Lag, Unreal, and Linksys Routers

[Sandbox]

I have a Linksys WRT54G Wireless router connected to a Surfboard Cable modem. My ISP is Adelphia High Speed Internet. I also have a wireless network using those. One comp. has the router and two others have PCI cards. I try to run Unreal Tournament and I get very strange lag spikes. They end up being about 10+ seconds long and sometimes I have to restart because of them. I was wonder if there is any way to fix this or if there is a way to distribute bandwidth so that I can get how much I need and everyone else how much they need.

 

[jolancer]

I also have a wireless network using those. One comp. has the router and two others have PCI cards

you problem is prolly easily explainable, and also maybe fixable... how ever, i dont understand about what u phrased above... 1comp has the router?(how does 1 comp have the router if u have 3 pc's?) 2 use pci cards.. u mean wifi cards??

what is your routers speed? 802.11b?? 802.11g??

wat pc are u playing UT from? wat speed is the wifi on that comp? a/b/g? and the lag u experience is playing wan, not lan, right?

 

[Sandbox]

Sorry for foggy explanation. The computer on the 1st floor has the router wired into the cable modem and the router is wired into that comp. Yes, i do mean wifi cards, the ones with the attennae, those 2 computers are directly upstairs. The speed of my router is 802.11g, both of my wifi cards are wireless g. I am playing from one of the PCs upstairs. I am experiencing the lag during wan play.

 

[jolancer]

honestly, i would have replyed sooner, but i dont have enough experience with wifi to know what the problem is.

and im also confused on your wording... doesnt the ethernet cable go strait from an external modem, to the wifi router... and then to your 3 comps threw wifi cards? u make it sound like there some different setup with the downstairs comp.

iv also heard b4 that wifi is not as reliable for gaming or high bandwitch tasks... but 802.11g is newer, and i dont know if it applys to it, cause g runs at 54mb/s lan.

i also dont know the option differencess between wifi routers and ethernet routers(cause iv never used wifi) but if the router has 'block wan requests' option. make shur its not on.

ur most likely using WEP, that may or maynot also afect the connction.

IMPORTANT- if your not using wep, u may end up like this guy.. Link
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i also never played UT.. but if its online protocal is like Q3, u will always have lagg problems if your using a bootleg cdkey.(that may not apply to UT)
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the questions i asked though would most likely help some one who has more experience with wifi to narrow down a problem.
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maybe u might wont to try moving your comp downstairs next to the router temporarily to rule out any interference.

 

[jolancer]

i forgot to add... i suggest reading threw most of the posts in the link i put above... i thought it was pritty dam funny.

 

[Sandbox]

I can't find where to enable WEP. Also, I had Block Anonymous Request checked, should I uncheck it?

 

[CplusX2]

block anonymous request has to do with PING, try it.

enabling wep will only increase the amount of overhead associated with each packet.

Try changing the channel, perhaps a 2.4 telephone is interfering as well as a microwave can as well.

What is your signal strength?

Make sure the router is using the most up to date firmware and that all your cards have updated drivers as well. Are you using Linksys wifi cards?

You can also experiment with using either a short or long packet preamble. I think Long is the default, so try it the other way.

that is all I can think of....

Because of a signal strenght issue in one section of my house I use a repeater.

 

[jolancer]

as u know, i dont have wifi experience, but i was sorta thinking wep might do that, increas overhead.

i would experiment with it though, after fixing the lag prob.. if with wep enabled there isnt a significant difference, its worth having it on.

like i the link i posted above, if u dont have it enabled.. its possible for someone to connect to your home network and overload your bandwidth, esentually leaving u at 56k speed.
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i dont know how to enable it, cause i dont own one... but it makes your routers connection password protected.. u need to have the password to connect threw your router after wep's enabled... that might help u find it easyer mayb.

 

[Sandbox]

Block anonymous request did not fix it. I turned on WEP and it didn't make it worse or better my speed would either be 54.0 mbps of 47.0 mbps. I believe signal strength is not an issue because the computer is one floor directly below me. I am indeed using Linksys Wifi cards however i don't see wher short and long packet preamble is.

 

[jolancer]

"short and long packet preamble" <-- i also dont under stand wat he's particulaly talking about, but he might be talking about the 'MTU size' option in the router. i think that deals with packet size.

on my linksys router(not wifi) there was no specification int he MTU section, i believe this is for the router to specifiy itself for each individual case... cause best MTU size depends on the network your connected to. example- if u specify an MTU to low(500) then packets will be split b4 passing threw your router causeing overhead... if u specify to high(1500) then packets need to be combind or somthing, same effect.

if MTU is specified in your router option u may wont to try erasing it and leaving that option blank.

EDIT: o yea, u have tryed other UT servers, so to rule out that the problem may just be with that particular server??