D-Link DGL-4300 GamerLounge Router

[Wheelman56]

The GamerLounge line of routers use the selling point that they have this special technology that puts games at a higher priority than anything else going through your connection, to reduce lag. I got this router because while playing Battlefield 2 if my sister did ANYTHING on her computer over the wi-fi then BF2 would just go bezerk and I would be magnatized back and fourth all over the place with pings in the 400s during the spike. I was hoping this router would be able to remedy this annoyance. When I first plugged it in when she did things on the computer I did notice my ping would rase from about 60 to 120 but no magnatized jerks all over the screen. So I thought, well, alright. Then I joined another server late at night and my mom was browsing the web, my pings jumped from the 70s all the way up to 200 at times. I figured it was my mothers fault but after she got off the computer it continued, not all the way up to 200 but 150 at times. Then, I had another 450+ lag spike and the magnatized jerking came back. I went out into the other room to figure out what happened and the computer was just sitting there, no one was on it. I unplugged the wi-fi adapter from my sisters computer and...... POOF! All my problems were cured. Just for reference I did turn the "GameFuel" option on, which is supposed to be this wonderful technology (heh, ok). All the tests for this router, I noticed, were tests where they would download things on the same computer they were gaming on and show there wasn't much of a difference. I guess they forgot to test what happens when OTHER users on your network start doing stuff. Does anyone have experience with this router to tell me how to control my sisters bandwidth? Or just a way to control it without using the router... anything would be greatly appriciated. I just want to make her have 5 kb/s or so to herself and the rest goes to me.

 

[JRock]

QoS

 

[Monoman]

did you enable the game fuel option? Also, did you add the ports for that game into the game fuel profile?

 

[Avalon]

What sort of connection are you running on?

 

[Wheelman56]

Originally posted by: JRock
QoS

GameFuel is described as a QoS feature. The router itself has no QoS option.

Originally posted by: Monoman
did you enable the game fuel option? Also, did you add the ports for that game into the game fuel profile?

I did enable the GameFuel option. I had it on automatic and it said it was unnecessary to add specific GameFuel rules when it was on auto. But I guess I could give it a shot.

http://planetwolfenstein.com/warm/gamefuel.jpg

This is the GameFuel screen... I'm not 100% sure what to do with the destination IP range and port range.

Originally posted by: Avalon
What sort of connection are you running on?

1mbit ADSL

 

[spidey07]

well the problem is the service is pretty slow so even with QoS you won't be able to guarantee game response time.

The thing is the router can't control what is coming to it (ie inbound from the web server your mom/sister is browsing) and this delays your gaming streams.

 

[Wheelman56]

What service is pretty slow? My DSL? If you didn't read above I do get low pings from 20 - 70 when her computer isn't leeching the bandwidth.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Wheelman56
What service is pretty slow? My DSL? If you didn't read above I do get low pings from 20 - 70 when her computer isn't leeching the bandwidth.

Yes, the DSL.

QoS can't really do anything if the pipe is getting full and packets delayed (which is what is happening.) You can control what goes out, but not what comes in.

Just a single web browser packet will delay your game packets 12 ms (1500 byte packet divided by 1 million bits per second). Take a normal web conversation and there will be about 16 (or more) web packets coming into you. 16*12 = 172 ms extra delay.

 

[Wheelman56]

So is there anything that you know of that I can do? Cable is not currently available in my area, all we have is DSL. I used to play Call of Duty alot and I NEVER had this problem, not this bad. BF2 is the most network sensitive game I've ever played. Some people tell me I should set up a Linux box and put a proxy server on it so I can choke her bandwidth... what do you think?

 

[spidey07]

That could work. I don't know the traffic pattern of that game but most seem to use between 128 and 192k of constant streaming traffic.