Minor Inconvenience - Caused by Wireless Lag or My Settings?

[Chilli]

I just did PingPlotter with 90 samples included and noticed the best graph ever   I did however notice a wide range in ping ranging in some areas from 7 to 117.

In game I have noticed minor inconveniences.  The most annoying is lag in chat and map movement. 

In one case frequently I clearly double click on one base to move to that base and am placed at another base.

I sometimes infrequently log on and my squad channel is "squelched" for lack of a better word.  This includes both vox and chat.  Sometimes Ch. 200 has the same effect.  < Both are random but last until I log completely out of the game back to the desktop and start the game again.  Then all is fixed.

Last and perhaps the least annoying is the infrequent chat and vox lag, usually in a highly populated area with a lot of vox chat going on.  This has been so bad, in terms of length of lag, that I would recommend external vox servers over that included with the game for scenarios.  At least this is the case for my computer and connection.

* Note:  Even though permissions are granted for Windows Firewall, upon logon the pop up screen reminds me to alt tab and give firewall permission.

[Skuzzy]

Wireless is always going to be problematic for our voice system as it uses the UDP protocol, which is low overhead, but sacrifices data integrity for speed.  A UDP collision or bit error means the packet is lost forever.

As wireless is not a full duplex connection, it will suffer more from collisions than a wired connection will.  Just be sure to not have anything else streaming over the connection in order to give it the best chance of working.

[bustr]

Are there any near future improvements on track for the technology and speed?

[Bizman]

Are there any near future improvements on track for the technology and speed?

The entire IEEE 802.11 family is half-duplex, so the collision issue will always exist to some extent. It's a living and growing beast, so both the speed and reliability can take remarkable leaps with a new protocol. New generations don't get introduced too often, though, and downward compatibility may cut a major portion of theoretical maximums. What I'm trying to say, is that a wired connection will still be the best choice for serious Internet gaming also in the future.

[bustr]

Just curious. Only thing I like about wireless is my MotoX uses it first then the cell provider's radio freq with a seemless handoff.

[Skuzzy]

There are some research labs experimenting with full duplex wireless, but it is still a few years away.

[Chilli]

After posting the best PingPlotter graphs that I have ever had on any machine or ISP, yesterday it all went to pot.  Seemed a little better early this morning and then  it went back to stone age warpy play.  I logged off after my eyeballs  settled down trying to fight 3 bumble bees (at least that is what it looked like, up n down, then side to side).

I checked my Router DDWrT info and saw the same I was seeing with Ping Plotter 885 errors lost ping packets transmitted.  So, I gave my ISP a call to see if there were odd problems or any other complaints.  She (ISP tech) saw no problems on their end and suggested to turn router off (I let it set for 5 mins) and then back on.  She then said she reset my "radio".  I am assuming this meant a reboot from their end, off and then on like my router.

This worked and only wished that I had thought to call earlier, or had known to check and re boot the router.  This will be my #1 on the checklist from now on.  Wish all my problems worked out so well.

[artik]

I noticed that with Wireless my AH pings were unstable (from 280 to 600 sometimes) and higher (280 in average instead of 200 on wired line)

Once I stopped using wireless for AH the gaming experience had vastly improved.

[bustr]

This is where in the past Skuzzy would warn us consumer grade routers are POS and reboots tend to be a requirement about once a month.

ATT here in CA plays games with my connection because they want me off old school basic DSL and on to their U-Verse uber DSL. I'm looking for an explanation of the differences in the speed plan since I would be purchasing the same speed I'm at now. Still it's something I can monitor and know to reboot for a new IP when my route to the game server goes through LA with additional HOPS and round trip time instead of the SF gateway to TX. Heck you have to dig deep into their WEB pages to find their nationwide list of dial-up numbers for modems now, even though they give you free access with your basic DSL account.

Chilli, when any router of mine started doing what yours has done repeatedly, get a new one. Home routers are POS. How many years has the current one been left "ON"..........

[Chilli]

Bustr,

My daughter uses this specific router due to the availability of software  that she is comfortable with.  I believe one of the two routers in use is probably about 4 years old, the other maybe 18 months.  I have a brand new router that came with the installation sitting on the table (modern art).

If you think dealing with ISP management is rough they should have to talk to my daughter.     She is my ace in the hole if things are too wacky.
I am constantly questioning her concerning the household usage as first suspicion of connection woes, so if you think ISPs are defensive you ain't seen nothin.   

Smart TV, 3 plus tablets, 3 plus smart phones, xbox, wii, who knows what else ... decides to upgrade itself.  The dang router should have a red flashing light on top, when something is about to jump my connection.  At least that is what I suspect sometimes.

[bustr]

Daddy needs to get a secret second twisted pair line with cheap Basic DSL in his computer corner.

My wife has been trained to understand bandwidth and to not Internet shop or watch video's while I'm playing AH. All it took was a DDOS attack to the router LAN side from my PC once, showing her how her shopping pages took forever to resolve.

She came into the PC room wanting to know why her laptop was running so derned slow with it in her hands. I showed her the running attack program, all the flashing lights on the router, then killed the program saying now your shopping pages will resume normal speed download. Then I told her when she browses and runs videos while I'm playing AH, the exact same thing happens to my game experience.

She asks now when I'll be logged out of the game.

[Chilli]

I don't have any other option.  I live in the middle of farm country, so no ISP dares to run cable.  DSL is still not available even after promises made to extend hi speed to the rural areas.  Unfortunately, they feel covered by including the satellite providers. 

My current connection is as good as it gets, but I did think about getting a second separate antenna, but then I truly would feel as if I were undoing the good carbon footprints of all those Prius owners. 

[Bizman]

Chilli, your latest post made me think we've been discussing a different wireless than you originally meant. At least I have...

Just for the record, there's two kind of wireless connections, plus their variations of course. One is how the Internet is brought to your location like 3G, 4G, satellite and so on, the other is the WiFi or Wlan which is used to connect your computer to your router. They both have issues with fast paced Internet games like AH, but with the latter many problems can be avoided by using an Ethernet cable between the devices. The worst scenario is to use a wireless broadband with a wireless router.

[Chilli]

Yes Bizman,

It is confusing to most, unless you are in my situation, living in an area where you will be very fortunate, even to find a WiFi provider.

It used to be referred to as Radio Frequency or RF connection.  The differences between RF and Satellite connections are vast in terms of lag (at least for now).  At one point, I had both, and I can tell you that the Satellite connection was a good permanent good 1-3 second lag in most game action.  The speed was wonderful, nice for uploading and downloading pictures, but the absolute worst for online gaming in realtime.

Anyhow, I tried something, with a little hope that it may help buffer the lost ping error rate, especially while other devices are sharing the router.  I set the router MTU down from 1500 to 1458.   Skuzzy, IIRC, gave me a useful formula to calculate MTU and the receive window for my XP.  I was just poking some feelers out to the community to see if there are known tweaks to help Windows 8.1 or DDWrt settings to overcome heavy load times and still be playable.

It is kind of embarrassing, having to make an apology to other players, "Sorry, that my plane started dancing, but my daughter just started streaming another British mystery series."