Gaming over WiFi for the few months (Hot to make the best of a bad situation)

Relentless81

Relentless81

Relentless81

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Hi,

Edit - Title is meant to read -

Gaming over WiFi for the next few months (How to make the best of a bad situation)

I'm currently using the built in WiFi connection of my MSI B450 Pro Carbon which is paired with the Virgin Media SH3

The router is downstairs, the PC upstairs, I get a decent connection and its fine for browsing and YouTube but when gaming I'm getting lag which is annoying especially when the Mrs is watching iPlayer etc

I cant run a cable because my PC wont be in the room its in for long, I'll need to move it to the master bedroom in a few months where I'll be able to run a cable to the loft to a switch and then a cable to the location where my PC will be.

I was wondering whats the best out of these temporary solutions bearing in mind I want to increase gaming performance -

1 - Buy a decent AP, disable the SH3 wireless and use the AP instead. Any suggestions on this one, is it worth it? The location will be the same and when my PC moves location I can move the AP into the loft plugged into the switch in which case, can I have the SH3 wireless re-enabled to serve downstairs and the AP upstairs so both wireless networks are available?

2 - Put the SH3 in modem mode and buy a better router, I'll probably need to do this at some point anyway to control what times children can access the internet when they are older but the eldest has just turned 3 so this could be some time off yet. Thoughts on this option please, is it worth it for improved gaming performance on WiFi considering it costs much more than an AP and wont serve its original purpose in a few months time? I keep reading about QOS and Mu-Mimo(?) but I dont know if this is marketing fluff or if its worth it

Edit - Another thing i've noticed is I have to keep disconnecting and reconnecting my desktop otherwise the connection speed is poor, disconnecting and reconnecting puts the speed back to normal, is this the SH3 or my desktop that could be doing this?

Thanks
 
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Try some homeplugs. They have a bad rep on here for some reason, but should be better than WiFi for latency.

Even ages ago when such things were important to me I was seeing ~1ms additional latency over a cat5 cable.

Yes they aren't nearly as fast as they say they are and some house wiring will gimp them, but in my experience the latency is consistent.

Worst case scenario is that you return them from wherever you got them if it isn't satisfactory and they are a handy thing to have
 
d_brennen said:
Try some homeplugs. They have a bad rep on here for some reason, but should be better than WiFi for latency.

Even ages ago when such things were important to me I was seeing ~1ms additional latency over a cat5 cable.

Yes they aren't nearly as fast as they say they are and some house wiring will gimp them, but in my experience the latency is consistent.

Worst case scenario is that you return them from wherever you got them if it isn't satisfactory and they are a handy thing to have
Click to expand...

Thanks, it has crossed my mind, I have some in a box somewhere from when we moved house, they are about 4 years old and used to stream 1080P in my old house but that had better wiring than this one, might be worth finding and trying them but what I dont get about these is if its worth buying even better ones or if that wont see any difference from the ones I have. The reason I say that is my WiFi connection gives me around 50mbps but its not the speed thats the issue its the latency like you say so even the cheaper ones I have give better latency over my WiFi connection it might be a better solution but is it even better still to buy high end ones?
 
Well if you have some in a box what are you waiting for? :p

I don't think higher end units will be dramatically lower in latency, just higher throughput, which isn't your issue at the moment
 
Could always do what I used to do and snake a really long ether net cable around the house and wind it back up when you're done gaming. :p

PITA but works lol.
 
d_brennen said:
Well if you have some in a box what are you waiting for? :p

I don't think higher end units will be dramatically lower in latency, just higher throughput, which isn't your issue at the moment
Click to expand...

Good question, I suppose I thought it wouldnt be the answer due to the house wiring being older in this house due to the previous house and they dropped connection requiring a power cycle practically every day. That and I have no idea which of the 2 million boxes they could be in, I will have a look for them over the long weekend to compare them to the WiFi connection

Acme said:
Could always do what I used to do and snake a really long ether net cable around the house and wind it back up when you're done gaming. :p

PITA but works lol.
Click to expand...

I've got a really long cable that I've considered throwing out of the upside window, across the front of the house and down into the living room window thats how annoying the lag is but reeling it all back up when people are sleeping isnt ideal!
 
I'm sure it'll be fiiiine. :p Can do that silently enough if you do it at arms length haha
 
bledd said:
Hardwired cable is the only solution.

WIFI is for phones, tablets and light laptop use.
Click to expand...

I use WiFi for my desktop without issue, streaming 4K content and light gaming like Borderlands 2 co-op, I haven't tried competitive fast paced multilayer games on it though.
 
Acme said:
I use WiFi for my desktop without issue, streaming 4K content and light gaming like Borderlands 2 co-op, I haven't tried competitive fast paced multilayer games on it though.
Click to expand...
Are you using virgin connection..? It's already bad as it is and adding more latency makes it that much worse.
 
I've been gaming using Linksys Velop connected to a SH3 with wifi turned off and it has been solid. So impressive in fact that I haven't felt the need to finish the cable install I had started prior to buying the Velop system.

It isn't cheap but so far it has been a literal game changer vs the wifi on the SH3 or the Sky Q hub we had previously. It has also proved superior to powerline in every measurable metric so far.
A part of this will be down to having decent WiFi on the motherboard as well presumably, so it isn't simply the addition of the Velop. There may also be options that provide the same service for less, however I haven't tested them.

To give some context, the Velop was bought to improve WiFi around the home in general and not specifically for gaming. For gaming I'm usually directly connected to the router via ethernet and tweaking settings as needed to reduce latency and provide a consistent 240hz competitive online experience.
WiFi does introduce latency, but the Velop is almost indistinguishable from a wired connection to the sky/virgin router. Almost. I will be going back to ethernet once I find the time to finish running cables but it no longer feels like a priority. I think this is the highest praise I can give the system.
 
just lob a cable out the window,

or snake it round the house,


take a half hour routing it if doing it round the house tuck it in and clip it where you can and no one will care
 
I have gamed on WiFi for years in many different scenarios and I've had great results. My first port of call would be to set up QoS, although I had a Google and I think it might not even be a feature in the SH3 :o

Without the option of setting QoS, I would do a test directly connected to the SH3 with cable to confirm that your issue is WiFi related, and then explore your options. The spare homeplugs sound promising.
 
yeah, i use BT network discs in my setup and it runs really well, and thats : FTTP > HUB > bt disc > bt disc upstairs > ethernet.. and still getting around 300 mbps on it..
 
Just to update, the spare EOP plugs were found late last week and installed, night and day difference over WiFi, double the speed and the connection experience is much better no more constant dropping out

Weird because the wiring is older in this house but works better than my old house, I'm going to be installing a cable eventually but no need to rush it now.
 
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