Is WiFi good for gaming?

Xeno

I'm thinking of picking up a 360.

This will be the first time I play online with a system. Now, my computer is up in my room. I want to put the 360 downstairs in my basement but be able to connect and play online.

Now, I know I have to purchase the wifi adapter for the 360 PLUS a wireless router.

But what I want to know is will it be worth it? I am mainly worried about the signal/speed. Will I lag like hell online?

I also heard the the signal gets weaker the more it has to pass through floors. Well, the signal would have to pass through 2 floors, not sure if that matters. Also, hooking it up by an ethernet cord is not an option unless I want to keep it in my room which I don't.

I have cable internet from Rogers in Ontario Canada. Not sure it that matters either.

Just asking because I don't want to waste money for nothing.

Thanks for the help guys.

Ruckus

With regular wireless routers, I do see a slight hit of up to 10ms lag on wireless vs. wired connection.

I have not tried a Wireless Gaming Router yet, but they do exist and are supposed to be better.

Also, I use a PC with D-Link PCI 54G Wireless card and dlink management software, which may contribute to the performance hit.

As for distance, if the actual distance is less than 30 feet (from router to receiver), and provided your house's internal walls aren't made from steel mesh reinforced concrete, and also provided you aren't placing the router or receiver right next to a high voltage appliance (like a furnace or Dryer), you should be fine.

fforde

I play Halo 2 online sometimes via a wireless connection on my 360. Every now and then I will notice a little bit of lag but I have never had any problems. It is totally playable and not even really noticable except with the Rocket Launcher. And even that being said, I dont remember ever feeling like I should have gotten a kill and didnt due to lag.

Deusfaux

lets say this: i would go out of my way to hook up something with a wired connection before ever feeling like wireless was my last resort

Ohio

My 360 with wireless adapter is one floor directly below my computer and wireless router - and I notice no problems. You should be fine.

Locust76

With my PC I generally have a 20ms ping to servers I play on and whatnot, so if wireless adds 10ms, my real-world ping is 10ms, which is unbelievably good.

I'd also like to add that added latency via Wi-Fi can be measured by pinging the router from a wireless client.

Ping.exe wrote:

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms

So I think it would be safe to assume that the latency induced by wireless is extremely negligable. Assuming your signal strength/quality is good, of course.