I ditched my fancy gaming router for an outdated dusty one—and my lag disappeared

tp link ax3000 travel router on a table.jpg


In case you are a gamer, you almost certainly hate lag simply up to I do. Whilst I without a doubt experience a single-player recreation, I play on-line rather so much, because of this that lag or disconnects each lead to horrible gameplay. Now not only for me, but additionally for my teammates (if I’ve any on the time). My quite a lot of web problems made me the laughingstock of my whole group for a time.

Fortunately, that stuff is at the back of me now, and a couple of other fixes contributed to my extra strong gameplay. One among them was once simply an outdated router.

My lag downside was once by no means my PC

On this case, it wasn’t even the ISP

When a recreation begins performing up, the 2 major culprits in other people’s minds (my very own incorporated) are the PC and the ISP. In the event you learn my How-To Geek protection, you almost certainly know that I wouldn’t have the most efficient observe document with ISPs, in order that’s naturally the place my thoughts gravitates to first when the issue is without a doubt rooted within the community. It is beautiful simple to inform low fps except for top latency, in any case.

When the sport itself runs easily, and single-player titles behave precisely as they must, and the difficulty handiest presentations up on-line, neatly, there you may have it: it is almost definitely the community. It’s possible you’ll all of sudden rubber-band around the map, watch different avid gamers freeze in position, or get hit by way of one thing you should swear you already dodged. That each one appears like community issues.

In my case, this one time, it was once no longer the ISP. My obtain speeds had been tremendous, and the relationship wasn’t losing for everybody in the home. The issue was once extra explicit than that: my gaming PC was once getting a connection that was once rapid sufficient on paper, however no longer strong sufficient when each and every tiny extend can be a deal-breaker.

The outdated router was a greater get entry to level, no longer a 2d router

The variation issues greater than it sounds

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 router. Credit score: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

As I used to be scratching my head and making an attempt to determine this community bottleneck, it came about to me that I had an outdated router gathering mud someplace, and which may be the solution to my issues. (Spoiler alert: it was once.)

It wasn’t new or fancy in any respect, no longer like my major very gaming-esque router, nevertheless it was once there, and it might in reality nonetheless perform a little paintings.

The trick was once to prevent considering of that outdated dusty router as a router. I did not want it to exchange my major router, which was once surely higher, and I did not want it to take care of my outsized house community. I simply wanted it to provide my PC a greater, nearer, extra dependable method onto the similar community I used to be already the use of.

That is the place get entry to level mode is available in. As a substitute of constructing a complete separate community and performing like a 2d router, the outdated router can paintings extra like an additional Wi-Fi doorway into the prevailing community. The primary router nonetheless handles the essential stuff, however the outdated router offers within sight units a more potent native connection, which is strictly what my gaming PC wanted.

ASUS Wi-Fi 7 router.

You are putting in customized DNS fallacious—and it is breaking your community troubleshooting

The general public don’t want customized DNS settings on each and every software, and there is a higher approach to manner it

The cable was once the actual improve

And it was once tremendous reasonable, too

A coiled ethernet cabling laying on a table. Credit score: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

The outdated router was once helpful, however the cable is what made the entire thing superior. A secondary get entry to level nonetheless wishes a forged trail again to the primary router, and in my case, that trail was once a elementary Ethernet cable.

That stressed hyperlink intended the outdated router did not need to battle its as far back as the primary router over the similar risky Wi-Fi I used to be already getting pissed off with. It had a gentle connection to the community, and my gaming PC handiest had to hook up with one thing a lot nearer. If you’ll be able to plug the PC without delay into that outdated router, even higher, however even the use of it as a close-by Wi-Fi get entry to level is usually a large development over achieving throughout the home for the primary router.

How to do that your self

With out breaking your community, preferably

Rear ports on the TP-Link AX3000 travel router. Credit score: Bertel King / How-To Geek

The perfect model of doing this your self is to test whether or not your outdated router has an get entry to level mode. If it does, allow it, attach the outdated router on your major one with an Ethernet cable, and observe the setup activates.

Earlier than your outdated router joins the fray, make sure to replace its firmware, alternate the admin password, and use a contemporary Wi-Fi safety choice like WPA2 or WPA3.

In case your router does not have a devoted get entry to level mode, you should still be capable to do it manually. The elemental thought is to provide your outdated router a LAN IP deal with in your present community, disable its DHCP server so it does not hand out conflicting IP addresses, and fasten one in all its LAN ports again to the primary router over Ethernet.

Router menus range so much, so take a look at the handbook to your precise fashion sooner than converting settings, as a result of that is the section the place the use of the outdated router as a 2d router by chance can in point of fact downgrade your community.

The variation presentations up in gameplay, no longer benchmarks

Do not hassle with velocity assessments for this

Cyberpunk 2077 on the Hisense 75U75QG highlighting the colors. Credit score: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek

Velocity assessments are helpful for checking whether or not your web connection is operating, however they are no longer one of the best ways to pass judgement on this type of repair, so I would recommend simply judging it for your self. You can be getting just right obtain speeds whilst nonetheless having issues in on-line gaming. I used to be.

The easier take a look at is to only get again within the recreation and notice if there are any connection problems plaguing you or no longer.


I will take steadiness over velocity any day of the week

A quicker fiber web connection can also be nice, however I will simply take no matter’s strong any day of the week. As a gamer, you don’t want huge quantities of bandwidth as soon as the sport is already up and working. It wishes consistency. I would relatively have a connection that is relatively slower on a velocity take a look at however strong in a fit.


Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *