-= Gametoast.com =-

This applies primarily to laptops with intel wireless cards, but may also apply to other brands and desktops.

I'm not sure if anyone else has come across wireless lag, but I will post my problem and solution as aide to those who may come against it.

So first of, to find the communication speed between the router and your wireless card, you open cmd prompt and enter
"ping XXXXX"

The "XXXXX" represents your computers name (right click on "my computer" to find the name if you don't know it)

after you do this, observe the ip address of your computer (should look something like this: 192.168.1.49---or something similar)

Then in cmd prompt, type "ping " followed by the ip address (which will be your router's address), EXCEPT change the last section to 1, so, following my previous example, it would look like this:
"ping 192.168.1.1"

This time note the "ms" response time, including the averaged time. If it is 10 or higher, you may experience some lag in more system intensive games while playing online.

I use an "intel Centrino Wireless Card", and by default, they set you up for lag (for "power saving" {on laptops at least})

To change the settings, right click on "my computer" and click the "hardware" tab. Then click on the button that says "device manager"

Once in device manager, click on the plus sign by "network adapters" then double click on your wireless card. click on the "advanced" tab. here you will find a list of settings having to do with the connection reliability and speed settings. Tweak most of them to their highest potential.

After changing the settings and clicking "ok", go to the cmd prompt and ping your router again (192.168.1.1, as previously explained).

After tweaking my card, and enabling settings, i brought the response time from 10ms to only 1ms.

Hope this was helpful to those who have lag.

-~=Adreniline=~-

Good one there, Adreniline.

As a note, ALL intel based wireless cards are set to power saving by default (Though it doesn't save you much power to really matter. Tested myself.)

You did forget the basic rule though: Position, position, position.
Make sure you have a good line-of-sight for the radio waves. The more object or electrical interference in the way, the weaker the signal, the more lag. I use mine in an old apartment with lots of metal, so I can barely go next door and get a good signal. Here's what I did though. I placed the wireless router close to were a line-of-site is facing a window (in my case the patio window) and also closer to the ceiling to keep it away from the TV and stereo equipment. Plus it is as close to the center of the apartment as possible.

Microwaves, florescent lights, live wires, some cell phones, and some wireless phones (particularly the 2Ghz phones 'cause that is part of the frequency range wireless networks use.) will cause interference, so try to keep it as far away as possible. I would recommend at least 6ft, but remember the rules applying to wifi applies to them to. The more obsticles, the closer you can have it. The less, the further. Your biggest probs will be the florescents, microwaves and the phone because of thier high frequency emissions (SP?) so those you should make the pont to avoid.

The idea location in a living quarters is a loft, but most of us cannot afford one and we like our privacy . But the best way to do it is use some temporary mounting substance (you might be moving your router a lot) and place the router on a position you like and roam the apartment/house and courtyard/yard and check the signal strength. Go slow though, it takes a little while for the signal meter to update plus you want to see if it is steady and not fluctuatng. Test it everywhere you will be and when everything equals out. Mount it permenantly.

(Also keep your DSL modem away from it. Usually the cable that came with the modem is long enough to separate the two, but keep them both away from the trouble appliences for "optimal" performance and don't place them on the ground.)

Also forgot to mention, on small college campuses, they usually have the wireless transmitters at the library, so that will be the best place to go (was with the DCCCD system, but could differ from other campuses/districts Check the IT dept for details.) For larger campuses, ask the IT department if they have a coverage map and stay away from the edges.

You can also use PING <ip address> -t to continuously loop the ping until you close it.

Hey thanks for the tips. Ill be trying this later

I've been wondering if this has more to do with my specific wireless card, because I have another one that is a usb one, that has had, and has no problems connecting/staying connected.

Also, the intel card I have tends to consistently drop out periodically, no matter where I am, close or far (regardless as to whether I am at home or at a friends house, so this eliminates the potential 2.4Ghz phone problem...)

A previous laptop that I owned, had a broadcom wireless card. No lag, no connectivity problems. This new one with the intel does though...I may just wind up purchasing a broadcom car if this issue is not completely resolved.

The one thing I have yet to check, is to open the case, and see to it that the wireless antenna(s) is/are connected properly (maybe they got partially disconnected when it was shipped?).

Get the latest drivers for the card (From intel, not the notebook manufacturer). I had a problem like that also and the IT peps on campus updated my drivers and it seemed to worked. Do that before ripping into the notebook. Also when you do, repeat the power save step also. My Toshiba is a centrino and my Compaq is a broadcom. Centrino drops more frequently than the non-intel.

Not really adding to the discussion, but to find your computer's ping without having to look up the name, you can just type

ipconfig

at the command prompt.

"Tweak most of them to their highest potential."

Could you be a bit more specific?

"Tweak most of them to their highest potential."

I mean, turn off "power saving" features, and turn up the options that could affect the ability of the card to stay connected to networks, etc...

t551t551 wrote:

ipconfig

funny, I just read about that...you're right

Also, ping 192.168.0.1 if you are having trouble connecting to the Web. (This pings your modem.) You can also do this:

ping http://www.gametoast.com
Pinging http://www.gametoast.com [207.44.186.36] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 207.44.186.36: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=50
Reply from 207.44.186.36: bytes=32 time=161ms TTL=50
Reply from 207.44.186.36: bytes=32 time=161ms TTL=50
Reply from 207.44.186.36: bytes=32 time=163ms TTL=50

...And so on, with stats at the end. That is very useful at some times when the connection is lost.