The world of online gaming has exponentially evolved over the past few years. Now, more and more gamers are joining video game communities and becoming a part of online battles.
In the highly competitive gaming landscape, having access to fast and reliable internet can make or break your gaming experience. A lag spike of just a millisecond can be the factor that decides who wins and who loses. So, it’s important to make the best out of your internet connection. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can do this.
- Use a Wired Connection or Relocate Your Router
- Prioritize Gaming Through Your Router’s Settings
- Power-Cycle Your Wi-Fi Router
- Change your Wi-Fi channel
- Contact Your Internet Provider
• Use a Wired Connection
When gaming, it’s important to remove any source that can cause lag while gaming. One of the best things you can do to improve your network performance while gaming is to use Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi.
With Wi-Fi, not only is your internet going to be slower, but it can also add another translation layer to your connection, which can increase your latency. As gamers, we know that higher latency is a death sentence.
Not just that, there are other factors like interference, network congestion, and the distance of your gaming device to your router.
All of these problems can go away if you connect your gaming device directly to your router using an Ethernet cable. If you can’t use an Ethernet cable for connection, try making sure your router is within line of sight of your gaming machine.
• Prioritize Gaming Through Your Router’s Settings
If there are a lot of devices connected to your network, it might be a good idea to set your gaming device as the top priority. This will allocate more bandwidth to the gaming data packets, which will help reduce lag and improve your gaming network performance.
This can be done using the Quality of Service (QoS) settings in the Wi-Fi router’s settings. With the setting configured, even if someone else starts to use the bandwidth, it won’t slow down or hog up the bandwidth.
This option does vary from router to router, so it might not be effective for every router. You can experiment with different types of settings to fine-tune the setting that works for your needs.
• Power-Cycle Your Wi-Fi Router
Restarting your Wi-Fi modem can help you get rid of a lot of problems. This happens because the connection between the router and your ISP is reset. Power-cycling can help with lag and we recommend doing this at least once per week to ensure the best possible connection.
To make sure you get the most out of a restart, try performing an internet speed test before and after to see if restarting the router has any positive effects.
• Change your Wi-Fi channel
If you live in an apartment complex, there is a high chance that your Wi-Fi signals interfere with other Wi-Fi signals in the area. Thankfully, fixing this is easy. All you need to do is change the frequency your router uses to communicate.
Most routers either use 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz to communicate. When you get slower speeds, change your Wi-Fi’s network frequency to get better connectivity.
The 2.4 GHz band covers a larger area but the data transfer speeds are lower. However, 5 GHz transmits data at a faster speed but covers less area. The 5 GHz band can be great to use if your Wi-Fi router is nearby and you need faster speeds. But, if your router is further away and you can’t use a wired connection, then 2.4 GHz is a better option.
• Contact Your Internet Provider
If none of the tips we mentioned work, then there might be a problem on the ISP’s end.
Contact your internet provider to let them know that you’re getting slower internet speeds when gaming. A lot of times, the ISP can refresh your internet connection from their end, which will restart your router and reconnect all your devices.
Most ISPs can also send an update for your router, which can help fix bugs and issues, as well as add new features.
If the speed you’re getting matches the one you were promised, but isn’t enough for your gaming needs, then it might be time to get an upgrade. A lot of ISPs offer upgraded internet plans with promotions and discounted prices, which can be a great initiative for an upgrade.
All in all, getting a great internet option for gaming requires investing your time, and optimizing your hardware and software to reduce lag and enhance responsiveness.
The tips we mentioned above should help you get the best out of your internet and snipe all the noobs out there without worrying about lag ruining your game.
