How is gaming on wireless internet these days?

[futurefields]

I'm going to be living somewhere for about a month with only wireless internet. Good signal strength, but wireless nonetheless. I typicaly always use wired internet out of some thought that it is a more stable connection. Infact my gaming PC doesnt even have a wireless card, so ill need to get one of those (could use recommendations on that as well)

Thanks!

 

[Dankk]

Any decent WiFi network connection will be completely and utterly indistinguishable from a wired connection. I've been using a wireless card in my gaming PC for years, and it's always been fine.

Just to demonstrate: If I open up a Windows command prompt and enter the command "ping -t 192.168.1.1" to test my wireless latency, the response time is consistently <1ms, which is imperceivable. It's basically perfect. Turning off wireless, running a cable downstairs to the router, and running the test again will not yield any better results.

People who claim that WiFi sucks are usually those unfortunate enough to have bad hardware, bad interference/distance between them and the access point, or there's just something about their living conditions that prevents them from having a solid connection. But like I said, if your situation permits for a good WiFi signal, then there are no noticeable disadvantages.

Hope that helps.

 

[Veliko]

A wired connection is more stable so you should use it if you can.

 

[Tsavo]

I've had no problems in 5 years with wifi gaming.

I Edimax 7128 adapters. 100% flawless for me. They aren't the fastest out there, but they are still faster than my internet connection, so NBD.

 

[BrightCandle]

All depends where you live and the interference. I have a lot of overlapping WiFi networks here and my connectivity is thus highly variable, just a lot of interference. But if you don't have other networks near by and don't use interfering devices like microwaves then it will be pretty stable.

You will never get the reliability of a wire out of WiFi, even theoretically it will perform worse due to the encoding overhead but given decent conditions it can produce consistent bandwidth and latency. But most people don't have ideal conditions.

 

[TallBill]

I wouldn't use it for FPS but would be fine for anything else.

 

[Fox5]

When you say wireless, do you mean Wifi or Cellular?

Wifi is fine as long as the router is 5ghz and you have a 5ghz card.
Alternatively, 2.4ghz will work in an area that isn't very crowded.
802.11g is somewhat long in the tooth though and could limit performance if other people are using the wireless.

 

[VenBaja]

I think some people are misunderstanding what the OP is talking about. I'm pretty sure he's talking about actual wireless services, like XFinity by Comcast. With those, the ISP runs a line out to various access points, which whole neighborhoods connect to. This is much different than having your own cable connection with a wireless router on the end and a PC 4 feet away.

From what I've heard, those services can be pretty darn decent as long as other people on the network aren't using up all the bandwidth. It also depends on your location and how many hops you have to take...as well as how far you are from the access point.

For what it's worth, even cellular wireless can be pretty decent. I tethered my phone and used that connection to play BF3 on my laptop while I was in a hotel last year. My ping was between 120 and 150, and was enough for me to remain competitive.

 

[Skott]

I have the Bright House High Speed 60MBps plan. I'll agree wired is continuously more stable and preferred but at this speed wifi play is very good as well. I get 62MBps wired(not sure how but that's what my testing shows). I get 50MBps -55MBps wifi throughout the house. Router is centrally located. 30mbps-39mbps wifi outside out to about 30ft or so and then drops quickly. It depends on your house, equipment, and speed really. My house is 2150 sq. ft. Single story four bedroom.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I suppose it could be alright but I've never actually played online via wireless. A strong signal and it should be fine though.

 

[MongGrel]

I still leave my main rig hardwired, but haven't been gaming a lot lately either.

I still prefer it.

 

[alcoholbob]

It's pretty bad when I tried with Diablo 3, I disconnect quite often. Didn't seem to matter when I changed wireless adapters or routers.

 

[chimaxi83]

I think some people are misunderstanding what the OP is talking about. I'm pretty sure he's talking about actual wireless services, like XFinity by Comcast. With those, the ISP runs a line out to various access points, which whole neighborhoods connect to. This is much different than having your own cable connection with a wireless router on the end and a PC 4 feet away.

From what I've heard, those services can be pretty darn decent as long as other people on the network aren't using up all the bandwidth. It also depends on your location and how many hops you have to take...as well as how far you are from the access point.

For what it's worth, even cellular wireless can be pretty decent. I tethered my phone and used that connection to play BF3 on my laptop while I was in a hotel last year. My ping was between 120 and 150, and was enough for me to remain competitive.

Yeah no.... that shared wifi bs sounds horrible, leave that for Mcdonalds and Starbucks. I'd never sign up for that.

Tethering to your cell phone works in a pinch, I'll agree to that. 50 megs of LTE and ~70ms ping wasn't bad for those emergency gaming sessions.

 

[futurefields]

I think some people are misunderstanding what the OP is talking about. I'm pretty sure he's talking about actual wireless services, like XFinity by Comcast. With those, the ISP runs a line out to various access points, which whole neighborhoods connect to. This is much different than having your own cable connection with a wireless router on the end and a PC 4 feet away.

From what I've heard, those services can be pretty darn decent as long as other people on the network aren't using up all the bandwidth. It also depends on your location and how many hops you have to take...as well as how far you are from the access point.

For what it's worth, even cellular wireless can be pretty decent. I tethered my phone and used that connection to play BF3 on my laptop while I was in a hotel last year. My ping was between 120 and 150, and was enough for me to remain competitive.

No I am just talking about standard wi-fi. Like having a regular Comcast cable internet connection and running wi-fi.

Guys how is this combo for gaming? Seems pretty popular and reliable. No wireless-AC though, just wireless N.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Dual-Band.../dp/B0049YQVHE

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Wireless-...s=asus+usb-n53

 

[HardcoreRobot]

unusable for me due to interference, YMMV

 

[Dankk]

No I am just talking about standard wi-fi. Like having a regular Comcast cable internet connection and running wi-fi.

Guys how is this combo for gaming? Seems pretty popular and reliable. No wireless-AC though, just wireless N.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Dual-Band.../dp/B0049YQVHE

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Wireless-...s=asus+usb-n53

Router looks fine, personally though I would avoid using a USB adapter. I'm not an expert but I imagine that the USB interface would bottleneck your connection a lot more than, say, PCI would (PCI is going to be higher bandwidth and lower latency than USB). Also, with a PCI card you won't have a big ugly plastic dongle sticking out of one of your USB ports.

I've always thought of WiFi USB adapters as temporary solutions for computers without access to wired connections. For something more dedicated/reliable you should use a PCI card.

This looks good: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WDN...dp/B007GMPZ0A/

 

[sweenish]

I have that router, and it's great.

I second Dankk and would avoid the USB stick if you could. They are just unreliable, regardless of brand. A wireless card would be a great idea. I have a bridge for my desktop:
http://www.amazon.com/EA-N66-Ultra-F...ireless+bridge

It's obviously more expensive, but in bridge mode my desktop sees it as a wired connection. The signal is strong, and I've never really had issues with the bridge. I picked the bridge because it can also serve as a wi-fi extender or its own access point for guests if my situation changes in regards to how my network can be set up.

 

[Stuka87]

Gaming over a wifi connection (FPS games or even games like Diablo 3) is horrible. Tested it with various 802.11n routers and wifi cards. It would be fine and then ping would sky rocket. This is with me only being like 8ft from the router, in the same room. There are just too many people that use 2.4GHz for it to be usable, even in a less dense area like where I live. 5GHz works a lot better as far as interference, but still far from perfect.

I switched to ethernet (Had to move the router to the other side of the room) and its flawless now. Sub-20ms ping typically. Over wifi to the same servers I would average 20-30, but then sky rocket to 300-400ms for short burst. Which ultimately ended up killing me in most cases in BF4, which admittedly is a bit bandwidth hungry.

 

[Tweak155]

I always run wire to all my main components even though wireless is fine for 98% of things I want to do. Just gives me a cozy feeling

 

[KentState]

< 1ms ping consistent from my laptop to router and never had a problem gaming.

 

[Nebor]

It's not up to snuff in my book! In order to pwn in UT2003 I stick with my wired internet, CRT monitor and wired ball mouse.

 

[Denithor]

WiFi gaming didn't work for me in two different houses. Too much interference or something, signal would sometimes drop and I would frequently get huge random spikes in ping time.

So I switched to a powerline adapter kit and couldn't be happier.

Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833704165

Have used similar now for myself and several friends who were having troubles with wireless gaming and/or netflix/etc streaming. Really doesn't cost much more than a quality wireless card and works far better in my experience (absolutely as good as a regular wired connection).

 

[DeadFred]

It all depends on the wireless provider and their network. I used to have it because I had no other choice at the time and in the beginning FPS gaming was simply impossible due to lag and dropped packets, but later after the ISP put in some upgrades and bought more bandwidth it was very stable.

 

[duragezic]

I've never been a fan of it. Unless you're on the couch with a laptop (and not gaming anyway), I'd use wired.

Maybe I haven't used the best router or receiver but it's just never been that great to me.

 

[alkemyst]

WIRELESS!

If it would be better to cable my desktop I would but it's not.

Never had issues and while I don't game all the time, I do well even in battlefield/arena stuff.