(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Ok, so i pretty much just posted this in another thread to help someone out, but i thought that it was a good topic for me to create a dedicated thread for. i have seen and heard many people talking about having "a bad connection" but they seem unable to figure out the cause. im hoping that i can help to provide a bit of clarification that could possibly help said people improve their "bad connection" and in turn improve their overall gaming experience.

So, what we must first understand is that playing online games over PSN or XBL actually doesnt take up that much of your bandwidth, as the data packets being sent and received by your console are very small relative to those that are sent and received for other applications. the thing that matters most in determining the response time of your play is your ping time, which is the time it takes for a data packet to travel from your router, to the server or host, and back. In call of duty, many people do not realize that the bars next to your name when you hit select are actually a measure of ping time, so you could have a 200mbs university research lab connection and still get 2 bars if the host lived across an ocean from you. that being said, you could actually have the exact same playing experience on a 1mbs down/200kbs up plan as you would on a 50mbs down/20 mbs up plan as long as the ping times are comparable and as long as your network is free from interference of other data packets. what really makes a difference is if you have family members running internet applications that are very bandwidth intensive, say uploading youtube videos or using rapid share or any other p2p service. it is in these cases where having a faster internet connection will allow you to avoid lag when someone else is using your internet, because a faster connection allows more data packets to be sent through at the same time, freeing up a stream of packets that might otherwise be jammed on a slower connection. you may also wonder "why do those applications get such a high priority over my game and why cant it be split evenly?" well, the data packets sent out by, say, a youtube upload, are HUGE compared to the ones being sent out by your game, and when it they enter your router and all the packets have a big shoving contest to see which one gets through first, those youtube packets pummel your tiny little gaming packets and allow only a small amount of them through at a time, thus increasing your ping time dramatically and giving you lag.

unfortunately at the moment there is no perfect solution to the lag issue, and the best you can do to combat it is to have a fast connection that will not get clogged quite as easily or to buy a router that has QoS, short for quality of service. QoS is nowhere near perfect and could still use much improvement, but the basic purpose of it is to allow you to prioritize data by either ip or mac address so that the data coming from the specified device gets routed before the fat ugly p2p packets. now, QoS wont make your gaming perfect during the dreaded upload, but it can help. If you dont have a router with QoS and are on the market for a new one, i would recommend the dgl-4500, it is expensive but it is VERY VERY GOOD.

finally, i just wanted to clarify the 802.11g vs n issue, because many people believe in the myth that wireless n will make your internet faster. that is FALSE. currently in the US there are no residential internet providers that have internet plans offering more than 54mbs download speed, the max wireless data transfer rate for wireless g. therefore, unless you live somewhere outside of north america or in a university research lab, the only reason to get wireless n is if you have a network harddrive to which you would like faster data transfer to and from, or if you want extended wireless range. otherwise, no difference.

i hope this cleared some things up and dont forget to hit the thank button if you feel it helped!

im glad this helped you out.