I’m not internet/technologically savvy so bare with me if I’m using bad terminology. Our son is constantly saying his gaming system lags on our WiFi even tho his room is on the same level 30 feet from our modem. He constantly asks to move our cable tv modem/router into his room so he can connect directly to it. We let him once but our TV guide & TiVo stopped working correctly. So my question is this. Is there a way to connect his gaming system directly to the cable outlet in his room without using our main modem/router? Can we buy a 2nd modem or another device for his room with no issues or interference with the main router in our family room?
Gaming/Internet Help?
- Thread starter clone4lyfe
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It may help to get an extender near his room. It could also depend on what you have for a modem/router. If you have Mediacom and use theirs (if you also have home phone, I believe you have to use theirs for the phone), look to just buy your own combo. That should help right off the bat.
Your WiFi router should have a series of 4 ethernet ports on back side of it. Buy a long ehternet cable (can be obtained at WalMart, Best Buy, Amazon, practically anywhere) and connect one of those ports to his computer.
If that's not workable, you may be able to look into what are called "powerline adapters". It's what I use now. They aren't perfect, but they're usually a vast improvement over wireless, particularly if the house isn't very old.
The one observation I would make is that the coax connections for the modem and TiVo should work in any coax outlet in the house that's wired in... So my thought there is that he may not have reconnected those devices properly when that attempt was made. Maybe call in an ISP tech to move that stuff to his room?
If that's not workable, you may be able to look into what are called "powerline adapters". It's what I use now. They aren't perfect, but they're usually a vast improvement over wireless, particularly if the house isn't very old.
The one observation I would make is that the coax connections for the modem and TiVo should work in any coax outlet in the house that's wired in... So my thought there is that he may not have reconnected those devices properly when that attempt was made. Maybe call in an ISP tech to move that stuff to his room?
Some routers have “device priority” settings that you can pick which devices are assigned more bandwidth. You can see if your router has that feature and set up the consoles/PC as the priority device. Just be warned that devices that aren’t priority will suffer performance issues, like cell phones or streaming devices.
You can't have a second modem unless it's a dedicated line.
I would look into either getting a some wifi extenders. Does your house have ground wire for your plugs? I think a pretty neat solution is a powerline adapter - https://amzn.to/2yT1Td4
It converts your electrical outlets into ethernet without need to run cables. Pretty slick and decently cheap.
You need ground wires for it to work though but you get awesome speed as long as there's nothing huge plugged into the same outlet.
I would look into either getting a some wifi extenders. Does your house have ground wire for your plugs? I think a pretty neat solution is a powerline adapter - https://amzn.to/2yT1Td4
It converts your electrical outlets into ethernet without need to run cables. Pretty slick and decently cheap.
You need ground wires for it to work though but you get awesome speed as long as there's nothing huge plugged into the same outlet.
I've used an extender for my daughter's rooms upstairs when we got them TVs, modem/router is on main floor and their streaming was very laggy. Extender worked great, it just plugs into an outlet at the top of the stairs. I think it was $90ish. You might want to get some help setting it up if you're not too tech savvy, I'm not either and I remember it was kind of a headache.
But it does seem weird that he'd need something like that being so close to the modem/router, 30 feet away on the same floor should be well covered.
But it does seem weird that he'd need something like that being so close to the modem/router, 30 feet away on the same floor should be well covered.
Sidenote: for gaming usage, you want to avoid WiFi at all where possible. Consequently, you'll also want to avoid using WiFi extenders, as they will increase latency and probably instability through adding another network hop to go through.
All preferred solutions to lag and stutter issues begin with some kind of wired connection.
All preferred solutions to lag and stutter issues begin with some kind of wired connection.
Tell him he just has to aim a little ahead of the people.
In a serious note, a wired connection is best for gaming
In a serious note, a wired connection is best for gaming
I'm somewhat surprised to see so many recommendations for power line adapters around here lately. I have an 8 year old house and tried a couple of these with little luck. I have a 1 gig fiber connection to the house, but the powering adapter was only getting 10 to 15 megs. Maybe the product has improved since I tried it. I eventually caved and ran ethernet to the location I needed.
I've tried them in the past also and they seemed pretty garbage, I assume it matters a lot on the wiring in your house and your expectations.
Do this.
Pick up a matched pair on ebay for a song. Google the model names and look for reviews.
Yeah, an ethernet cable is best, but the wifi in netgear/asus/etc routers is crap. Get something professional like Ubiquiti and you never have to think about it again.
I would avoid wifi extenders not only for the reason listed, but also because he is only a room away on the same floor, that probably is not the issue.
I'd start with calling the ISP to make sure your router is setup right. A lot of times it may just be set to the wrong band/channel for your location.
Also as it's only a room away, I would see if you could just snake a Cat5 cable from the router directly into the computer. Buy them online because they are cheap as ****, and somewhere local will upcharge you way to much.I used to make and sell my own, so I may have like a 30 footer laying around.
edit: after doing a quick search it looks like they aren't Cat5 anymore, just search for ethernet cable. I see they have up to Cat8 now, shows how long it's been since I bought ethernet cables.
I'd start with calling the ISP to make sure your router is setup right. A lot of times it may just be set to the wrong band/channel for your location.
Also as it's only a room away, I would see if you could just snake a Cat5 cable from the router directly into the computer. Buy them online because they are cheap as ****, and somewhere local will upcharge you way to much.I used to make and sell my own, so I may have like a 30 footer laying around.
edit: after doing a quick search it looks like they aren't Cat5 anymore, just search for ethernet cable. I see they have up to Cat8 now, shows how long it's been since I bought ethernet cables.
Cat 5 hasn't been the standard for over a decade man, maybe Cat 5e. Most ethernet cables you'll find on Amazon are Cat 6 and maybe Cat 7 these days. There's some Cat 8 but you're limited by distance (though it's like 100ft) and honestly you don't need it in a home setting. Plus most places will just go duplex fiber once they get into that range since it's cheaper and faster than Cat 8 at the moment.
I helped a friend set up his Ubiquiti mesh network on his land complete with microwave. We could get 100 mbps (his internet max speed) more than 2 miles from the modem/parent router. Latency was crap but it's not like he was gaming while he was hunting.
If he has desktop you can get a "killer brand" wireless card (I don't think they make them for laptops. It has a built in signal booster on the card so the signal is boosted prior to being passed to the Ethernet portion of the card. It also comes with software that let's you prioritize wireless traffic. Since I got mine a year or so ago I never drop connection.
Probably Cat5e these days (turbo Cat5 basically), but close enough. Cat5e and cat6 is dirt cheap these days and will vastly exceed any common person's home needs. But you're right, buy them as cheap as possible. There's very little variance in quality and no reason buy expensive cables for this job.
Yeah, ethernet is by far the best solution.
After that, before i did powerline i might look at some sort of MOCA system over the house's coax, but that might depend on the system and what you're already running over the coax lines.
