Online PC gaming on wireless connection

[shreddster]

Hello.

Just for a bit of background information, I once had a really crazy internet connection. I used to run an ethernet cable from my computer to another computer that was connected wirelessly to a neighbor's router. When I did this, I noticed that in online gaming, I would be seeing ghosts of other players about a second or two after they'd moved around. For example, when playing Counter Strike Source, I would attempt to follow someone running around with my crosshairs, attempting to keep my aim focused on that person at all times. When I did this, to me, my aim seemed perfectly normal, and I could focus on the other player, no problem. But when someone else viewed my screen, they could see that I was in fact aiming at a "ghost" of the player, about a second after they'd already moved.

At this time, I'm running a wireless USB adapter and I'm connecting to a router that's in my house. The difference being that directly connected wirelessly to the router, without the other computer. I've been having a really hard time playing lately, and I'm wondering if I could be experiencing the same issue due to not being plugged directly into the router. Is there any validity in that?

TL; DR: Does online gaming with a wireless connection make me see everything happen a second after it happens?

 

[DM186]

No but it depnds how strong your router is and how close it is to the PC. I am only speaking from experience. My son who was into WOW and at the time we didn't have a good router.

His rig was at the other end of the house. He was having sort of the same problem but is was he would give a command and it would seem to not happen but a second later it would execute.

It wasn't laging either. So I moved him closer to the router, it help a little, so I ran a cable to the router from is PC and It fixed the problem. Now we have one the best routers.

I supply a few my neighbor's with wireless internet and I live in a apartment building and a total of 3 units mine being in the middle and mine having 12 apartments in this unit and the same with the other two.

Is is just my friends that I let them tap into it but they are on there own channel and we in here are on our own but I am hard wired to the router. Where as my laptop and my other two dells are wireless.

So I hope this helps you in someway and I wish you the best of luck in fixing the problem. Cheers

 

[fantastik250]

The factor is how strong the connection is. I play with a usb wireless connection, it is a high gain wireless adapter for strong signals through some walls or if you are far away from your router. I've had no drop in connections and I do not experience everything one second after. The thing you should be most worried about is ping.

 

[shreddster]

The factor is how strong the connection is. I play with a usb wireless connection, it is a high gain wireless adapter for strong signals through some walls or if you are far away from your router. I've had no drop in connections and I do not experience everything one second after. The thing you should be most worried about is ping.

How do I gauge how strong the connection is? Is there any way you could think of that I could find out FOR SURE if I'm seeing ghosts in game?

My buddy and I did an experiment in Counter Strike Source where he would watch me aim at people, as I mentioned before, and that seemed like pretty conclusive evidence to me, yet when I watched someone with a wired connection do the same thing, they experienced the same problem. I've been getting owned a LOT lately and it's starting to get really frustrating. Normally, I'd just plug straight in, but my house configuration doesn't allow me to do that at this time. It might not, either, in the future. So naturally I need to figure out how to fix this problem. Is there any way you can think of that I can either

A. Gauge the connection speed, and compare it to a wired connection

B. Do some CONCLUSIVE tests that would tell me whether I'm seeing ghosts in game?

Thanks.

 

[fantastik250]

Same thing happens to Battlefield 3. In the Battlefield 3 reddit, a person did the same exact test with boxes. If one player shoots, the other side will see it later. It's how the server and how they developed program to synchronize. Your connection is shown on the lower right with 5 bars. Just like a cell phone or laptop. The less bars showing the weaker the signal is and you may start having slower connectivity. It's the ping, the lower the ping the faster it is to hit someone. If you and someone else shoots at the same time the player with the lesser ping will almost always win.

 

[shreddster]

Same thing happens to Battlefield 3. In the Battlefield 3 reddit, a person did the same exact test with boxes. If one player shoots, the other side will see it later. It's how the server and how they developed program to synchronize. Your connection is shown on the lower right with 5 bars. Just like a cell phone or laptop. The less bars showing the weaker the signal is and you may start having slower connectivity. It's the ping, the lower the ping the faster it is to hit someone. If you and someone else shoots at the same time the player with the lesser ping will almost always win.

Could you please provide a link to the experiment you mentioned?

 

[fantastik250]

I can't find it, it was a couple months back or so in the BF3 reddit. It was very interesting to watch. A lot of people had a discussion regarding synchronization and stuff.

 

[shreddster]

I can't find it, it was a couple months back or so in the BF3 reddit. It was very interesting to watch. A lot of people had a discussion regarding synchronization and stuff.

O.K. Thanks for the help, anyway. I've pretty much conceded to the fact that I need to wire my computer straight into the router or I'm going to continue to experience these issues. As I've said, the exact same thing has happened to me before, but the connection was quite a bit different. Perhaps I'll drag my computer nearby the router one of these days and do the same experiment. Hopefully I can get this thing figured out.

 

[shreddster]

Best answer selected by shreddster.