Use wireless? READ THIS

[bubbles19518]

This should be Sticky or announcement or something.. Make it stay at the top.

Great read.

[DJSlayer]

Wow ... I had no idea, gonna try this now and see if it works, thanks Ewan :P

EDIT: It worked :P Sweet

[Snipe!]

i used to have a wireless, which gave me around 3.1% s2c

Stopping the wireless zero configuration dropped my ploss sooo much. but the only problem was when i disconnected, i had to "start" it again, reconnect, then stop it again. it kinda got annoying :P

[Nova Itachi]

That sounds exactly like what happens on one of my computers (the one not connected to the router) in my house. I haven't timed the spikes, but I'm pretty sure they happen every 60 seconds.

I use Vista, so this should be a huge help. Thanks a lot Ewan, appreciate it.

[Ewan]

I'm posting it here, as it's not really a post asking for help, more dishing it out. Also, like me, the people who this is aimed at probably passed the problem off as natural wireless lag, and so wouldn't bother looking for a fix in the ?help forum.

While at University, I use wireless to connect to the internet. Every now and again, it cuts me off for a couple of seconds which means I cannot play TWJD, TWDD and sometimes TWBD 50/50 whether I lagout). This happens in any online games and I assumed it was just the way wireless is and grew to accept it.

While playing Counter-Strike yesterday I decided to time the interval between the spikes, and it turned out they happened every 60 seconds. A bit of googling led me to realise it's actually a Windows issue. Stupidly, Windows automatically searches for new wireless networks every 60 seconds, causing these lag spikes. I've disabled it on my computer, and I am at 0.1 0.1 ploss instead of the 1.5 0.1 I'd be at before. Also, playing Counter-Strike for a few hours yesterday I experienced one single lag spike, instead of one every minute.

How to disable in XP:
One way around it is to use the third party wireless management software that came with your card, this isn't that ideal though as they tend to be pretty crap.
If you want to stick with the windows software:
It's simply a case of disabling the Wireless Zero Configuration service while you're playing. To do this, start menu -> run type in services.msc, find Wireless Zero Configuration, right click and select "Stop".
Your wireless connection will remain connected while the service is stopped. If it disconnects (say you reboot your router w/e), you will not be able to reconnect until you restart the service.

How to disable in Vista
The WZC service is tacked in with the other wireless stuff in Vista, so you can't get around it by using the 3rd party software that came with your wireless card.
Instead, use this file. Use the "Auto Off.bat" to disable the wireless config. And the "Auto On.bat" to turn it back on again. REMEMBER to turn it back on before turning your computer off, otherwise it won't connect to a wireless network next time you boot until you turn it on. You will have to run both .bat files as Administrator. Also, if you want to see what's inside them, simply right click -> edit. This is for all you paranoid of malicious code ;P.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Some people are stupid and wouldn't think to try the run thing. Also, stickied.- Face