Need help improving quality for online gaming.

Mikeyt086

Hey, any help here is appreciated.

My situation is, I have 1meg Eircom broadband, a netopia wireless router which is connected through ethernet to the family PC, my laptop and Xbox 360 are connected wirelessly down the hall, around 10 meters away which I think is just on the edge of the range of the signal, as I never have more than 1 bar of signal on the xbox. I do alot of online gaming, and I was wondering how I could go about maybe getting a router in the room with the xbox, we have phone lines in here which are unused, is there anything I can do to link the broadband through them? As that would mean a router connecting to the xbox via ethernet and improve the stability, but I feel I may have to get an eircom tec out to do that.

Would simply buying a better router help? Maybe by having greater range?

Also, does anyone know how much it would be to upp my connection from 1meg? As that is pretty awful.

Again, any help is appreciated.

grizzly

You can get 10 meter ethernet cables, I'd get one and hide it under carpet/floorboards. Worth the hassle of avoiding wireless for gaming.

DemoniK

even if it's just 10m, there are a lot of things that can affect signal...
- number of walls
- angle through the wall (if you have a 4" wall, it's shortest point is straight on, any angle increases the distance.
- content of walls
- metal objects in line of sight to antenna...

So much chances for things to screw it up

A 3 antenna router (MIMO) helps quite a bit. And some routers do have stronger signals. TBH, the netopias are one of the worst routers for gaming anyway...

Running a CAT5 cable is the easiest and cheapest. Should be able to get a 10m cable pretty cheaply, and then just hide/pin it, etc.. Make sure you don't leave it exposed to people tripping, or applying too much pressure to the cable so you maintain a quality connection..

Another alternative - and which I use is to buy the ethernet over power devices. Just plug into your powerpoints in the wall and connect ethernet cables. Maplin were doing a pair of Devolo 200Mbps devices for ~€100 recently.
Well worth the cash!

jor el

If there is a phone socket in the room, then move the router.

You can't put a 2nd modem on one phone line, so it has to be moved or nothing at all. Failing that, run a long cable from the modem to the XBox.

Improving wireless is not going to happen. Wifi and gaming are not a good mix.

cherryghost

You can try ring Eircom and ask them to move your line to low interleaving? I was on 1mb for nearly 2 years with average ping of 80-100ms on most games. Got low interleaving on it about 6 months in, my ping dropped to about 50-60ms

yuloni

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Mikeyt086

DemoniK wrote: »

Another alternative - and which I use is to buy the ethernet over power devices. Just plug into your powerpoints in the wall and connect ethernet cables. Maplin were doing a pair of Devolo 200Mbps devices for ~€100 recently.
Well worth the cash!

I like the sound of this, im gonna look into it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I actually have a 10m cable, put I cant have it dragging accross the hall and have no idea how I would run it under the floorboards.

EDIT: Ive looked into the Homeplug ethernet adapters and they look perfect for what I need. Can anyone tell me if 85mbps will be enough for Xbox Live? I am on 100mbps with Eircom.

yuloni

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Mikeyt086

Brilliant guys. Im gonna get these homeplug ethernet adapters. Thanks to everyone who replied.

Mikeyt086

Just thought I would pop in and say what happend with this.

I managed to pick up 2 homeplug adapters for only €30 on ebay with collection from Sandyford, couldnt believe my luck! Took them home and plugged them in and instantly they connected and I have been gaming with a flawless connection ever since.

Thanks again.

cherryghost

Condi wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I didnt notice any change in speeds or drops

dub45

For anyone reading this who is stuck with wireless it is always worth trying a different channel. With so many people using wireless now it is very easy to find yourself being "polluted" by your neighbours. Try netstumbler to show you how many other wireless channels are around - you can also get apps for the iphone which will do it.

KennyLegend

dub45 wrote: »

For anyone reading this who is stuck with wireless it is always worth trying a different channel. With so many people using wireless now it is very easy to find yourself being "polluted" by your neighbours. Try netstumbler to show you how many other wireless channels are around - you can also get apps for the iphone which will do it.

+1 for me.
@dub45...do u know the iPhone apps that do this? I've got dessid but I don't think it's great.

dub45

KennyLegend wrote: »

+1 for me.
@dub45...do u know the iPhone apps that do this? I've got dessid but I don't think it's great.

WifiTrak and wififofum are the ones I have on my phone but apparently these are no longer available ain the app store!


http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/03/wifi-stumbler-iphone-app-wififofum-cydia-free.html

KennyLegend

dub45 wrote: »

For anyone reading this who is stuck with wireless it is always worth trying a different channel. With so many people using wireless now it is very easy to find yourself being "polluted" by your neighbours. Try netstumbler to show you how many other wireless channels are around - you can also get apps for the iphone which will do it.

Just tried netstumbler and nothing is showing up !!

But..i got wififofum on my phone now....nice tool !!

exaisle

dub45 wrote: »

For anyone reading this who is stuck with wireless it is always worth trying a different channel. With so many people using wireless now it is very easy to find yourself being "polluted" by your neighbours. Try netstumbler to show you how many other wireless channels are around - you can also get apps for the iphone which will do it.

+1 dub45

Most routers are set to channel 6 by default so you want to avoid that...in fact you're as well off getting as far away as possible...channel 1 or 11 tend to be good choices.

Have a look here for more info:

http://refraction.co.uk/blog/2010/06/02/how-to-pick-the-right-channel-for-your-wi-fi/

E