HELLO & WELCOME

[sheggy6]

I do a lot of videogaming in my spare time and was wondering for what is the appropriate router for heavy-duty gaming.

I play videogames from 4 to anywhere until 16 hours of the day if given the chance. When buying a router what should I look out for? Also, do all ISP's allow the use of your own router? Or are there providers known to not allow using your own router?

[kylerlittle]

You need at least a 300/MBPS speed router. I don't think it matters much what brand it is but it has to have 300 speed and if you're using an adapter to connect to it wirelessly, you also need to have a 300/MBPS adapter, to get the maximum speed. I would recommend LAN though.

[nytegeek]

You don't actually need 300/MBPS. Before you rush out and buy such a thing find out if your network adapter is capable of handling it. Find out what kind of speed your ISP actually provides. Do you even need a separate router is another question. Many ISPs have them built into their modems (a bit of a misnomer to call it a modem, they don't demodulate anything as the signal is digital). I might add that many broadband offerings are faster than what can actually utilized by a game. Once you get to a certain point anything else is overkill. If you have a decent broadband service the rest is going to depend more on the specs of your computer than on a router or your downstream.

[kylerlittle]

You don't actually need 300/MBPS. Before you rush out and buy such a thing find out if your network adapter is capable of handling it. Find out what kind of speed your ISP actually provides. Do you even need a separate router is another question. Many ISPs have them built into their modems (a bit of a misnomer to call it a modem, they don't demodulate anything as the signal is digital). I might add that many broadband offerings are faster than what can actually utilized by a game. Once you get to a certain point anything else is overkill. If you have a decent broadband service the rest is going to depend more on the specs of your computer than on a router or your downstream.

Mostly, today you actually need that because it give out the best speed or the most amounts of data transfer all at once. I think it's worth it because if an upgrade through the ISP is done, then you don't need to get a new router all along.

[nytegeek]

The best possible speed is only a factor to a certain point. A game will only benefit from it to a certain point and anything extra becomes superfluous. Your other hardware will have more to do with a game rendering and performing properly. Your ping is affected more by the connection between the ISP and the game server than it is by your home router.

[kylerlittle]

The best possible speed is only a factor to a certain point. A game will only benefit from it to a certain point and anything extra becomes superfluous. Your other hardware will have more to do with a game rendering and performing properly. Your ping is affected more by the connection between the ISP and the game server than it is by your home router.

I completely agree with you, this makes sense actually.

[pwarbi]

If your using the router provided by your ISP, which I would assume most people are, and your internet speed is good, then surely that router should be good enough to handle gaming aswell?

For example there's not much point in rushing out buying a top of the range router if your on a dial up internet. Maybe that's a bit drastic but you know what I mean?

[Sunflogun]

Many times is not even the router the most important, we also need to see the specs from the computer. This happened to me recently, I had a good internet speed, but the computer didn't responded.

[pwarbi]

I think there's a number of factors you will need to consider to be honest, not just the hardware or the speed of your internet.

I'm sure we'd all like the fastest connection, with the best router and top of the range hi-spec computer or console, but how much are we willing to pay for all that?

If money isn't an issue then it's all well and good but I think for many of us, we're going to have to stick to some kind of budget, so what's the most important part of the chain? What would you invest in first?

[kylerlittle]

Many times is not even the router the most important, we also need to see the specs from the computer. This happened to me recently, I had a good internet speed, but the computer didn't responded.

In terms of specifications and graphics, I would think so. The router is the most important part in terms of your internet connection, if it was a multiplayer game and whether the router responds well or not, the second part is the type of connection you have to your computer, whether it be a LAN or Wireless, wireless tend to depend on the adapter that you have, or dongle.

[Sunflogun]

The most demanding games don't go well with wireless, they require a faster connection. Having this said playing a good game on the computer really needs a good combo from pc specs and net connection.

[Yosh]

Yeah, the best option is to have a direct connection to the device you're using to play games on, be it a console or on PC. It's much faster and more reliable than wireless.

[kylerlittle]

The most demanding games don't go well with wireless, they require a faster connection. Having this said playing a good game on the computer really needs a good combo from pc specs and net connection.

I think wireless does okay at most games, but it is quite unreliable in comparison with LAN.

[Sunflogun]

I can't even imagine those longer games when you lose the connection due to a wifi issue, that has to be totally annoying. Either cases, if we can't have cable wireless has to be fine.

[nytegeek]

The speed doesn't really have anything to do with connection drops. If you have a reliable adapter and router of any speed that shouldn't be an issue. Connection drops are more about interference, distance and channel configuration than anything. If you don't have equipment interfering or signal strength issues it isn't going to be be noticeably better or worse in most games.