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I have no access to a hard line highspeed internet, I have to use a WIFI connection. Is there a way to play Halo 3 (and Halo 4 soon) via WIFI without a terrible lag? This really depresses me. I could get a wireless internet card through AT&T if that would work better, but I'm not too tech savvy. Thanks for any suggestions.

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2 Answers

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Try it and see, this question is pretty dependent on your own setup so giving a yes no answer isn't practical. Many games can compensate for higher latency/slower internet pretty well. Also, if you have a strong WiFi signal on your xbox, I doubt you'll see too much difference over a wired connection unless your wifi router is super old. Wireless like wired is just a medium for moving data.

I could go on and on about how wireless gets a bad rep vs wired. Most wireless routers are able to support up to 50-100Mbps, most likely more than your ISP provides you. Just do your best to get a strong signal on your xbox :)

Either way, would you really skip over Halo if I said you couldn't play on wifi?

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I love Halo. I wish I were playing it now. But it would drive me nuts to lag all the time and I don't want everyone elses game to be ruined by my lame wireless connection. So if my wireless signal strength is pretty good and no one else would be using the WIFI at the same time as I am, it would work at least pretty good? – Alyssa Oct 19 '12 at 23:38
And if I were to purchase like a WIFI booster and connect my xbox via an ethernet cord straight from the booster/extender would that help? – Alyssa Oct 19 '12 at 23:40
Check dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1 and let me know what you get for down/up and also if you can find out your wireless router model :) if the question gets closed before you find out @ me in chat i'll check back later today. Regardless, without trying it out you'll never know. – Brian Oct 19 '12 at 23:43
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The problem, as you may know, isn't about bandwidth at all - any broadband connection should suffice for multiplayer gaming, but rather the latency, which is usually higher for a wireless network than a wired one. – Private Pansy Oct 20 '12 at 0:39
@YiJiang I know, but the reason I wanted to know was so I could rule out slow connection if the wireless was slow :) – Brian Oct 20 '12 at 2:17
up vote -3 down vote

Short answer: probably not without lag.

Games have lots of information that needs to move really fast, and only the very high-end wifi services will actually move that data that fast.

To mitigate these issues, you could try lowering all of the graphics settings, but I imagine that would not be a satisfactory solution. Less bad than massive lag, perhaps, but unfortunate.

Ultimately, your best bet is to get ethernet installed.

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It would cost literally several thousand dollars because a ditch would have to be dug up to lay the line for about 300 feet or so. – Alyssa Oct 19 '12 at 23:37
Sure, but in the long term internet access is one of the most valuable assets you can have. Also, could the downvoter explain their the downvote? – rsegal Oct 20 '12 at 2:05
Your explanation is wrong. XBOX has a fixed hardware spec, so you cannot "change" your graphics settings. Even if you could the graphics settings have nothing to do with lag. – ayckoster Oct 20 '12 at 21:03
Depends on the implementation. Plus, it definitely has an effect on PC games, so I'd be very surprised if such a solution (were it possible) wouldn't work. – rsegal Oct 20 '12 at 23:45
True but the owner of the property will not allow me to get a hardline so point is mute, however I am purchasing a WIFI booster/extender with an ethernet jack so we'll see what happens! I figure I'll try to play during non-peak hours and check it out and if it doesn't work at all I'll just send the booster back and be depressed when Halo 4 comes out. :( – Alyssa Oct 23 '12 at 22:12
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