m15x wifi problems.

im not too sure if this is the right place to ask, bt im desperate at this point.
I recently traded the piece of **** gateway (modem/wireless router combined in 1 device) that my internet provider had given me with a simple modem so i could use my own wireless router; namely this one:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=530

yesterday i had installed it and everything was working great, i fired up CSS and everything was working perfectly. But this morning i tried playing CSS again and every minute or so i would get this incredibly annoying, and often fatal, 3-4 second lag/freezing of the game after which it would fix itself again, basically rendering the game unplayable. I then tried playing the game on my brothers Gateway P-FX laptop and everything worked great, no lag spikes/freezing at all for the 15 minutes i played.

I tried a bunch of fixes on the internet such as port forwading but nothing has worked so far and im lost at this point, could it be that the intel wifi adapter in my m15x is the source of my problems? Im prety sure the drivers are up to date.
This person here describes the exact issue im having with CSS:

http://www.overclock.net/overclock-net-game-server/438193-cs-s-lag-spikes-please-help.html

that person fixes it by disabling windows zero configuration which is xp only and doesnt exist in vista, bt is similar to the WLAN AutoConfig service in vista. If you stop the service however, vista cant find any wireless networks at all! I thought of using an alternative wireless network manager than that of the vista one so i could use that one to connect to networks bt i havnt found one that works with the WLAN service stopped.
i thought it might have to do with the fact that my brothers room is closer to where the router is and that it has something to do with the reception up in my room although vista is telling me i have almost full reception, but il check anyway if i have the same issue if im sitting closer to the router.

help would be much appreciated.

 

consider that when you were wired you were at 100 mps and with a wireless card your running slower at 54 mps.

 

also try disabling the network broadcasting.

 

wow, nieve. did you even look at the device? it's a DIR-555... Wireless N

the m15x has the 4950 AGN card, he would be connected at over 200MBps...

the problems can come from a few things, first: who is on your wifi?

the easiest way to prevent other people from using it is to have encryption... I'd recommend a passphrase of at least 8 to 10 characters, that is not a dictionary word. also, use WPA or WPA2 encryption. WPA2 can cause compatibility problems with older hardware and software, so if you have older systems using the wireless, maybe stick with WPA, otherwise, use the IEEE 802.11i (WPA2).

also, try disabling wireless totally, connect with a wire (on this router, 1000MBps) then play... see if you have any problems. (probably not)

all that will do is narrow down whether it's your system, your router's wireless or your config (somewhere in between)

Lag spikes can be caused by incorrect QoS, and/or high bandwidth utilization, or incorrect configuration (as well as a host of problems due to not having enough processing power, which, is clearly not the case)

So I stick with my suggestion. Encrypt your wireless (and while your at it, put up QoS for gaming and port-routing too... all routed ports should be on high-priority) and see how things may change.

Good luck, be sure to let me know how it goes.

 

Arvie,

I have that same router.... Go to the D-Link website and download new firmware.

The original firmware with that router had an issue where it would just slow to a crawl for no apparent reason. The revised version doesn't have that problem.

Until I upgraded, online gaming was virtually impossible for any length of time.

Make sure you use the 1.21 version. DO NOT use 1.30 (that one kills 802.11b permanently).

- Denver

 

Nice. a Voice of experience. I like it. thanks for this, I like that router and recommend it whenever I get a chance... so I'll be sure to let people know about the newer firmware...

 

Thanks for all the replies.
The router came with the 1.21 firmware, so after that, with the help of my trusted friend google, i found that there was a another beta firmware which d-link didn't have on there site; 1.22 b05 as i had also read that 1.30 was terrible.
found 1.22 somewhere else, downloaded it, and uploaded it to the router and voila, all problems solved. CSS works like a charm again, not too sure what the firmware changed bt it worked.

So if anyone else is having this issue, make sure you get the 1.22 b05 firmware.

Speaking of WPA or WPA2 encryption, when i was first troubleshooting the router issues i tried using WEP security (aka next to none) and im not sure why but wireless internet with WEP security feels a bit faster and IE just feels a bit more responsive. Could this have to do with the fact that WPA and WPA2 are constantly encrypting all transferred data (guessing)? I must admit im a noob when it comes to this sort of thing.

Thanks again.

 

With the new 1.22 beta firmware i couldnt agree more.

 

admittedly, the WEP encryption algorythm is very very simple, and therefore is faster at doing anything... but the differences on modern hardware should be minimal. though, WEP may also have an advantage when initiating new connections, and considering how many new connections happen when you connect to a website, I wouldn't be surprised at all. (ARP, DNS, Gateway, TCP, etc)