o, my gaming laptop died.  I've had it for 3 years.... and enjoyed many many hours of WoW and Counterstrike Source on it.  It was a Dell XPS Gaming Laptop (called Gen 2).  And it was sweet....  Funny, it never occurred to me that OTHER people might be gaming on a laptop too... yep, it is a huge growing phenomenon.  It's not just a trend, but is real, and can be seen in the hallways of gaming conventions and even office buildings.  Its big... and growing... and I can't wait!  Lag issues on Laptops are even BIGGER than on Desktops...and serious gamers, that want to play on laptops should consider the Lag!

So, while wandering the halls of the Leipzig gaming Convention, I saw an odd thing, people GAMING on laptops While AT the games convention...  like, carrying their own laptop to game on....   and yep, I was one of those guys too (probably part of why my gaming laptop finally died!)... but here's the odd thing.  They were using WIFI!  So, EndLagNow-ers, know this, Wifi is a Lag Maker.  Its more than just the fact that the signals are going through the air... there are several other issues here:

1.) Windows treats it differently.  It knows its' a wifi connection.. and so it "tries" to keep the data rates within standard rates for wifi.   PROBLEM: games aren't standard.  (really, its all part of Windows core issues, it is designed for THROUPUT OPTIMIZATION, and not latency... this is part of WHY the Killer NIC has been so successful and delivers real value).

2.) Wifi DOES have less bandwidth than wired.  So managing the Throughput is so more important.  Doing ANYTHING other than gaming will kill the gaming experience on a wifi connection.  (Killer NIC owners understand this, as they are able to have complete control of their bandwidth and limit each application in intelligent ways).

3.) Other... so, the worst kind of lag is "dead lag"... where your link goes "dead" for a while.  On wifi, this can be a common occurance... espeically near other electronics.  Microwaves are NOTORIOUSLY bad at introducing wifi Dead Links.  Thats not all, either!

So, what am I going to do? 

Buy a new Gaming Laptop of course!

AND, plug in to the wall's Gig ethernet whenever I can!

Enjoy your game!

Tytus