Hi, so I’m brand new to this forum page and basically I’m trying to get recommendations for an OpenWRT compatible router with my ISP(Comcast/Xfinity).
I’ve been having severe packet loss issues while gaming, playing Fortnite for the last 6 months - anywhere from 1%-60% packet loss. I get occasional lag spikes of packet loss on other games like Call of Duty, but nothing too bad. On Fortnite it is unplayable though.
I posted on Reddit -
And i was recommended to come here to post as well to make sure that I’ll benefit from an OpenWRT compatible router based on my bad DSL report results.. I’ll post the results here as well.
As far as a router goes, if it will help me I’m looking to only spend around $160 or less to start to make sure that I’m heading in the right direction if possible.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Your speedtest is not that bad. If you are plugging straight in to your modem and getting that bad of latency - I’d do some troubleshooting first. Check your cable signal levels with your ISP. If signal levels look good I’d be very suspicious of your modem.
You have one of the puma 6 modems. A bad modem can cause intermittent terrible latency exactly like you are describing (the speedtest can be deceivingly “good”). If I were to put money on it... you probably have a bad modem (google puma 6 and you’ll see how back they suck... the lawsuits...etc). Here is one example of a test that you could run a couple times to see if your modem is struggling:
I’d dump that modem quick and get a netgear cm1000 or similar non intel based modem.
After the basics look good - a router can help complete your setup to optimize your gaming latency. If you are looking for an all-in-one I’d look at a Qualcomm based 4x4 antenna, wifi 5 wave 2 router that can handle your current ISP speed with fq_codel or similar sqm (ex: netgear r7800 is well supported by openwrt ). You are going to need a router with a little more CPU to get SQM to near your line speed - so I’d use the upper end of your budget if you want the most performance (I waited and got my r7800’s on sale)
More explanation on router and wifi terms:
If you are looking for just a wired router there are a diversity of x86, thin clients, and embedded systems that could fit the bill of being a custom router setup for your price point if you shop right.
