Of course, not all options will be available on all routers. If you want to optimize your gaming router setup, choose a router designed for that purpose.
Why Setup My Router for Gaming?
Setting up your router for gaming can give you a better overall experience. When your connection is stable and smooth, games just run better. A shaky connection could introduce lag or even crashes to a game at the worst possible moments. On the other hand, choosing the proper settings for your router can enhance everything about your gaming experience. Load times, lag, and other problems that might keep you from accomplishing your goals will improve – as long as your basic connection is good enough. Specific settings benefit you more than others.
Switch Wi-Fi Band: If you can’t use a wired connection to your modem or router, you can change the wireless network settings on your router to give yourself access to a better Wi-Fi band. It can help improve your connection because the lower bands are compatible with more devices and are generally more congested.Switch Channel: Changing the wireless channel, you’re operating on can also improve your gaming experience by reducing interference. Some channels are used more than others and swapping to one with fewer devices can improve your connection.QoS Adjustment: Many routers offer a Quality-of-Service option that adjusts how the data packets moving through your network are handled. If you need better performance on your gaming PC than your television, microwave, cellphone, and other wireless devices, you can prioritize it with a tweak on QoS.
These are only some changes to your router settings that will help optimize your gaming connection and make you more familiar with adjusting your router settings. Get acquainted with the adjustments, and you’ll be able to easily redo them whenever you swap routers or add a new device to your gaming array.
Best Router Settings for Gaming
The best router settings for gaming are the ones that work best for you. Try changing them one at a time and then playing your favorite fast-paced game to see how it performs with different settings selected.
Change Your Router’s Settings
It might initially seem a little complicated if you haven’t adjusted your wireless network before. However, it’s pretty easy once you get used to it. Here’s how you gain access to start making changes. Every router is different, and the ways to find settings on mine might not be exactly what’s right for you. However, a little preparation and familiarizing yourself with what settings are available and where they are will make optimizing your connection a lot easier.
Choosing a Wireless Network
Many modern routers offer more than one wireless network that can be broadcast from the router. You have to enable the networks, set up their options, and then connect to the right one with your gaming PC. The most important part of this is choosing the correct wireless network. Routers almost all offer 2.4 and 5 GHz options for Wi-Fi networks. Some routers may have a higher 6 GHz band as well. You want to connect to the highest and least-used band that your computer’s networking card can handle. This works because the 2.4 GHz network is overwhelmed by users a lot of the time. Almost every device will connect to this wireless network – and more devices than ever have network connections these days. Your other home appliances could all be using the 2.4 GHz network and reducing the amount of bandwidth available to your gaming PC. The 5 and 6 GHz networks are less likely to be compatible with smart devices and older legacy devices. That’s a significant reason why they’re less congested.
Set Your Wireless Channels
Wireless channels are like lanes where information can flow from one place to another. If too many devices try to use the same lane, the traffic gets crowded, and things slow down. Choosing a wireless channel with less usage for your gaming computer can help improve the connection and reduce lag. One of the challenges with finding the proper channels is that they aren’t necessarily standard. It would be best to find out which ones near you have less congestion and use those with a wireless analyzer. Luckily, you can use a free one from an app if needed. Most routers are configured to select the best possible channel, but that doesn’t always work. You can run a speed test or check your ping and frames in your game with each swap to see how it’s affecting your gaming connection. If a channel offers significant improvement, stay on that one instead of using the default suggested by the router.
Enabling Quality-of-Service
The Quality-of-Service feature in routers is fantastic because it means all traffic isn’t treated the same. It shouldn’t be. Different programs have different network delivery needs that affect how well they perform. For example, a program just passively downloading a file doesn’t need fast and frequent network traffic. If it’s a little delayed, it won’t affect the final file and will only take a bit more time to finish. If you’re in a first-person shooter or endgame MMO raid and the network starts prioritizing a download instead of your game, it could make a profound negative impact. You may also want to try a Dynamic Quality-of-Service option. This can change priority based on current network activity. Netgear recommends using it on connections slower than 300 Gbps. If you don’t see this option on your router, you may have to upgrade to a newer one. However, if you have a fast connection, you may not need it.
MU-MIMO
Multiple User-Multiple Input Multiple Output is a newer protocol that lets routers transfer information more effectively than the old single output style. Instead of only sending information to one connected client at a time, MU-MIMO enables multiple streams, so information comes through more quickly. This is very useful for gaming, especially if you have multiple connections on your Wi-Fi network. MU-MIMO offers many benefits but can also lead to less stable connections on some older devices. If you notice a performance drop after enabling it, go back in and turn it off.
What Else Can I Do to Improve My Gaming Connection?
You can do a few other things to boost your connection once your router settings are perfected. It all depends on how much money and time you want to put into your network connection.
Look for a newer router or upgrade your wireless card. While this can cost money and take time to set up, using old equipment can seriously hamper your performance. Older routers may have only some of these settings available, and you might not be able to create as stable a connection without them.Check your modem and what speeds it’s capable of handling. If your modem can only handle 300 Mbps and you have a Gigabit connection, you’re losing out on a lot of speed. It will affect every part of your network. If you aren’t sure what routers and modems are compatible with your connection, speak to your ISP to get a list.Move the router closer to where you game. Distance definitely doesn’t help you get a stronger connection. Physical barriers like walls or heavy furniture can also reduce the actual speed you get.
