Can a good switch improve gaming?

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jesusfr3ak4evr

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Can a good switch improve gaming over being hooked directly into the cable modem? I currently have a cable modem and have perfect upload, but very unstable download. My speeds for download range from 1mbps to 4mbps; it is plenty of bandwidth for on-line gaming, but my pings for all servers are 200-300 ms! Now when I'm talking about a good switch, I am talking like the D-Link DGL-4100 10/100/1000Mbps GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit Gaming Router. It can do packet prioritization, and a whole lot of other stuff apparently. The question then is can this switch/router fix my ping/loss problems in games?
 
jesusfr3ak4evr said:
Can a good switch improve gaming over being hooked directly into the cable modem? I currently have a cable modem and have perfect upload, but very unstable download. My speeds for download range from 1mbps to 4mbps; it is plenty of bandwidth for on-line gaming, but my pings for all servers are 200-300 ms! Now when I'm talking about a good switch, I am talking like the D-Link DGL-4100 10/100/1000Mbps GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit Gaming Router. It can do packet prioritization, and a whole lot of other stuff apparently. The question then is can this switch/router fix my ping/loss problems in games?
Click to expand...

quite possibly yes.

I have run into generic (compussr, etc) switches that freak out unpredictably in certain situations such as NFS. Not sure why but I just stopped using them and got better perofrmance. A reboot also helps.

When I say "freak out" I mean 1000ms+ locally between machines connected to the same switch, as well as packet loss. Weird, eh ?
 
Actully adding a switch to your network if you dont need one will just add one more stop for your packets to go thru befor they get to the internet.

So to answer your question...no. If you dont need a swtich and can just plug right into the cable modem, then that is going to be your best bet.

I would start to look else where to figure out why you are having 'high' pings.

edit: Is it in all games that you get the high ping?

What kind of results do you get when you ping something like google?
 
seanx: It is (meaning the ping is high) in all games. Actually, I use broadbandreports.com's Doctor Ping utility, and I know when my scores are 150-250 that my connection is poor for gaming (at the time). It's a matter of a crappy ISP, I think network overloading due to a lack of bandwidth. My ISP said they ordered an OC12 to relieve the traffic, but that was 3 months ago when they said that and nothing has changed! From 6-12pm my connection is worse than dial-up for gaming. I would still keep it for upload, however, which never changes.
 
Your computer will be less prone to problems..plugging directly into your broadband modem...you're constantly under attack from all the "junk" on the internet. Might as well format once a month.

A decent quality router will only add 2-3ms or so. If you're using some resource hogging software firewall..that' most likely hampering performance quite a bit. So fully removing that (of ir you're using zone alarm..it always leaves crap behind..so format to rid that hideous firewall..or dig around for some 3rd party better removal tools)...get behind a router..your performance will probably increase.

"Good Switch"...I wouldn't equate that with a router..the switches built into routers aren't exactly high end gear. But..you're just a home user..so even an entry level switch is fine, you don't have the load of 50x nodes or something.
 
I have no firewalls running.

Is it possible to hook my computer into a switch and hook the switch into a router that is receiving the cable internet through the WAN port? Switches don't have WAN ports...

After thinking about it, my best performance will come by being directly connected into the cable modem. Too bad my ISP is complete suckage :(

It would be nice to have a good LAN switch though!
 
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