Fast internet slow gaming

Hotels are fantastic places, with king size beds, fluffy bathrobes, and room service. Then even 5-star resorts seem like digital slums. I often see 3mbps out of a typical hotel internet connection, up to mbps at a newer location. Thankfully, there is one simple thing you can do to drastically improve the speed and quality of your connection.

In most cases, somewhere right in your hotel room is a wired ethernet port, that likely has a much better upstream connection than the hotel Wi-Fi. Easy enough to use for a laptop depending on its location , but to make it available to all your devices - use a wireless travel router. You probably have a wireless router at home that plugs into a Cable or DSL modem, and this is the same principle. In each case I tested the speed of hotel-provided Wi-Fi in a hotel room against Wi-Fi from my Netgear N connected to a wired ethernet port in the same room.

Test it for yourself. I use speedtest. Well, not quite. You will get the lowest pings and lag-free gaming experience when you are on Lan. Not all routers are perfect and regularly updated. Always buy branded routers so that you get good support and regular updates. Routers regularly get updates to fix internet lag and make your wifi faster. Always make sure you are updated to the latest router firmware for security as well as faster wifi.

There is always a section in the router settings as shown above which is meant specifically for upgrading firmware. Make sure you update the router firmware to the latest version. The steps vary from version to version so I cannot write the exact steps. Viruses, malware, and ads are the leading cause of slow internet and lag.

Funny enough almost every PC I have checked, which had lag issues was due to some malware or adware that was installed on the system. They are constantly using the internet to show you more ads or copy your data on their server.

Both of which are bad for your security as well as gaming. Make sure to use a good antivirus scan the system and remove any viruses if they exist on the system. A virus-free system is a must for gaming. Make sure you remove viruses, adware , and crypto-miners which are the main reason for slow internet. These are malicious software that works in the background and steals data and bandwidth. Not many people know this but two wifi running on the same channel can cause some serious interference for wifi and cause lag in gaming.

That is why you need to check for signal interference from other routers from nearby locations. You can use a network analysis tool for that. We will soon make an in-depth guide on how to set up a wifi router for gaming. The next thing you need to do is switch to 5ghz channels as they are faster and less crowded. These can help you get really high speeds on the Wi-Fi network and fix the lag issues in many cases.

If you are gaming on a mobile phone or laptop, then connect to the 5ghz channel for maximum speed and low pings for online gaming. Now everyone needs to secure their routers so that other people cannot hack into and leech on your bandwidth and data.

If someone else is downloading files while you are gaming then obviously you will not have enough speed for your online gaming. You need to secure your router as much as possible in order to be safe and ensure that other people are not using your wifi. If you want a quick fix solution to fix the internet lag then you can try to Flush DNS and reset the router settings to get a speed boost. Resetting might fix many of the Wi-Fi issues as it reverts everything to default factory settings and can fix lag issues that might have been caused due to incorrect settings.

Once you are done with executing the above commands, restart your PC or Laptop, and try playing the game again. Mostly it will fix your internet lag but if still you encounter high ping then you can try other methods. Sometimes a service or an app might be running in the background which is using a lot of data and bandwidth. Find and disable such services so that you get more bandwidth for gaming. If you do require more data and bandwidth change to a better plan or a different service provider.

Making sure you have a good amount of bandwidth will give you a better lag-free gaming experience online. Many routers have economic settings to save power, which lower the speed and range of the wifi.

This setting does save power but might also make your wifi slower. So in order to get the best gaming experience, turn off the economy setting on your wifi router. Some routers have the ability to select transmission power as shown below. Select HIGH power. Try to optimize the router settings to get maximum speed and security as shown in previous tips. Hopefully, now your wifi will now be noticeably faster for gaming.

If you are having slow speeds while downloading games and other things from the internet, then download managers and good browsers are your best friends. Chrome and Mozilla are the most recommended browsers you need to download. You can also check out the OperaGX gaming browser. These applications can significantly increase download speed. Do note that playing online games while something is downloading on download managers is a bad idea since they allocate the most bandwidth leaving you hardly anything for games when the downloading is on.

Update your browser and OS to the latest version. Many times there are optimizations made for security and performance that are useful to boost the internet speed. Switch to Chrome or Firefox browser for faster speed and security. By updating to the latest versions of both your operating system and your browser, you will get much better stability and performance.

Also, update your drivers with Driver Booster. Set your system settings correctly. Now, suppose several people are sharing the same connection when you are playing games: your sister has a video call, and your parents are watching a movie on Netflix. These activities will significantly strain the bandwidth available. If this sounds familiar, you should probably opt for a Mbps or faster connection.

Of course, the more, the better. To check how fast your connection is, take a simple test. We recommend using SpeedTest or Fast. Those are among the most popular tools of its kind, though you might as well try SpeedOf.

But what if you are playing against someone from a different continent? With such distances, a higher ping is a given. It's always a good idea to choose an Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi if available. No matter how good your connection and router are, a wired connection will always provide more consistent speeds and lower latency.

However, you will need to connect your PC or console with an Ethernet cable to the router or local network, sacrificing the convenience of a wireless connection. If your router is too far from your computer or console and you can't connect with an Ethernet cable, there are various ways you can extend your network. Powerline adapters can be hit or miss, but are not inherently bad. Wi-Fi extenders are a big no. Mesh networking is a more modern solution and mesh networking equipment has gotten better and more affordable in the last couple of years.

The idea is that you can only connect wirelessly to your router, make sure your Wi-Fi signal is as strong as possible. The distance between your device and the router, as well as the number of devices using the Wi-Fi network, will affect the connection. Try to place the router in an open spot. Since this is a wireless connection, distance, any obstacles walls, floors, ceilings, large furniture , electronic interference, and the number of users on the network are all factors to consider.

To get the best signal possible, ideally it should also be positioned above most furniture and away from other electronic devices that may cause interference, such as microwave ovens and baby monitors. Another valid advice is to position the antennas perpendicularly: one horizontal and the other vertically.

A Wi-Fi device works best when its antenna is parallel to the router's antenna - if you have two antennas, one should be pointing up and the other pointing sideways. These can help you recognize wireless blind spots in your home and determine where signal strength is best and adjust accordingly as needed.

Adjusting a few settings into the router's configuration can be useful. Bear in mind that the functions may be available in a different location, depending on the router.

The 2. It uses overlapping sets of frequencies that we call channels. However, the 2. We also have the 5 GHz band, which has no overlapping channels, is less crowded, and can provide more bandwidth. However, it does this at the expense of range -- you'll get a better and faster signal at 5 GHz, but it has a shorter range than the 2.

Running a test using both is a good idea. Interference can occur mainly in the 2. The 5 GHz band, on the other hand, has 23 non-overlapping channels. This makes it so much easier to get a good connection in crowded places.

Check which channel is used the least and set it in the router settings. If something seems confusing, the creator of Wi-Fi Analyzer provides relevant tutorials and advice. Your router may also be able to change the frequency automatically.