Netduma r3 is the best gaming router!

[Mrbchambers]

On 4/2/2024 at 8:56 PM, TODDzillaInLA said:

better is more of a personal preference. there is a couple asus routers that would be BETTER for me since they support up to 2 and 5gige fiber connections. but the r3 for the price is a really good inexpensive alternative. 

I have Fibre envy, I can only dream of such a connection speed, I just wish I had that problem, and I don't think thats where the R3 sits, 5gb connects must be a niche market, and only available to 10% of the population of the country (UK don't know what it is for the rest of the world).

[bbursley]

On 4/1/2024 at 8:30 AM, Zli said:

It's not fair from Activision that they didn't activate more servers on a global level. I also tried VPN with an Asus router and I couldn't do anything. Everything was the same, if not worse. I also think that VPN is a big delusion. My ping was much higher and I was late. I used NordVPN and ExpressVPN. I'm waiting to see what the hybrid VPN from Netduma will be like and how it works.

Yeah a VPN for better routing is irrelevant, unless your ISP has some REALLY bad routing. Even then, the VPN is still useless unless you can get a vpn server that’s right where your ISP upstreams to. In the case of my old ISP, it was Cogent in Boston. I would need a VPN sever in Boston to even be useful. 

[Alias 1aB]

you do realize COD is made to play on crappy internet connections. always has been, always will be. most people dont have access to good internet service providers. its either lack of availability or financial constraints.

and you know the saying, "if it ain't broken, don't fix it." They sell millions of copies of the same rehashed game every year and most of the public still buy it to get their COD fix. I dont know if there will ever come a time where people will stop buying COD and actually force them to make an actual good working game for the first time in a long time. I dont think we will ever see one now that Microsoft bought Activision. They have to make their money back. Gotta love all those microtransactions!

[StarIndigo]

i use openwrt  with cake sqm and a  dscp marking script that i can mark my packets on both upload and download to whatever dscp marking i want.....i also use an app on openwrt call banip to block all the far away servers...ive got all the server ip routes for mw3 data centers...i also use a vpn with these settings that work perfectly...ill use it sometimes to route my traffic to a different location because i live in the caribbean ..my ping is always flat lined...my game runs super smooth after optimizing my network with my openwrt router...you have to prioritize your entire network properly and mark your packets on both the upload and download seperating them into different tins...you need good qos to fine tune and configure your network properly for that ..most qos only mark your upload packets because by the time the game server sends the packets back to your machine its already marked by your isp before it reaches your router..i use a script from openwrt that washes off the isps marking on my download packets and set the markings that i put on my upload packets on to the download..that way my upload and download packets have priority over everything...you need to create a seamless connection to the server making sure your gaming packets dont have to wait in line for your other network traffic both your upload and download...after optimizing my internet properly ive never felt my game run so smooth before

[Dean.L]

On 3/31/2024 at 8:35 AM, swippur said:

Which type of router performs better than the netduma r3 for you for gaming? I’m just curious because I’ve tried lots of different router OS. I’ve tried pretty much everything. I simply can’t find anything better.

ddwrt on a 4 core 16 gb pc

[Destroyer_anon]

On 3/31/2024 at 5:30 AM, johnnytran said:

On 3/30/2024 at 5:28 PM, Aimz said:

This isn’t a support post, this is just a post from a hardcore call of duty ranked player giving my honest review of the router. Because ive been seeing soooo much negativity about this router.

Ive been playing ranked play on call of duty modern warfare 3 on pc for about 8 hours a day. I can honestly say the netduma r3 melts my enemies. I’ve tried multiple different routers so I know how each router feels when you’re playing competitively when every millisecond counts! I’ve tried Openwrt, Ubiquiti, Arista, Mikrotik, Pfsense and Asus ROG routers. They all do very good A+ 0ms bufferbloat with QOS. BUT the problem with those routers is the hit detection / lag comp. Where you clearly see the enemy and shoot them first and you die first. It’s like you shoot nerf bullets and they just INSTA DELETE you!

I don’t know how netduma does it but this router is manipulating the lag comp / hit detection to give you a advantage. I mean theres still some moments when I’m like how did I lose that gunfight but it’s ALOT less compared to those other routers.

The latest firmware still has some bugs that I’m sure is going to be fixed.. but the firmware is more than playable for me

Anyone else feels this way or its only me?

 

I’m going to push back on this a bit, because the conclusion being drawn here doesn’t line up with how online games or networks actually work.

I’m an Enterprise Lead Network Engineer with over a decade of experience designing and operating large-scale, latency-sensitive networks (factories, global WANs, DCs, SDN, etc.). I am also a professional competitive CS2 and FortNite player. From a technical standpoint, a consumer router cannot “manipulate lag compensation or hit detection” in the way you’re describing.

How hit registration actually works:

In modern multiplayer shooters (including CoD), hit detection is authoritative on the game server, not the client and certainly not your router.

The general flow looks like this:

• Your client sends input events (movement, aim, fire timestamp)

• The server rewinds game state using lag compensation

• The server determines whether a hit occurred

• The result is sent back to all clients

Your router never sees:

• Player hitboxes

• Server reconciliation logic

• Lag compensation algorithms

• Damage calculation

It only sees encrypted UDP packets with timestamps. (along with a few checksums that are used on the backend to determine whether there has been any manipulation to the data stream, but that is entirely dependent upon game and AC used).

What lag compensation really is

Lag compensation exists to normalize different client latencies, not to “reward” or “punish” certain players. If two players fire at nearly the same time, the server rewinds state to each client’s perceived moment and resolves the outcome.

This can feel unfair at times, but that’s a function of:

• Tick rate

• Interpolation / extrapolation

• Server load

• Packet arrival variance

• Player movement prediction

Not the brand of router.

What routers can affect (and what they can’t)

At Layers 1–5, almost every modern router you listed (OpenWRT, MikroTik, pfSense, Ubiquiti, Asus, NetDuma) is doing the same fundamental job:

• NAT

• Stateful firewall

• Packet forwarding

• Optional QoS / shaping

  • This is the ONLY thing that you might be able to argue NetDuma does 'better' than others. However, that is merely if they do it 'out of the box' vs. others that may not considering it's all adherent to RFCs and standardizations, dscp values, etc. 

If bufferbloat is already controlled (which you explicitly said it was), then:

• Latency is stable

• Jitter is minimized

• Packet loss is negligible

At that point, there is no mechanism for a router to selectively improve hit registration. It cannot reorder server logic, alter rewind windows, or bias combat resolution.

If it could, competitive esports would ban consumer routers overnight.

Why it feels different

Perceived improvements usually come from:

• Different matchmaking servers or routes

• Temporary changes in server load

• Variance in opponents’ latency

• Session-to-session network conditions

• Confirmation bias (especially after hardware changes)

Humans are very good at pattern-matching and very bad at controlled experiments, especially when adrenaline and competition are involved.

The key point

If a router could truly “manipulate lag comp”:

• It would be detectable by the game developer

• It would be considered cheating

• It would be patched or blocked immediately

No consumer router has access to the data or control plane required to do that.

Final thought

If you’re enjoying the R3, that’s totally fine. Stable latency and good QoS do matter. But attributing gunfight outcomes to router-level manipulation of hit detection isn’t technically accurate.

The network delivers packets.
The server decides who lives and who dies.

Everything else is perception.