SSBB Wi-Fi Lag / Connections Guide

I've noticed some of you here are complaining that Brawl has lag issues online. I want to discuss this with everyone and help those with issues overcome them, because we all know, lag is no fun! I'll start with saying that lag is in general *never* SSBB's fault, no matter what people will tend to say. Between two or more good connections (as long as they're all good), the game should run flawlessly, with minimal or even no lag at all.

It's easy to pin the culprit on obvious things as being your ISP or your Wii's distance from the router, but is it really the issue?

You should be sure to take note of the following, in order to obtain minimal lag when playing online:

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Contrary to popular belief, ports DO NOT NEED to be forwarded to play Brawl or any Wii game properly online. Port Forwarding is ONLY necessary for things hosted on your own network, for example, if you run your own web server. Everything on the Wii connects to Nintendo WFC, and hence, you are not hosting the service: Nintendo WFC is. Even when you are the one creating a room in the game, you are not hosting. Forwarding Ports for the Wii is pointless and can only do more bad then good.

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Get a GOOD internet plan from your provider. A minimum of 1Mbps downstream and upstream should be sufficient. Slower speeds will definitely cause lag. Try to get a plan that has a high download cap, if you get throttled for running out of downloads, there WILL be lag. The Wii uses VERY little of this, so don't worry about play online affecting your downloads. If you are able to, get ADSL2+. For the love of god, DON'T USE it on dialup ( yes, I know 2 people that do that -_- ).

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DSL speeds can be highly affected by the physical condition of your phone line wiring in your house. If you do notice slower then usual speeds (compared to your ISP plan's actual named speed) online and/or static on the phone, your wiring could be bad, affecting your net speed, and thus causing Brawl to lag. Also check the cable that connects your router to the phone jack in the wall for any damage.

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Enable QoS on your router (if supported) for the Wii. This will give the Wii priority over other traffic on your router, and you'll see a nice boost in throughput if other people are constantly using your network too. You may need to refer to your router's help section or instruction manual for how to do this. Even with QoS though, extremely high amounts of traffic from other users on your network can still cause lag, just not as much.

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Check that your ISP does not currently have any connectivity issues. This can usually be seen from their website or by calling them.

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Consider how your Wii connects to your router, not just how the router connects to the net. Wi-Fi does not have as much throughput as Ethernet LAN, hence, IF at all possible, you should obtain a LAN Adaptor and set up a wired connection to the router. This can help drastically to minimize lag. If you cannot use wired and must use Wi-Fi, be sure to place the Wii between 2-20 metres away from the router. Too far away (and yes, even too close) can cause less throughput. This also applies to the Nintendo USB WiFi Connector if you connect through that.

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If using WiFi, set your router's Wi-Fi channel to 1. At least for me, it seems to be the one that performs the best for the Wii.

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Make sure no other devices on your network (this includes anything that connects, wired or wireless, to your router, not just the computers) are unnecessarily hogging your bandwidth. Even in an idle state, devices can still consume bandwidth. Switch off any unused devices.

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Even spectators in spectator mode with bad internet can cause you lag, so you could also try disabling spectator mode if it isn't already disabled.

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Avoid playing "With Someone": The connection status of the people you are battling is not monitored and hence it's impossible to isolate who has the connection problem. Use MyWii or anywhere else on the net to gather a bunch of Brawl friend codes and play that way instead.

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These things don't JUST have to be checked on your connection. If any player in your game has these problems, it will affect the whole game. Sometimes it's another player, and not you, that is causing the lag. Make sure ALL players follow this guide for their connections.

Your friends on your list will each have a connection rating in the form of a colored sphere on their entry in your friend list (provided you have brawled them at least once). This is the "Connection Rating" for that friend. Brawl monitors the condition of the connection between two people playing, however, it doesn't pinpoint WHO is causing the slow speed. Red is very bad, Orange is bad, Yellow is okay, Green is good, and Blue is excellent. Playing with Blue-rated friends should have **no** lag at all, while Red-rated or Orange-rated friends will likely produce unplayable levels of lag. In "With Someone", you will not know their connection status at any point, so it's hard to tell if your connection, or theirs, is the bad one.
If you find that noone (or almost noone) you add to your friends seems to have a good connection, it may be you that does not have the good connection.

I hope this helps. These solutions should see most people Brawling with minimal lag in no time. ;) However, I understand not everyone is able to do these things, like if they do not own the internet connection or the router. All I can ask in this case is that you don't blame Brawl itself for any lag you experience online. There are people in Japan right now enjoying Brawl at HUGE speeds with no lag at all! :)

Written by our member Draggyn

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