Best Router for Wireless VR?

A

atarumoroboshi18

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 9, 2013
Messages
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Just throwing this out there. To anyone who is currently playing with Wireless VR, what is the router you would recommend for this task?
 
What headset do you have?

I'm currently using a TP Link Archer AX10 which works pretty well for both my Quest 2 and Quest Pro. It has wifi 6 but only 5 ghz signal But it's also dedicated only to VR and very close to where I play. It doesn't work well if I'm far away from it. It was super cheap, actually cheaper than the official link cable.

I'm getting the ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 soon, which does wifi 6e with with a 6ghz signal which the Quest Pro can use, Q2 cannot do 6ghz. I'm not sure how much better it will work, but I'm not getting it just for VR either.

I haven't seen any good sites/videos for routers and VR. The best router reviews for routers I've seen are from this guy on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@landpet that just tests them with his phone.
 
Either a very good shared AX router with a strong signal in your playspace, or -- if it's dedicated to your VR headset -- any old middling AC-or-better access point will do.

(Exception: TP-Link AX routers can be hit-or-miss. Some bug, or somesuch. No idea if it was ever patched out.)
 
sharknice said:
What headset do you have?

I'm currently using a TP Link Archer AX10 which works pretty well for both my Quest 2 and Quest Pro. It has wifi 6 but only 5 ghz signal But it's also dedicated only to VR and very close to where I play. It doesn't work well if I'm far away from it. It was super cheap, actually cheaper than the official link cable.

I'm getting the ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 soon, which does wifi 6e with with a 6ghz signal which the Quest Pro can use, Q2 cannot do 6ghz. I'm not sure how much better it will work, but I'm not getting it just for VR either.

I haven't seen any good sites/videos for routers and VR. The best router reviews for routers I've seen are from this guy on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@landpet that just tests them with his phone.
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I have the Pico 4 and I'm trying to get the most stable connection possible for my situation. I'm getting a ASUS RT-AX55 (AX1800) as that was one of the recommended ones for the Pico 4.
 
atarumoroboshi18 said:
I have the Pico 4 and I'm trying to get the most stable connection possible for my situation. I'm getting a ASUS RT-AX55 (AX1800) as that was one of the recommended ones for the Pico 4.
Click to expand...

The Pico 4 can only do wifi 6 so that should be good. I like Asus the best for routers, they just tend to cost more. Are you using Virtual Desktop to connect?
 
sharknice said:
The Pico 4 can only do wifi 6 so that should be good. I like Asus the best for routers, they just tend to cost more. Are you using Virtual Desktop to connect?
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Yes. The Pico 4 I use is purely for Virtual Desktop. This router will be solely for powering the wireless function of the headset and will be the only device to connect to it.
 
atarumoroboshi18 said:
Yes. The Pico 4 I use is purely for Virtual Desktop. This router will be solely for powering the wireless function of the headset and will be the only device to connect to it.
Click to expand...
I have a Quest 2 with the Asus RT-AX55 and that works perfect with VD on HEVC10 at 150. Dedicated of course, best way to get a near stutter less experience.
 
I dedicated a band just for the Oculus that no other device can get on and put access point in same room.
 
For the router, what are the best settings? I've set everything to use ONLY AX/Wifi 6 settings, but even though it's in the same room, it sometimes skips while moving in VR.
 
How did you connect it to your PC, directly? If not, I assume cabled and with 1Gb switches? Could you give us a bit more details, also the specs of the PC and settings of your VD.
 
Last edited:
Yeah that would help, wouldn't it?

PC Specs:
5800x3D
Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 GPU
2x16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero

Router:
ASUS RT-AX55
Connected directly to both my main router and my PC via Cat6 cables.
Using long Cat6 cables(20ft lengths) I've moved the router into a close by empty room strictly for VR away from other signals.
All the best options exclusively for Wifi 6, such as 80hz channel width, AX only, etc.
Disabled the 2.4ghz band on this router as it will only be for the Pico 4.

VD Specs:
H.264+ at 200Mbps
90Fps
Buffering - On
Godlike

Edit:

Oh yeah, the AX55 router is connected to my router, but it's also connected to the 2.5Gb ethernet port on my Mobo to ensure it gets the maximum connection speed.
 
atarumoroboshi18 said:
Yeah that would help, wouldn't it?

PC Specs:
5800x3D
Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 GPU
2x16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero

Router:
ASUS RT-AX55
Connected directly to both my main router and my PC via Cat6 cables.
Using long Cat6 cables(20ft lengths) I've moved the router into a close by empty room strictly for VR away from other signals.
All the best options exclusively for Wifi 6, such as 80hz channel width, AX only, etc.
Disabled the 2.4ghz band on this router as it will only be for the Pico 4.

VD Specs:
H.264+ at 200Mbps
90Fps
Buffering - On
Godlike

Edit:

Oh yeah, the AX55 router is connected to my router, but it's also connected to the 2.5Gb ethernet port on my Mobo to ensure it gets the maximum connection speed.
Click to expand...
This reads kind of like your computer, internet router, and VR router are all connected to each other in a big circle. That would be bad, because consumer gear is not good at handling multi-pathing.

For reference:
Network.drawio.png


Also:
  • Make sure the VR router has been set to AP mode, so it doesn't try to horn-in on the internet router's turf.
  • I'd leave the VR router's WiFi settings mostly on auto. It probably knows the RF environment better than you do.
  • That said, check the router's Site Survey to see if something's squatting on the same channel the VR router is using; you might need to deconflict them.
  • Sometimes less is more. Try knocking the encoder bandwidth down a notch and see.
  • There's no point dedicating the 2.5gbit LAN to VR. If gigabit can't do it, multi-gig won't help.
 
Yep, looks like connecting the PC to the router was causing some conflict. After disconnecting the router from my PC, I suddenly had vastly smoother connections. Also to be on the safe side, I gave everything a good reboot. Rock solid at 200Mbps with 150% SS. Feels very good!
 
There shouldn't be more than one router on a home network anyway, outside of crazy homelab setups with multiple L3 switches on different subnets.

Remember that a typical consumer/residental "router" is also a gateway to the WAN/Internet at large, a firewall to keep bad actors out of your network, a DHCP server to hand out IP addresses to anything that doesn't have a self-assigned static IP, a DNS server to translate all those convenient domain names to IP addresses, a modest 4 to 8-port Ethernet switch, and most relevant to this scenario, a wireless access point. It's basically a Swiss Army knife of networking functions that get divvied up into more discrete systems in higher-end networks.

If you're dedicating a second Wi-Fi "router" to your VR HMD, it should be in access point mode so it's only interfacing Wi-Fi to the rest of your network through Ethernet and not conflicting with all those other services mentioned above, and possibly more. Fortunately, just about every home router has this mode, so you don't have to go out and buy a dedicated AP.

Understanding how all those functions work together will help you really dial in your home network, especially if you make the move to something like OPNsense for your main router and let dedicated APs handle the Wi-Fi.

At the very least, it sounds like you've got it working nicely now, which has me contemplating if I should stick with wired HMDs like the Valve Index, or consider wireless ones in the future.
 
Yeah, I also performed a full uninstall/reinstall of SteamVR and deleted it's folder for a complete refresh to make sure any old config/settings/etc. aren't causing issues anymore. I've been on both the Samsung Odyssey and the Valve Index, and they each had their trade offs for games and the like, so I tried a number of configs to get things working right. This really helped quite a bit with performance, discovered this from the PicoXR reddit, and turns out there's old stuff like the old AdvancedSettings install, that can cause stutters and the like. So do a complete uninstall/reinstall of SteamVR to completely rule out some ancient setting that may have been changed without you knowing about it.
 
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