Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: TBolt A-10 on February 11, 2005, 10:01:34 AM
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I'm posting here because this forum has the most traffic...hope that's cool Skuzz.
I'm going to move at the end of this month. The new place has the same broadband connection that I have here - cable modem. But, because of the layout of the house, I may be forced to set up a wireless "network" instead of the wired network that I've enjoyed here.
My question to you all is...if I switch to wireless, will it negatively affect my game play in AH? Increased lag issues, maybe? Other problems?
Is there a good wireless router that might help prevent some of these problems?
Thanks, as always, for the community's input. :)
(would prefer to stay wired, but don't think it's going to happen)
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i have heard it does not effect gameplay alot, but that is hearsay.
do a forum search on the subject, i know alot of security risks are associated, and there have been many conversations about it.
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It doesn't affect gameplay for me, and it really shouldn't. From a wireless standpoint you are only pushing packets across your LAN, and that will be insanely faster than any ISP can offer you on broadband. There will be some security concerns if you don't want your neighbors surfing on your broadband connection. Normally, if you turn on WEP, and use a good key, you won't have any problems. Linksys and Netgear are both good and affordable, however I'm partial to linksys. I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have.. .just let me know. There are some pretty bright eggs on this forum, someone will be able to give you a hand if you have trouble reaching the skuzzster.
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I had to build wireless because of same reasons. No problems with it.
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I have no problems using wireless other than apon occasion you will want to "power off" the wireless unit for a min or so and restart it. It store a bunch of junk in it that can hinder its perfomance and powering it off cleans its self out.
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Wired is a better connection then wireless. But im not sure if u'll notice the difference when gaming. Here's some simple steps in protecting and making sure u have a clear signal. First find the ip gateway address. By clicking start/ run / then type cmd. When dos prompt comes up type ipconfig and hit enter. For example linksys ip gateway is 192.168.1.1. Bring up IE and enter 192.168.1.1 on address. A logon screen will appear admin is the default password. Either enter that on name or password. Now u are talking 2 your router and should change the default settings. First name your network SSID. Second change the channel from 6 to something else. Because everything in your house that is wireless is using the 2.4 freq. Cordless phones are famous for giving wireless connection problems. So change the freq from 2.4 to 2.43 or something. Next secure it by 64 or 128 bit wep key. Also change the logon password and user name. Once I connected all pc's 2 the wireless router, I disabled the broadcast so others can not even see it.
If u have a dsl modem u might have change your settings for it 2 setup as a bridge. DSL modems and routers have the same ip address. If u need more info on setting up your dsl modem as a bridge let me know and I'll try 2 walk u thru it. Or just call your dsl tech support and they will.
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Make sure you install a quality wireless NIC. I was stuck using a cheap-o USB wireless device for a long time, and I couldn't be more disgusted with the whole thing. For me it was worth it to run wire instead.
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You should see absolutely NO difference in any of your internet connections if the wireless router is set up properly. I use all Linksys gear normally, the WRT54G is a great Router and there are all kinds of neat firmware mods for it out there..
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Wireless works fine As an experiement I once even played the old game from my car at a public hot spot.
WAP54G is a good access point - you can hook it up to you existing wired network and there are some nifty things it can do (like be a repeater or a bridge).
I just moved and now play the game with (ta-da!) T1 access. My wireless setup is a WAP54G on the T1 equipment end and a Linksys WET11 at my game machine end. I am now a city block away and communicating at 80% signal strength (as reported in the WET11 software) at an average 1.2 to 1.5 kbps up and down with zero lost packets. I get the same network issues as anyone else though with Savis, just exactly the same as my previous directly wired DSL connect was, my pings are typically 50-70.
The WET11 is a nifty device the old ones have a very powerfull radio card. The WAP54G has a radio that is adjustable to much much more power (it ships at reduced but FCC legal max power) but that you must do at your own risk. There is also now a Linksys set of 7db antennas that you can upgrade too, but I didnt need them (or any software/firmware tweaking) here with this setup.
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If anything it'll be fun for you to try and hack your own connection. You know. Just to see if you can and everything. :)
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Originally posted by TBolt A-10
I'm posting here because this forum has the most traffic...hope that's cool Skuzz.
I'm going to move at the end of this month. The new place has the same broadband connection that I have here - cable modem. But, because of the layout of the house, I may be forced to set up a wireless "network" instead of the wired network that I've enjoyed here.
My question to you all is...if I switch to wireless, will it negatively affect my game play in AH? Increased lag issues, maybe? Other problems?
Is there a good wireless router that might help prevent some of these problems?
Thanks, as always, for the community's input. :)
(would prefer to stay wired, but don't think it's going to happen)
i play on wireless. no noticable difference...you can also set up boosters that will carry the signal farther.
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Thanks for the GREAT input guys.
I'm no longer worried about switching to wireless if I have to.
:)
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Just remember you dont have go all wired or all wireless - they mix and match just fine (with an access point such as the WAP54G). Where it is convenient go wired, where it isn't go radio, it is 100% flexable.
Enable some security though, at least WEP and disable SSID. 99% of hackers don't know how to break WEP ( it isnt hard though) and will more likely just move on to the other 5 open connections in your neighborhood. #1 thing people forget is to assign a new password to the equipment, then they can just log into you equipment and change it as they like.
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Kinda on the same topic. When I get my new machine I'd like to run this one thru a router and run a second machine, so me and a pal can fly at the same time.
Is that going to slow the connection?( I have high speed cable, if that matters).
Thanks in advance for any help, .
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Originally posted by airbumba
Kinda on the same topic. When I get my new machine I'd like to run this one thru a router and run a second machine, so me and a pal can fly at the same time.
Is that going to slow the connection?( I have high speed cable, if that matters).
Thanks in advance for any help, .
Sharing bandwidth is supposed to slow your connection down. But, my roommates and I have been running 2 PC's on my cable modem connection for over 2 years, and I never noticed a difference. Of course, I'm the AH pilot who uses the most bandwidth. :D They just check email and look for pr0n pics when they're on the net.
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Originally posted by Zanth
Just remember you dont have go all wired or all wireless - they mix and match just fine (with an access point such as the WAP54G). Where it is convenient go wired, where it isn't go radio, it is 100% flexable.
Enable some security though, at least WEP and disable SSID. 99% of hackers don't know how to break WEP ( it isnt hard though) and will more likely just move on to the other 5 open connections in your neighborhood. #1 thing people forget is to assign a new password to the equipment, then they can just log into you equipment and change it as they like.
Thanks, Zanth. I'll be coming back to check all your notes here - and everyone else's - when I set up the wireless network later this month.
Much appreciated, guys! :)
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Originally posted by TBolt A-10
Sharing bandwidth is supposed to slow your connection down. But, my roommates and I have been running 2 PC's on my cable modem connection for over 2 years, and I never noticed a difference. Of course, I'm the AH pilot who uses the most bandwidth. :D They just check email and look for pr0n pics when they're on the net.
Actually, the e-mail and pr0n's gonna be where most of the bandwidth goes, AH uses relatively little.
culero
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Originally posted by airbumba
Kinda on the same topic. When I get my new machine I'd like to run this one thru a router and run a second machine, so me and a pal can fly at the same time.
Is that going to slow the connection?( I have high speed cable, if that matters).
Thanks in advance for any help, .
Simple answer is no. Keep in mind its common for folks to confuse speed and bandwidth.
Think of it like this.
Your 'net connect is measured in terms of speed based on how long in elapsed time one miniscule amount of data (a packet, which is like 576 bytes if I remember correctly) takes to travel round trip from you to the server you're communicating and then back to you. That's measured in thousandth's of a second. But you're only talking about a teeny tiny bit of stuff, not a big download.
Your 'net connect is measured in terms of bandwidth based on how much volume of data you can receive in a given time interval. Normally people refer to how many kilobytes (1,000 bytes = 1 kilobytes) per second when referring to bandwidth, but you could also say how many megabytes per minute or whatever. The point is that you're measuring how MUCH you receive in a given time frame, not how fast each pice of data moves over the net.
Its common to confuse the two things because bandwidth controls how long it takes to download a file of a given size, hence people think "fast" or "slow" for a connect based on how long they take to get the complete file of a given size.
The fallacy in that is that Joe Smith might have a very fast connect to, say, HiTech Creations, meaning he can ping a packet there and back in 35 milliseconds, but because his 'net provider is only selling him a 512 kb/second bandwidth he takes 4 times as long to download a patch as Jane Doe because she has a 2000+kb/second cable connect that, due to network issues, takes 140 milliseconds to ping one packet back and forth to HTC.
So, in the above example, Jane downloads the patch in a quarter of the time Joe did, because she's taking in 4 times as many packets per second as Joe, so they think "wow she's fast and he's slow" but in fact Joe's connect is actually faster in terms of how quickly any one little piece of info reaches him in elapsed time.
Its really like the difference in the size of a water pipe (diameter of pipe not length). Jane's pipe delivers more because its a lot bigger around than Joe's, not because the water is coming out any faster than from Joe's.
For gaming, its the speed that's critical, not the bandwidth. Most of the work to render the game is done right inside your computer by the "front end" software you downloaded from HTC. All you send to HTC and receive from HTC is packets that contain the info as to your inputs (throttle, joystick, rudder, text, etc) so HTC's "server-side" software knows where and how to position you and your actions in its universe, and packets HTC sends back telling you what the other players in the universe are doing and where they are. This doesn't involve very large data files. All the video and sound is generated by the "front end" software resident in your computer, using the information received from HTC's "server-side" software to populate the universe being displayed appropriately with player actions.
I don't know exactly what bandwidth AH uses, but I doubt its much more than what Air Warrior used, and that was relatively nothing to what any "broadband" connect has (we used to advise AW customers they could limit their 28k, 33k, and 56k phone line modems to 14k max transmission for stability back in the day when that served to help control warping due to packet loss caused by modems trying to over-perform).
Another way to think about it is how much you can carry in your car versus how much a truck can carry (for example, a truck carries 4 times what the car carries). If you both drive the same speed, you and the truck arrive at destination at the same time (you both have the same 'net connection "speed") but since the truck holds more you have to make 4 trips to deliver the same amount of goods.
The reason the speed is more important to gaming than bandwidth is that the faster you get little small bits the server sends, the sooner you SEE what the other folks are doing.
Think about Joe Smith and Jane Doe again now. Each one is getting info from HTC's server as to where the other is and what they are doing. But, it takes Jane longer than Joe to receive a data packet since her ping time is longer, so he sees her actions sooner than she sees his.
Example, Jane is on Joe's six, gunsights lined up, and squeezes off a shot. But Joe's not really there anymore, he just started a barrel roll. His faster packet got there, updated the server, which moved him in the universe and sent a packet out to Jane - but her front end doesn't paint that move until she receives her slower data packet.
Think about that. It might explain some "rubber bullet" issues, eh? :)
Bottom line, in answer to your question, if you share a connection on your cable modem using a router to supply 2 computers, the only things that's affected is if you both choose to download large files at the same time. In that case, you're sharing the full amount of the pipe therefore each will take longer to download their pr0n than if only one was downloading.
BUT if you're both playing AH, you're each only using a little bit of what the pipe can carry, so the pipe is running at less than capacity and nobody is delayed. You're simply taking the stream that's coming out of the pipe and diverting it into two streams which both spray just as far.
And, in order to determine what's the best connection for gaming, you have to hook it up then measure the ping time via that connect to the game server you want to play on. Many things can affect ping time. Geographic distance "as the crow flies" is one, but the actual route your provider uses to get to where you hook up to the game's 'net provider backbone and then the route that provider uses to carry you to the game server is also a factor....as is how under-or-over-loaded any of the network that involves is at a given time (your home router won't delay your home network any because it can handle that much traffic, but a router on the internet that's handling a provider's entire load may cause delay if its overloaded due to too much traffic reaching it).
Bottom line, home network = no problem for gaming, but just because a connection is "broadband" doesn't mean its going to be good for gaming. Sometimes smaller can be better if its has a more direct and clean path. YMMV.
I hope this makes sense (I'm starting to confuse myself ;))
culero
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Thanks Culero,
. I really got it ,when you mentioned water pipes ;) ..it was like, "Bong", a bell went off in my head.
Good way to put it, I finally understand that issue, thanks buddy.
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Originally posted by airbumba
Thanks Culero, . I really got it ,when you mentioned water pipes ;) ..it was like, "Bong", a bell went off in my head.
Good way to put it, I finally understand that issue, thanks buddy.
Yanno, a bong was always my favorite kind of water pipe too ;)
culero (yer welcome)
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culero,
This caught my attention:
"Its really like the difference in the size of a water pipe (diameter of pipe not length). Jane's pipe delivers more because its a lot bigger around than Joe's, not because the water is coming out any faster than from Joe's.
If Jane indeed has a pipe to begin with, I would say that is incredible to begin with, but then HER pipe is a lot bigger around than Joes.... I mean GIVE JOE a break for crying out loud.
balsy
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alright, it looks like i'm going to have to go wireless.
new question...is it worth it to spend money on a $70 NIC? or, will the $19.95 card do the job very well?
been looking at http://www.tigerdirect.com. various prices.
thank you! :)
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Tbolt,
As culero points out, bandwidth isn't the issue. What he calls speed, I'll call latency, and that's the killer. While high latency is bad, highly variable/unpredictable latency is much worse.
From a networking perspective, wireless doesn't inherently introduce latency issues. But remeber that wireless is done over radio frequencies. RF interference is a definite concern when it comes to unpredictable latency.
Cordless phones and a multitue of other devices can interfere with your wireless signal in a way that is less apparent with download speed (not a big effect on bandwidth) than with gaming (high impact on latency due to the need to retransmit packets.)
If you, your roommates, and close neighbors have every electronic gadget known to man, beware of unpredictable performance while gaming.
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Thanks, Sam. I understand about the latency. Believe me, I'd prefer to stick with the 'ol RJ-45, but it's a huge hassle at the new property. My room is on one side of the house. The cable modem is way on the other side.
I'll just have to try the wireless connection and see what happens. :)
All opinions from users re: which NIC to buy are welcomed.
Thank you!
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Hate to be the downer in a fairly positive ciommunity response, but for one reason or another I had enough trouble with my wireless Netgear stability that I ran wires.
Used the wireless for several months, with fairly intense usage patterns. (I have an early teenage son... need I say more?) When having wireless LAN games, it was only a matter of time before one of the 3 players would lose connection, and sometimes thereby kill the multiplayer session (depending on the game). The wireless worked absolutely fine for regular home network services, but there were jsut too many packets lost to keep a game going for more than a couple hours.
The 3 (or four, depending on who came) systems were on the second floor within 20 feet of each other and the router, but there were multiple intervening walls. There have been absoultely no problems since I went wired, using the same router.
The newer protocols might work better, but i was disappointed since the "rated" (blue sky, ideal circumstances) range was supposed to be over 100 feet for this router -- and we dropped sometimes even when all systems were in the same room, within a 10 foot circle of the router.
Not sure if it's an option that'll make it past the ack factor, but have you considered nylon/plastic channel pieces that can cover cable runs on walls, floors, etc? Lowes' stocks them on the shelf, and grainger has a wide selection online
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Originally posted by Simaril
Not sure if it's an option that'll make it past the ack factor, but have you considered nylon/plastic channel pieces that can cover cable runs on walls, floors, etc? Lowes' stocks them on the shelf, and grainger has a wide selection online
Thanks for the report of your past experience. I'm not looking forward to ditching the RJ-45, but it's the easiest option. If my connection to AH suffers, I'll look into those "channel pieces" and/or see if I can run cable through the attic (pretty long run, though).
:(
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DON'T listen to any of them!!!
If you go "wireless" you will suffer many frustrating & painful deaths due to this evil devise:rolleyes:
That's why I moved to a solid string and can configuration with little to no death in the game.
Just tryin to help:aok
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Originally posted by TBolt A-10
If my connection to AH suffers, I'll look into those "channel pieces" and/or see if I can run cable through the attic (pretty long run, though).
:(
I ended up running through the attic, and distributing the wires from a central closet that abutted the stairway ceiling "ramp." Really wasnt bad at all. Got a kit at best buy that included a basic crimping tool (attaches the jacks to the raw cable ends), cable jacks, and 100 ft cable at a reasonable price.
Anyway, hope the wireless works.
And if not, there's always that tin can.
Simaril
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Simaril what netgear equipement are you using ?
As I will have my DG834G tomorow I hope it's not this one :)
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MR 314 Wireless Router