AX88U gaming online, how to beat lag

[chriIro]

hi everyone, i bought the ax88u router specifically for online gaming. the router is in bridge mode and connected to the modem provided by the ISP (I have an FWA line with 50 downloads, 5 uploads and 25 average pings). the router is inserted into the dmz of the modem and creates a second network with a family of IPs other than the modem (so it manages the entire router, I only take the internet line from the ISP modem). My ps4 pro is connected to the router - strictly via Ethernet - to which I assigned a static ego inserted in the dmz and also manually opened all the ports required by the Playstation network service and the pro evolution soccer game (which online has no dedicated servers but uses p2p). when I play I turn off the wifi and only the console remains connected via cable. I deactivated the dhcp, the firewall, set the route to ps4, made the mac clone in the “wan” page and set the “full cone nat”. also on the ps4 side I configured everything manually as expected. despite all these precautions, however, I still suffer from lag in game (although 25 ping is not too excessive). I ask the more experienced to advise me further tricks / settings to make the most of this router (in which I have installed the latest version of merlin) for online play in p2p with the ps4. thank you

 

[HearToLearn]

From my experience, get a modem recommended by the network company, i.e. OpenReach (UK). Dual nat is never good. Also after reading your changes, I'd highly recommend resetting to defaults.

Things that will help gaming:
- cake-qos (great for QOS and buffer bloat) http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest
- Use alternative DNS (Cloudflare or Google) - wont help with ping, but will improve dns lookups
- Better modem (Broadcom chipset work great in the UK)
- hacky, remove all features on the "modem" (QOS, firewall, wifi, etc) and utilise Asus features instead.

 

[chriIro]

first of all thank you for the answer. I use as dns alternatively those of Google and those of cloudfare (set both on the router and in the manual configuration of the network in the PlayStation). unfortunately I had to get a router because I don't have access to the modem provided by the ISP and I can't do simple things such as opening the ports required by the game. then I have a question, you recommend the cake-qos but - I speak as an inexperienced so forgive me if I say BS - but using the qos is not superfluous since when I play online I have the wifi disconnected and the only ps4 connected to the internet via cable?

 

[HearToLearn]

I'd do a quick internet search to see if others have experienced the same with the same model "modem". Regarding cake-qos, check your buffer bloating on the dslreport to see if its beneficial.

 

[chriIro]

thank you, in the meantime I try to understand how to install cake-qos (I'm absolutely new to this world) so I do this further test

 

[Vexira]

Try adaptive QoS with the flex QoS script and also under Wan turn Nat filtering to full cone works for me.

 

[jeden]

50/5 is more than enough for gaming. You will not fix anything by using QoS. Your problem lies somewhere else. Maybe your provider has a CG-NAT and you can't connect to remote users directly or vice versa. Or maybe your peering to other users is poor which causes jitter.

 

[oOMrYairOo]

Your setup is wrong, the AX88U its need to be in router mode and not a bridge, all your network traffic is handled by isp crap modem that's why you have ping spikes becouse all isp's modems combo modems router cannot do proper qos, you need to set up your hardware as follow

1. reset the isp modem to factory defaults the put the modem to bridge mode
2. reset AX88U to factory defaults
3. connect rj45 (hight quality cable and not some crap from china ) from the isp modem to the WAN port on the AX88U
4. set on WAN connection type to your isp like PPPOE or DHCP or STATIC if its VDSL then its PPPOE if its PPPOE make sure you have username and password from your isp
5. after you have working connection to the internet set your wifi passwords openvpn etc ...
6. install FreshQOS addon and set QOS as you like on the qos page QOS type set to adaptive on Bandwidth Setting set to Manual Setting and Queue Discipline et to sfq upload bandwidth to 4.9 and download bandwidth to 49 save changes reboot the router,
for PS4 you can open dmz on the asus DONT PUT YOUR PC IP IN THE DNZ !!! dmz is basicly openig the device to the world!

on the aus disable UPNP its very bad thing to open UPNP on your local network
in the WAN setting leave the fireway type to symmetrical

now you shold have proper home network

dont forget that ypu have only 5 MBps upload if someone in the house uploads or backups hi porn to dropbox or whatever then you have spikes becouse of bufferbloat this is why you need proper QOS setting

i have AX88U but my internet connection is FTTH fiber 600 down 60 up i can download and upload torrents make zoom calls backup my shirt to dropbox and still play BF1 BF4 Destiny 2 PUBG whit no packet loss and no lags at all.

 

[Kingp1n]

From my experience, get a modem recommended by the network company, i.e. OpenReach (UK). Dual nat is never good. Also after reading your changes, I'd highly recommend resetting to defaults.

Things that will help gaming:

- Use alternative DNS (Cloudflare or Google) - wont help with ping, but will improve dns lookups

What alternative DNS would you recommend?

 

[chriIro]

Your setup is wrong, the AX88U its need to be in router mode and not a bridge, all your network traffic is handled by isp crap modem that's why you have ping spikes becouse all isp's modems combo modems router cannot do proper qos, you need to set up your hardware as follow

1. reset the isp modem to factory defaults the put the modem to bridge mode
2. reset AX88U to factory defaults
3. connect rj45 (hight quality cable and not some crap from china ) from the isp modem to the WAN port on the AX88U
4. set on WAN connection type to your isp like PPPOE or DHCP or STATIC if its VDSL then its PPPOE if its PPPOE make sure you have username and password from your isp
5. after you have working connection to the internet set your wifi passwords openvpn etc ...
6. install FreshQOS addon and set QOS as you like on the qos page QOS type set to adaptive on Bandwidth Setting set to Manual Setting and Queue Discipline et to sfq upload bandwidth to 4.9 and download bandwidth to 49 save changes reboot the router,
for PS4 you can open dmz on the asus DONT PUT YOUR PC IP IN THE DNZ !!! dmz is basicly openig the device to the world!

on the aus disable UPNP its very bad thing to open UPNP on your local network
in the WAN setting leave the fireway type to symmetrical

now you shold have proper home network

dont forget that ypu have only 5 MBps upload if someone in the house uploads or backups hi porn to dropbox or whatever then you have spikes becouse of bufferbloat this is why you need proper QOS setting

i have AX88U but my internet connection is FTTH fiber 600 down 60 up i can download and upload torrents make zoom calls backup my shirt to dropbox and still play BF1 BF4 Destiny 2 PUBG whit no packet loss and no lags at all.

sorry I meant that the router is cascaded, in fact it is in "router mode" (not in bridge). therefore you recommend to put the nat in symmetrical and not in "full cone" and to disable upnp. as for the script, is freshqos or cake better for online gaming? (even if when I play I have only the ps4 connected to the internet via cable and the Wi-Fi disconnected)

 

[Vexira]

sorry I meant that the router is cascaded, in fact it is in "router mode" (not in bridge). therefore you recommend to put the nat in symmetrical and not in "full cone" and to disable upnp. as for the script, is freshqos or cake better for online gaming? (even if when I play I have only the ps4 connected to the internet via cable and the Wi-Fi disconnected)

Use the flex QoS script

FlexQoS - FlexQoS 1.0 - Flexible QoS Enhancement Script for Adaptive QoS

This is FlexQoS, a fork of the original, groundbreaking FreshJR_QOS script written by @FreshJR. FlexQoS provides a fully customizable Adaptive QoS experience. This thread is now superseded by Version 1.1 posted in this thread. Version 1.0.6 - 20-Nov-2020 Enhancements: Support for at least...

www.snbforums.com

It's newer than freshjr

 

[el pescador]

1st off check the issue is your end.
What I ended up doing is downloading pingplotter (free) to monitor some game server IPs.
Some ISPs/tier networks aren't transparent with ICMP.
You also can't handshake through pingplotter with a gameserver with UDP...what i'm saying is icmp isn't reliable unless you can build up a picture of how these routes act over time.
If the issue is in your network , you will see hop 1 jumping about. Ods are though it isnt your end.
Watching over months i could see the ISP having issues but also issues further down stream.
Moaned to the ISP who seemed to have sorted their end out.
But the issues further downstream they don't wanna know.
Not helped as AWS can hide a lot of their network...they host many of the FIFA servers.

This is a long winded approach though and the likelihood the ISP will lead you down the garden path and do nothing anyway.

My advice would be try different ISPs
Don't sign up on a long contract. Month by month basis and pay the little extra even for installation.
No point having a connection and not being able to enjoy online games.
Every ISP has agreements with tiers to transport packets. Some of these agreements are non monetary.
If they send a lot of traffic they may have to pay. ISPs are in it for the money so they will avoid this.
For them its better to drop a small percentage of UDP or allow the tier to to keep within their bandwdith.
The tier may have similar restrictions but too much traffic. So they might have to kick packets anyway.
Unless people complain en masse not a lot will be done.

For gaming it might be worth trying 4G if you can get an unlimited plan for a decent price...People don't believe me that 3g was better than fibre for gaming for me...problem was the mobile networks changed the dynamic IP so frequently I was never able to complete a match lol.
I say to the FIFA community that this issue is only going to get worse. And my twitter following kinda shows this.

 

[paulad]

Your setup is wrong, the AX88U its need to be in router mode and not a bridge, all your network traffic is handled by isp crap modem that's why you have ping spikes becouse all isp's modems combo modems router cannot do proper qos, you need to set up your hardware as follow

1. reset the isp modem to factory defaults the put the modem to bridge mode
2. reset AX88U to factory defaults
3. connect rj45 (hight quality cable and not some crap from china ) from the isp modem to the WAN port on the AX88U
4. set on WAN connection type to your isp like PPPOE or DHCP or STATIC if its VDSL then its PPPOE if its PPPOE make sure you have username and password from your isp
5. after you have working connection to the internet set your wifi passwords openvpn etc ...
6. install FreshQOS addon and set QOS as you like on the qos page QOS type set to adaptive on Bandwidth Setting set to Manual Setting and Queue Discipline et to sfq upload bandwidth to 4.9 and download bandwidth to 49 save changes reboot the router,
for PS4 you can open dmz on the asus DONT PUT YOUR PC IP IN THE DNZ !!! dmz is basicly openig the device to the world!

on the aus disable UPNP its very bad thing to open UPNP on your local network
in the WAN setting leave the fireway type to symmetrical

now you shold have proper home network

dont forget that ypu have only 5 MBps upload if someone in the house uploads or backups hi porn to dropbox or whatever then you have spikes becouse of bufferbloat this is why you need proper QOS setting

i have AX88U but my internet connection is FTTH fiber 600 down 60 up i can download and upload torrents make zoom calls backup my shirt to dropbox and still play BF1 BF4 Destiny 2 PUBG whit no packet loss and no lags at all.

Does your country make network cable? my shirt from china is well maked

OH I have 1G up and 1G down, can you upgrade your trash internet? your local network is crap

 

[chriIro]

a question, are dmz and port forwarding complementary or should one exclude the other?

 

[el pescador]

You either DMZ or port forward if you are having issues connecting to game hubs or game servers.
Not both.
DMZ will expose your console/pc. I would advise against it.
If you are having issues connecting to games port forward or speak to the ISP.

My network is not used much when gaming. I don't really need to port forward except that Warzone shows moderate NAT if i dont port forward.
Not that it makes any difference.
Most of the issues regarding lag are out of your control.
To check your end , run pingplotter to a game server and see if there is latency on the 1st and second hops.
Use the free trial to use UDP also...to check the early hops.
If it is your end it will show up on both or UDP.

Most of the issues are due to the growth in traffic levels near the game servers.
Some routes get more traffic than others and networks need to QoS the traffic.
Unfortunately they dont prioritise game traffic so UDP will be kicked along with other protocols in I presume a uniform manner when traffic levels reach a certain level.