximum.
cl_rate	0-?	This is a redundant variable now. The "rate" command has replaced it, so if you're trying to input cl_rate as well as rate, one of the two is going to overwrite the other. Just use the "rate" command.
cl_righthand	0/1	What a biased variable name! For those of us lefties, setting this to 0 changes your player to use his left hand.
cl_showfps	0/1	Toggle display of the frames-per-second (FPS) in the top left corner of the screen.
cl_sidespeed	0-9999	Adjust the speed that you move sideways at. Setting to the maximum (9999) means that you will use whatever the server uses as a maximum.
cl_updaterate	0-?	This sets the number of packets per second to send to the server. Some people say using an update rate of 50 is fine, but others recommend that unless you have a 56k modem, use the value 101. This should ideally be set as high as it will go without causing any packet loss - if you're getting any loss, that's bad.
cl_weather	0/1	Disable/enable weather. This is particularly nice if you have a somewhat slower machine and/or graphics card that have low frames-per-second on maps with weather (ex. the rain on aztec).
hud_fastswitch	0/1	When set to 1, you switch to a weapon immediately when you hit a number key to switch instead of hitting the number key and then needing to click the mouse once.
max_shells	0-?	The default value is 120. You can set this to 0 and shells will not be displayed flying out of your gun, which will save a few frames-per-second.
net_graph	0-7	Display a graph showing various system statistics. This will lower frame rate while in use, so don't leave it on all the time. Each value displays the described statistic and all statistics from lower values as listed: 0: off 1: display frame rate (FPS) 2: displaybandwidth of data received 3: display bandwidth for data sent 4: display server incoming update time 5: display an actual graph 6: display client outgoing update time 7: display graph based on frame rate
room_type	0-?	Some maps have an echo on every sound (Siege is a good example). Additionally, Counter-Strike will sometimes start making sounds echo for no apparent reason. Setting the room type to 0 (zero) turns off this echo.

Commands

Command	Description
drawradar	Show your radar if it is not showing.
stopsound	Stop a repeating sound from playing. This stops the background rain noise on Aztec and the jukebox music on Italy, for example. You need to be in-range of the sound to stop it (ex. when you hear the jukebox playing on Italy). Note: some people consider using this to be cheating, and it falls under the category of "cheat" settings in Counter-Strike: Source, but by default, Counter-Strike 1.6 allows this command to be used.
rate	Set the amount of Bytes per second that the server will send you. It is worthwhile to increase this if you are choking on packets, I have found. On my ~1.3 Mbps DSL connection, I find that a rate of 25000 is great. Other references state that the rate should be set to 25000 if you have a 1 MBps or faster connection and you should consider lowering the rate if you have a slow connection (256KBps or lower).