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So here's my situation. Recenlty (last couple months) I have noticed significant lag wile playing COD on my PS4. At first I thought it was my controller, because my charactor was running around like I was drunk (looking left/right, etc was exaggerated). Plus there was a .5-1 sec lag between pulling the trigger and my gun actually firing, not to mention I was extremely choppy on comms (PS4 party). It was not happening all the time, but often enough to cause me to look into the issue further.
After eliminating my controllers as the issue, I started to look at the router. I factory reset the router and manually configured it. QoS was turned on. After reset, I checked firmware and updated (1.0.3.20 to 1.0.3.24). Problem continued.
Fast forward to this week. I updated to latest firmware (1.0.3.26). Performed a factory reset and manually configured router. Again, turned on QoS. Noticed major lag on my game when other devices are streaming content (wife streaming Hulu and daughter on YouYube Kids). One by one I eliminated devices and found the worst lag was beign caused by the iPad streaming YouTube Kids. I check the attached device list on the router config page and saw that my total DL usage was less than 15Mbps (UL was less than 1Mbps). I have a symmetircal 100Mbps fiber connection so bandwidh is not the issue.
On a hunch, I grabbed my old WNR2000 router (yes from like 2009), manually configured the wireless settings to match that of the Nighthawk so all of my wirelss devices would connect without me having to reconfigure them. I turned off QoS and tested. Not a blip. I had 1 TV streaming Hulu, the iPad streaming YouTube Kids, my MS Surface streaming YouTube and my phone streaming YouTube and I experinced no lag whatsoever. So my $30 entry-level, older-than-dirt router was handling traffic better than my 1 year old $200 gaming router. Baffling to me.
I went back to the Nighthawk and turned off QoS and matched all of the other network settings from my WNR2000. Lag was now worse even when only the iPad was streaming. Had to turn QoS back on, but lag continued, just not as bad.
This prompted me to get into these forums to see if this was a known issue. It seems to me like downgrading the firmware is about my only option (as suggested by multiple users from various lag-related posts). As it sits, it will be unusable for FPS gaming unless I am the only one using the internet. So, before I play the download old firmware, factory reset, install old firmware, factory reset, manually configure and test game, I was wondering if someone coud suggest a specific firmware version that woud be recommended. Loading and testing firmware decrementally will be time-consuming. Looking back at the release notes for prior versions, they only list each version as bug fixes and security updates. I am hoping someone with more knowledge of the firmware versions can make an educated suggestion as to what version to use. I assume it would not be a good idea to go too far back in versions.
I am really hoping that this is a firmware issue and not a hardware issue. Very frustrating having a useless $200 gaming router that is being out-performed by a $30 entry-level router.
Thanks again for your help FURRYe38. I am not sure if I am going to go with another "gaming" router. I am exploring commercial solutions like Ubiquiti. Little harder to set up intially, rock solid once they're up and running. I do appreciate you pointing me in the right direction and for the advice. I will do some research on Netgear's higher end models and go from there.
UPDATE: Still having issues with the router after trying several older versions of firwmare (working backwards). I have tried just leaving default settings on the router after factory reset and lag still happens when another device on the network is streaming. My PS4 is hard-wired, and lag happens when any other device is using bandwidth (wired or wirless). My total download for all attached deviced never goes above 10-15Mbps, and my total upload never exceeds 2Mbps.
The old router (WNR3500V1) *original post I stated it was a WNR2000 by mistake* is still working without issue. This is leading me to believe that the issue with my Nighthawk is hardware related instead of firmware. Does anyone have any suggestions for troubleshooting beyond what I have laready tried?
What ISP Service do you have? Cable or DSL? What ISP Modem Mfr. and model # do you have? What ISP Modem service link speeds UP and Down do you have?
Seems like if you have tested a different router and used similar settings on the newer router, possible your current router maybe bad or faulty...
Can you use the older router as your main host router, disable the wireless radios on it, and connect up the Nighthawk router in LAN to LAN AP mode and use it in this configuration?
MY ISP has a direct fiber connection (no modem) coming into the house. I have symmetrical DSL @ 100Mbps. When testing the DL and UL speeds on wired and wirless devices, the results are fairly consistent between the wireless and likewise with wired. As expected, the wired connections test slightly over 100Mbps, and the wireless connections range from 60Mbps to 100Mbps (depending on device).
Testing the old router and the new router using the same configurations (except for QoS), the Nighthawk always lags and the old router doesn't.
In the next couple of days, I will try your suggestion for using the Nighthawk in AP mode, this is soemthing I did not think to try. I am guessing the results will be the same, but it is worth trying. Thank you for the suggestion and I will update with the results.
I was trying to find some Open-Source firmware to try, but the firmware this particular router is hard to find. Like the firmware in your link, I was only able to find V1 firmware, but my router is V2. Is the V1 firmware compatible with my router? Thanks.
Ya, I like Voxels FW. He makes sure his changes are good. There is of course some things he doesn't have any impact on which is the NG core FW code. He can't make any changes there.
Voxels doesn't have any firmware that will work on my V2 router, but I was able to find DD-WRT based firmware from Kong. I flashed the router and tested it last night. Initial tests are promising as I did not have the lag when other devices on the network were streaming. There were a few times that the game lagged, but that could have been normal COD lag. Over the next couple days I will put the router through it paces and see how the new firmware holds up.
Also, I did not turn on QoS with the new firmware. Not being familiar with the DD-WRT interface and options, I didn't get a chance to play around much and delve into those more advanced options. When I get some time, I will play around with some custom QoS rules to see if it improves the connection even more.
An interesting side-note that I thought of, while having connection issues with the stock FW, I also had a heck of a time getting ReadyShare and ReadCloud to work on the router. No matter what HDD or Flash Drive I plugged into it, it had a hard time recognizing it. Sometimes the drive would be available, other times not. I got so frutrated with it, I gave up. Might have also been related to corrupted stock FW on the router. Here again, I didn't play around enough with DD-WRT to see if it supports ReadyShare or not, but if it does, this might be something I will test as well.
Voxels doesn't have any firmware that will work on my V2 router, but I was able to find DD-WRT based firmware from Kong. I flashed the router and tested it last night. Initial tests are promising as I did not have the lag when other devices on the network were streaming. There were a few times that the game lagged, but that could have been normal COD lag. Over the next couple days I will put the router through it paces and see how the new firmware holds up.
Also, I did not turn on QoS with the new firmware. Not being familiar with the DD-WRT interface and options, I didn't get a chance to play around much and delve into those more advanced options. When I get some time, I will play around with some custom QoS rules to see if it improves the connection even more.
An interesting side-note that I thought of, while having connection issues with the stock FW, I also had a heck of a time getting ReadyShare and ReadCloud to work on the router. No matter what HDD or Flash Drive I plugged into it, it had a hard time recognizing it. Sometimes the drive would be available, other times not. I got so frutrated with it, I gave up. Might have also been related to corrupted stock FW on the router. Here again, I didn't play around enough with DD-WRT to see if it supports ReadyShare or not, but if it does, this might be something I will test as well.
Thanks again for your help FURRYe38. I am not sure if I am going to go with another "gaming" router. I am exploring commercial solutions like Ubiquiti. Little harder to set up intially, rock solid once they're up and running. I do appreciate you pointing me in the right direction and for the advice. I will do some research on Netgear's higher end models and go from there.
FYI. The KONG DD WRT will kill the USB3 port (It is non-standard) and the WPS button. It will also not use hardware acceleration. On my R7000 I could only get a max download of 150-160ish & 20ish up on a 300/30 ISP plan. The software works but you lose a lot using it. Check your speeds.
Using Kong's software, my speeds seemed to be consistant and about where I would expect them to be (wired and wireless). Unfortunately, after more testing after the FW change, my lag is back, albeit not as bad. I didn't feel the lag this time until multiple devices were streamign on my network.
My old router keeps dropping WiFi (I remember this is why I replaced it in the first place), so I borrowed a friends D-Link wireless to futher test my network. No lag no matter what was streaming - which is the same result as my old Netgear (minus wirelss dropping randomly). Again, this confirms the issue is the Nighthawk (using both stock NG FW and Kongs FW).
So, per a suggestion in this thread, I am going to test with my old router as the gateway and the Nighthawk as an AP. This will cure the issue with wireless dropping on my old router while also curing the inability of my Nighthawk to route traffic - two birds one stone. If this setup works, I will look at getting an Edgerouter-X or something similar to replace the old router and continue to use the Nighthawk's eth ports and WiFi for my network.
IF your still seeing some lag, even with different FW, then issue may be elsewhere in the system or coming from outside of your system.
You should demo the NG XR500 router as well. Very impressed by it. I would investigate that issue and get it figured out before checking into another router...
Using Kong's software, my speeds seemed to be consistant and about where I would expect them to be (wired and wireless). Unfortunately, after more testing after the FW change, my lag is back, albeit not as bad. I didn't feel the lag this time until multiple devices were streamign on my network.
My old router keeps dropping WiFi (I remember this is why I replaced it in the first place), so I borrowed a friends D-Link wireless to futher test my network. No lag no matter what was streaming - which is the same result as my old Netgear (minus wirelss dropping randomly). Again, this confirms the issue is the Nighthawk (using both stock NG FW and Kongs FW).
So, per a suggestion in this thread, I am going to test with my old router as the gateway and the Nighthawk as an AP. This will cure the issue with wireless dropping on my old router while also curing the inability of my Nighthawk to route traffic - two birds one stone. If this setup works, I will look at getting an Edgerouter-X or something similar to replace the old router and continue to use the Nighthawk's eth ports and WiFi for my network.
