Want An Advantage What About Being Able To Pick Where You Connect

[RE4PER]

Gaming routers and networking devices which supposedly enhance your gaming experience come and go – often attracting widespread discussion within the community.
We recently became aware of a new gaming router under the name ‘NetDuma R1′ from a startup company based in the UK, which was set to include a wealth of features never before available in one package. We very rarely endorse any product or company on our website – in fact, we have absolutely no sponsors nor are we paid from Actvision contrary to popular belief. The same applies for the following review/analysis.
We took great interest in the NetDuma router and therefore requested a demo unit and they very kindly obliged. After 2-3 weeks of testing, I am going to run over the key features and thoughts within this article. As so many functions exist, we will have a follow up article at a later stage.
So, what is the NetDuma R1? If we take the description from the website, it’s described as “a revolutionary router designed to solve the real issues gamers’ face”. In more general terms, it includes beneficial features for gamer’s that will enhance your multiplayer gaming experience – especially for games such as Call of Duty. The router itself is a small white box including five Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wifi and other technical features.
Unlike other devices seen in the past, this is a fully featured and completely capable primary router for your house.

There’s numerous ways in which you can connect the router to your network. It can replace your existing router by enabling modem mode (on your ISP’s or existing router), and instead allow the NetDuma to route your internet connection. Alternatively, you can keep your existing router enabled, and simply plug the NetDuma into one of the ethernet ports. You can then connect specific devices to the NetDuma such as your Xbox/PlayStation and desktop computer.
You’re probably wondering – what does it do? Here’s a quick rundown of the included features. In this specific article, I will be covering the Geo-filter feature. –

• One-click VPN – Defend yourself from DDoS attacks by rapidly enabling VPN on ANY device, including your console
• Ping Stats – Real-time ping graphs for your console, and even more for PC gamers
• Anti-Flood – We have solved local congestion once and for all. You can now download, upload, stream and game with no increase in ping
• Geo-filter – The #1 cause of lag is distance. Lower your ping by only connecting to players close to your home.
• Network Monitor – Understand who, or what, is using your home’s Internet connection, enabling you to view the cause of your congestion
• Allow & Deny – Block players or servers with bad hosts, or players who are using their host to cheat (+ advanced DDoS protection)
• Device Priotisation – Optimise your connection by easily allocating your upload bandwidth to your favourite devices
• + More to come

Geo-filter
Games such as Call of Duty use various matchmaking techniques in order to populate lobbies. Generally the matchmaking system will make every effort to ensure you’re matched with the right people, in the right skill range, in the right place and so on – but of course it can’t get it right all of the time.
Occasionally you’ll find yourself matched with a US host if you’re in the UK, or a UK host if you’re in the US for example. Between yourself and the host in this instance, there’s a 5000+ mile gap between each of you – the more distance between players, the more the latency increases, the worse your multiplayer experience becomes and the higher chance of lag.
So what does the Geo-filter actually do? Well essentially, it blocks players you could be connected with based on a distance limit you set from your home. For example, I’m based in the UK – I can essentially block the potential of ever playing with a US player again based on the distance limit I set. These settings can be managed from the router control panel using an incredibly simple interface – we’re talking dragging bars left to right here.
The geo-filter will not circumvent skill based matchmaking, but it will have an impact on matchmaking decisions in terms of player location and distance.
If you take a look at the image below, you’ll firstly notice just how easy it is. In this particular example, I have set the maximum radius from my home to 1266km. By doing so, I have including the whole of the UK, Ireland and Western Europe, but excluded players in the US and so on.

Taking a closer look at the map you’ll notice yellow triangle and red circles. The yellow triangles represent hosts I could potentially have been playing with without the NetDuma Geo-filter. The smaller red circles represent the players I am connecting with, and the larger red circle represents the host of the game. In the example above, I am playing with a UK host, and mostly UK players whilst living in the UK.
To put this in perspective, if a UK player is connected to a US host/players, you would expect a ping in the range of 100-200ms. In contrast, if a UK player is connected with UK players, the ping could be as low as 10ms.
In addition to the above, I can also rate hosts – if the particular game I’m playing in is smooth and lag-free, I’ll probably want to stick with this host for future games. The opposite would of course apply to hosts who’re torrenting at the same time for example – the game isn’t going to play so well.
In the example below, the host is just 182km from my house, and the ping is just 35-40ms which is awesome. I have had games with a ping of just 15ms however, so I gave this host a score of 75% – if I have to, I’ll be comfortable with connecting to this host in the future.

In contrast, I decided to set my location to the US despite being in the UK, and essentially forced myself to connect with a US host. Instead of having a double digit ping, my ping was instead just over 150ms – over 3x higher than the UK host in my previous game. I carried out this test numerous times and averaged around the 120-150ms mark as seen below:

Realistically 120-150ms is a respectable ping for the most part, but if you had the ability to intervene using a geo-filter and ultimately reduce your ping – it’s a no -brainer.
So how does this impact the overall experience on Advanced Warfare for example? Having played several games with UK hosts and players in closer proximity to myself, I can confirm games are noticeably more responsive and hit detection is improved. In certain circumstances, due to the reduced latency, you have a genuine chance of putting up a fight if you respond quickly enough, and you’re definitely more confident your bullets will actually hit their target.
Other features such as Anti-flood make this a very good solution for multi-device households with multiple users/family members. Should it be that you live with friends or family who actively use the internet on a regular basis, the router will definitely assist in reducing the impact of their internet usage when you’re playing online.
Justifying the cost of a NetDuma router is another question, and for some it may not be seen as a necessity based on their current setup. I would categorize the NetDuma in the same league as buying a Scuf controller or a high end headset. The difference however is, technically speaking anyway, your internet connection is the most integral part of being able to comfortably play a multiplayer game vs a nice high end headset for example.
Despite your internet connection being one of the most integral elements of your Call of Duty multiplayer experience, it is often undervalued in the grand scheme of things.
If you fall under the following, you’ll want to consider a NetDuma router:

• Own many internet capable devices such as laptops, tablets, phones, consoles, smart tv’s and use them regularly and at the same time
• Share an internet connection with friends/family in the same house
• Stream to Twitch/YouTube and have been or potentially could be the target of DDoS attacks
• Spend a substantial amount of time playing multiplayer games such as Call of Duty on a daily basis

If however you fall under the following, it could be worthwhile, but it probably won’t impact you all that much:

• Casually play multiplayer games fairly often
• Don’t share an internet connection with anyone
• Own internet capable devices but don’t normally use them all at the same time
• Occasionally stream

For more details, visit their website here. If you have any questions about the router, I’d suggest asking on their forum here. You can also find them on Twitter here.

[Pithy Kez]

its ot much to look at but i think ill be deffenatly buying one of these in the near future