Wireless routers vs gaming routers

I just moved into a new apartment and will be getting my internet connection hooked up on Tuesday (leeching off someone else's right now) and I was just wondering if there would be any benefit of spending an extra $50+ on a gaming router versus just having a normal wireless router. I do a lot of online gaming on my PS3 so that would come into play as well. What are the main differences between the two and is spending the extra money worth it?

I just moved into a new apartment and will be getting my internet connection hooked up on Tuesday (leeching off someone else's right now) and I was just wondering if there would be any benefit of spending an extra $50+ on a gaming router versus just having a normal wireless router. I do a lot of online gaming on my PS3 so that would come into play as well. What are the main differences between the two and is spending the extra money worth it?

OSJ-1987

Not worth the price. A generic router from Linksys (either G or N) will do gaming perfectly.

Not worth the price. A generic router from Linksys (either G or N) will do gaming perfectly.

HotRevolver

If you have DSL then obviously going from a genric to a Gaming Router wouldnt do anything.

However for me having FIOS (Fiber Optics) 25Mbps Download and 15Mbps Upload. I disabled routing on the router provided and got myself a Linksys WRT310N, and a Linksys Gigabit Switch in every room in the house. My connection was much more responsive after, i spent about $75 for each switch (total being4 switches) Plus $125 for the router. I would say for me it was worth it. Web pages loaded as soon as i clicked them. My wireless range increased to 250FT (custom firmware for further signal enhancements) Also on wireless notebooks, web pages loaded as if i was on a wired connection. Also high signal strength everywhere in my house.

However, As far as gaming goes, there is no real world performance increase. You wouldnt be able to tell if your gaming is smoother. Unless you have many computers and consoles being used simultaniously all the time which is in my case i would upgrade to a gaming router, unless you want it for the extra range. Other than that a generic would be ok, it is up to you. Also again this does not mean that it will give you more bandwidth either. If you download a lot of torrents for example and every computer in the house has trouble loading web pages, then it will continue to do so,

I could get 2.5 MB/s on my generic WRT54G, maxed out my connection. A WRT54G could handle FiOS. There's no need to have higher bandwidth routers unless you're doing a lot of file transfers over a wired network.

I could get 2.5 MB/s on my generic WRT54G, maxed out my connection. A WRT54G could handle FiOS. There's no need to have higher bandwidth routers unless you're doing a lot of file transfers over a wired network.

HotRevolver

I also had a WRT54GS before the WRT310N

Not worth the price. A generic router from Linksys (either G or N) will do gaming perfectly.

HotRevolver

[QUOTE="HotRevolver"]

I could get 2.5 MB/s on my generic WRT54G, maxed out my connection. A WRT54G could handle FiOS. There's no need to have higher bandwidth routers unless you're doing a lot of file transfers over a wired network.

bunny569

I also had a WRT54GS before the WRT310N

Well for you, it is beneficial to have a high performance router. Especially since its 50 Mbps download (which to me, is overkill, but it's your money).

But for gaming? A gerneic router for around $50 will handle it perfectly. Games do not use much bandwidth at all, mostly under 1 Mbps.

[QUOTE="bunny569"]

[QUOTE="HotRevolver"]

I could get 2.5 MB/s on my generic WRT54G, maxed out my connection. A WRT54G could handle FiOS. There's no need to have higher bandwidth routers unless you're doing a lot of file transfers over a wired network.

I also had a WRT54GS before the WRT310N

Well for you, it is beneficial to have a high performance router. Especially since its 50 Mbps download (which to me, is overkill, but it's your money).

But for gaming? A gerneic router for around $50 will handle it perfectly. Games do not use much bandwidth at all, mostly under 1 Mbps.

Not worth the price. A generic router will do gaming perfectly.HotRevolver

[QUOTE="HotRevolver"]

I could get 2.5 MB/s on my generic WRT54G, maxed out my connection. A WRT54G could handle FiOS. There's no need to have higher bandwidth routers unless you're doing a lot of file transfers over a wired network.

bunny569

I also had a WRT54GS before the WRT310N

also keep in mind Mbps are mega-bites Mb&MB are different so it not the same thing per second and not MegaBytes : so 25Mb/s is about 2.5MB/S Brute Strength for daily download even tough i have 10Mb/s i hardly reach anything higher then 700KB/s to 1,100KB/S so it 1MB & 100KB on both steam download / gamespot / ign / rapid-share and other thing

But i tested few thing such as my Ps3 Via the DIR-655 which only support G for my Ps3 Not The N feature did give about on there connection test merely a 3.0mb/s while if i plugged my Ethernet Cable (It a 50 Ft long) it reached 9.80Mb/s (typically what i get from my 10Mb/s Internet speed)

if you get a router you would likely want a Gigabyte & put Ethernet when gaming : while on portable/Laptop you feel more comfortable to not have the very best MS response : I do a Speedtest With my Dad Laptop it seem to give sometime a -5-20 in response time to the Server test but the very same speed 9.8mb/s and 850KB/s upload of 900KB/s and we are about at 30 feet of the router in so and it was receiving 99-100%

I wish our internet in Canada was better for money for what we pay we should receive 25Mb/s or even 50Mb/s but will take probably 5 year before we taste it for that money value :P

nice a little faster then tough :)

A Switch is the best route for gaming, plus there is alot of interference in apartments...., if you live in an apartment by a router or switch and just hardwire everything, more secure faster less ping etc, i only game with Hardwired now and i have a ridiculousy fast internet connection and a good router and wireless card and i noticed a huge difference switching from wireless to wired, although wireless is cool if you use it for streaming etc :) save yourself the money use a generic router and ethernet that mofo up

Wireless is just bad for gaming. It's unstable, causes higher ping, and will be affected by interference in crowded areas such as your apartment. A gaming router is like a discrete NIC gaming card. It doesn't do **** but you pay $50 more for it anyway. If you want a real gaming router, buy a WRT54GL and put Tomato or dd-wrt (I prefer Tomato, especially for a linux-compatible router) on it. That way, you can set up QoS exactly how you want it and have features that beat almost all consumer routerrs, such as bandwidth monitoring.

Routers so do matter for everything. People here are blinds. Setting up QOS for your sexy gameservers makes a good dif, same for playing games. Of course all consumer routers suck, no vlan, no ssh, maybe vpn, no good QOS, no snort, no good cpus... Yeah.... http://pfsense.com/JigglyWiggly_

You build a pfsense router, it's just a computer. You typically just put it inbetween your modem and then to a switch. Though you don't have to if you are confident at networking subnetting and that fun stuff. As in you could theoritically do an awesome vlan setup. Modem to layer 2 managed switch then goes to pfsense. Then connect additional layer 2 switches to the managed layer 2 switch and let pfsense control them via a vlan.JigglyWiggly_

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"]You build a pfsense router, it's just a computer. You typically just put it inbetween your modem and then to a switch. Though you don't have to if you are confident at networking subnetting and that fun stuff. As in you could theoritically do an awesome vlan setup. Modem to layer 2 managed switch then goes to pfsense. Then connect additional layer 2 switches to the managed layer 2 switch and let pfsense control them via a vlan.Xsan3

[QUOTE="Xsan3"]

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"]You build a pfsense router, it's just a computer. You typically just put it inbetween your modem and then to a switch. Though you don't have to if you are confident at networking subnetting and that fun stuff. As in you could theoritically do an awesome vlan setup. Modem to layer 2 managed switch then goes to pfsense. Then connect additional layer 2 switches to the managed layer 2 switch and let pfsense control them via a vlan.JigglyWiggly_

Wireless is just bad for gaming. It's unstable, causes higher ping, and will be affected by interference in crowded areas such as your apartment. A gaming router is like a discrete NIC gaming card. It doesn't do **** but you pay $50 more for it anyway. If you want a real gaming router, buy a WRT54GL and put Tomato or dd-wrt (I prefer Tomato, especially for a linux-compatible router) on it. That way, you can set up QoS exactly how you want it and have features that beat almost all consumer routerrs, such as bandwidth monitoring.

simplyderp

U Pwn Klone ! Thats why u didn't see a difference ! ! 8)

There really isnt a reason to buy gaming routers unless you host big lan tournaments a crap router will work as good as an expensive one if you just want to play games the only reason there is expensive ones is becuase some poor sap will pay for them thinking that it will speed up their ISPs speed which it CANT. PS The reason I didnt see a difference is because all my pings are all very good and probably cant get better. S

Would you like a sticker :) for all of those that have luck with wireless gratz. i live next to an exchange have an awesome wireless setup and i still get rubbish ping etc, do you even know the difference between N and G etc..... they all have there disadvantages... obviously depending on where you are compared to the router depends on which frequency to use.... N is actually poorer at further ranges, where as others perform well at lower speeds for longer distances (dont know the specifics gave up wireless a long time ago... WIRED FTW ! Once you have had a gigabit switch you never go back : ) oh yea.... PS3 Probably does not support gigabit :( Awesome NIC there xD

Would you like a sticker :) for all of those that have luck with wireless gratz. i live next to an exchange have an awesome wireless setup and i still get rubbish ping etc, do you even know the difference between N and G etc..... they all have there disadvantages... obviously depending on where you are compared to the router depends on which frequency to use.... N is actually poorer at further ranges, where as others perform well at lower speeds for longer distances (dont know the specifics gave up wireless a long time ago... WIRED FTW ! Once you have had a gigabit switch you never go back : ) oh yea.... PS3 Probably does not support gigabit :( Awesome NIC there xD

MrHun73r

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"][QUOTE="Xsan3"]Ah-it's that simple, kewl haha. thx I'll look in to it...really I will - :)

Can't I just buy the mug and pretend I know what BSD really is ? ? And I'll wear a shirt tht says "I Pwn Noobs" - I'd be kewl then right ?? lol :P

Xsan3

[QUOTE="Xsan3"]

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"][QUOTE="Xsan3"]Ah-it's that simple, kewl haha. thx I'll look in to it...really I will - :)

Can't I just buy the mug and pretend I know what BSD really is ? ? And I'll wear a shirt tht says "I Pwn Noobs" - I'd be kewl then right ?? lol :P

JigglyWiggly_

See, before the New year, I switched to *Cough-"Clearwire"**Cough,Cough**.To save a little bit of money, and didn't even stop to think about Latency in gaming .If ur not familiar with that internet company, its basically a wireless company for net. It's killing my Ping--between 73 and 88ms. Eesh. I'd like to somehow try and improve that?

So much work for such a small outcome - I would just buy a WRT54G and have been good. It's up to you, really. If you really think you need all the bullcrap stated earlier + gigabit speeds, then more power to you.

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"]

[QUOTE="Xsan3"]

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"][QUOTE="Xsan3"]Ah-it's that simple, kewl haha. thx I'll look in to it...really I will - :)

Can't I just buy the mug and pretend I know what BSD really is ? ? And I'll wear a shirt tht says "I Pwn Noobs" - I'd be kewl then right ?? lol :P

Xsan3

See, before the New year, I switched to *Cough-"Clearwire"**Cough,Cough**.To save a little bit of money, and didn't even stop to think about Latency in gaming .If ur not familiar with that internet company, its basically a wireless company for net. It's killing my Ping--between 73 and 88ms. Eesh. I'd like to somehow try and improve that?

[QUOTE="Xsan3"]

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"] I eat posers :P But in seriousness pfsense isn't really hard to use, though it is certainly much more intiutive than a normal router. FreeBSD however, well since it's an operating system with no gui, I guess it's hard. I mean I like operating systems like FreeBSD but they can become a pain to live with them, eg on a laptop. Ubuntu does most of everything for you, except it's linux and for noobs. Too bad I use it on my laptops lol.

JigglyWiggly_

See, before the New year, I switched to *Cough-"Clearwire"**Cough,Cough**.To save a little bit of money, and didn't even stop to think about Latency in gaming .If ur not familiar with that internet company, its basically a wireless company for net. It's killing my Ping--between 73 and 88ms. Eesh. I'd like to somehow try and improve that?

[QUOTE="MrHun73r"]

Would you like a sticker :) for all of those that have luck with wireless gratz. i live next to an exchange have an awesome wireless setup and i still get rubbish ping etc, do you even know the difference between N and G etc..... they all have there disadvantages... obviously depending on where you are compared to the router depends on which frequency to use.... N is actually poorer at further ranges, where as others perform well at lower speeds for longer distances (dont know the specifics gave up wireless a long time ago... WIRED FTW ! Once you have had a gigabit switch you never go back : ) oh yea.... PS3 Probably does not support gigabit :( Awesome NIC there xD

KLONE360

Yea, flashing routers is awesome, i think my router cost me around £130 and its awesome, so many features (because i wanted good features for bandwith limiting etc without using a linux computer to run server software)

[QUOTE="simplyderp"]

Wireless is just bad for gaming. It's unstable, causes higher ping, and will be affected by interference in crowded areas such as your apartment. A gaming router is like a discrete NIC gaming card. It doesn't do **** but you pay $50 more for it anyway. If you want a real gaming router, buy a WRT54GL and put Tomato or dd-wrt (I prefer Tomato, especially for a linux-compatible router) on it. That way, you can set up QoS exactly how you want it and have features that beat almost all consumer routerrs, such as bandwidth monitoring.

KLONE360

My bad for taking it out of context. Wireless ping is not bad. I get sub-20 ping with wired on one game server, but above 30 with wireless. That in itself is not bad at all, but the instability gives me headaches. When I use wireless for gaming, I get random lag spikes, lost packets, and sometimes disconnects. Then again, I live in an apartment. It is probably better in less crowded areas. Using WRT54GL with Tomato.

^Yes, wireless is affected by where you live. Luckily I live in a house, my ping times on wireless are only 1-2 ms slower than they are on wired.