Wired router delay

[jpegman]

While in a Paltalk trivia chat room (paltalk.com), my wife is experiencing a very noticable delay when using our router of between 1/2 - 1 second! When our Linksys SR41 router is removed, and the cable modem feeds the signal to her computer directly, there is NO noticable delay. I've moved the computer to the router DMZ to see if it would help and it doesn't. Are there any settings that I can tweak to eliminate this delay? My Linksys is several years old, and has the current firmware (1.457) installed. I rolled the firmware back to 1.442 and no change! Normally, 3 home PC's are tied to this router, and 2 are low BW (chat, IM). The 3rd can be downloading, but even when it is idle, the delay persists. The problem has been around for several months, and I'm at a loss to figure it out. I bought a new Belkin F5D5230-4 wired routed to see if something inside the older SR41 router is failing, and the new one has the same delay also! Belkin has offered and is replacing their 5230 with a newer 5231 router in about a week, but, I'm apprehensive that it will fix the problem.Without either router, the delay is non-existant - with the router and even only the one PC connected, it shows this lag between the voice in the chat room and peoples keyboard entries (The trivia answers pop up on the screen BEFORE my wife even hears the question on her headphones! In a different scrambled words Trivia, the participants keyboard answers show up BEFORE she see the scrambled typed letters inputted by the Trivia leader! The problem is not PC specific since the delay occurs on any attached computer that has the PalTalk software loaded.What is the router doing to delay the signal and what can be done about it? My wife wants her own cable modem (at $50/mo) just to get into the chat rooms without this delay! Is a Linksys SR81 with an "internal switch to dramatically speed up gaming and multimedia connections" an answer to eliminate this delay? Thanks for any insight into this problem.

[Guest LilBambi]

Welcome to SFNL Forums, jpegman!I don't use Paltalk personally so have no experience with this.There was something about Linksys routers in regard to TrackerCams that might help with Paltalk too, although I don't know what ports Paltalk is specifically using so you'd have to find that out if this is even close to the issue:

If you have a router like Linksys, Bay Networks, SMC, etc., you need to find out how to redirect port 8090 (or the port number you selected) to the computer with the TrackerCam. iNetCam has some information on how to do this. Use port 8090 instead of port 80. Once you set that up, start TrackerCam software, click the bottom-left arrow to open the Tool Panel. Then press the top-right button in the Tool Panel to get online. Click the IP number drop-down list. If your router was properly configured, you should see your router's external IP number in the list of IP numbers in the browser window that comes up. Select your IP number. Note that you can also choose a port other than 8090 but you must restart TrackerCam software if you do so. click the check box to put yourself on-line. Allow guests if you want to. People from outside your firewall or router should be able to connect to your TrackerCam using your firewall or router's IP and port number that you selected.

Found hereIf this is not the issue, here's a Google search result that might help.

[Ed_P]

When you eliminate the router you are also eliminating two other pcs from the network. In that the problem exists across two different routers I would suspect that one of the other pcs is the cause of the delay.Have you run Ad-aware and Spybot on them lately? There could be something you're not seeing using the bandwidth.

[Guest LilBambi]

I think this may help you:Paltalk Support: FirewallsApparently Paltalk takes some special things to work right with Firewalls, and although most routers are not true firewalls, they do NAT filtering.

A word about 'Firewall / Network support':(box 6 under the advanced sound controls tab under setup)This forces PalTalk into TCP/IP mode for group voice and should NOT be used unless you are using a network or other device or software that leaves no alternative but to use it.  Using a proxy server or NAT with PalTalkIf you are using a Proxy server or NAT you must configure it to be used with PalTalk.  You MAY have audio problems if you have and external adsl or cable modem due to the fact that SOME of these modems contain hardware firewalls or routers.  If you do not configure properly you may experience reduced functionality, including loss of audio, no video, and no file transfer capability.

Settings etc are discussed on the site.Hope this helps.

[nlinecomputers]

With a NAT firewall you have port triggering to consider. The linksys router is in reality a small computer and it fowards packets based on some desisions it has to make requarding the nature of the packet. It also has to add information to each packet to foward it to the correct computer inside your home network. I think you'll get better performance if you route the ports used by Paltalk directly to the desired computer. Paltalk uses this list of ports:

Ports used for PalTalk: Incoming or 'listening' portsTCP  2090  file transferUDP  2090  voice streamTCP  2091  video listening portUDP  2091  control streamTCP  2095  file transfer - (older versions)Outbound portsTCP  5001-5020  text messagingTCP  8100-8700  firewall / network mode group voiceUDP  8100-8700  group voice UDP  1024-2500  voice stream - user configurableUDP  1024-2500  control stream - user configurableThe last 2 UDP outbound ports are usually set in pairs. 1024 - 1025, 1026 - 1027, etc...  Most users never have to set these lower two ports. They are dynamically assigned if  you leave the lower two boxes set to 0's on the 'paltalk port settings' tab.Outbound ports are usually not an issue but are listed here for network users who  may need to manually configure for a proxy or NAT server or other hardware device.