Hey everyone,
Recently I've been hosting a game server and on my router (lan port, not wirelessly), pings go from ~200ms (idle) to 8000ms+ (combat w/ tons of packets being sent).
When directly connected to my modem, pings range from <20ms (idle) ~100ms (combat).

Now my question is should I upgrade my router? It's old, it is a linksys wireless-g, 2.4ghz, and 54mbps.

I have two other users on my network, thats why I need the router or else id just switch to modem. In total, 2 wireless connectors, and 1 lan connection.

I know that routers split bandwidth up, but the difference between 8000ms and 100ms is astronomical.

I have about a 300$ budget, but I don't know if I want to spend the money if it won't help me at all.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Joe

Generically speaking, connecting directly to the modem will always be faster since it eliminates the need for the router to do NAT, and eliminating steps always means faster speed. However, I would agree that 100ms to 8000ms is a huge difference. My first question would be have you tried hosting the game using the router with no other computers connected through it? You need to rule out the possibility that the other computers are doing something that's causing the latency before you blame it on the router itself. It's possible that one of the computers might be doing something such as Bittorrent which could cause the high latency. If, after you've tried the game with only the server computer connected to the router, the problem still persists, then I would look at possibly upgrading the router. My recommendation would be to go to a local store and pick one up, test it, and if it meets your satisfaction then buy one online and take the original back to the store.