I am having some trouble with (I suspect) my wireless router. It's connected to the internet with a regular lan cable and has a static, public IP address. Our two home PCs connect to the router with regular lan cables, plus there's a laptop which connects over Wi-Fi.
diagram:
Internet
|
| <- isp-supplied cat5 ethernet cable
|
D-Link D300 ...wifi... laptop
/ \
/ <- cable -> \
PC1 PC2
The PCs and laptop are behind NAT and share the router's public IP. The router is a D-Link D300. PC1 is used for online gaming and I'm experiencing frequent "connection dropped" errors when playing Battlefield 3, StarCraft 2 and the Diablo 3 beta; but not with TeamFortress 2 or the Tribes Ascend beta. The issue goes away when I remove the router and connect PC1 directly to the ISP's cable. I have also tried disconnecting PC2 and the laptop, leaving PC1 as the only machine connected to the router – doesn't How can I diagnose what precisely the issue is?
Best Answer
Well, if you connect PC1 directly to the ISP it works. If you put the router in between it does not work. You have done the correct error searching process and found that the router is the problem.
Why is it the problem? It sounds like it is choking on your packets. The internet speed is probably higher than what the router can manage. The D-Link D300 is in the low-budget spectrum of routers, and this is not an uncommon problem.
The games that work perhaps simply do not generate as much data, or have more fault tolerance regarding latency before skipping.