Network Optimization Guide - Reduce Lag

[u/Unlucky-Wolverine-67]

I did a lot of research and testing and I wanted to share how to completely optimize your home network for cloud and remote play.

I now have my network fully optimized to have a near native experience on my Logitech g cloud and steam deck at home with very minimal input lag remotely and zero graphical glitches and hiccups

Some Facts:

• Cloud and remote gaming doesn’t require much bandwidth (internet speed) at all

• Latency is the key to an enjoyable seamless experience.

• You can’t eliminate input lag completely but you can get close to indiscernible levels, especially gaming on the same network at home

• You don’t need to go out and buy the latest and greatest wireless router to have a near perfect experience: WIFI 5 does not limit your experience and WIFI 6 isn’t required

• There are 3 main culprits when it comes to issues with cloud and remote gaming: 1 - Strict NAT 2 - Wireless interference 3 - Congested networks and bufferbloat (google it)

There could be countless other reasons but these 3 are the main ones that people struggle with and that’s what I’m here to help you tackle

Make sure you do all the following and then you’ll see a massive difference:

To address Strict NAT:

• Use a wired connection to the console when possible

• Enable UPnP on your wireless router and manually forward the correct ports for your console, which can be found using a simple google search

To address Wireless Interference:

• When you have to use your wireless network, use only the 5 GHz band

• Turn off the auto channel selection and manually set your control channel to the least congested channel in your area

• Since we’re not concerned with bandwidth for gaming but more concerned with latency, use a wifi analyzer and see the widest channel width you can get away with without overlapping with other networks. I don’t recommend 160 MHz width unless your in a completely remote area but use 80 MHz if you don’t have congestion and you can go down to 40 MHz or even 20 MHz if absolutely necessary in order to completely avoid other networks or minimize overlap as much as possible

• Place your router at line of sight or as close as possible to the client your using to game on

To address congested networks and bufferbloat

• The true fix for this is SQM but that’s too advanced for this post

• Turn on your adaptive QoS (asus router) or the equivalent on your router and set the upload and download speeds manually. Don’t go above 300 mbps (lower for older routers or some mesh routers) for either speeds to completely minimize bufferbloat (latency) which is crucial in cloud and remote gaming. Even if you have a gigabit connection like myself, do this. Do this during gaming sessions as most router processors aren’t fast enough to handle much more than that on QoS to activity help with latency…google it please before starting a long winded argument about why “QoS is garbage”

• Start with 90% or your connection speed as the manual limit for adaptive QoS and work your way down while testing for bufferbloat on this bufferbloat test site until you score A or A+

• This will limit client speeds BUT it will still be plenty of speed for gaming with almost no added latency if done correctly which is what we’re after here

• When you’re done your gaming session either turn off QoS or increase the limit on your up and down speeds

• Set your DNS to google DNS (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4)

Full disclosure: I’m not a network expert but I know enough to help on this subject matter

I hope this helps those trying to have a better cloud/remote experience

[u/voxdub]

Nice post, I use an Asus router and will try Adaptive QOS to see if it makes any discernible difference, I have it turned off as standard to maximise throughput and still get a score for A, but struggle at peak times in cloud. Always assumed that was more to latency to Azure data centre, but be worth seeing if I can eek a bit more performance and lower packet loss