Networking Questions

Hello! new poster here. been doing some dual-boxing off and on over the years. Found this place and you guys have me drooling and my bank account cringing. HAHA!

Today my cable company bumped up my signal to 15MBps. I take it this is a good thing? Well after thinking it over I have a Linksys 4-Port Router Model NR041, that I believe Moses used on the Ark. I of course have my cable modem connected to it, and my three computers connected to the router.

Question Time:

1. I certainly want to purchase something new because I have a laptop and wouldn't mind going wireless with it, though its not incredibly important.

2. Could this older router be hurting my connection speeds?

3. And good recommendations for a new router that can offer connections of up to 10 computers with wireless capability if need be for the laptop. I intend on keeping my two computers "wired" and laptop which is used for business "wireless". I want something that I can grow into, very much the opposite to the one I am growing out of.

Appreciate all the information I can get. I am still reading over these boards to probably find my answers. I have looked over Newegg and some other computer forums. But I need some solid "gaming performance" references over utility.

Thanks again fellas and keep up the "boxin rockin"!

Hello and welcome to Dual-Boxing.com:

To answer your questions:

[x] Have you noticed any latency issues with your connection? Have you tried running more than one box for any sustained period of time? Is it working okay? ;-) If it is, then your router is good.

Awhile back (when I 6-boxed EverQuest), I ran a Linksys router and had issues with the way the router sent information across my network. While running with 6 characters, I'd often get disconnected on one of them at any given time. I switched over to the D-Link GamingFuel Router (Don't have a model number atm, as I'm at my office), and haven't looked back ever since. 0 Connection Issues, 100% uptime, no crashing or anything.

My current setup is 6 boxes - 1 Wireless Laptop and 5 Desktops, all running WoW on the same network. I have that D-Link GamingFuel Router as well as a Netgear Switch that I use to hookup the 5th computer (Darn Router only came with 4 CAT-5 Ports). The D-Link router supports Gigabit connections as well, so you can port large files over your network with ease (provided that you install Gigabit cards in each of your machines).

As far as a 10 port Router, I can't really make any suggestions. If you go with my setup above, I can assure you that you'll have the flexibility of doing anything you'd like in the current (and future - at least for the next 2-3 years) gaming world.

Rin

5-Boxing: 4 Shammis and a Pally:: Aenvia, Aenvit, Aenvik, Aenvix, Aenvic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rin

[x] Have you noticed any latency issues with your connection? Have you tried running more than one box for any sustained period of time? Is it working okay? ;-) If it is, then your router is good.

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So far with two boxes playing I can run three accounts with what seems to be no lag. But still testing the waters out on that. I do know that if I am DLing any type of file on one of the machines or doing heavy surfing that the network isn't as quick as I would like it to be.

So i guess what my concern is... today the cable company bumped me up 5MBps on my connection to make it 15. Is 15 the standard for cable internet?

And thank you for the information on the router I am going to look it up now.

Something else I noticed on newegg was when doing a search of the firewall routers, the bottom option is "throughput" with all of these options:

10+ Mbps (1)
11.5 Mbps (2)
12.5 Mbps (2)
24 Mbps (1)
30+ Mbps (4)
40+ Mbps (1)
50 Mbps(1)
55.9 Mbps(1)
60 Mbps(4)
75 Mbps(1)
80 Mbps(1)
90 Mbps(26)
90+ Mbps(2)
91 Mbps(1)
100 Mbps(11)
125 Mbps(1)
150 Mbps(6)
190 Mbps(2)
200 Mbps(4)
240 Mbps(1)
300 Mbps(4)
300+ Mbps(13)
400 Mbps(1)
700 Mbps(1)
800 Mbps(1)
900 Mbps(1)
1.5 Gbps(1)
2.0 Gbps(1)

Etc etc.

Should I pay specific attention to these numbers especially if my cable co. says I have a 15MBps connection?

Sorry for the ignorance I just never really payed much attention to networking. I had cable installed with one computer. Got a 2nd and when to officemax or w/e and bought a router. Just never really put much thought into networking as a whole. And now I want to commit more of my resources towards an all out gaming/multimedia powerhouse and the first point I can find a chance of being choked, is the router.

In response to your first question: Depending on where you live 15/MBs might be the standard. In Minnesota Comcast only goes up to 10/MBs *shakes fist* ;-) , but hey it works.

Without getting too technical here, if you go with something that has a higher throughput, you'll be able to receive more data over your link. Throughput is just a fancy way of putting: data over time, delivered over n-specific link. Almost everything has a throughput, even printers. As far as a home router is concerned most of the stuff you'll find in local shops is around 40 - 60 Mb/s. You're not going to be able to achieve higher speeds than that anyway, unless you're using a Fiberoptical line (which is a topic for another post)... Also, 54/Mbps is the standard data rate for 802.11g (802.11g is the most standardized type of networking protocol on the market right now - previously there was 802.11 b, which ran at 11 Mb/s - there's also N , which is faster than g, but still buggy as all hell, so I'd recommend you stay away from that... unless you like headaches ;-) )

You're starting in the right point though by having a good router in place to handle all of your gaming needs. Let me know if I can be of any more assistance.

Rin