Wireless gaming help

[RESmonkey]

I have a Linksys WRTGL54 on the top floor of my home. It is placed on the floor under my computer desk. I used to game very close to it, with gaming consoles + laptop plugged in directly through ethernet.


I used to occasionally bring my laptop down one floor. I noticed some issues. When I streamed video, it would sometimes hang. This did not happen when I was on the top floor. When I used to play WoW, I would lose connection and either get kicked or just stand in the same position with a walking animation for 5-10 seconds.


I have recently brought my consoles down a floor, and want to play online. What are some options to ensure I get a good connection downstairs? I have not bought any wireless-dongles for the consoles yet, so they're currently offline.


I'm also wondering if it is the default firmware on the Linksys; I hear there are better ones out there. If so, I'd like some more info on that. Is there a website that can test my wifi connection for an extended period of time to ensure I'm ready for gaming?


Setup detail: Internet Cable line -> cable modem -> vonage box -> wireless router I don't think the Vonage box is the culprit of my gaming woes, the only thing it causes is a message from Xbox Live saying I need to port forward or something to be able to connect with more people.


Thanks

 

[jlazzaro]

ready the sticky at http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=264338

wireless depends on a lot of factors, most outside of your control. bottom line, if you want an always stable, reliable connection...wired all the way.

 

[RESmonkey]

Seems like I should stick to wired. Would a 50-100 foot ethernet cable from monoprice work for gaming?

 

[ViviTheMage]

Seems like I should stick to wired. Would a 50-100 foot ethernet cable from monoprice work for gaming?

Yes, it would work fine.

 

[REC]

This is a subject that I have a fair amount of experience with. Your issue on your computer isn't so much your connection as Windows itself. I'm still unfamiliar with Win7, but in both Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1, you will get a 3k-5k millisecond lag spike because of the way Windows handles wireless networking. There are fixes, but first let's talk about what happens.

Windows is retarded for wireless; regardless of never connecting to alternate routers and having full signal on Wireless N 300 Mb/s, Windows will ALWAYS check for new routers in the area every 60 seconds. This disables communication while it does so, causing you to lose the time consumed during the check. When I was on N a few years back, it came to ~3500 milliseconds of lag every 60 seconds, which for shooters was hell and for WoW just plain unacceptable.

There is no native way to disable this check; use of third party software is a must. One of the primary tools on the internet is Vista Anti-Lag for Vista, and there's another one (which I can't remember) for XP. A certain update is required for VAL to function, but if you're SP1 you should have it already.

As for port-forwarding on the XBOX, think of it as multiple doors to a building. If they have a couch that's too big for the front door, sometimes they have to use the sliding glass door. Different ports are used for different types of communication with XBOX live. If that door is locked, the guys moving the couch can't get it in and you can't sit in it.

Go to XBOX Live for a list of current ports required to be open, and check on your router's support site for directions on how to ensure that these ports are open (aka forwarded) correctly.

 

[REC]

Also, to check your connection's status (and see the 60 second lag spike first hand), you don't need a website; Windows has the tools to check right from your computer.

Click on Start > Run... and enter "cmd" then push enter.

When the black window with white text shows up, enter the following command:

ping [URL="http://www.google.com"]www.google.com[/URL] -n 130 -w 5000

This test will take sometime between 2 and 3 minutes. Pay special attention to the time= **** ms field in each line. This number is how long it takes to communicate with the website, in milliseconds. Anything over 500 for google is REALLY slow, and if you see any "Request timed out." lines, that means it took over 5 SECONDS to communicate with google.

Scroll through the numbers and look for a time that took more that 1500 seconds. You will probably have 2-4 of them. These are evidence of the 60 second lag spike I mentioned before.

It's worth noting that Wireless G has both shitty range (and thereby more trouble with penetrating floors), and a MUCH slower speed than Wireless N (54Mb/s vs 300Mb/s)


And yes, nothing comes close to the speed and reliability of wired. Sometimes it's not an option, however. The above techniques will help you if you cannot go wired, and make gaming possible. Also, wired will not solve your Port issue with XBOX Live.