Wireless gaming: brief pauses

[StixxUK]

I'm having a bit of trouble playing games online (particularly FPS games) due to periodic lag attacks on my network. Every 5 mins or so, the network pauses for about 3-5 seconds before getting going again, which, as you can imagine, always happens at the worst times

I'm not sure whether this is general feature of wireless networks or if my software or hardware is configured wrongly. I'm using a Netgear MA101 USB adaptor with a Netgear access point (not sure of the model number but can check if anyone thinks it'll help). I've had a brief look at the settings and couldn't see anything that stood out as being a likely culprit.

[Siliconjunkie]

If it is Windows XP try disabing or stopping the Wireless Zero Congfiguration service. That has fixed this for alot of people. If you disable it you will have to manually configure your settings manually with whatever utility the mfg provides.

[StixxUK]

There doesn't seem to be any such utility. I think it's designed to use the built-in Windows XP thing. Are there any 3rd party utilities that might work?

[osprey4]

Are you sure you don't have any programs trying to phone home? Like Windows update or anything? Some of these check every five minutes or so.

[cowboybooter]

Agreed, SiliconJunkie.

I have the D-Link wireless router feeding 3 laptops seamlessly, no slowdowns or stops.

In the connection properties of xp there is an option button to let windows configure for you. Deselect that, and let the drivers supplied do the job.

CBB

[StixxUK]

The problem now seems to be that the drivers supplied are meant to use the built in Windows configuration. I've tried reinstalling the drivers, but I can't find the utilities anywhere on the disk it comes with. Is there some generic utility I might be able to use?

[Siliconjunkie]

Unfortunately, most are going to that.

You could try stopping the service once up and on the network. Not sure what that would do, but worth a try.

Open a command prompt and type:

net stop "Wireless Zero Configuration"

Mine stayed on the network after it was stopped. You will just have to do this before playing your games if that fixes it.