Networking kit advice?

[andrewducker]

Virgin have fixed their network problems - and now it turns out that I'm having a local network problem. There are 14 networks visible from the living room, spread right across the range of frequencies. I'm getting packet loss and slow ping times, which is not great for playing any kind of online games.

So - I'm thinking of moving to 802.11n instead, on the grounds that this opens up a new range of frequencies to play with.

Anyone care to recommend a decent router? I'm on cable, so I don't need an ADSL modem built into it...

Comments

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

If you're playing games use a cable not wireless. Simple.

[andrewducker]

Up until two weeks ago we were fine - no problems with lag at all over wireless. I'd rather not have to run cables everywhere if I can avoid it.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Tragedy of the Commons. I give 11.n about 12 to 18 months before it turns into the fetid overpopulated swamp 11.b/g has already become. If you want to future-proof your wireless network I'd recommend dropping the cash and buying 11.a kit since nobody else uses it.

Alternatively you could just run cables -- RG58 10base2 is cheap these days.

[andrewducker]

Running cables means drilling holes in walls and then being in a fixed position to play games.

As I can currently play WoW from the sofa, this is less than ideal...

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I thought your problem was that right now you can't play WoW from the sofa since the 13 other networks in your neighbourhood have sucked up all the available wifi bandwidth...

You might be able to get away with using a very directional antenna from your router to your laptop to overcome the interference. It does mean that if you move your sofa or try and use the laptop somewhere else you'll need to realign the antenna.

Simply increasing the power output doesn't help since everybody else's routers are doing the same thing to try and get over your signal which is to them noise. The extra power requirement also eats into your laptop's battery life.

[zz]

what the others have said. a "good" router won't really help. either tin foil/wire mesh your walls, or use a cable. :)
you could maybe see if your wifi equipment can go up to channel 13, rather than just 11, and see how busy that is.

[andrewducker]

Switching to a different frequency set would clearly help, as there would be less congestion.

[andrewducker]

Or, I could switch to a different frequency set, by moving to 802.11n, which works on 5Ghz as well as the frequencies also taken up by 802.11g....

[draconid.livejournal.com]

Have you looked into those things that turn power cables into a network, so you can use the power sockets in your house instead of running cables, then just use cables between plugs and computers. Not sure how fast it'll be, but probably faster than wireless.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Have you tried sniffing the 5GHz 11.n frequency band in your locality yet? You have to figure that everybody else around you has already run into the problems you're now facing on 11.b/g and many of them will have already moved there too, for the extra data rates 11.n is capable of if nothing else -- 11.n has been rolling out for a couple of years now and pretty much every new Wifi-equipped device has 5GHz 11.n capability out of the box.

That's why I suggested 11.a as a fallback -- nobody in PC World or Dixon's knows anything about it and the usual suspects (Belkin, Netgear etc.) tend not to implement it on their common products.

[mair_in_grenderich]

what are those things? they sound useful where I am.

[vereybowring.livejournal.com]

I agree with the cable not wireless thing for games as interference happens on just about every frequency these days.
Depending on where your router is located can have a huge effect, I've recommended to a few people over the years to have their wifi 6ft off the floor rather than just sitting low down (since interference comes from loads of tabletop electronics).
If you have old thick stone walls a repeater station could also help your situation, since signals coming through a window to the living room may be stronger than your router trying to penetrate stone. A decent relatively cheap access point can be turned into a standalone repeater to give your wifi more power.
As has been said channels 12 and 13 tend to be less used by people.
Changing to n may solve it at the moment until everyone is on n of course.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

A few things.

1) Wireless is perfectly fine for gaming. It can introduce specific problems that don't occur on a cabled network that you can troubleshoot your way out of, but it's fine.

2) I doubt that your packed local wireless bands are the real problem.

3) Don't change to A. It isn't used anymore for good reason, as it was a really crappy standard that couldn't do jack squat.

Switching to N isn't a bad solution, considering that it's capable of much more speed than what b or g can provide. And changing the channels isn't a bad idea if you want to eliminate the possibility of interference from the other devices.

I'd recommend some troubleshooting. Ping your local loopback. Then ping your own IP address, then ping a local system on your own network, and then ping your gateway, which I presume is your router. Finally, ping something off your network, like google or something. Wherever you get bad perf is where the problem lies, and if it's between your system and your router, it could be a configuration issue.

My second troubleshooting suggestion would be to use the M-Lab tools:

http://www.measurementlab.net/

They'll be able to identify any real configuration problems that are contributing to your lag and what not, and although it's a little more technical than something like the tests at dslreports, given your background it sounds like a cakewalk for you.

[zz]

speaking of repeaters, we actually have 3 APs, one each on channels 1, 6 and 11, spread around the flat. i'm sure the neighbours would love us, if they were geeky enough to understand the implication. :>

[draconid.livejournal.com]

Here's one example. Never tried them myself as we just have cables running over the house!

http://maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98007

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

You may see a ton of other networks, but I'd bet they are not your real problem.
Its all the unseen crud that will be your problem. Doorbells, unshielded motors on central heating, fridges, baby monitors, microwaves, bluetooth gadgets etc etc etc.

Someone above mentioned the Powerline series, this could be a very local solution. Run one cabled to your router, and plug a Powerline Wifi repeater in the socket closest to your game area.

[mair_in_grenderich]

hm, where I'm staying we have a schoolroom about 300m from the main house, and there is a power line running out there from the main house. at the moment the schoolroom is connected via an O2 dongle but the signal isn't great. after mooching around the internet a while we aren't convinced that network-over-power is going to be a great plan over this distance either though.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

The Powerline networking units are technically illegal in the UK but the Government don't seem keen on enforcing the rules in a general sense. The devices create RF interference way over the permitted limits in a whole lot of frequencies and they are coupled to the mains wiring which acts as a long-line antenna meaning the splatter from a single powerline install can cover several square kilometres interfering with hand-held radios, radio amateurs and even TV and FM broadcast radio signals. Newer models are a bit less of a disaster area than older units and in theory the signal doesn't propagate through the household electricity meter and down into the mains distribution system but that's also debatable.

[andrewducker]

It's something that's started in the last two weeks, so it's possible that someone's installed a new baby monitor or whatever, but the sheer congestion seems like a good culprit, as it's definitely increased over the last year.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

So router and 2 new wireless cards/dongles? Or do your laptops already have N cards in them - I know mine doesn't. Have you changed your channel and frequency and fiddled about with the existing router settings - I used to have problems until I took time to change mine around as my own garage doors were causing drop outs.

[andrewducker]

It would occasionally be nice if my friends remembered that I've used a computer before :->

I've tried 4 different frequencies, and played around with all the settings I have - and my laptop supports 802.11n, although Julie's doesn't, so we'll need to replace her USB dongle.

[andrewducker]

Sorry if that came across as overly grumpy. I just get a bit fed up when I ask for advice on X and all of the comments that are left are "You don't want X, you want to do something else instead!"

[alienspacebat.livejournal.com]

I've just bought a new Netgear router to replace my BeBox (horrible bit of kit that drops connections every half hour). I looked into the different networking standards and went for plain N as I'm in a detached house with very little around me.

I did however consider dual band 2.4/5Ghz N as an option but decided I would prefer a router with gigabit ethernet (as the router I got also has USB ports for storage). I think the dual band may be ideal for you but you need to be careful

- Most N is only backwards compatible with B and G at 140mbps, not 300mbps although if speed isnt an issue this is probably ok
- Many dual band N routers either work in 2.4Ghz or 5 Ghz but cannot coexist with both. This means you definitely lose backwards compatibility if you switch frequency. This would have been a big issue

I did see some that do 2.4Ghz B/G and 5Ghz A/N simultaneously. That seems like an ideal solution to me

Other option could think of id DD-WRT or other 3rd party wireless firmware gives you access to other frequency bands. Not legal but claiming you forgot to switch the USA box to UK might get you away with it

[andrewducker]

I tried switching to an illegal frequency. The router would do it, but both PCs refused to :->

[andrewducker]

Cheers for the comment - which does highlight something I missed. I ordered a dual-band router, but failed to notice that it wasn't a _simultaneous_ dual-band router. Which is frustrating, because (a) I'm an idiot and (b) it took me ten minutes of googling to prove that it doesn't do what I want.

*sigh*

So I either use it in addition to the existing one, or I return it and get one that is simultaneous.

In any case, thanks.

Networking kit advice?

[girl-onthego.livejournal.com]

I've had a Belkin n router since oct and it's not given any problems, I don't do much gaming though.