I don’t know too much about routers and how wifi works, but my parents bought a “gaming” router a year back or so and it’s been absolutely amazing, even all the way from my room which is at the opposite end of the house. Thing is, when I’d take some time off from college to hop on my Playstation, the TV in the living room would lag when they tried to watch football or movies so, one day they messed with it somehow. They made two wi-fi networks to connect to: “Template” and “Template5G” and they said they’re moving the “better wifi” to 5G and only the TV could use it. It worked for a while but now… goddamn. A 10GB update for a game I have takes 3 hours or so now. Even the TV doesn’t work and the wifi is just super slow and sometimes will spike and completely not work from time to time. I even recommended to my dad that maybe if we put the router higher in the room, we’d get better connection? So, they taped/nailed it behind the top of the TV and called it a day. Anyways, I need some help… I don’t even mind if ya’ll use words I don’t understand, I’ll learn. Thanks for reading ;

Edit: I don’t know if this is important but it also sttes we have “weak security” under our wifi networks.

TL;DR my parents messed with some wifi settings and now it doesn’t act right/it’s slower for everyone

  • MoistMorsel1@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    There are two WiFi bands, 5ghz and 2.4ghz.

    For gaming you want 5ghz because there is less interruption and you get a better connection. Downside is it is a shorter ranged signal. Unfortunately your parents have separated these, which means when one of them gets slow you no longer switch between bands. As they have also taken this 5ghz one away from you, this means you will forever have poopoo connections because 2.4ghz is shit for online gaming, and 5ghz is shit at range (you are the opposite end of the house).

    So what can you do?

    All is not at a loss. Tell your technically abled parent that you are “experiencing poor latency and high ping, in part due to the separation of WiFi frequencies, but also because you are experiencing too much interference over WiFi. As such, please could they purchase you a powerline adapter”

    In short what this does is allow you to use the copper wiring in your house to directly wire your console into your router. It uses a LAN cable (internet cable) to connect the router to a plug socket device, then you plug another into a plug socket upstairs and plug the wire (also a LAN cable) into the back of your gaystation. It is cheap and effective - and will be better than using the 5ghz band because it will provide you with an wired network within your house using the copper wiring within your home. Pro tip - avoid multi plug adapters to maximise speed.

    Also - sit in your lounge and download the “Speedtest.net” app on your phone. Run a Speedtest. If your speed is below 10mbps download and your upload speed is approx 1mbps, then your provider is probably not “great” for gaming online. If your ping is above 33ms this will also be “bad”. Also, check a few times over the day to see when is “best”. Just make sure you are as close to the router as possible.

    What else…. Well the TV is no longer working so they have two real options:

    1/ reset the router to factory settings and start from scratch 2/ call a technician (3/) run the Speedtest and discover their internet speed is rubbish and is causing all the issues…in which case you get the ISP to perform or take your business elsewhere. In the case of the UK they will want to try (in this order) cityfibre, Virgin media or BT (sky, now, EE , O2 etc all subcontract off BT). Nip onto their websites and see what packages they’re willing to offer - the higher the package the better the speed is likely to be.

    Good luck - may be helpful if you edit your original post to detail your Speedtest results and name your internet service provider.