When playing games on your laptop or console over a wireless connection, nothing is more frustrating than lag. You know the feeling — you’re playing Call of Duty, the game freezes for two seconds and next thing you know your character’s been shot and you’ve died.
Lag can often occur as a result of poor connectivity, making you a sitting duck to other online gamers who wonder why your character has suddenly decided to stand still for a few seconds while they continue to play.
Don’t worry though; you’re not the only one plagued by poor connectivity. Everyone seems to have that one room in the house where they can’t get signal. In the UK, more than half of gamers regularly play online and When you’ve spent potentially thousands on a gaming system, that money effectively goes to waste if the wireless connectivity is weak. The result is a very expensive but poor gaming experience, which nobody wants.
If connectivity doesn’t improve, the problem is only going to get worse as games become more bandwidth hungry — and more and more devices compete for bandwidth on your router.
Good connectivity ensures that gamers get the experience they’re looking for in a gaming experience. The ideal situation, of course, is akin to a high-quality wired connection, which offers a consistent experience no matter where you’re playing in the house.
Hitting the market now are low-cost products that help improve the overall online gaming experience over a wireless connection. For example, a range extender can boost the wireless signal of the router to dead-spot areas in your house.
While a powerline device can offer you a wired connection by using the electrical mains system already in your house. Just plug one device into the wall and connect it to the router with an Ethernet cable, and plug the other device into a socket near your games console with another Ethernet cable running from the device to console. The two powerline devices connect over the mains supply to provide a secure 128-bit encrypted wired connection with a speeds over 1,000 Mbps up to 300 metres between router and console, depending on the powerline you use.
For the ultimate gaming experience, you would use both a range extender and a powerline together. The redundancy ensures that if one connection fails for whatever reason, then you can remain playing without any hindrances.
The two together can offer the best possible gaming experience. The range extender gives all your devices the best possible signal everywhere in the home (laptops, tablets are gaming devices now too) while the wired powerline can significantly help fight against lag.
