4 ms·

I frequently hear this sentiment, yet in my country I struggle to find evidence of more than a few ms of wifi vs cabled connections. Whereabout do you live that

I frequently hear this sentiment, yet in my country I struggle to find evidence of more than a few ms of wifi vs cabled connections. Whereabout do you live that this is such a huge issue? Is it a large, dense metropolis like Beijing or Singapore?

executesorder66 4y ago
https://www.jefftk.com/p/ethernet-is-worth-it-for-video-calls https://www.jefftk.com/p/ethernet-is-worth-it-for-video-call...
- krageon 4y ago
  I have read articles like this. I comment specifically on this subject because I used to believe them without testing them myself. When I did start testing it myself I quickly discovered these rules just do not hold true where I am (Europe), so I am wondering where these claims come from.
hansel_der 4y ago
yes, it's mosty density. once you have to scroll in the ap-list there is a very good chance that you are contested on air-time because some neighbour is active on any given channel. [0] add to that interference from non-wifi or other unclean rf-equipment like babymonitors, wireless doorbells or bluetooth ... 2.4ghz is quite crowded, 5ghz is crippled by a wall... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_node_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_node_problem
rahoulb 4y ago
I'm in the UK and live in a student area and it's a huge issue. There are some times of day where the Wifi speeds drop massively (I assume interference and madly swapping channels) - but wired stays constant.
Anderkent 4y ago
Usually it's not the average latency but the random spikes that kill your responsiveness. My wifi ping is usually within a couple ms of wired ping, but packet loss / latency spikes are a daily occurence
samatman 4y ago
It looks like no one has mentioned the #1 cause of jitter (not latency per se which is an average value), which is WiFi scans. Due to bad engineering, a WiFi chip can either be scanning or transmitting, and background location tasks can request a WiFi scan at any time. Depending on your OS and what else you run, this can cause stutters in the 250ms-1second range.
- krageon 4y ago
  What I'm hearing is we need two WiFi chips: One for transmitting and one entirely for scanning. /s

executesorder66 4y ago

https://www.jefftk.com/p/ethernet-is-worth-it-for-video-calls https://www.jefftk.com/p/ethernet-is-worth-it-for-video-call...

krageon 4y ago
I have read articles like this. I comment specifically on this subject because I used to believe them without testing them myself. When I did start testing it myself I quickly discovered these rules just do not hold true where I am (Europe), so I am wondering where these claims come from.

hansel_der 4y ago

yes, it's mosty density. once you have to scroll in the ap-list there is a very good chance that you are contested on air-time because some neighbour is active on any given channel. [0] add to that interference from non-wifi or other unclean rf-equipment like babymonitors, wireless doorbells or bluetooth ... 2.4ghz is quite crowded, 5ghz is crippled by a wall... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_node_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_node_problem

rahoulb 4y ago

I'm in the UK and live in a student area and it's a huge issue. There are some times of day where the Wifi speeds drop massively (I assume interference and madly swapping channels) - but wired stays constant.

Anderkent 4y ago

Usually it's not the average latency but the random spikes that kill your responsiveness. My wifi ping is usually within a couple ms of wired ping, but packet loss / latency spikes are a daily occurence

samatman 4y ago

It looks like no one has mentioned the #1 cause of jitter (not latency per se which is an average value), which is WiFi scans. Due to bad engineering, a WiFi chip can either be scanning or transmitting, and background location tasks can request a WiFi scan at any time. Depending on your OS and what else you run, this can cause stutters in the 250ms-1second range.

krageon 4y ago
What I'm hearing is we need two WiFi chips: One for transmitting and one entirely for scanning. /s