Router setup with a gamer in house reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- simen64 · 2023-11-09 06:52 I am starting to build out my home network. My step dad does a lot of gaming and relies on fast internet. I want to switch out our router with a topton mini pc running opn sense. He wants to get a better and faster Asus gaming router. Is the speed increase on one of these "gaming routers" really that much? And is there some ways to compromise? I dont need extremely fast internet but i of course like it, but i would sacrifice some speed for security and self host features. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dalem246 · 2023-11-09 06:57 I don’t know for certain but I don’t think running your own router will decrease internet speed by much if at all, I’ve never done any testing to support wether it does or not, but I went from using Xfinitys modem/router getting 800up/25down to using a unifi udm pro, and I can say I consistently get the same speeds, I just get more control of everything that happens on my network. In my opinion switching to any router of your own would be best no matter what. Also as a side note if he isn’t playing on Ethernet, I greatly doubt that the internet speed over WiFi will be affected at all if internet speed does drop at all from the router swap! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- simen64 · 2023-11-09 06:59 Hes argument for the faster speeds on a gaming router is the dedicated routing chips that those routers have which the hardware that OPNsense runs doesnt have and has to rely on cpu and memory alone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrblc · 2023-11-09 07:11 Other than doing traffic shaping, there's really very little a router can do to speed things up that an increase in speed of internet service wouldn't do better. That said, there's 2 levels of "faster" when it comes to networking. There's bandwidth (the ability to get more data in the same timeframe) or lag (the ability to send/receive datapackets faster). Lag depends on all the various endpoints between your computer and the node it communicates with and can sometimes be solved using traffic shaping (if you saturate the line you are given from your ISP) but not always (sometimes it's a peering issue with your ISP and the supplier of the end node) We would need to know a little more when it comes to your internet setup and what games we're talking about to give you a good reply here, but the difference between an asus router and a properly configured topton-opnsense setup is that the opnsense would be a better choice for adaptability but the asus would be quicker to setup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- simen64 · 2023-11-09 07:12 I mean its FPS games so high speed and low latency is his priority, but he is no type of pro player and doesnt need the best in the business. And the rest of the family would love more reliability ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrblc · 2023-11-09 07:13 That difference can be measured in nanoseconds, while the ping time between you and the gaming server is measured in miliseconds. it's not really affecting the measurements.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrblc · 2023-11-09 07:44 Hmm.. Both solutions would attain the same level of the desired goal.. You might have to contact your ISP to improve peering to get even better latency measurements if they are not within satisfiable parameters. I know CS to be among the most extreme low-latency demanding games, but for most others, anywhere between 20 and 50 ms would not be a problem. My original point still stands though.. From what you've told us so far, the main difference is the same. (ref my last section of previous comment) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-09 08:48 'Gaming routers' is pretty much just a branding thing. Ultimately best performance will be a decent router that can traffic shape (e.g. implement CAKE in order to keep ping times down even when the link is under load) and then 'good wifi' for the internal side of things and gigabit(+) ethernet ports. opnsense would be fine for the former (as would OpenWRT on a pi4, say), and then you need to plug in some decent access points like tp- link eapxxx range or unifi, ruijie etc. Also remember that your dad's gaming device should be hardwired for best performance. This is really a /r/homenetworking thing, they'll have plenty of advice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Realestaste · 2023-11-09 10:51 Can you run your own network downstream the gaming router? Double nat so you have your own stuff running behind your security stuff which is behind the main router your stepdad uses. He gets his priority routing and you get your security stuff ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-09 11:38 not self hosted ..... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof_Ph03nix · 2023-11-09 11:44 Most gaming is really low bandwidth, latency will be the big issue and an opnsense box will make very little, if any, difference in latency. You could have a 10mb connection with 10ms latency and it would be a better gaming experience than a 100Gb connection with 100ms latency. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- persiusone · 2023-11-09 13:33 Hardware purpose based "gaming routers" are a marketing gimmick. Their performance impact is immeasurable with standard utilities and things available to most gamers and consumers in comparison to any other router with similar abilities (opnsense, etc). FPS, jitter, ping, lag in general has more to do with the ISP and how your gaming device is physically connected to your network, and almost nothing to do with the router. This is an education issue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- senectus · 2023-11-09 14:26 Lol sure. That's slick marketing he's fallen for ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kmisterk · 2023-11-09 16:24 ## Post Removed Hey, simen64! Thanks for your submission on selfhosted. Your post has been removed due to a violation of the purpose of the subreddit: **Self Hosting** ## Not Self-Hosted When it comes to posts regarding applications in this subreddit, they must feature a self-hosted tool, or a tool that *can be* self-hosted, or some kind of related information, help request, or otherwise related to a tool that is something that one can self-host. If you believe this post *is in fact* relevant to /r/selfhosted, feel free to [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to= /r/selfhosted&subject=Removed For Not Being Self- Hosted&message=[Removed Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/17r76us/-/\)) with your concerns.