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Thread ID: 145447 2017-11-06 07:17:00 Lag spike issues gaming on local LAN using WiFi mOOseCaNNoN (13319) Press F1
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1441614 2017-11-06 07:17:00 Hi,

My wife and kids are having some lag issues when playing L4D2 (Left 4 Dead 2) at home. All devices are grunty enough to get at least 60fps, three are laptops on the home WiFi network and mine's a desktop that's plugged directly into the modem via ethernet. L4D2 runs through steam, so we have to each have our own steam accounts and be connected to the steam network using the internet. I'm the host so my ping is 0. Here's a screen-shot of my WiFi settings in the HTML interface of the modem: snag.gy
My wife is quite close to the modem on her laptop and she seems to lag the least, but still gets massive spikes and teleports. The other two kids lag more and I presume it's because they're further away from the modem, but the signal strength is typically two or more bars in the windows taskbar.

Is there anything I can do within the modem settings that could improve this? It's a NetComm Wireless NF4V.


Cheers
mOOseCaNNoN (13319)
1441615 2017-11-06 08:21:00 If its only happening tonight, could simply be internet Lag. Not a lot you can do about it. Even on fibre you will get lag if there is a problem with over usage, a server out someplace.

"sometimes" if you take the channel off auto and change it , it can improve things for the wireless, BUT on the same lines it can also make it worse. The channels to try are 1, 6, and 11

This article explains why www.extremetech.com
wainuitech (129)
1441616 2017-11-06 19:51:00 Hi,

but the signal strength is typically two or more bars in the windows taskbar.


2 bars is pretty crappy
want fast & less lag, dont use wifi. Its that simple .

The very first thing to do is plug one or more in via cable & see if that helps.
1101 (13337)
1441617 2017-11-06 22:25:00 2 bars is pretty crappy
want fast & less lag, dont use wifi. Its that simple .

The very first thing to do is plug one or more in via cable & see if that helps.

Thank you, Sir.

Unfortunately my wife's laptop doesn't have an ethernet port :( and the other two kids are set up in the lounge for which there is no ethernet cable long enough to connect them to the modem.

Perhaps elevating the modem will make the signal better. The strange thing is that about 50% of the time we game, there is no lag. Then sometimes the lag is really bad and virtually unplayable. I wonder if it depends on the weather..

Perhaps I'll see if I can elevate the modem. Our new place will have ethernet ports in every room.... Any suggestions for improving signal strength?


Cheers
mOOseCaNNoN (13319)
1441618 2017-11-06 22:28:00 If its only happening tonight, could simply be internet Lag. Not a lot you can do about it. Even on fibre you will get lag if there is a problem with over usage, a server out someplace.

"sometimes" if you take the channel off auto and change it , it can improve things for the wireless, BUT on the same lines it can also make it worse. The channels to try are 1, 6, and 11

This article explains why www.extremetech.com

Thanks wainuitech. I'll try this next time, perhaps tonight.

I don't feel it's internet issues, as we're on VDSL and have great speeds and never lag spikes when I'm gaming online. When playing on local LAN it SHOULD be using the local network, but I wouldn't put it past steam to try and route all of the data through external servers. That would be silly though. Will try the channel thing.


Cheers!
mOOseCaNNoN (13319)
1441619 2017-11-07 10:47:00 Likely to be WiFi, try downloading WinMTR and running it to, say, 8.8.8.8 while you play
When she notices a lag-spike, alt-tab back to it, copy it, paste the results here, and we'll see what we can do.

Even if laptop doesn't have Ethernet, you can get cheap ones like this which will do the trick:
www.pbtech.co.nz
Chilling_Silence (9)
1441620 2017-11-07 20:19:00 Likely to be WiFi, try downloading WinMTR and running it to, say, 8.8.8.8 while you play
When she notices a lag-spike, alt-tab back to it, copy it, paste the results here, and we'll see what we can do.

Even if laptop doesn't have Ethernet, you can get cheap ones like this which will do the trick:
www.pbtech.co.nz

Thank you! I'll try this too the next time we're all gaming on the network and also look at getting a USB adapter.

Much appreciated
mOOseCaNNoN (13319)
1441621 2017-11-07 20:54:00 You could try getting one of them to shut down and see if the other two improve, the more devices connected to wi-fi the slower it goes overall as they are all sharing the same bandwidth. You could also try disabling wi-fi on smartphones and tablets etc while gaming in case they are using some bandwidth occasionally. Could be something else interfering, or updates happening in the background as well. dugimodo (138)
1441622 2017-11-07 22:30:00 You could try getting one of them to shut down and see if the other two improve, the more devices connected to wi-fi the slower it goes overall as they are all sharing the same bandwidth. You could also try disabling wi-fi on smartphones and tablets etc while gaming in case they are using some bandwidth occasionally. Could be something else interfering, or updates happening in the background as well.

Thanks dugimodo. I forgot to mention that we did connect one laptop to the modem via ethernet and it basically solved the lag issue! So it is most likely having too many devices on the wireless when the signal strength is poor. We disconnected all the chromecasts and put our phones on aeroplane mode before we did that, but that didn't seem to make any difference, but plugging one laptop into ethernet did.

Sometime's it's fine, so I wonder if it's one the other kids doing something on a device which causes the lag spikes.

My new Lenovo laptop seems to have the most issues. I found this article which I'll also try, as the connection seems lag the most on this laptop and tends to sometimes drop out, but the other devices are fine. The computer in the lounge is a desktop which is using an old wireless G USB adapter and seems to be the most stable in terms of ping. support.lenovo.com
mOOseCaNNoN (13319)
1441623 2017-11-07 23:04:00 Run some ethernet cabling instead. Wifi is the pits for gaming. pctek (84)
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