lagging issues

[donnybrook]

i have had a few games with people who use wireless routers, and in some cases i notice considerable lag. i was wondering if wireless routers can cause lag? i tend to think they do but some people disagree. i was wondering what you guys think, maybe talk about about other causes of lag that not everyone knows about like.. should you close all your programs including AIM when playing?

[smozoma]

i have had a few games with people who use wireless routers, and in some cases i notice considerable lag. i was wondering if wireless routers can cause lag? i tend to think they do but some people disagree. i was wondering what you guys think, maybe talk about about other causes of lag that not everyone knows about like.. should you close all your programs including AIM when playing?

i've tested my own before and found it introduced some lag. The decryption takes time, I guess. Maybe if you have a gaming router it's faster. My computer is hooked up via wire. Only my Wii is on wireless.

To convince someone their wireless is causing lag, have them ping their router:

Start->RUn...

cmd

ping 192.168.1.1 (or it might be 192.168.0.1..)

Good result:

C:\Documents and Settings\Michael>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

it's a bad result if the time is MORE than 16ms. If it says 15 or 16, that can actually mean anything from 1-15ms because 15.7ms is the smallest time increment windows normally reports (XP, 32-bit, anyway... no clue about vista or 64-bit machines, but i suspect it's the same). So, I think the only values you can see are multiples of ~15.7. If the ping is 31ms or more, then it's definitely introducing extra lag.

Edited August 3, 2009 by smozoma

[shaftman]

the way its been for me....Is if the wireless has a full 5 bars it runs smoothly.

But 4 or less will have lag spikes.

[crackawhat]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING WINDOWS VISTA AND WIRELESS CONNECTIONS:

The Windows Vista wireless utility sends a broadcast every ~60 seconds searching for new access points in the area. This will cause a 3 second lag spike every 60 seconds. There is no way to fix this within windows itself, BUT there is a 3rd party program which will fix it. The program is called Vista Anti-Lag (VAL) which fixes this problem:

http://rapidshare.com/files/113043756/Vist...-Lag_v1.1.1.rar

To use it, run the program and double click the icon that will appear in your taskbar tray. Click "Activate" to enable it. If you ever notice the lag spikes coming back, click "Refresh" and make sure VAL is still activated.