Advice souhgt on modem - PCI or wi-fi router

AIUI, pci adsl modems offer the best latency times which is good becuase I
and my kids play online games. We only have the one PC at the moment.
Fitting a pci card will be a sinch for me as I built my own computer.

But I'm new to adsl - my exchange goes live in Feb and I have already signed
up for a 1mb connection.

Now I've heard about these wi-fi routers and see they are quite reasonably
priced. Later in the year I am considering putting another computer
together. I understand that these wifi routers can be mounted at say the
phone line entry point - my hall near the front door - and I have the
reciever at my PC. I like the sound of this...

.....But do these wi-fi devices suffer from increased latency? And will the
signal pass through masonry walls? I have heard not. I'm thinking of
sticking with the PCI modem but thought I'd get some advice from you guys.

~Carl

Carl wrote:

> AIUI, pci adsl modems offer the best latency times which is good becuase I
> and my kids play online games. We only have the one PC at the moment.
> Fitting a pci card will be a sinch for me as I built my own computer.
>
> But I'm new to adsl - my exchange goes live in Feb and I have already signed
> up for a 1mb connection.
>
> Now I've heard about these wi-fi routers and see they are quite reasonably
> priced. Later in the year I am considering putting another computer
> together. I understand that these wifi routers can be mounted at say the
> phone line entry point - my hall near the front door - and I have the
> reciever at my PC. I like the sound of this...
>
> ....But do these wi-fi devices suffer from increased latency? And will the
> signal pass through masonry walls? I have heard not. I'm thinking of
> sticking with the PCI modem but thought I'd get some advice from you guys.
>
> ~Carl
>

Yes, wireless devices do add an additional latency. Is it noticeable
for online gaming, I think not. The counterstrike server I use reports
a ping of 33ms, which is quite a low latency (my 56k modem latency was
about 250ms ish)

"Zapp Brannigan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:J7XMb.23317$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Carl wrote:
>
> > AIUI, pci adsl modems offer the best latency times which is good becuase
I
> > and my kids play online games. We only have the one PC at the moment.
> > Fitting a pci card will be a sinch for me as I built my own computer.
> >
> > But I'm new to adsl - my exchange goes live in Feb and I have already
signed
> > up for a 1mb connection.
> >
> > Now I've heard about these wi-fi routers and see they are quite
reasonably
> > priced. Later in the year I am considering putting another computer
> > together. I understand that these wifi routers can be mounted at say
the
> > phone line entry point - my hall near the front door - and I have the
> > reciever at my PC. I like the sound of this...
> >
> > ....But do these wi-fi devices suffer from increased latency? And will
the
> > signal pass through masonry walls? I have heard not. I'm thinking of
> > sticking with the PCI modem but thought I'd get some advice from you
guys.
> >
> > ~Carl
> >
>
> Yes, wireless devices do add an additional latency. Is it noticeable
> for online gaming, I think not. The counterstrike server I use reports
> a ping of 33ms, which is quite a low latency (my 56k modem latency was
> about 250ms ish)
>
Zapp,

I have my ADSL modem wireless router mounted in hall nest to BT NTE and
wirelessly connected to 2 fixed PC's and 1 laptop wirelessly. I live in a
fairly modern house so walls not too big a concern re insulation or blocking
signals, it could be worthwhile if you can borrow some equipment to test,
there is no definite answer, each house is different. I use the 11g system,
and I am very impressed by speed etc.

Tom Buchanan

"Carl" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>....But do these wi-fi devices suffer from increased latency?

When I put my wi-fi in a year ago, I did some tests to see if it did
make a significant difference to ping times.

I use an ntl cable connection with a router, and with a 100M wired
connection, a typical ping time to somewhere reasonably central in the
UK is around 15mS.

Doing the same ping from the same machine via the wi-fi added another
4mS, making a total around 19/20mS.

I'm not a gamer, but I would struggle to think that the additional 4mS
would make the slightest difference to anything involving human
responses!

Hope this helps,

Phil Wheeler