Semi-complicated network acting wierd (interesting problem)

momoblue

March 17, 2006 1:47:12 AM

Here's my setup.

DSL Line >> Linksys wireless G router >> transmit >> Linksys Wireless Gaming Adapter >> ethernet cable >> Linksys wired 5 port switch >> Ethernet Cables >> 2 PCs and 3 consoles.

Problem is, with only the 2 PCs turned on, if I play a game called Final Fantasy XI online, the other PC's internet connection will stop working. If I turn off the game, the internet on the other PC will run fine. It doesn't matter which PC i start the game on. If I try to download big files on the 2 PCs at the same time, they both download fine. The game itself does not use up a lot of bandwidth so I think it could be a port issue.

To check if it was a port issue, I decided to switch out the Gaming adapter and connected the Wireless router to the Switch using an ethernet cable and I can launch the two games fine.

Before I spend another hundred dollars on more equipment, does anyone know what's going on or can suggest a solution?

I was thinking if I bought the linksys wireless bridge things would work out fine... but thats another 100 dollars and I'm not sure if it will even work. I figured the gaming adapter was pretty much acting as a wireless bridge.

Wireless Router Settings:
IP 192.168.1.1
SUB 255....
DHCP start IP 192.168.1.2 and goes for 20 clients.

Gaming Adapter:
IP 192.168.1.19
Gateway 192.168.1.1

PC1:
IP: 192.168.1.15
GATE: 192.168.1.1

PC2:
IP: 192.168.1.21
GATE: 192.168.1.1

Here's the info from the gaming site about the ports (although I never had to forward ports for the game ever so I don't think that's the issue):

PlayOnline (including all related software such as FINAL FANTASY XI) may use any of the following ports. If you are using a router, please configure it to allow packets to pass through these ports.

+ Port numbers that may be used by the PlayOnline server group:
-TCP 25, 80, 110, 443 or 50000 - 65535
-UDP 50000 - 65535

Any help or suggestions is appreciated. If anyone can confirm that a wireless bridge would fix this problem I'll go out and buy it tomorrow.

Thanks,
Tom

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riser

March 22, 2006 3:39:24 PM

I'd recommend trying to hardwire from your DSL to the switch. You might be able to get a cheap cable from a local computer shop.

Chances are, with 5 computers using wireless at once, you're bogging that wireless down with large files and games.

What type of DSL connection do you have? Speed/bandwidth?

What's your signal strength on the wireless?

When playing games, you're constantly uploading and downloading small amounts, which will cause short, high traffic over wireless.

If you can run a wire, I'd suspect the majority of your problems would go away.

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Zakkas

April 10, 2006 6:40:23 PM

I'm confused.

Your Linksys router is connected to your PC you have FF on using the Linksys wireless adapter. The other 2 computers are connected to a switch which is connected to the Linksys router. Correct?

To me it sounds like a port issue too. So when you run the FF game on you computer with the wireless card the Internet(and only Web access) stops working...if you tried accessing Email or downloading files or running AIM or something that works fine?

So when you play the game on the PC with wireless all connectivity to the Internet fails on the other 2 PC's??

I didn't see it before when I was reading your post but the Play Online feature it says uses TCP port 80 along with those other ports. All web access defaults to port 80 so that would explain why web access fails on the other 2 PC's. If possible see if there is a way to make Final Fantasy use port 81 or something.

Buying a wireless bridge will not solve the problem.

From the looks of it heres what protocols based on those port numbers FF uses: TCP PORTS::: 25- SMTP, 80- HTTP, 110- POP3, 443- HTTPS

The UDP TCP ports above 50000 don't matter...

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