Getting WiFi latency issues

[chazus]

Our son is having latency spikes on his more twitchy games. WoW and FFXIV play fine, but Valorant and LoL are both getting latency spikes that lock up gameplay entirely for a few seconds. Wireless is largely our only option, as he's on the 2nd floor, and the router is in the basement. WE've tried getting a high gain USB antenna, and I just tried getting a dual antenna, high gain PCI-E card and he said that was even worse.

We can't run cables up to his room (renting apt), and I dont want to have to spend money on attempting using powerline, especially knowing the house power grid is 30-40 years old.

We also tried a TP-Link signal booster on the first floor, which worked for ME and my phone dropping wifi sometimes, but doesn't seem to improve things for latency and gaming. We're using Bell's default router, and I'm wondering if picking up an actual real adult router and bridging to that would be a better solution.

[Thunderball]

Yeah so it's either the default router has absolute garbage wifi (which most of the time they do) or you have a classic problem: interference on the 2.4 GHz band. There's no real way to get rid of it. Your only option is 5 GHz WiFi in that case. I would start with a good 5 GHz and MESH capable device from ASUS/Keenetic/TP-Link and see if that fixes it. If the problem is the quality of the router and you're perfectly fine at 2.4 GHz then great, otherwise you might have switch to 5 GHz and build a MESH network (5 GHz network obviously has a lower coverage area, but it's less prone to interference from your neighbours due to the same reasons), for best experience you need a device for every 60-80 square meters.

[chazus]

I forgot to mention, the high gain dual PCI-E has 5Ghz as well and that didn't seem to make a difference either.

I reeeeeally dont want to have to buy new hardware if I can help it but maybe a router at least, a mesh setup is well out of my price range at the moment.

[Thunderball]

I forgot to mention, the high gain dual PCI-E has 5Ghz as well and that didn't seem to make a difference either.

I reeeeeally dont want to have to buy new hardware if I can help it but maybe a router at least, a mesh setup is well out of my price range at the moment.

Well does your default router support 5 GHz though?

[chazus]

Well does your default router support 5 GHz though?

Yeah it does. I'm having trouble finding an actual sales/spec sheet but...

Bell Home Hub 300
2x 5 GHz + 2.4 GHz
802.11ac
12 antennas

Not sure what the 12 antennas part is about, but it looks like they're all internal?

[Thunderball]

Not sure what the 12 antennas part is about, but it looks like they're all internal?

Looks like it has 4 internal antennas, maybe 12 is the maximum number supported by the SoC.

[lockblock]

Moca 2 if coax is available in both locations.

[chazus]

So you’re using a rented router?

I think at this point we own it? But it's one of the modem/router combos provided by the ISP

[unbound]

Yeah it does. I'm having trouble finding an actual sales/spec sheet but...

Bell Home Hub 300
2x 5 GHz + 2.4 GHz
802.11ac
12 antennas

Not sure what the 12 antennas part is about, but it looks like they're all internal?

Yeah, that is likely your issue.

You can disable the wifi on that and add your own wifi equipment that will likely be much more reliable (assuming you don't want to play around with replacing the rental router with your own FW / modem). Google wifi is fairly cheap and pretty reliable.

If you really want to be serious about throughput and reliability, you can go fairly high end (e.g. TP-Link Deco AX5700).

[Daedius]

Suggest trying the Powerline. I live in an old house and it works great along with the WiFi adapters off its network. You can always return it for a refund if it doesn't work out.

[Kagthul]

Couple of things:

Do you have access to the vents/ducting in the basement (where the Router is)?

If so.. run him an ethernet cable through the vents. I did this at a Condo i lived in where the owners (the parents of the woman i was roomates with) didn't want to drill holes in the floors. Worked great. Just dropped the line with a tiny bit of weight on it down the vent, pulled it out of a vent in the basement, and viola. Plugged it in, worked fine. Ran Coax that way too. As far as i know, those runs are still there to this day.

Consider upgrading your hardware.

If you live in th US (i think from previous posts, you live in the US) you're renting that PoS from them. And its (not that im aware of at least) rent to own. Theyll charge you for that thing every month forever.

Go get youself a good Docsis 3.1/3.whateveriscurrent modem, and a good mid-high-end range Router.

Ive always had good luck with Netgear, had two of their Nighthawk (the origina R7000 model and the newer AX4) that both worked great.

Recently upgraded to an ASUS RT-AX89X and its been stellar, apart from the snafu where it just didn't want to see my older Google Home's as castable devices (they still worked, you could still talk to them, use them for all the normal Google Home things, but you couldn't cast audio to them, they just didnt appear) which i eventually cleared up.

If this didn't cover my whole house (it does, quite well, and i can still get WiFi on the 2.4Ghz bands out ~70ft from my house at the corner where my son's Bus stop is) i could easily add mesh units (almost any older ASUS router, in addition to pretty much all their new ones) with AI Mesh and like two clicks.

In this case, you could get something lower-end than the AX89X (i only upgraded/got it because it has a ton of simultaneous streams because we have a bajillion smart home devices, and the AX Nighthawk would sometimes not be connected to a given smart device at the exact second you wanted to use it and you had to wait for it to rotate back) and then get another router to use as a Mesh unit in his room. Not only would it provide WiFi to the upstairs in general (on either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz, whatever you wrerent using for backhaul) but he could use the wired ports to his computer. Given that even a cheap router has much more powerful antennas than a wireless card, this should eliminate latency issues as much as possible.

You could do either of these: (Im linking MicroCenter because it was easier to find them there than on ASUS' own website, for whatever reason).

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...-gaming-router
https://www.microcenter.com/product/...-gaming-router

and then pair it with this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...0211ax)-router

And use that as an AI Mesh node.

- FWIW, i believe TP-Link also has a one-click Mesh thinig similar to AI Mesh. I dont think Netgear does (yet) but im sure they will, given the ubiquity of mesh networks.

I know that spending out 450$-550$ (total cost of buying your own modem + the pair of routers, or thereabouts) seems a lot steep, but depending on what your Cable company is charging you for that garbo modem/router combo, itll pay for itself completely in just a year or two and youll have them for years afterwards (Modem will probably last you 10 years unless there is a MAJOR sea-change in speeds and you somehow need to shell out for 2+Gbps internet).

We replaced all of our hardware with our own and it paid for itself in 8 months.

Id recommend that (at least get your own modem and a good router that will meet your needs, if not as fancy as above) in the long term no matter what, since you're basically throwing money away renting that garbage equipment from a cable company. And if they try to tell you that you cant use your own hardware, they are lying. They are required by federal law to allow it.

In the short term, though... try the vents. Great for adding wiring to places you cant chop holes in.