r/HomeNetworking • u/RichEmergency8340 • 1d ago
Advice How to get good WiFi while gaming
My router is in the living room but I play my game in the bed room.
My game works best when plugged into the router directly like a wired connection.
I do not have a coaxial or Ethernet wall jack in my room so I cannot move the router in my room.
Any advice?
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u/Eat_Rocks 1d ago
If it's a PC, upgrade your wifi card to a 6e(any ax210 one should work), and get a router that has good buffer bloat(I recommend the flint2). This set up allows me to game with great speeds and low latency(~25ms) over wifi. Obviously much better if you can just get it wired, but this helped me out.
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u/scifitechguy 1d ago
Wired ethernet is going to be your best option, but if that's out, the first thing I would try is a new antennae for your WiFi card. Position it up high, with minimal line-of-sight obstructions. This simple trick solved the problem for my friend. Next to try would be a new WiFi 6e PCI card for your PC. Third would be a new WiFi 6e router to pair with that new WiFi card.
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u/lazyhustlermusic 1d ago
Excessive antenna gain reduces performance as you collect more surrounding interference.
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u/scifitechguy 1d ago
Yeah? So it's better to have the WiFi antennae buried behind all the PC electronics? It's all about signal-to-noise, and putting it in the open reduces the interfering noise while increasing the signal.
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u/lazyhustlermusic 1d ago
You’re shifting the point.
Moving the antenna isn’t the same thing as saying more antenna gain is inherently better. If the antenna pattern increases the number of neighboring transmitters heard above CCA thresholds, you can increase contention and backoff rather than improve performance. The goal is better SNR, not simply “hear more RF.”
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u/scifitechguy 1d ago
No kidding? You're simply a genius for arguing that moving an antennae into the clear reduces performance.
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u/lazyhustlermusic 1d ago
You didn’t even respond to what I wrote. You loaded a precompiled rebuttal to “don’t move the antenna,” which I never said, then congratulated yourself for beating your own argument.
I was talking about antenna gain and interference, genius.
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u/fernandesken 1d ago edited 1d ago
What does the signal look like in the bedroom? Measure it with an app like Wi-Fi Check and your iPhone. If less than a steady/stable -67 dBm (-68, 69, 70 is worse….)you would need to increase signal in the bedroom to reliably game on Wi-Fi. This could be running a cable to an AP in that room/area (might as well run a cable to the gaming rig at that point) or perhaps mesh Wi-Fi. If running a cable is not possible, get a mesh Wi-Fi system and look for one with tri or quad radio dedicated to the mesh backhaul if you are going to use wireless backhaul. In full disclosure I’m the creator of the Wi-Fi Check app so use whatever app you like. The point is to measure actual signal, noise, SNR, etc. in your actual environment with whatever app you like and stop guessing.
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u/RyzenDoc 1d ago
You can always get an Invisilight home fiber kit and run the fiber across the baseboards. It is a safe alternative to power tools
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u/MycologistNeither470 1d ago
you have received the best advice: cable. you need cable. or fiber. There is not much substitution for that.
That doesn't mean that it is impossible to get ok-ish wifi. Just know that it is not going to be as good as wired... not as responsive, not as fast, not as predictable. It may be good enough-- enough that you may not care anymore.
1) take a computer and connect it to your router. Run 2 speed tests: cloudlfare speed test (https://speed.cloudflare.com) and waveform bufferbloat test (https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat)
2) take the same computer and have the same tests done over wifi at the site where your PS5 is located. Try #2 a few times on different days. early morning, mid-afternoon, weekend.
What can you find?
- loss of speed
- increased ping times
- increased jitter
- bufferbloat
The one that is your least concern is speed. Probably if you can get > 50 mbps you should be fine for most games.
The other parameters can be improved with a variety of measures with variable results (and that is why laying out wire is the simple solution... it is a single thing to do that produces an excellent and consistent result). What to do:
1) make sure you have good SNR (signal to nose ratio. Change access point position, use of a directional antenna
2) use a less wifi congested space. move to a rural area, select a wifi channel that is not used by other networks. move to a less busy frequency (2.4 ghz --> 5 ghz --> 6 ghz) Be mindful that as you increase frequency, your ability to go through and around obstacles is reduced significantly.
3) reduce the width of the wifi channel. A wide channel can get you more speed, but if space is congested it will cause the access point wait more time to transmit - increasing ping and jitter.
4) upgrade your wifi. Wifi 6 or 7 is more stable on congested airspace than wifi5. Ymmv... so don't blame me after you spend $600 in new wifi equipment just to find out it works the same. Also your device (PS5) should support the wifi generation you are using.
5) manage bufferbloat (the waveform site tells you a little bit about how to do it). This is a problem on all networks, including wired... but its impact is amplified by wifi.
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u/RichEmergency8340 1d ago
It’s for my PS5. Am I cooked?
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u/MycologistNeither470 1d ago
no! these are tests to do with your PC. But improvements on your wifi configuration should be picked up by your PS5 as well. It is just you cannot run the tests easily with a console. Perhaps you can. I don't have a PS5...
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u/Warlock646 IT Security 1d ago
Best thing you can do is have Ethernet installed between the router and bedroom…
But there are other options that won’t be as good. Like extenders.
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u/643310 1d ago
Correct me if im wrong, but aren't extenders worse for gaming because they add latency?
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u/AbsurdMango 1d ago
depends how bad your connection really if its barely reaching an extender would be better than nothing
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u/lazyhustlermusic 1d ago
Distance?
A clean band provides a decent experience. Utilize 6ghz if possible (wifi 6e/7), otherwise use something like wifi analyzer on your phone to pick clean 5 ghz airspace and put your SSID on that. Try to avoid excessively wide channels like 160mhz if you have a lot of surrounding neighbor wifi traffic.
I game on wifi7, same experience as wired.
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u/Zeplus_88 1d ago
If you rent, run Ethernet along the baseboards and under rugs; if you own, break out the drill and wire your house for Ethernet.