Nintendo Wifi Adapater, Does it make a difference to lag?

[Starscream]

So I'm experiencing lag when playing with friends like I'm sure tons of people out their are. The way my connection is set up is my Wii is 2 rooms away from my wireless router on the same floor. Small rooms I might add. I'm not using Nintendo's official Wifi adapter, instead I'm connecting with the Wii's internal wifi thingy. So if I use the Wifi adapter will I get less lag?

 

[Nymphetamine]

My freind is using wirless, and our game ours crystal clear but he is not sharing it with another wii

 

[Jimiisama]

Being too far from your wireless router shouldn't cause any issues unless you are ridiculously far (i.e. in another house). If the lag is related to your wireless signal, I suggest testing the signal strength; the Wii probably has a signal meter (probably looks like a bunch of bars), and if it does not, then you can use any other wifi device (laptop, phone, etc). If your signal is strong enough, then you are most likely experiencing lag due to Nintendo's online system. From what I hear, the game isn't hosted on Nintendo server but actually on individual's Wiis; this can cause problems as the Wii does not really have strong hardware, and whoever is hosting the game, may not have a connection sufficient enough to host the game.

 

[Ralk]

There is so much misinformation floating around this forum about Wifi connections. Signal strength doesn't really affect latency (the lag time you feel). Either you have enough signal strength to send bits, or you don't - it's all digital once it's received. The location of your router or Wii doesn't matter as long as you get a strong enough signal. Furthermore, there's no reason to believe that wireless routers work better than the Nintendo Wifi adapater. They're both wireless receivers, and there isn't much in the design of those receivers that affects lag.

What matters is your ISP and the distance to the person you're playing with. Jimiisama is correct that Nintendo is not hosting your games. Nintendo servers merely find another Wii to connect to your Wii. Then, to have low latency, both of you must have decent ISP's and be somewhat close to each other - same region is good enough. Even then, you will never eliminate lag. About the best you can hope for is something on the order of a 30ms input lag which is still greater than most human reaction times.

 

[I The Nemesis I]

I use the LAN Adapter and I still experience some (understatement) lag. I have Comcast so I know it's not the connection. Ah, well.

 

[FredJ]

Ralk, if Nintendo doesn't host our games, why do the person creating a room(hosting) doesn't have 0 latency like every PC games I know that plays online. Also I'm pretty sure most of us play online games on a PC or something and we don't lag that bad and we know what our connection can handle, I sure know that I have enough bandwitch to host a 1v1 vs my friend who lives 5 miles from me. When we host games like counter-strike , the host(me usually) have 0 ping and my friend have about 20-30 ping so it's pretty playable, almost feel like playing LAN I would say.

But for Smash, I can't say the same at all, why is that? My opinion is that Nintendo DOES in fact host these games because if it was truly peers to peers, we wouldn't lag that badly like when we play PC games.

It's either that Nintendo's servers can't handle the huge amount of traffic right now or the hardware itself is so poorly made that it can't handle online play at all.

 

[Starscream]

There is so much misinformation floating around this forum about Wifi connections. Signal strength doesn't really affect latency (the lag time you feel). Either you have enough signal strength to send bits, or you don't - it's all digital once it's received. The location of your router or Wii doesn't matter as long as you get a strong enough signal. Furthermore, there's no reason to believe that wireless routers work better than the Nintendo Wifi adapater. They're both wireless receivers, and there isn't much in the design of those receivers that affects lag.

What matters is your ISP and the distance to the person you're playing with. Jimiisama is correct that Nintendo is not hosting your games. Nintendo servers merely find another Wii to connect to your Wii. Then, to have low latency, both of you must have decent ISP's and be somewhat close to each other - same region is good enough. Even then, you will never eliminate lag. About the best you can hope for is something on the order of a 30ms input lag which is still greater than most human reaction times.

Good info. Couple questions though.

What is ISP?

I'm trying to do a "With Friends" match with a friend that lives about 10 blocks away. Why do I still get terrible lag? And yet when I play on Xbox Live with people in other countries I get no lag. My connection is certainly capable, it would seem.

 

[HeroAnri]

simply put...your computer runs at an average of 100 fps with a wired internet...with a wireless internet, you use half that which is about 50....simply put, an adapter with a wire runs twice as fast as wireless

 

[C@sH Mooney]

Good info. Couple questions though.

What is ISP?

I'm trying to do a "With Friends" match with a friend that lives about 10 blocks away. Why do I still get terrible lag? And yet when I play on Xbox Live with people in other countries I get no lag. My connection is certainly capable, it would seem.

ISP stands for internet service provider.

and Starscream, I'm having the same problem. lol

except im using the USB wifi thing with mine.

 

[FuLLBLeeD]

Ralk, if Nintendo doesn't host our games, why do the person creating a room(hosting) doesn't have 0 latency like every PC games I know that plays online. Also I'm pretty sure most of us play online games on a PC or something and we don't lag that bad and we know what our connection can handle, I sure know that I have enough bandwitch to host a 1v1 vs my friend who lives 5 miles from me. When we host games like counter-strike , the host(me usually) have 0 ping and my friend have about 20-30 ping so it's pretty playable, almost feel like playing LAN I would say.

But for Smash, I can't say the same at all, why is that? My opinion is that Nintendo DOES in fact host these games because if it was truly peers to peers, we wouldn't lag that badly like when we play PC games.

It's either that Nintendo's servers can't handle the huge amount of traffic right now or the hardware itself is so poorly made that it can't handle online play at all.

Its because consoles suck compared to PC. Its the same reason that only 16 people can play CoD4 on a 360, while the PC version can have up to 64 if you config the server for it.

 

[Ralk]

Fred, you raise some good points. I suppose I can't be sure Nintendo isn't hosting these games - just seems odd that they would take that route. Also, they give you an indication of latency between individual friends (red is bad, blue is best) which suggests a peer-to-peer connection. You're definitely right that certainly neither side has low latency usually associated with hosting. Perhaps both wii's are sending messages to each other to confirm actions, but I can only guess.

Hero, I have no idea where you're getting your numbers. You haven't backed up your conclusion. Wireless vs wired is not what most people should be worrying about - that difference is not creating the large latencies we're experiencing.

 

[phoenx97]

Its because consoles suck compared to PC. Its the same reason that only 16 people can play CoD4 on a 360, while the PC version can have up to 64 if you config the server for it.

So when's SSBB PC coming out then?

And it's 18 actually, because IW chose not to allow dedicated servers for the console versions. But I guess the consumers really care, only 1 in 15 picked up the PC version. Not that any of that would help this situation with Brawl

I wish Nintendo would release some information about Brawl's online architecture. I've had lagfests with friends I ping in the sub 20s. All things point to peer to peer hosting but this lag is confusing. Either something does go through Nintendo's servers or the netcode is really inefficient. Hope it's fixable regardless of cause

 

[Jollies]

simply put...your computer runs at an average of 100 fps with a wired internet...with a wireless internet, you use half that which is about 50....simply put, an adapter with a wire runs twice as fast as wireless

You're on the right track, but this is very incorrect. Framerate (fps) has nothing to do with connectivity.

I'm pretty sure you mean network speed, which is rated in megabits per second (Mb/s). Most wired networks are configured to run at a max of either 100 Mb/s or 1000 Mb/s, depending on your router and cabling, while most wireless signals are capped at 54 Mb/s. These rates are maximum rates, and are never really achieved in practice.

Wireless connections never come close to this cap though, even if you're only inches from an access point. Transfer rates on wireless networks generally suck on home wireless equipment. There's too much signal degradation and interference. Wired is always better, but it's too bad that Nintendo's USB to ethernet adapter was junk, and is now discontinued.