rant/help? re: wireless gaming in Windows Vista

[ZippyDan]

do a search for "ping spike wireless vista" in google. you can add in "60 seconds" if you want to. this is a universal problem

apparently this was an issue in Windows XP as well, but it had reliable fixes. in both XP and Vista, the Windows wireless utility will perform a search for other Access Points in the area every 60 seconds. what this means is that i have fantastic 30ms pings, except for every 60 seconds, like clockwork, i get a plus 1000ms ping spike

microsoft seems to view this as a "feature" that windows verifies every minute that you are indeed connected to the best possible access point. fine, but give me a way to disable this feature!

i just installed SP1 for Vista in hopes it would be fixed, but it was not. im using a Linksys device and there is no Linksys wireless utility for Vista as of now. anyway i hate using crappy addon utilities. this entire situation is intolerable

any online gaming via a wireless connection in Vista results in a terrible experience with regular spikage. how can microsoft possibly overlook this?

 

[spidey07]

Because that is how wireless is supposed to work. It's part of the standard that the client searches for other access points, this allows a client to roam properly and maintain a connection. To not do this would be to break one of the best features with wireless - roaming.

 

[ZippyDan]

hmmm. so wireless is supposed to break online gaming? that is dumb, this is a vista issue. most 3rd party clients have no problem enabling/disabling this feature. of course roaming is good if you are in a roaming situation. im sitting at home on a desktop hooked into my wireless access point. i dont need to search for other connections. this is a landline replacement situation not a roaming situation

 

[ch33zw1z]

Gaming over wireless isn't a good idea no matter what OS you're using, just plug in to play.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: ZippyDan
hmmm. so wireless is supposed to break online gaming? that is dumb, this is a vista issue. most 3rd party clients have no problem enabling/disabling this feature. of course roaming is good if you are in a roaming situation. im sitting at home on a desktop hooked into my wireless access point. i dont need to search for other connections. this is a landline replacement situation not a roaming situation

So get a workgroup bridge, force it to a particular access point and you should be good to go. You could even try to force vista to only use a particular BSSID (mac address of the AP you are connecting to).

 

[ZippyDan]

Originally posted by: spidey07

So get a workgroup bridge, force it to a particular access point and you should be good to go. You could even try to force vista to only use a particular BSSID (mac address of the AP you are connecting to).

i already invested in wireless hardware. namely a desktop PCI card (tell me how often an internal PCI card should be roaming.) the hardware is fine. its the software built into the Vista OS that is sabotaging me. how would i do this BSSID thing?

Originally posted by: ch33zw1z
Gaming over wireless isn't a good idea no matter what OS you're using, just plug in to play.

thats not an option here, and there would be NO PROBLEM with using wireless here (connection quality and strength is amazing), except for vista spiking the connection...

 

[NickOlsen8390]

I played CSS on my laptop and it did fine.
My ping never went over 34ms to the server.
I even moved to a different part of the house during that and it never changed.
And guess what...It was vista

So its not a vista problem

Grab a old WRT54G and load it with DD-WRT and use it as a client bridge, That should work better. plus you could take the line coming from the bridge and plug it into a switch and hookup other Ethernet devices like game consoles etc..

<rant>
So many people blame all there problems on vista. I use vista on my desktop (Quad core-Q6600@2.4, 4gb DDR2-800, EVGA 8800GTX KO ASC3) and my laptop (HP turion 1.8ghz dual core. 1gb ram)
And i have never had a problem with vista, i never get FPS lag, i never get ping spikes, i never get file transfer throttling on my gigabit network.
Really, on my main desktop it ran better then XP, XP had problems and just didn't work like it use to. Vista is always working right, and is stable as i need it to be. I run all my computers 24/7, minus laptop
Don't get me wrong, my servers run XP and Server 2003, but they just sit running 24/7
IMHO, 2.4 wifi is good for about nothing passed email and http.
I can't say the same for 5.8 proprietary wireless and different 2.4 types, such as 2.4-10mhz
To finish my rant, I think if you have the hardware you will like vista, If you have hardware that is a few years old your going to say vista is slow. Also, upgrades, people upgrade then wonder why there program from 1995 doesn't work. Do a fresh install and update your damn programs.
</rant>

 

[ZippyDan]

Originally posted by: NickOlsen8390
<rant>
So many people blame all there problems on vista. I use vista on my desktop (Quad core-Q6600@2.4, 4gb DDR2-800, EVGA 8800GTX KO ASC3) and my laptop (HP turion 1.8ghz dual core. 1gb ram)
And i have never had a problem with vista, i never get FPS lag, i never get ping spikes, i never get file transfer throttling on my gigabit network.
Really, on my main desktop it ran better then XP, XP had problems and just didn't work like it use to. Vista is always working right, and is stable as i need it to be. I run all my computers 24/7, minus laptop
Don't get me wrong, my servers run XP and Server 2003, but they just sit running 24/7
IMHO, 2.4 wifi is good for about nothing passed email and http.
I can't say the same for 5.8 proprietary wireless and different 2.4 types, such as 2.4-10mhz
To finish my rant, I think if you have the hardware you will like vista, If you have hardware that is a few years old your going to say vista is slow. Also, upgrades, people upgrade then wonder why there program from 1995 doesn't work. Do a fresh install and update your damn programs.
</rant>

google: vista wireless ping spike

this is a universal issue.

my problem is on a brand new Dell with Vista Preinstalled: Q6600 (Quad Core 2.4ghz), 4GB RAM, XFX 9600GT, on a 25mbit Cable connection. Hardware is not a problem here

 

[NickOlsen8390]

Originally posted by: ZippyDan

Originally posted by: NickOlsen8390
<rant>
So many people blame all there problems on vista. I use vista on my desktop (Quad core-Q6600@2.4, 4gb DDR2-800, EVGA 8800GTX KO ASC3) and my laptop (HP turion 1.8ghz dual core. 1gb ram)
And i have never had a problem with vista, i never get FPS lag, i never get ping spikes, i never get file transfer throttling on my gigabit network.
Really, on my main desktop it ran better then XP, XP had problems and just didn't work like it use to. Vista is always working right, and is stable as i need it to be. I run all my computers 24/7, minus laptop
Don't get me wrong, my servers run XP and Server 2003, but they just sit running 24/7
IMHO, 2.4 wifi is good for about nothing passed email and http.
I can't say the same for 5.8 proprietary wireless and different 2.4 types, such as 2.4-10mhz
To finish my rant, I think if you have the hardware you will like vista, If you have hardware that is a few years old your going to say vista is slow. Also, upgrades, people upgrade then wonder why there program from 1995 doesn't work. Do a fresh install and update your damn programs.
</rant>

google: vista wireless ping spike

this is a universal issue.

my problem is on a brand new Dell with Vista Preinstalled: Q6600 (Quad Core 2.4ghz), 4GB RAM, XFX 9600GT, on a 25mbit Cable connection. Hardware is not a problem here

Im sure it is a issue, I'm just saying in my 2 experiences that has not happened to me.
Come to think about it, my friend uses wireless on his desktop and has vista. He has also never had said problem.
Am i saying that its not a problem? No, I'm saying that i have never seen it. Would i go as far to say its a "universal problem"? No, Does it happen, I guess so, google says it does. But i think universal problem is a bit to far


Not to mention its a Dell