How to prioritize LAN vs WLAN?

[Mikev078]

Hello all,

I'm somewhat of a networking novice. I have a gaming desktop I use that is on the LAN connection. My roommate uses a Sony laptop on wireless-N. When I'm gaming, my connection speed slows down drastically when she is listening to internet radio or downloading something off the internet. We have a fairly fast internet connection and the router we're using is the Cisco WRT160N. My desktop is on Windows XP and her laptop is on Vista.

Is there a way I can configure the router to either limit the bandwidth allowed on the wireless connection or prioritize my LAN connection over the wireless connection? She doesn't need much bandwidth to listen to internet radio (which is what she does majority of the time). She tends to hold off on her downloading until her days off when I'm not home, so we aren't fighting for bandwidth.

I don't know if this information is necessary, but here is the game(s) that I play which I would like to have fast speeds on:

Everquest 1 (using WinEQ)
Aion Online


Thank you in advance for any help out there!
~Mike

[johnwill]

If you aren't fighting for bandwidth, I'm not sure what the issue is. If she's just listening to streaming radio, that should not significantly affect your speeds.

Just how fast is the connection?

[Mikev078]

768k U/L and up to 3mb D/L.

When I'm playing Everquest, I usually have a connection speed of 70-90ms. When she starts listening to streaming media or downloading something, my connection goes to 400-800ms and it becomes to laggy to even play.

[johnwill]

I can only suggest a faster connection. With streaming radio, which is what we're talking about. you can't reduce the bandwidth it uses. If you do, you'll start getting dropouts, making listening impossible.