Networking Matters, NNIDs With LAN Adapter List /Google Docs (It Matters)

[BiGViC340]

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce myself. I am a beginner to Smash however I am no beginner to networking. I am on the pathway to becoming a network engineer and I'm very disappointed that the Wii U's default method for getting online is through Wi-Fi. This creates what is called latency and in layman's terms it creates input lag. This is horrible for any game but especially for fighting games. Smash 4's net code is actually pretty good from my experience with good connections. Sadly most people are using Wi-Fi as they lack this knowledge, simply don't care, or they choose convenience over performance.

I hope to create a list that we can all reference with people who own a LAN adapter as it makes a huge difference, a very noticeable difference at that. I saw many threads to share codes however there is no way to verify if people are playing over wireless or wired.

To anyone who cares about their experience online, I suggest getting a LAN adapter immediately. Night and day difference for approximately $10. If your Wii U is too far from your modem/router, it is in your best interest to run an Ethernet cable to your console if you plan on playing online.

I am dividing the list by state as you would want to play with people in your state or closest to your state. The less distance the packets have to travel, the better your experience will be. While this is not always true in absolute, it can safely be used as a general rule of thumb. Again this list will only include people who have a USB LAN adapter for their Wii U ONLY. I will update this post and Google Docs as I get more NNID's. I am open to any suggestions from the community as well. Let's all have fun and play lagless games!


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qK7qMUhtZ5fJbkjTXVf68AnMP7y-dp6DYuT3mA--LXI&authuser=0

Location: Florida,USA | NNID: BiGViC340 | Main: Marth | Secondary: Megaman
Location: Georgia, USA | NNID: aLuckyPerson | Main: Captain Falcon | Secondary: Jigglypuff
Location: Palmer, AK | NNID: Nikodemus05 | Main: Samus | Secondary: Captain Falcon/ Zamus

 

[BiGViC340]

Reserving Post #2

 

[BSME/misc]

I'll get in on this

You can unlock the sheet so anyone can edit in their info

 

[A Lucky Person]

This is an excellent idea. I'm actually getting in an ethernet adapter tomorrow from Amazon because I'm fed up with only 1/10 matches being of good quality. I'm hoping that this will help.

NNID: aLuckyPerson
Location: Georgia, USA
Main: Captain Falcon
Secondary: Jigglypuff

I'm available to play most nights and weekends, but it really depends on the day that week because my work/class schedules are jank.

 

[BiGViC340]

A Lucky Person I have added you and you're going to notice the difference! I would like some moderators for the Google Doc but I don't want to allow for public edits BSME/misc, send me your gmail in a PM if you would like to help with the list.

 

[❤ Nikodemus05]

I've had a non official Ethernet adapter for a while now, and it does help a ton!

NNID: Nikodemus05
Location: Palmer, AK (LAN is a must, and with it, it almost feels like playing offline, even way up here.)
Main: Samus
Secondary: Captain Falcon/ Zamus

I'm available to play anytime on the weekends, and almost always available around 3:00 after school. (UTC).

 

[BiGViC340]

I have added you Nikodemus05. Definitely LAN is a must. I hope to get a decent list going so we can eliminate latency as much as possible. I am busy tonight but anyone down for some games tomorrow night?

 

[❤ Nikodemus05]

I have added you Nikodemus05. Definitely LAN is a must. I hope to get a decent list going so we can eliminate latency as much as possible. I am busy tonight but anyone down for some games tomorrow night?

I could play some games tonight, sure!

 

[A Lucky Person]

If anyone's down to play tonight then I am as well. I have a tourney tomorrow so practice would be great! I'll keep an eye on this thread and my messages for the next couple hours, so just PM me or reply to this and we will play.

 

[❤ Nikodemus05]

If anyone's down to play tonight then I am as well. I have a tourney tomorrow so practice would be great! I'll keep an eye on this thread and my messages for the next couple hours, so just PM me or reply to this and we will play.

I'm up for some matches!

 

[A17]

I got myself a random LAN adapter that even mentions Wii/U on it. Reviews say it is pretty good, but I almost feel I had less laggier matches on my Wi-Fi connection, but then again, the TV setup with the adapter was a TV with more input lag than the other TV I used. I'm working on ways to boost my network performance though.

NNID: Okrapaeli
Location: ON, Canada. (C'mon, Canadians)
Main: Lucina, Mario
Secondary: Donkey Kong, and maybe G&W.

 

[Fluidityt]

No offense but this is ridiculous in most cases. I think we all appreciate your contributing, but it's a bit eschew from practicality.

What you say is true, its faster, but completely inconsequential given the physiology of humans: reaction times and perception, especially considering the types of players who will be using online as a method of training (read: not professionals)

WLAN vs LAN is the LEAST of the problems that you could have in trying to reduce latency. If you are using an LCD TV, then you are likely experiencing 2-4 times as much lag as what you get from wireless over wired. If you are using a wireless controller, again, even more lag.

If you add everything together, under worse case scenario, vs best (CRT television, wired connection, gamecube controller wired adapter) you have ~1-2 ms vs 6-15ms. Completely and utterly inconsequential for the types of players who would be using online as a training method to begin with. To put this in perspective, the game runs at 60FPS, which is about 16ms per frame. Most people cannot distinguish anything over 60fps, and need at most 41ms delay (24fps) between frames to appear as a moving image, not individual pictures.

As you mentioned, the location *is* a much more important factor, but even still, 20ms (same state) vs 60-70ms (cross country) isn't much as far as timing goes, as the netcode handles the discrepancies nicely.

To give you credit where it is definitely due, the ethernet adapter would be worth it if you are experiencing lag spikes, or are in a room with a poor connection. But then, if you have poor connection, you likely won't be near your router, making the adapter a non-option as most wouldn't want to run a long cable. I'd suggest relocating the router or your Wii U.

Not a network engineer. Just a neuroscience graduate. You know, nerves, the thing that send impulses throughout your body. Yeah. They can be measured. And so can our reaction to it. You are giving *way* too much credit to a couple thousandths (1/500 of a second), considering the *average* reaction time is around 100/500 of a second (read: one hundred times slower) and is nowhere near "night and day." I could hook you up to one of my machines in the lab and you would guess which one was wifi and which one was lan approximately 50% of the time.

Still, I would get the adapter if it was convenient and had 10$ to blow. But that 10$ would be better spent money matching a professional on Twitch and getting their feedback.

Thanks, and sorry for kind of derailing your thread. But I kinda felt like I had to do it. If you are serious about making a list of local people with super low latency, then it should include much more than just a LAN adapter.


TL;DR: It would be much 2-4x better to make a thread and spreadsheet for people who use CRT televisions, and only CRT televisions, as they provide a much better response time compared to LCD TVs, compared to making a thread for WLAN vs LAN, which offers an extremely negligible response time difference

 

[Xuan Wu]

Excellent thread. Thanks for sharing.

Curious about something. I am a USB LAN adapter user; however, my adapter is not connected to my router, but instead to my laptop via Network Sharing. I read about how one can use his or her computer as a wireless router doing this. Unfortunately, I am not seeing any difference in performance, compared to Wi-Fi. If anything, this often times seems to worsen the connection for me. Can you explain what I am doing wrong and what changes you would suggest? With my Ethernet cable connected from my Wii U LAN adapter to my laptop, my network reads "Limited".

I purchased the adapter for resolving interference issues, mainly caused by one of my relatives streaming Netflix in a room two floors below me.

^-^

 

[Fluidityt]

Excellent thread. Thanks for sharing.

Curious about something. I am a USB LAN adapter user; however, my adapter is not connected to my router, but instead to my laptop via Network Sharing. I read about how one can use his or her computer as a wireless router doing this. Unfortunately, I am not seeing any difference in performance, compared to Wi-Fi. If anything, this often times seems to worsen the connection for me. Can you explain what I am doing wrong and what changes you would suggest? With my Ethernet cable connected from my Wii U LAN adapter to my laptop, my network reads "Limited".

I purchased the adapter for resolving interference issues, mainly caused by one of my relatives streaming Netflix in a room two floors below me.

^-^

Please see my above post for your answer. Using your laptop as a bridge is adding some latency, though I'd guess no more than 1ms in total.

 

[DakotaBonez]

My Wifi is pretty good and I am inclined to believe that the wiiu's 802.11n wifi is on par, if not better than what the wii lan adapter could put out. but a wired connection I've heard is sure to remove the hiccups that occasionally occur from wireless interference. However, I don't think I'll notice a difference unless everyone in the world that I play in a match also switches to wires.
What's the best 3rd party LAN adapter?
Been considering purchasing this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00484IEJS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, do ya know if playing on a gamepad screen instead of a tv would be faster?
I doubt I'll be able to actually discern a difference but I want any possible johns to be eliminated.

 

[Fluidityt]

My Wifi is pretty good and I am inclined to believe that the wiiu's 802.11n wifi is on par, if not better than what the wii lan adapter could put out. but a wired connection I've heard is sure to remove the hiccups that occasionally occur from wireless interference. However, I don't think I'll notice a difference unless everyone in the world that I play in a match also switches to wires.
What's the best 3rd party LAN adapter?
Been considering purchasing this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00484IEJS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, do ya know if playing on a gamepad screen instead of a tv would be faster?
I doubt I'll be able to actually discern a difference but I want any possible johns to be eliminated.

The speed (10mbps vs 10 gbps) doesn't matter after a certain point. Gaming uses hardly no bandwidth. The wired connection will certainly be faster, due to the physical amount of time in takes for the waves to be sent, and because the router will scrutinize the packets coming from a wireless signal MUCH more than it will coming from a wired. This is because wireless (as you mentioned) are prone to mistakes.

However, it only takes 1-3 ms max for this to happen under ideal circumstances. And no, even if everyone switched to LAN and you stayed WLAN it wouldn't matter to any statistically relevant amount.

Please read my wall of text a few posts up for proof of this, and answer to your gamepad question.

 

[Mr. Potatobadger]

Add me, if you will.

Location: Central Florida
Main: Marth/Lucina (Matchup Dependent, I play both equally)
Secondary: N/A
NNID: mrpoetatoebadger
Time Available to Play: M-F after 3:00pm(EST), Weekend All Day

 

[BiGViC340]

Sorry for the long hiatus guys, I was in the process of moving and have wired up my new house with CAT 6 Cabling. I will add everyone and will be available to play a lot of the nights now. I will also answer any questions some of you might have later tonight.

 

[A17]

My Wifi is pretty good and I am inclined to believe that the wiiu's 802.11n wifi is on par, if not better than what the wii lan adapter could put out. but a wired connection I've heard is sure to remove the hiccups that occasionally occur from wireless interference. However, I don't think I'll notice a difference unless everyone in the world that I play in a match also switches to wires.
What's the best 3rd party LAN adapter?
Been considering purchasing this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00484IEJS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, do ya know if playing on a gamepad screen instead of a tv would be faster?
I doubt I'll be able to actually discern a difference but I want any possible johns to be eliminated.

Lucky for you, I bought that exact adapter a few weeks ago and still have mixed response about it today. I think it hasn't had a huge difference for me... Maybe that just my internet? But I haven't had problems with it. I still get laggy matches every now and then, but that's probably just a poor connection with those particular players in general.


As for the gamepad, don't play off the gamepad if you can help it. There's video lag on that. Some other dude on this forum says 33ms.

 

[DakotaBonez]

Lucky for you, I bought that exact adapter a few weeks ago and still have mixed response about it today. I think it hasn't had a huge difference for me... Maybe that just my internet? But I haven't had problems with it. I still get laggy matches every now and then, but that's probably just a poor connection with those particular players in general.


As for the gamepad, don't play off the gamepad if you can help it. There's video lag on that. Some other dude on this forum says 33ms.

Thats the problem of using a wired connection. Having a wired connection won't mean jack unless I'm playing against someone who is also using a wired connection, which the majority of WiiU owners is most definitely not using by default. Surprised that theres a whole third of a second of lag on the gamepad. I will probably be getting that adapter and using it for anthers ladder matches.

 

[Fluidityt]

Lucky for you, I bought that exact adapter a few weeks ago and still have mixed response about it today. I think it hasn't had a huge difference for me... Maybe that just my internet? But I haven't had problems with it. I still get laggy matches every now and then, but that's probably just a poor connection with those particular players in general.

No, its because 1-3ms (the advantage of wired over wirless with good connection) is imperceptible. Please see my above postings.

As for the gamepad, don't play off the gamepad if you can help it. There's video lag on that. Some other dude on this forum says 33ms.

No. It's actual response time is around 16ms total, including lcd response and sending / receiving video and input signal. Anecdotal testing has shown this to have similar results as TV with 33ms response time, meaning 1-2 'dropped' frames depending on where the frame buffer is at in the game loop when you press the input button. This doesn't change the fact that the gamepad is still around 16ms response time. Besides, 58fps vs 60fps is mostly imperceptible except to a trained eye during specific sequences. Anything over 60fps is imperceptible to most (hence why 120hz TVs are a scam, except that the image appears 'softer')

If the gamepad had 33ms response time, or "video lag", it would be extremely noticeable ghosting a la first generation LCD screens.

Also, unless you are playing on a gaming monitor, or have properly configured your HDTV, the gamepad may be significantly faster than your HDTV, especially if it is rather large in size. Post-processign on many TVs can cause anywhere from 50-120ms delay, despite being advertised as 6-15ms response time.

So back to my initial point, none of this really makes a huge impact in actual performance, as these times are practically imperceptible. Also, http://www.humanbenchmark.com/ Try it on your gamepad, on your TV, on your phone, laptop, etc. You may be surprised to find the gamepad as your best performer.

Thats the problem of using a wired connection. Having a wired connection won't mean jack unless I'm playing against someone who is also using a wired connection, which the majority of WiiU owners is most definitely not using by default. Surprised that theres a whole third of a second of lag on the gamepad. I will probably be getting that adapter and using it for anthers ladder matches.

No, that would be 333 ms, not 33 ms. So ten times faster than a third of a second. But still, this number is wrong, meaning it is twenty times faster than a third of a second. (Your base reaction time is around 200ms as point of reference)