Is playing WOW via WIFI a problem?

[Boneshaker]

Have just ordered and new "gaming pc" and l am ooking forward to a better in game experiance. I have a wireless network set up in my home as my family all spend time on the internet and I was wondering if playing WOW via wireless conection is a handicap? I could connect directly to the land line but was curious to see if this is needed?

I have the second tier DSL internet thru verizon. My home phone wireing is all copper. This has not been an issue for normal internet, but Im wondering how well WOW will perform like this even with a good PC. Just trying to think ahead and optimize my game playing.

[Kalos]

WoW should perform reasonably well over Wifi, but if you have latency problems you know what to yell at :grin: Expect it to work, but be prepared if it does not, in one sentence.

[Eliandor]

Have just ordered and new "gaming pc" and l am looking forward to a better in game experience. I have a wireless network set up in my home as my family all spend time on the internet and I was wondering if playing WOW via wireless connection is a handicap? I could connect directly to the land line but was curious to see if this is needed?

I have the second tier DSL internet thru verizon. My home phone wiring is all copper. This has not been an issue for normal internet, but Im wondering how well WOW will perform like this even with a good PC. Just trying to think ahead and optimize my game playing.

By connect directly to the landline, do you mean connect your computer via Ethernet cable to the router providing the wireless? Most ISP devices will have both wired ports and wireless antennas. Both can be in use. Wired connections have a max speed of 100 mbps on the local net, while wireless only maxes at 54mbps. Less with interference. I'd say go ahead and try it, but connect with a cable for best possible results.

[Kalos]

By connect directly to the landline, do you mean connect your computer via Ethernet cable to the router providing the wireless? Most ISP devices will have both wired ports and wireless antennas. Both can be in use. Wired connections have a max speed of 100 mbps on the local net, while wireless only maxes at 54mbps. Less with interference. I'd say go ahead and try it, but connect with a cable for best possible results.
It's not really a question of bandwidth but latency. WoW doesn't even need a single meg of bandwidth, but it does need that minute amount of data thrown about extremely fast, every milisecond counting. WiFi can take a playable latency and flush it down the toilet, basically making the journey time dozens and dozens of times longer, not because the wifi signal's bandwifth is biting the game, but because the signal travels way slower, especially in less than optimium conditions, than conventional wiring.

Many people confuse bandwidth and latency to be one and the same, best way to see it as a metaphor is as a physical road. Bandwidth is the lanes on the road, how many cars can go side by side in any one instant. Latency is speed. You can increase however many cars to the thousands, but if the speed limit never upgrades, for a single car it takes exactly the same time. People get it mixed up in thier heads when looking at big downloads, as obviously large amounts of data is useful. Like lorries and racing cars. Because the lorry holds more, doesn't mean it has a hope of going anywhere near the speed of the F1 racing car. Likewise, if you wanted to have your piano delivered ASAP, hiring the F1 racing car would be stupid, unless it's self assembly :grin: Bandwidth is the same, allowing more data to go at any one instant at the same speed, isn't too useful if you have one perticular car you want to go really, really fast rather than moving a whole army of cars in any random order to assemble up elsewhere.

[DrOsmius]

I play on both my desktop (wired in) and the laptop (wireless)...I've not seen a difference, but I haven't done heroic raids on the laptop either.

[surodat]

I have had problems with being disconnected while playing on my wireless. My apartment building has many wireless networks, and interference is a big issue. Sometimes my ping would be 60ms, sometimes it would be 160... but the disconnects eventually became too frequent and I ended up running a cable to hard wire the connection.

My ping is about the same, but I rarely get disconnected.

So, in my anecdotal experience, wireless speeds are fine for playing Wow, but the reliability of connection can sometimes be problematic.

[zerlikjr]

Much also has to do with security. The tighter the security you have in place the more latency you introduce.

I have not had any issues with WiFi and WoW at home. I use MAC filtering vs. security protocols. WEP for example will make the game unplayable.

Z.

[Wintrow]

I used to use an USB wifi stick to connect to my wifi router (stick came with the router) across the room. I'd have crappy bandwidth, lag AND I disconnected every now and then. I kept insisting to my wife a fixed Wifi PCI card would be a serious improvement and that the router was not at fault since my laptop had excellent connectivity (also playing wow) from a lot further AND behind armed concrete and 2 refrigerators (about the worst setup you can get).

Eventually it worsened to the point that my wife couldn't bare it as well. We had to reboot the computer every couple of minutes and sometimes twice consecutively. We then used a long cable for a while until my chosen PCI card arrived and the wifi has worked flawlessly ever since.

There you have it:
- Exactly the same PC
- Exactly the same software
- Exactly the same router
- Exactly the same encryption level
- Exactly the same internet subscription
- But a world of difference between a USB connector and a fixed 802.11n PCI-card (with 3 antenna's)

[clevins]

surodat hits the problem on its head. Wifi itself is fine but is subject to interfererence by other wifi networks and by older cordless phone base stations that operate on the same frequency. Live in a house with none of that? You should be fine - I have been. Live in an apartment or urban area with lots of RF? Go wired.

I've occasionally seen latency issues with my wifi - once had ping of 1000ms and plugging in got that to 80. But in general if wifi is an issue it will be one most of the time.

[elsegundo]

I have had problems with being disconnected while playing on my wireless. My apartment building has many wireless networks, and interference is a big issue. Sometimes my ping would be 60ms, sometimes it would be 160... but the disconnects eventually became too frequent and I ended up running a cable to hard wire the connection.

My ping is about the same, but I rarely get disconnected.

So, in my anecdotal experience, wireless speeds are fine for playing Wow, but the reliability of connection can sometimes be problematic.
i had the same problem with my wireless. although its great for surfing the web or even watching movies and such, WoW requires the conection to be constant and wireless sometimes will drop your signal. i dont know all the causes of this, but if you get dropped signals a lot, you might want to consider the wired solution.