Linksys WRT54G - Gaming "hiccups" in BF2

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

My setup: WRT54G Linksys router with two computer connected wirelessly on a
WMP54G Linksys adapter which is connected to a Westell DSL modem. No new
wireless phones in the house (2.4Ghz or otherwise), and the router is only a
few rooms away horizontally from the wireless computer. I usually get a ping
of ~100 when I play.

The problem: I only notice the problem when I game, since the connection
seems 'stable' otherwise. Anyway, in the middle of a pleasant Battlefield 2
experience, I get what I can only call "hiccups" in the connection, which
manifests itself in-game as a brief 1 - 2 seconds of 'lag' and the message,
"There is a problem with your connection." Just a few moments later, the game
picks back up and plays normally... until it happens again. I'd say this
occurs at least once a minute, making stressful battles even more frustrating
when a "hiccup" comes along and gets me killed.

Steps I've taken: To make a long story short, the WRT54G router and WMP54G
adapter are brand-new, with few security options enabled to ease
troubleshooting. I'm not all that keen on wireless options (words like WAP,
SSID... mostly meaningless to me at this stage), but I know my way around
routers and firewalls.

Can anyone help me with this problem or is wireless just bad for gaming?

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On 08 Aug 2005 01:23:32 GMT, Deuteros <deuteros@xrs.net> wrote:

>Steps I've taken: To make a long story short, the WRT54G router and WMP54G
>adapter are brand-new, with few security options enabled to ease
>troubleshooting. I'm not all that keen on wireless options (words like WAP,
>SSID... mostly meaningless to me at this stage), but I know my way around
>routers and firewalls.

Learning about security when you have a wireless router is not
optional, go and read the manual and setup WEP encryption and MAC
address control ASAP.

>Can anyone help me with this problem or is wireless just bad for gaming?

I can't help with your problem as I don't have that router, but my
wireless setup is working fine.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

You didn't say if it was a LAN game or internet. A ping of 100 for
internet play is not good, for LAN play it would be horrible. If that's
your usual pings, that's not good. You need to try pinging your router.
Just go to start>run and type something like "ping 192.168.1.1 -t" or
whatever the address of your router is. If you aren't getting steady pings
of less than 2ms, something is wrong with the connection.

You might want to get an external antenna, something other than that
little thing that comes with your wireless card. There are a bunch of
settings you can fool around with your wireless card, such as optimizing for
either bandwith or distance, enabling or disabling turbo, etc. You might
also want to try another wireless channel

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Magnulus" <magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:RzHJe.10877$%X1.7975@bignews1.bellsouth.net:

> You didn't say if it was a LAN game or internet. A ping of 100 for
> internet play is not good, for LAN play it would be horrible. If that's
> your usual pings, that's not good. You need to try pinging your router.
> Just go to start>run and type something like "ping 192.168.1.1 -t" or
> whatever the address of your router is. If you aren't getting steady
> pings of less than 2ms, something is wrong with the connection.

I just tried that. Time is always less than 1 ms.

> You might want to get an external antenna, something other than that
> little thing that comes with your wireless card. There are a bunch of
> settings you can fool around with your wireless card, such as optimizing
> for either bandwith or distance, enabling or disabling turbo, etc. You
> might also want to try another wireless channel

I changed the channel on the router to 11 but there is no change.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

It could be your internet connection, then, and not necessarily your
wireless connection.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Magnulus" <magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:RzHJe.10877$%X1.7975@bignews1.bellsouth.net:

> You didn't say if it was a LAN game or internet. A ping of 100 for
> internet play is not good, for LAN play it would be horrible. If that's
> your usual pings, that's not good. You need to try pinging your router.
> Just go to start>run and type something like "ping 192.168.1.1 -t" or
> whatever the address of your router is. If you aren't getting steady
> pings of less than 2ms, something is wrong with the connection.
>
> You might want to get an external antenna, something other than that
> little thing that comes with your wireless card. There are a bunch of
> settings you can fool around with your wireless card, such as optimizing
> for either bandwith or distance, enabling or disabling turbo, etc. You
> might also want to try another wireless channel

There is a setting on my wireless card called "TxBurst" which is currently
disabled. What does this setting do?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Dose it have an off/on toggle, or does it specify a number?

Some wireless cards broadcast on more than one channel at once, for
instance, Linksys speedburst. It increases the bandwith.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Deuteros" <deuteros@xrs.net> wrote in message
news:42f6b414$0$16550$892e7fe2@authen.white.readfreenews.net...
> My setup: WRT54G Linksys router with two computer connected wirelessly on
> a
> WMP54G Linksys adapter which is connected to a Westell DSL modem. No new
> wireless phones in the house (2.4Ghz or otherwise), and the router is only
> a
> few rooms away horizontally from the wireless computer. I usually get a
> ping
> of ~100 when I play.
>
> The problem: I only notice the problem when I game, since the connection
> seems 'stable' otherwise. Anyway, in the middle of a pleasant Battlefield
> 2
> experience, I get what I can only call "hiccups" in the connection, which
> manifests itself in-game as a brief 1 - 2 seconds of 'lag' and the
> message,
> "There is a problem with your connection." Just a few moments later, the
> game
> picks back up and plays normally... until it happens again. I'd say this
> occurs at least once a minute, making stressful battles even more
> frustrating
> when a "hiccup" comes along and gets me killed.
>
> Steps I've taken: To make a long story short, the WRT54G router and WMP54G
> adapter are brand-new, with few security options enabled to ease
> troubleshooting. I'm not all that keen on wireless options (words like
> WAP,
> SSID... mostly meaningless to me at this stage), but I know my way around
> routers and firewalls.
>
> Can anyone help me with this problem or is wireless just bad for gaming?

I cant comment on wireless gaming. But I play BF2 via a WRT54G (version 1)
wired. At the same time my son plays it too (again wired). So both PC's into
the router ports. We experience "random" lag and messages reporting
connection problems, but there is no pattern to it. We have a 3MB connection
btw.

I just put the problem down to the servers, the internet, etc. If we get bad
lag on a particular server, we just leave and join another one. Personally,
I would wait for the next BF2 patch before I start worrying.

 

[schrodinger]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Deuteros" <deuteros@xrs.net> wrote in message
news:42f6b414$0$16550$892e7fe2@authen.white.readfreenews.net...
> My setup: WRT54G Linksys router with two computer connected wirelessly on
> a
> WMP54G Linksys adapter which is connected to a Westell DSL modem. No new
> wireless phones in the house (2.4Ghz or otherwise), and the router is only
> a
> few rooms away horizontally from the wireless computer. I usually get a
> ping
> of ~100 when I play.
>
> The problem: I only notice the problem when I game, since the connection
> seems 'stable' otherwise. Anyway, in the middle of a pleasant Battlefield
> 2
> experience, I get what I can only call "hiccups" in the connection, which
> manifests itself in-game as a brief 1 - 2 seconds of 'lag' and the
> message,
> "There is a problem with your connection." Just a few moments later, the
> game
> picks back up and plays normally... until it happens again. I'd say this
> occurs at least once a minute, making stressful battles even more
> frustrating
> when a "hiccup" comes along and gets me killed.
>
> Steps I've taken: To make a long story short, the WRT54G router and WMP54G
> adapter are brand-new, with few security options enabled to ease
> troubleshooting. I'm not all that keen on wireless options (words like
> WAP,
> SSID... mostly meaningless to me at this stage), but I know my way around
> routers and firewalls.
>
> Can anyone help me with this problem or is wireless just bad for gaming?

Funny you should bring this up.

I used to enjoy lag free gaming via my wireless set up.

I moved my router away from my gaming PC to increase reliability to other
PCs in the house. Outcome being that, during games of BF2 (especially -
also in other games) I experienced occasional lags or pauses "THERE IS A
PROBLEM WITH YOUR CONNECTION".

I surmised that, unless the router is right next to the PC it causes these
problems.

Much troubleshooting ensued messing with MTUs, security and firewall
options. I gave up in the end and now simply plug my wired ADSL modem in
when I want to game online.

A bit more faffing about but I now get lag free games.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Schrodinger" <no@way.com> wrote in
news:42f78cd4$0$18643$14726298@news.sunsite.dk:

> I moved my router away from my gaming PC to increase reliability to
> other PCs in the house. Outcome being that, during games of BF2
> (especially - also in other games) I experienced occasional lags or
> pauses "THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR CONNECTION".

Could be wireless loss. Could be the radio dropping down to the lower 11
Mbps speed. Do note that wireless always drops everybody to the speed of
the slowest node. It's really a kind of token ring, so you can't send
faster than the token can get handed from one machine to the next. You have
to wait for your "slot".

 

[schrodinger]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"ScratchMonkey" <ScratchMonkey.blacklist@sewingwitch.com> wrote in message
news:Xns96AC8ACD37C54scratchmonkey@216.196.97.136...
> "Schrodinger" <no@way.com> wrote in
> news:42f78cd4$0$18643$14726298@news.sunsite.dk:
>
>> I moved my router away from my gaming PC to increase reliability to
>> other PCs in the house. Outcome being that, during games of BF2
>> (especially - also in other games) I experienced occasional lags or
>> pauses "THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR CONNECTION".
>
> Could be wireless loss. Could be the radio dropping down to the lower 11
> Mbps speed. Do note that wireless always drops everybody to the speed of
> the slowest node. It's really a kind of token ring, so you can't send
> faster than the token can get handed from one machine to the next. You
> have
> to wait for your "slot".

That makes a *lot* of sense. I hadn't tried connecting at 11b all the
time - wouldn't matter for the gaming PC as I'm just interested in the 1Mb
net connection anyway.

Thx.

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: alt.games.battlefield1942,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 23:22:13 +0100, "Schrodinger" <no@way.com> wrote:

>That makes a *lot* of sense. I hadn't tried connecting at 11b all the
>time - wouldn't matter for the gaming PC as I'm just interested in the 1Mb
>net connection anyway.

Is 11b fast enough for BF2, is it full duplex? I have only tried it on
my Pocket PC and it feels awfully slow.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.