# [SOLVED] Gaming routers really work?



## ngrome (Feb 8, 2009)

I have an old Linksys WRT54G flashed with DD-WRT. Although I can control my QoS settings to give my Xbox console priority, I don't see a signficant different in performance. You think I a "gaming router" such as a DLG-4300 or 4500 would make a difference, is it worth the money? Does it really reduce lag, can anyone who use it attest to it? Thanks.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

I'd first connect directly to your modem and see if that solves the latency issues. You may have ISP/modem issues and not router problems.


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## Jason09 (Jan 3, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

I know someone from another forum who has one of those routers and he thought it worked great.


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## ngrome (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to break down and get one of these gaming routers. I've tried everything, including upgrading my Linksys WRT54G firmware successfully. But I think the main difference is the gaming routers have more memory and better processor than my old Linksys right now, as I tried overclocking my Linksys and I almost bricked it. Luckily I was able to recover by resetting it back to default settings, so I'm curious if I can get it to work in conjunction with a DGL 4100 as I inquired in another post.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

I'd be looking at DD-WRT firmware first, since I suspect you may be disappointed when you spend the money for this new router.


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## ngrome (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*



johnwill said:


> I'd be looking at DD-WRT firmware first, since I suspect you may be disappointed when you spend the money for this new router.


Yeah, I did flash my Linksys with DD-WRT, and I'm impressed with its utility and GUI. Lots of options for setting QoS priorities, moreso than the Linksys utility. I mean, if the hardware is capable to be configured in such a way, then why was the Linksys utility so limited? I did optimize my QoS settings for gaming and set all the possible port forwarding to supposedly get the best performance for gaming.

However, I did try to overclock my router through DD-WRT and it got very unstable, constantly disconnecting and reconnecting. I thought I bricked it but was able to reset back to default with the push button after three tries.

I also tried your suggestion of plugging my Xbox 360 directly into the cable modem and bypassing the router, and there didn't seem to be too much of a difference, which either means my router is working just fine or I'm just not getting the desired performance through my ISP.

I did a speed test and I was getting up to 12.5 MB download and 1.7 MB upload, which I though was decent, but it just seems others I play against online get better performance because they can "kill" me quicker, in this case, the game is Halo 3 (or I'm just really bad at the game :grin.

Which is why I wonder, and yes, I'm afraid to spend that money, but if the gamer router will prioritize and "packetize" my gaming data better once it gets beyond the cable modem, than my router with DD-WRT, but if there's no difference by having the game console directly connected to the cable modem, then what is that telling me?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

If a direct connection to the modem doesn't give you better performance, you're wasting your money on a new router, because that's not the problem!


Connect directly to the modem with a PC and do the following test a couple of times.


Register at DSLReports and run their Line Quality Tests. It's best to run this test with a direct wired connection to eliminate any wireless issues from the results. It's useful many times to run this test several times, and we'd like to see each of the results. Post the results link from the top of the test display page for each test run here.

The link to post is near the top of the page and looks like:

If you wish to post this result to a forum, please copy/paste this URL
*http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2357195* <- _sample only, yours will obviously be different!_
and your IP will be disguised.

Copy/paste that link here.

*Note:* _You will have to enable PING (ICMP) request response either in your router (if you have one), or in your computer's firewall for direct modem connections. This is very important to get the most important part of the test to run._


DSLReports 

Here's also the Line Quality Tests FAQ to help you understand the results. This will answer some questions about the line quality display.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

If a direct connection to the modem doesn't give you better performance, you're wasting your money on a new router, because that's not the problem!


Connect directly to the modem with a PC and do the following test a couple of times.


Register at DSLReports and run their Line Quality Tests. It's best to run this test with a direct wired connection to eliminate any wireless issues from the results. It's useful many times to run this test several times, and we'd like to see each of the results. Post the results link from the top of the test display page for each test run here.

The link to post is near the top of the page and looks like:

If you wish to post this result to a forum, please copy/paste this URL
*http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2357195* <- _sample only, yours will obviously be different!_
and your IP will be disguised.

Copy/paste that link here.

*Note:* _You will have to enable PING (ICMP) request response either in your router (if you have one), or in your computer's firewall for direct modem connections. This is very important to get the most important part of the test to run._


DSLReports 

Here's also the Line Quality Tests FAQ to help you understand the results. This will answer some questions about the line quality display.


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## ngrome (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

Thanks, here's my first test results, what do you think?

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2516401


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

The line quality for that test looks fine. However, as I said, if a direct connection to the modem doesn't solve the response issue, it's clearly not the router, since your router isn't even in the picture! I'd be looking for the real cause...


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## Jason09 (Jan 3, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

If you have an anti-virus running, that can slow things down.


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## ngrome (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Gaming routers really work?*

Well, a follow-up on this. I bought a DLink DGL-4300 router off of ebay and had it for about a week now, and I do see a somewhat improved performance. I'm just playing with the configuration to make it optimum at this time, but I do see an improvement over my old Linksys WRT54G. My Linksys was more solid and easier to administer, by I am impressed with the DGL-4300 with how I'm able to win at least a third more of my battles. Makes me wonder if I should've gone with the later DGL-4500 as well. I believe it may have to do with the better processor and increased memory over the Linksys, given my data connection remains relatively consistent.


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