# High latency prevents game enjoyment - help please **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633 "2021-01-27T18:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![beefribs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@beefribs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beefribs)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/42 "2021-01-29T19:37:10Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > [https://192.168.2.1](https://192.168.2.1) We have AVG full version that showed no malware. Do you think that your program will be more effective? For those following this thread, after exhaustive troubleshooting, we have bought an ethernet cable and have drilled the necessary holes. It’s just easer to hardwire the whole thing. I really appreciate everyone’s support. ---
**Author:** ![FriendlyCurmudgeon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friendlycurmudgeon/32/5786_2.png) [@FriendlyCurmudgeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendlyCurmudgeon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/43 "2021-01-29T20:13:06Z")
> [@beefribs](#): > > We have AVG full version that showed no malware. Do you think that your program will be more effective? I had the default windows security center and it did nothing, but when I used Malware it resolved it. [Free trial download](https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/) ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/44 "2021-01-29T22:52:03Z")
Late to the party here, but you mentioned that you had a guest WiFi network configured on your router. You’ve made sure that it’s password-protected, right? If it isn’t, do it right now. If you haven’t looked already, check your router’s connected device list and make certain that there aren’t any unknown devices connected to your home network. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/45 "2021-01-29T23:41:25Z")
> [@beefribs](#): > > I hear what you are saying but this is a recent issue and there were no problems until a few weeks ago. A new issue, and is only a problem on wifi. One of your neighbors got a 2.4 Ghz baby monitor, and it’s causing tremendous interference with your wifi. Or something like that, the scenario could be any number of things, but it sounds like something is causing a huge amount of problems with wifi. Your router is very likely to have both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands. If possible, connect to the 5 Ghz one, as that is much less likely to have interference. Exactly how you do that will depend on your router and devices. Tell your router to use different channels than whatever ones are having the problem. Sometimes that is all that’s necessary to fix the problem. It might be set to auto, but most routers have very poor algorithms for choosing channels. Set it to something, like channel 1, and see how it goes. If that doesn’t work, try 6 and 11. On the 5Ghz band pick some channels near the bottom, and if they’re no good, switch to some near the top. The middle overlaps with radar, so can be problematic if your near an airport or other radar source. There are wifi channel scanning apps for phones, such as Ubiquiti’s WiFiman (available on Apple and Android) that can quickly show you what channels are busy. Chances are on the 2.4 Ghz band that they’re all busy. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/46 "2021-01-30T05:01:56Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > A new issue, and is only a problem on wifi. One of your neighbors got a 2.4 Ghz baby monitor, and it’s causing tremendous interference with your wifi. Or something like that, the scenario could be any number of things, but it sounds like something is causing a huge amount of problems with wifi. A decade or so ago, our wifi suddenly became essentially non-functional. We got a new router, we tried switching channels, nothing helped; we had to resort to plugging our laptops in with ethernet cables (and our speed was just fine when using a cable). We never got to the bottom of it, but we always suspected it was the neighbors with a baby monitor or something similar, causing interference. And, then, at some point, a year or two later, the issue finally went away. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633/47 "2021-01-30T05:49:17Z")
Might want to try the little program on this page. > **[SpeedGuide.net :: TCP Optimizer / Downloads](https://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php)** > > SpeedGuide.net - The Broadband Guide. Cable modems, DSL, Wireless, Network security. Free speed tweaks and TCP/IP tools for optimizing system performance. Sometimes an OS update can reset various things to some default that is not optimal. Also an anti virus update can set to inspect traffic in different ways. This often manifests as a slow down in data transfer, as the AV program interrupts flow to analyze things. Not always easy to track down and change settings for that. More obscure thing can even be a wifi device driver update. A lot of things can happen behind the scenes with automatic updates of things, that you do not even know happened. If you want to take a chance. You can roll back to an earlier backup of the system and see if that solves it. Then you would know that it was some software update that is the culprit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-latency-prevents-game-enjoyment-help-please/931633.md?page=2)