802.11b and FPS gaming?

[vash]

Got the entire network running up at home and added 802.11b a while back. So far, most everything is fine and I'm pretty happy with the general network speeds (web surfing, email is fine, but transferring large files is a bit too slow).

What I started to try is FPS games and streaming audio/video. Right now, it "works", but there are general pauses every few minutes -- I'm assuming this is the encryption/authentication for the network. If I were to disable the encryption (I know about the security issues), would it alleviate the pops in music, or "lag" in games, that occurs every few minutes? I'm only assuming that these brief pauses (which generally get me killed in FPS games) are due to the encryption, but I could be wrong.

Can anyone shed a bit of light on this for me? All of my other systems are on plain ethernet, so they never have any of the same problems. Any help or questions, I'll be glad to answer here.

vash

 

[Rallispec]

i dont use encryption, and i've never had problems while playing games or streaming audio or video on my wireless network (when it worked). I never turned on encryption becuase i wasnt worried about people hacking into my network.. once you get 10 away from the house the signal strength is so bad its not even worth hacking into.

 

[ktwebb]

Since your asking how to disable WEP, encryption on 802.11b products, its probably pretty safe to say you have not actually enabled it. It is not enabled by default. If you have not assigned WEP keys to AP and clients then your not running any encryption. Upgrade the firmware on both AP and client cards and make sure you have a current driver set. Beyond that, monitor the connection via software if it comes with your hardware and visually see if you are in fact hiccuping on the wireless side.

 

[vash]

Originally posted by: ktwebb
Since your asking how to disable WEP, encryption on 802.11b products, its probably pretty safe to say you have not actually enabled it. It is not enabled by default. If you have not assigned WEP keys to AP and clients then your not running any encryption. Upgrade the firmware on both AP and client cards and make sure you have a current driver set. Beyond that, monitor the connection via software if it comes with your hardware and visually see if you are in fact hiccuping on the wireless side.

I'm not asking how to disable the encyption, I know that encryption is OFF by default, so I knew I had to enable it. I was just wondering if the "pops", etc are caused from the encryption or not. Looks like I'll disable it to see if that changes anything or not. Maybe the pops/pauses are from all the electronics around (multiple cell phones, 900mhz phone, lots of electronics, etc). I'll go without the encryption first and see if that fixes/changes anything.

vash

 

[WarSong]

We are using WEP and we play FPS games at my house without issues at all. One machine in a remote location of the house we just use for MP3s. It pops sometimes and it is because of poor reception/interferance. That is most likely your problem.

 

[ktwebb]

Gotcha. Misread your original post. 900 Mhz phones and other electronics should have no affect of the harmonics of your 802.11b device. Certainly the 900 Mhz phones won't. I've read where microwave ovens have messed with the budget AP's though that seems a little nutz to me since it is enclosed bombardment of microwaves. How it gets out to affect 802.11b hardware is not only a mystery but I would think a severe safety issue. 2.4 phones can cause some problems as well. WEP authentication should be transparant and not affect your LAN at all. Latency, througput etc... Having said that it certainly won't hurt to try it and see if it helps.