US Cable Support > Comcast HSI > Trying to decide between 5Ghz Wireless or Wired for Gaming

reply to egeek84

Re: Trying to decide between 5Ghz Wireless or Wired for Gaming

reply to Cheese

Extremely ridiculous to assert that the inherent latency added by a wireless router will have a meaningful impact on his gaming experience. Interference and lower max bandwidth can contribute to the problem, but I always have a 1ms ping to my Airport Extreme Basestation.

reply to egeek84
Also, adding an extra hop to each packet? LOL

reply to egeek84
You have a lot of good info in this topic to make your decision. I could run my 5 XBox 360s via wireless with zero issues, but I actually wired 5 rooms for ethernet to address HD TVs, BluRays, XBoxes, etc. The only wireless gaming I do is via my laptop. Bottom line for me is that I don't want any possible variables affecting my gaming.

reply to Cheese

Re: Trying to decide between 5Ghz Wireless or Wired for Gaming

Re: Trying to decide between 5Ghz Wireless or Wired for Gaming

reply to egeek84
Nobody said 10ms was just as good as 9.5ms. In the real world of multiplayer online gaming, with client-side prediction and pings closer to 20-50ms, the additional latency isn't really a point of contention. Anything else is more important in making his choice.

reply to egeek84
A gunsmith friend of mine explained mechanics to me like this (And it applies to just about everything in life really). It's the concept of 'stacking tolerances'. Cut a corner just a bit here, a titch there and soon enough, you have one sloppy overall design. Keep it tight I say. Is it OCD/nitpicking? To the average person yes. They could care less they use a wireless controller which has to modulate data twice, then the console modulates data again to the wireless router, which is connected to their U-Verse modem (Which DSL has a first hop lag of about 10ms due to modulation/checksum yet AGAIN, unless you use the FastPath profile which U-Verse doesn't allow because it needs to perform those parity checks etc to ensure service) then finally out to the world, hopping and skipping its merry way to the server. All this happens very fast but my analytical/OCD mind says "Why add to the noise and confusion?"

I use wired EVERYTHING. No interference (RF or EMI; especially in high density areas such as apartments), reliable (And more importantly, consistent) fast connection and it's secure. The average joe doesn't want to be bothered to run Cat6 all over his house which is why wireless popularity has exploded in the past decade and some change. I have a wireless router which I'll activate to use for tablets, smartphones, guests' devices, etc but I've implemented layers of security. Custom/hidden SSID, Fairly long and complex passphrase, MAC whitelist, manual IP configuration (DHCP no bueno for security), custom router firmware to reduce power on antennas so they don't propagate my signal all over creation, and shielded, unidirectional antennae to direct signal only where I want it to go. A little "tin foil hat gary"? Yep; but I value being the only person to see my bank accounts and tax returns and I've seen what a guy with BackTrack, WPA2 rainbow tables and a hi gain antenna can do in about 2 odd hours

*edit* /me thinks egeek just made this post to stealthily show off his new rig. I see what you did there lol

*edit2* I just reread your first post Tobin. I died a little when you said "loop" and "cat6 cable" in the same sentence. That is a constant problem I deal with in my IT job; numbskulls looping network connections shutting down whole IDFs you don't literally want to make a loop back to the router egeek. That would be not good indeed.

reply to egeek84
I always try to use wired for gaming and streaming. But mainly to take that load off the wifi.

I cannot run my router at its full possible capability due to having some older legacy hardware still needing a wifi link. However the legacy stuff does at least support WPA-AES, it is an older HP MFC.

I think for my wireless the most important thing I did was click "Site survey" on my router and select a channel down near 1 because everybody else was on 11.

My firmware oddly enough allows me to select 13 and 14. But I doubt any of my hardware will allow itself to go up to those since it is in theory illegal in the US.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports

reply to MisterP