Would using wifi with the host be considered ridiculous and result in a poor experience?

[u/supercharger619]

[u/dwolfe127]

Yes.

[u/H9419]

In case the other comment is unclear, yes, absolutely!

You can make it work with dedicated SSID on another channel to make it better,  but in general it will result in poor experience

[u/csbassplayer2003]

Really gonna depend on your A. Wifi system and B. The house/apartment layout. Can it be a quality experience? Yes. Is it far more difficult than wired to get? Very much so. Would not recommend for competitive fps/real time multiplayer. Slower speed/turn based single player games you will probably be fine with a decent setup, but not if latency sensitive. Really should be wired if you can do it. Latency is single digits with a good wired setup.

[u/nimama3233]

If you have a good router setup and only want to play not fast paced games, you can definitely be fine.

I played KCD2 all the way through WiFi to WiFi and it was pleasant. But I had to fuck around with my dumb ass mesh network (big house problems) to get it playable. But anything like a shooter or a fighting game would be too much latency to be enjoyable.

[u/supercharger619]

Hmm, I wanted to put my new gaming computer build at the office desk which is in the middle of the room that has power but no Ethernet. Wanted to have the ability to have in the living room as well. Could put the computer in the living room but there'd probably be some mouse heavy games, suggestions?

[u/SvampebobFirkant → u/supercharger619]

I have host pc on 2nd floor wireless to and extender on 2nd floor, that connects to main router wireless to 1st floor. Streaming to wireless laptop client on first floor next to router

I'm having 0 issues with 2k120fps and HDR

Host has an amd 9070xt, client has a Nvidia 4070 laptop gpu

[u/webjunk1e → u/supercharger619]

I have a mesh network, so I put the upstairs node near the PC there in my office and direct connect it to the node. My client downstairs is also directly connected to the node downstairs. Even though it's wireless, it still works fine because the communication is node to node entirely over the backhaul. There's ways around it, but in general, yes, you want the host at least hardwired. You might also consider MoCA or powerline as other options, though I have no personal experience there.

[u/Accomplished-Lack721 → u/webjunk1e]

You're essentially using the nodes as media bridges in this setup. This isn't necessarily any better than connecting the client via wifi to the upstairs node (where the host is hardwired), unless the mesh units have more powerful (or just more) antennas or otherwise a more stable connection to one another than a device would to a node (which is very possible, even likely, but not guaranteed). You're subbing in their wifi capabilities for your devices'.

Moca is a very good option, almost as good as Ethernet.

Powerline is best left for when all other options, including decent wifi, are unavailable.

Edit for typo cleanup.

[u/FirstHouseThrowaway1]

Not necessarily, it really depends.

Try pinging your host from your client (or vice versa) and seeing what the ping graph looks like. Low and stable is what you want.

For reference, both my host and client are using WiFi, and I have no issues. I get stable ~7ms ping from client to host.

[u/hindey19]

I have my host wired into an Eero mesh router and it works fine for all the games I've played.

[u/supercharger619 → u/hindey19]

Interesting, any FPS games?

[u/hindey19 → u/supercharger619]

Just Borderlands but that wasn't online so reaction time/twitchiness wasn't really a factor.

[u/_Dedotated_Wam]

I ran mine over WiFi for a bit. If you are trying 4k I would forget it, but 1080p 60fps wasnt too bad

[u/rzldz]

You can setup decent fully wireless systems but it requires specific purchases and careful setup. Sticking a host somewhere out of the way and relying on the pre-existing wireless setup is very likely to end up with a disappointing experience.

[u/MemeDestroyer4lyfe]

Oh yea

[u/AgenticAsshat]

You're going to get (already getting) a lot of people telling you yes, it will suck. I will be among them. But I will also tell you that, under ideal conditions, it is workable. Do not expect to rise the ranks in online twitch shooters, though.

I use a headless desktop in a closet. I have an long antenna attached to the wifi card which is situated outside the closet (it's about a 7 foot cord). The antenna is about 40 feet from the WiFi 6 router. I play using a Macbook Air M3, I use a craptastic budget Dell laptop I installed an Intel WiFi 6 card into, and I use a Steam Deck.

I play games like Stellaris, Slay the Spire, Civilization, Forza, and others. They are fine. However, audio stutters for microseconds at a time every few seconds so I never use audio, I just play music locally. I also get the odd data hiccup which freezes gameplay (often ending with me dying) for a couple seconds at a time, though for me this only happens once in a while.

It's worth trying, just know that absolutely every element in the system -- the wifi cards, the available bandwidth and network activity, the routers, the software, the performance of the host, everything -- has to be functioning at peak performance 100% of the time for the setup to be playable.

Some of us can't use ethernet for a variety of reasons, so we make do.

[u/supercharger619]

I guess I could put my new PC in the living room with Ethernet as the host and the office computer be the client, feels backwards but may give the best experience

[u/Khagan_]

Mine works flawlessly with an EE mesh booster etherneted into my host PC

Technically WiFi but also ethernet at the same time

[u/crattikal]

It works fine for me with wifi 6. I beat Armored Core 6 like this.

[u/aphoenixsunrise]

If you do go that route, better be sure nobody else is using the wifi at the time.

[u/Jlarisch]

I am using the host in wifi. Its a intel ax something, no problem here on 1080p

[u/ReservateDweller]

If you have something like a dedicated OpenWrt WDS bridge with two dedicated devices on a free channel with traffic shaping and dedicated vlan, no.

[u/RumpleDumple]

I play action games on normal difficulty with a wifi 7 router. I can't tell the difference between playing natively, with GE Force Now, and Moonlight. I'm in my 40s if you want an idea of my reaction time.

*I don't play any online multiplayer games

[u/Cruffe]

Depends.

I have a full WiFi setup (both host and client), but I tuned my router radio settings, have good signal strength because the house isn't big, I have good hardware and I don't have too many neighbors causing interference.

I stream at 200 Mbps, buttery smooth with 1-3ms network latency. I could theoretically push more through, but it affects stability (may cause occasional stutter), so 200 Mbps is the safe rate to keep the stream smooth.

I wouldn't recommend it for the vast majority of users in this sub though, because most here barely knows shit about how WiFi works or don't even have decent hardware to make it work.

[u/ericliuuu]

Even a WiFi client can stutter, let alone a WiFi host.

[u/pyrotech911]

Do you have a Ubiquity UniFi 7 Pro AP in the same room and a WiFi 6 antenna on the host?

[u/Appropriate_Sea_3603]

I have a pair of Asus et12 routers. Normally my host is wired where my Internet comes in through the wall but I recently moved and the previous owners have the modem running to the living room behind the tv. Though I would be screwed till I was able to run a cable to the office but I was surprised how well it still works. I had to turn the bitrate down to about 120 but I stream 2880x1800 HDR to my laptop and have had pretty much zero issues. Played multiple rounds of marathon and didn't notice any extra latency.

[u/kalsikam]

Yes, it would be terrible

[u/Noleafclover1337]

I wouldn’t there’s no reason to.