Does it matter as long as I have an excellent connection to the router wirelessly? I assume that my transfer speed over the cable modem internet is slower than the wireless so the local connection shouldn't matter.
I play COD4 a lot and was wondering if I would have less lag if I wired up.

you would, but you probably wouldn't notice it.

you would have a better chance of less lag on a wired setup.

If given a choice, wired every single time. Wireless is convenient but still has 50% overhead and always subject to the fact that your neighbors can cause inteference and the fact that if one person in the house is using the wireless connection at the same time, you will notice a performance drop.

-Splints

Wired will always be better then wireless (as far a connection and speed go). Wired is not always convenient though.

Here's what sold me. Go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest on your PS3 browser.

Try it with the wireless and then the wired connection to see if it matters for you. For me, I got 4,500 kbps with the wireless and 22,500 kbps with a wired connection. That sold it for me. Why pay for fast internet access if you're not going to use it. I can now download a 25MB file in about 15 seconds.

If given a choice, wired every single time.
QFT

If you play Tekken online wireless is freaking HORRIBLE. I cannot stand the lag, but since I rent I can't go through the walls with some CAT5 :(

If you play Tekken online wireless is freaking HORRIBLE. I cannot stand the lag, but since I rent I can't go through the walls with some CAT5 :(

Have you tried flat cat5 under the carpet? I had wireless in my apt and snaked flat cat5 under the carpets and it made a noticible difference.

If you play Tekken online wireless is freaking HORRIBLE. I cannot stand the lag, but since I rent I can't go through the walls with some CAT5 :(

That sucks. Can't you just patch up the holes when you leave?

Wired
Wired
Wired
Wired

Has it been pounded into your head enough yet? ;)

Here's what sold me. Go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest on your PS3 browser.

Try it with the wireless and then the wired connection to see if it matters for you. For me, I got 4,500 kbps with the wireless and 22,500 kbps with a wired connection. That sold it for me. Why pay for fast internet access if you're not going to use it. I can now download a 25MB file in about 15 seconds.

If you're only getting that through your wireless, then you have no clue how to setup your router right or you about a half mile from the router.

You guys must have some horrible wireless routers, you don't know how to set them up, you are going through a lot of walls, or you are talking about actual wireless internet.

If you're only getting that through your wireless, then you have no clue how to setup your router right or you about a half mile from the router.

I disagree with this. I've encountered the exact same thing with my router literally 15 feet from my ps3 and using dd-wrt. The wireless adapter for the ps3 is horrid.

Also, how do you get the speedtest site to work in the ps3 browser? It says I don't have a new enough version of flash.

I have been using my 360 and PS3 wirelessly for a couple years now, and my router is literally on the top floor of a 3 floor house, and my PS3 and 360 are on the bottom floor.

I still see very little in the way of lag in my games. No more than anyone else. I really have to doubt if that would be any different were I using a wired connection. Sure wired can move more data, but the data being transferred during an online game is made up of tiny files, so I think it's a moot point.

I disagree with this. I've encountered the exact same thing with my router literally 15 feet from my ps3 and using dd-wrt. The wireless adapter for the ps3 is horrid.

Also, how do you get the speedtest site to work in the ps3 browser? It says I don't have a new enough version of flash.

There wireless router in the PS3 is the same thing they use in laptops. Its wireless G and it has to conform to G standards.

Data Rate (Typ) 23 Mbit/s
Data Rate (Max) 54 Mbit/s

Like I said before, your 200% sure you have all the wireless settings on the router setup correctly for maximum speed?

Does it matter as long as I have an excellent connection to the router wirelessly? I assume that my transfer speed over the cable modem internet is slower than the wireless so the local connection shouldn't matter.
I play COD4 a lot and was wondering if I would have less lag if I wired up.

I haven't measured COD4, but I used to have constant lock up issues on Warhawk at the stats screen (end of match when all the stats got sent to the servers) on wireless.........Now that I've switched to wired it hasn't frozen since.

btw, just so you people know, bandwidth has NOTHING to do with lag. Lag is latency and how fast the signal is being sent back and forth between the PS3 and the router.

For me, I got 4,500 kbps with the wireless and 22,500 kbps with a wired connection.

Do you really have a connection that does 2.2 megs per second? Comcast is only 600k/sec unless you pay more for the 800k service.

I haven't measured COD4, but I used to have constant lock up issues on Warhawk at the stats screen (end of match when all the stats got sent to the servers) on wireless.........Now that I've switched to wired it hasn't frozen since.

How strong was your wireless signal?

No matter how strong your wireless is... wired is always going to be the fastest.

Here is an article from netgear on the differences. It's pretty straightforward.

http://www.netgear.co.uk/home_newnetwork_wiredwireless.php

No matter how strong your wireless is... wired is always going to be the fastest.

Here is an article from netgear on the differences. It's pretty straightforward.

http://www.netgear.co.uk/home_newnetwork_wiredwireless.php

its 54mbit vs 100mbit unless your comparing a gigabit network to wireless.

Isn't it obvious that 54mbit is slower than 100mbit?

But then if you have wireless N (which the ps3 does not have) then you could say wireless N is faster than wired 100mbit considering wireless N can do 300mbit.

None of this means you will have better pings with wired over wireless though. The determining factor in that is how strong is your wireless signal.

Do you guys/girls actually understand the difference between lag/latency and bandwidth?

Do you guys/girls actually understand the difference between lag/latency and bandwidth?


No disrespect intended, but rather than making a blanket statement such as "do you even understand the differences between...", perhaps it would be beneficial to explain/define the terms that you think the masses here are confused on...merely a suggestion.

Personally, I understand the differences between the two, but I think it's quite presumptuous to say that the majority of the people around this particular forum are unaware of the differences, lag and bandwidth that is. If you believe yourself to be more astute than the rest of us, than by all means please share, that's much more helpful than talking a shot at someone.

To get back on point, I switched from a wireless to a wired connection about a month ago - I basically have zero "download settings" time in COD4 now, my connection is a consistent 4 bars were as with the wireless I would never be above 3. The lag is a bit less overall but far from gone. Bottom line, a wired connection carries less chance of interference than it's wireless cohort, IHMO if you can....use a wired connection.

Do you guys/girls actually understand the difference between lag/latency and bandwidth?

And do you understand theoretical vs real world performance? My bandwidth though the PS3 sucks. I have a 15 Mbit connection (really only 10 Mbit) and the most I ever can utilize on the PS3 is 1.5 MBit. This is with my WRT54GL sitting around 15 feet from my PS3 with no walls in the way. I've tried both using the latest linksys firmware as well as the DD-WRT which I've installed. UPnP is enabled.

And it's not like I'm the only one, TONS of people are complaining about it. I have a ethernet-wireless game connector I think I'll hook up and I bet there is a significant difference in bandwidth.

I am not lumping everyone in this forum all together. I just think the majority of the people posting in this thread do not know the difference.

Bandwidth is how fast the connection is.
Latency/lag is how quick the connection is.

Bandwidth is how fast you can download a large file.
Latency/lag is how quick you access that file.

Games typically don't consume much bandwidth, that is why you can buy a very cheap service, like 128kbps DSL and get the same lag as someone that is using 10000kbps service.

If you have a very stable and strong signal with a wireless connection, you will not notice a single difference between it and a wired connection when playing a game. Yes a wired connection is always going to be faster for downloading files but that is not the case for lag.

And do you understand theoretical vs real world performance? My bandwidth though the PS3 sucks. I have a 15 Mbit connection (really only 10 Mbit) and the most I ever can utilize on the PS3 is 1.5 MBit. This is with my WRT54GL sitting around 15 feet from my PS3 with no walls in the way. I've tried both using the latest linksys firmware as well as the DD-WRT which I've installed. UPnP is enabled.

And it's not like I'm the only one, TONS of people are complaining about it. I have a ethernet-wireless game connector I think I'll hook up and I bet there is a significant difference in bandwidth.

If you can feel the lag difference from wired to wireless in that, then why can't you feel the lag in your bluetooth controllers compared to wired controllers?

There are TONS of people complaining because routers are complicated and most people just plug them in and never change a setting. Its like comparing all the people that don't know the difference between SDDVD and HD DVD's or regular tv compared to hdtv.

Just for example, I sold a wrt54g on ebay and the person that bought it from me filed a complaint with paypal to get their money back because they couldn't figure out how to reset the password on it. I even gave them the instruction manual where it clearly stated how to reset the password and what password to use once it was reset.

Here is another thing, how many of you can feel the lag in HDTV? If you have a DLP you have a 15ms+ lag delay just from the signal of the TV's internals to what is actually pictured on the display.

Computer monitors have 8ms or less.

Do you really have a connection that does 2.2 megs per second? Comcast is only 600k/sec unless you pay more for the 800k service.

it's powerboost, or whatever they call it where the initial moments of the download are increased.

btw, I got horrific wireless speeds on my ps3. router is configured fine, and was redone umpteen times following guides online to optimize for the ps3. Was in the dmz, nat2, 80%+ connection strength, able to stream 720p files with ease over the local network, but anything to do with the psn or browser sputtered. I have 5 or 6 other wireless devices in the house that have no speed issues, it was only the ps3. Bypassing the ps3's wireless and running it through a wireless gaming adapter increased the speeds about 3x. This is with the same settings as the ps3, it makes no sense but I'm sticking with it. Based on everything I've been reading the past week trying to speed this thing up, I highly doubt it's just a "bunch of idiots that don't know how to configure their network". The ps3 wireless is extremely flaky.

And do you understand theoretical vs real world performance? My bandwidth though the PS3 sucks. I have a 15 Mbit connection (really only 10 Mbit) and the most I ever can utilize on the PS3 is 1.5 MBit. This is with my WRT54GL sitting around 15 feet from my PS3 with no walls in the way. I've tried both using the latest linksys firmware as well as the DD-WRT which I've installed. UPnP is enabled.

And it's not like I'm the only one, TONS of people are complaining about it. I have a ethernet-wireless game connector I think I'll hook up and I bet there is a significant difference in bandwidth.

give the game adapter a try. my ps3 would putter on speed tests and the psn was unbearable. 1 gig demos in 3 hours. with the adapter, speed tests are about 4-5 times faster and the store is much improved (icons load faster and downloads are much better)

it's powerboost, or whatever they call it where the initial moments of the download are increased.

So you have cable that really only gets something like 6000kbps.

give the game adapter a try. my ps3 would putter on speed tests and the psn was unbearable. 1 gig demos in 3 hours. with the adapter, speed tests are about 4-5 times faster and the store is much improved (icons load faster and downloads are much better)

Your ps3 must have a way crappier adapter than mine does because I download 1 gig demos in something like 15 minutes on my wireless connection...

40gig ps3 here.

doing the speedtest wirelessly on the 60gb, i get over 12000kbps down. this is with the router on a different floor and 90% signal on the ps3

i just did the http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ on my ps3 wireless with it in another room from the router and got

6000kbps from ps3

I got 6300kbps from my pc.

Your ps3 must have a way crappier adapter than mine does because I download 1 gig demos in something like 15 minutes on my wireless connection...

40gig ps3 here.

the wireless receiver itself is fine. I can stream HD over the network all day on it. The point I was making is that from what I've observed, there's something weird going on with how the ps3 handles internet connections over wireless. Mine choked as if there was some bottleneck somewhere or it was dropping a ridiculous amount of packets.

with identical router settings, and the same settings in the gaming adapter manually entered into the ps3 wireless, it was still far slower. It really doesn't make sense. I'm just glad I found a work around.

obsid1an, what is the reason you can't get the ps3 browser to run that speedtest? It works perfectly fine for me. I'll take a picture why my camera if you don't believe me.

the wireless receiver itself is fine. I can stream HD over the network all day on it. The point I was making is that from what I've observed, there's something weird going on with how the ps3 handles internet connections over wireless. Mine choked as if there was some bottleneck somewhere or it was dropping a ridiculous amount of packets.

with identical router settings, and the same settings in the gaming adapter manually entered into the ps3 wireless, it was still far slower. It really doesn't make sense. I'm just glad I found a work around.

have you tried running the speakeasy speed test?

I just ran that same test on my wifes dell laptop from 3 feet form my wireless router and her dell got

5768kbps

have you tried running the speakeasy speed test?

yes.

2 laptops will peg 10mb+ (because of comcast's powerboost you can't get an accurate *real* speed on a short test)

ps3 wireless, sputters to get to 1-1.5 mb tops

ps3 on gaming adapter pegs 10mb+ like the laptops.

I have a comcast 6mb line, so after the initial powerboost downloads will hover in the 750kb/s range if maxing the connection.

yes.

2 laptops will peg 10mb+ (because of comcast's powerboost)

ps3 wireless, sputters to get to 1-1.5 mb tops

ps3 on gaming adapter pegs 10mb+ like the laptops.

I have a comcast 6mb line, so after the initial powerboost downloads will hover in the 750kb/s range if maxing the connection.

That powerboost thing is a marketing term. Every single cable service does that at the begining of any download. All the cable services I have ever been on have done this since as far back as I can remember.

I realize that, it doesn't have any relevance to this except to point out that the speakeasy test won't be accurate as far as actual speeds go because i'm getting the benefits of powerboost for that short download. The point remains that the ps3's wireless isn't nearly as fast as other devices on the network.

obsid1an, what is the reason you can't get the ps3 browser to run that speedtest? It works perfectly fine for me. I'll take a picture why my camera if you don't believe me.

I have no idea. It just says go upgrade your flash version. Really a pita.

If you play Tekken online wireless is freaking HORRIBLE. I cannot stand the lag, but since I rent I can't go through the walls with some CAT5 :(

I'm not sure what your layout looks like, but I had the cable buy run two ends of a long CAT5 cable when they did the cable install. One end of the CAT5 runs behind my TV next to the cable TV line for that room, while the other runs next to the cable TV line for my cable modem. I bought two nice wall plates that have a cable plug on the top and a CAT5 connection on the bottom. Then, I'm able to connect out of the ports on the router into the wall in my office, and connect the PS3 to the port in the game room, and the signal just runs up and over the wall.

I'm not sure if you could run something similar, but it's a nice stealthy option that worked for me. I just have about 50 feet of CAT5 cable wrapped in a bundle in the attic since I didn't have to premeasure it. Works great though.

If you're only getting that through your wireless, then you have no clue how to setup your router right or you about a half mile from the router.

It's about two rooms away, but I have a lot of signal interference in my area, so wireless doesn't run as fast as I'd hope. It's a Linksys router, and despite your attempt at a condescending tone, I have probably been working in the IT/networking business longer than you. Wireless is for laptops and for temporary use only.

I was simply trying to offer an easy way for this person to quantify the benefits of rigging a wired system versus their current wired system. If the same numbers were achieved on the wired system, they would know it wasn't worth the trouble.

You should hard wire your PS3 period unless you absolutely cant and then settle for wireless. Wireless is just not up to the spec when it comes to the latency needs of online gamming or streaming movies. It just never has. If you can settle with random drops and lag spikes then by all means go for it. There is no substitute for the wire. Even them don’t be cheap, you can get great gigabit switches for a little over $50 and cat 6 isn’t all that more expensive then cat5e. Most home wireless are a joke. You can confirm by putting 3 devices on it and have them all do file transfers. If you are serious about wireless, get the good business spec units like Cisco or Symbol that can take a ton of devices connected and not sweat.

That powerboost thing is a marketing term. Every single cable service does that at the begining of any download. All the cable services I have ever been on have done this since as far back as I can remember.

Power boost with cable is also know as "caching". Comcast has some really expensive devices that cache locally heavily downloaded files (Such as say Microsoft updates). That’s why you sometimes get files drop down at pretty much strait up 10mb/sec off the Comcast network without having to reach out over the WAN. They are also called "WAN accelerators" If the file isn’t cached then you download it at the max speed for the data line (which is probably more limited on the sender’s side then yours who’s probably sitting on a single T1)

btw, just so you people know, bandwidth has NOTHING to do with lag. Lag is latency and how fast the signal is being sent back and forth between the PS3 and the router.



Do you really have a connection that does 2.2 megs per second? Comcast is only 600k/sec unless you pay more for the 800k service.

I think its different for each market. Time Warner was my first provider and advertised their service as 4.5 Mbps and that's about what I would get using this test. When Comcast took over, they advertised they upgraded the network to run faster, but have never given solid numbers. I re-ran the test about two weeks after the service provider switch, and I started getting 16,000 kbps. A few weeks ago, that jumped again to 22,000. I'm happy with it for $40 a month. Especially when Comcast brought me 2.5 Mbps up instead of the 384 kbps up that TW gave me. :)

I've also found the results from this test to be fairly accurate. I recently had to rebuild my primary machine after a HD crash and subsequent upgrade, and while re-downloading updates and such, I was regularly getting speeds of 2.5 to 2.8 MB/sec (not Mbps) according the IE7 download window.

I have no idea. It just says go upgrade your flash version. Really a pita.

What ps3 do you have? I wonder if there is a difference in ps3's and their browsers...

It's about two rooms away, but I have a lot of signal interference in my area, so wireless doesn't run as fast as I'd hope. It's a Linksys router, and despite your attempt at a condescending tone, I have probably been working in the IT/networking business longer than you. Wireless is for laptops and for temporary use only.

I was simply trying to offer an easy way for this person to quantify the benefits of rigging a wired system versus their current wired system. If the same numbers were achieved on the wired system, they would know it wasn't worth the trouble.

I wasn't trying to be mean, sorry I came off that way.

I have no idea. It just says go upgrade your flash version. Really a pita.

Same exact thing happens to me when i encounter flash on pages. I have the 60gig.

Same exact thing happens to me when i encounter flash on pages. I have the 60gig.

and I have the 40gig. Maybe the 60gigs browser is different...

Does the length of the Cat5 cable matter?

I'm thinking of dropping wireless, and going wired.

But that means I would need a Cat5 cable that's 50-feet long.

Anybody have ideas/thoughts?

Ok, so a lot of people are complaining about their wireless connection and don't have the option of wiring up CAT5/6 across multiple rooms to connect their ps3, understood.

There is one alternative that works really well which no one really talks about, but can get you the best of both worlds, Powerline Networking.

I would recommend the Linksys PLK200: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US/Layout&cid=1166859583396&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

It gives you 100Mb performance (with low overhead) and gets rid of all the 2.4 Ghz interference problems. The only deal-breaker issue is that they have to be installed on the same phase (most houses have 2 or 3 phases) since the data won't transfer across circuit breakers. It's worth a try for many of the complaints out there.

In regards to wi-fi speeds. Just because the box says 54Mbps does not mean that is the performance you will see. That number is raw datarate. The effective data rate is less than half. Usually you top out at 20Mbps on wi-fi on a 54Mbps connection. Why? Because 802.11 packets have a lot more overhead packets to deal with being wireless connection. So why is this a big deal? It's a big deal since wireless has to do more overhead and is subject to interference that affects both speed (bandwidth) and lag (latency). Uneven networking performance means that online play is subject to wi-fi conditions and that you can quickly drop for your speedy 6Mbps internet connection being the bottleneck to your wi-fi network being the bottleneck (1Mbps wifi connection, 400kbps effective data-rate).

So what to do? Go wired either with cat 5/6 wiring or use the powerline networking recommended above. If you must go wireless. At least go 802.11a so your in the 5Ghz band and not subject to so much interference. D-Link network gaming products support this for those who are looking.

-Splints

Does the length of the Cat5 cable matter?

I'm thinking of dropping wireless, and going wired.

But that means I would need a Cat5 cable that's 50-feet long.

Anybody have ideas/thoughts?


50 feet is no problem at all. You need to start worrying at over 100 yards.

Does the length of the Cat5 cable matter?

I'm thinking of dropping wireless, and going wired.

But that means I would need a Cat5 cable that's 50-feet long.

Anybody have ideas/thoughts?

Your fine, Cat5 is designed to go up to 100M (~300ft) for one segment. It can probably even work farther than that, but it's not that hard to stick in a switch in the middle if you need to break it up every 300ft.

-Splints

and I have the 40gig. Maybe the 60gigs browser is different...

Actually the 2.2 firmware upgraded the browser speed, so for those calculating the speed of the connection via browser, make sure you use the latest firmware (2.3).

-Splints