From Wired to Wireless for Gaming?

Triad-X

Triad-X

Triad-X

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Joined
5 Feb 2004
Posts
123
Location
Scotland
Hi guys,

I've moved house to a flat in Glasgow to be much closer to work.

Basically, I've gone from Wired to Wireless which is huuuuuge performance change when it comes to gaming on the PC (I heard stories, and the horrors are very much true).

Anyway, I play World of Warcraft mainly and a bit of Left 4 Dead 2 etc. and I do recieve lag spikes every 2 minutes or so which is quite horrendous.

The flat has internet connectivity courtasy of o2 Wireless Box II and I've got a choice of a Buffalo Airstation Wireless-G USB Adapter and a Linksys Wireless-N WMP600N PCI Card...so far, my Buffalo USB Pen has been the more stable of the two (On Windows 7).

Is there a decent set of hardware to create an almost 'Wired' effect with certain combinations of Wireless Routers and Adapters? I'm honestly not too sure which are good.

I also considered Wiring it...but would be a pain in the back side to do...that and I need to find a place to buy those cable pins so I can arrange the wires along the wall. I'm across the hall away from the router at the moment so, I'd like to ask for peoples advice on a good Router/Adapter combo before deciding.
 
"homeplug" "powerline" etc type connections beat the living ping out of wireless any day of the week.

I have a Devolo kit, cost about £70 but dam is it worth it compared to what I had before. Stick one in a plug by the router, about 20m away through a lot of walls is the other, never drops/lags/does random stuff like the wireless did.

When there is a problem its because VM is updating/breaking/attempting to fix stuff their end.

Mine are 85Mbps, connects at 45Mbps over the wiring (how good the wiring is affects end performance) and I can download at almost 10MBps as per VM connection no worries.
 
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How good or bad wireless is depends on many factors, with a reasonable quality signal, no overlapping wireless networks and decent hardware you should get very few if any spikes and only 2-3ms higher ping than wired.

However even 1 overlapping network or cheap wireless NIC that spikes out every time it refreshes the wireless network list can make it a complete horror for gaming.

I suggest getting a copy of InSSIDer and seeing what other networks there are in the area and trying to change the channel yours is on so it doesn't overlap.
 
InSSIDer

Edit: Oops, copy and pasted that into Quick Reply instead of my Google Search bar, my bad.

I'm sure there're a quite a number of overlapping networks within my Flat...can see about 7 or so...the least I've seen is 4...and that's during the morning.
 
Yeah, I can understand that, if I can find a solution that's as close to wired without having to send wires all around the flat, I will :)

Can I query the Netgear HDX101. I believe when sWiZzLe mentioned it first, I remember one of my online aquaintences saying this solution can be subject to a lot of intereference (Front room with the router only has a lamp/computer and laptop on and there's nothing in between the front room and my room except a phone which isn't cordless...maybe my mobile but that's about it). What's everyones take on this? It's a new concept to me in all honesty. Do you just plug a Cat5 cable into this device in it's seperate plug socket between itself and the router? and then another one near my Rig and a Cat5 cable between the two also?

Again, I apologise for my ignorance in this matter and I'm very grateful for the insight you guys give me.
 
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I had some problems with this at first as i tried to use it through a 4-way but now i have it plugged directly into the wall.

So yeah, you just connect one to your router via cat5 then the other one is in the loft, which goes to a switch, then to my pc, xbox and nas. Just plug it in and you are connected!
There are settings you may need to play around with in the software, like QoS prioritization, and maybe update the firmware but its all very simple.

The only really irritating thing i find with these things are the LED's on the front constantly flashing - i have packet of Anadin taped to the front of the one in my room lol, only thing thick enough i could find at the time to block out the lights :)

Get a pretty decent speed 2 floors apart:

 
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Rightio, I'm going for the Homeplug solution...my only worry in my head is that from what I've read, it can be a hit & miss solution...but I guess its the same as Wireless or whatever.

Just out of curiousity...is it considered congested if my Wireless adapter can see 7-11 other networks.
 
Triad-X said:
Rightio, I'm going for the Homeplug solution...my only worry in my head is that from what I've read, it can be a hit & miss solution...but I guess its the same as Wireless or whatever.

Just out of curiousity...is it considered congested if my Wireless adapter can see 7-11 other networks.
Click to expand...

Id say yes, since on single band wireless there are only 3 useable channels anyway. Either 5ghz wireless, homeplug, or a trip to a decent sized tescos to get the cable -> wall clips will sort you out.

Updating router firmware sorted and SP2 for XP coming out (so didnt need to use netgear software) sorted out wireless on my DG834G back in the day.
 
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