Low Latency Wireless Router

[T3rr0rByte13]

Hi,
I have a need for a low latency wireless router. On my current router I'm getting 44ms response times between pings. I need it lower, much lower, something around <1ms or the equivalent of a hard wired connection. Do you know of any wireless routers capable of such times?

 

[deaedius]

For starters what are you trying to ping? The router itself or something on the internet?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Wireless and low latency don't belong in the same sentence. Go wired.

 

[travbrad]

What is your current router and network adapter?

The thing that causes higher latency and spikes with wireless is usually interference and/or bad antennas. Standard/older wireless routers used 2.4ghz spectrum which effectively only really has 3 totally distinct channels without overlap, and since everyone uses wireless these days it's almost impossible not to have interference at 2.4ghz unless you don't live near anyone. Even then there are some other things that can use 2.4ghz (wireless mice for example). You could try changing your wireless channel in your router settings (to either channel 1, 6, or 11) and maybe one of those would have less interference, but if you live in the city/suburbs chances are they aren't going to be great. Some routers just plain suck though. I had a Comcast rented Arris router for awhile that gave me spikes of hundreds of ms. My TP-LINK router using the same channel at 2.4ghz rarely even spikes into double digits let alone hundreds of ms.

Your best bet will be to get an 802.11ac router than can transmit at 5ghz with a network adapter that can use 5ghz as well. 5ghz tends to work better for a couple reasons. Firstly it's just less common (although it's becoming more common) so there's less chance of interference from your neighbors router. The other thing it has going for it is that there are 23 non-overlapping 20mhz channels to choose from, or 12 non-overlapping 40mhz channels, or 5 non-overlapping 80mhz channels. So again much easier to get a piece of spectrum all to yourself.

I don't think you'll ever find a wireless router that stays <1ms 100% of the time, but if you can find some clear spectrum (maybe on 2.4ghz but far more likely on 5ghz) and get a router and adapter with good antennas you can get some pretty consistently low pings that is generally good enough for gaming that it won't cause issues. It will never be as consistent and reliable as a wired connection though.

I have a TP-Link-AC1900-Wireless-Archer-C9 router for what it's worth. And an ASUS PCE-AC56 network adapter (PCI-E). Even those USB wireless adapters and smartphones have much more consistent pings now that I have a decent router that does 5ghz too.

A couple other options you may want to look into are ethernet over coax networking, or ethernet over powerline networking. These basically make use of existing coax cables or power cables in your residence effectively giving you a wired network without actually putting CAT6 in all the walls/floors/etc. One note about powerline networking though is that they tend to burn out fairly regularly (every year or two)