Broadband & gaming

Dale

Dale

Dale

Associate
Joined
5 Jan 2004
Posts
663
Location
Sussex
Hi chaps, thinking of swapping my broadband ISP (in order to combine phone / internet costs etc) as we are a touch skint and looking to same some money.

Pains me to consider it, but Sky are looking at being the cheapest option for us, but also considering BT as well.

I'm currently with Zen who I must admit, have been fairly awesome. But they are expensive (£30 a month for standard ADSL).

Gaming with Zen is pretty epic, BF3 pings are 8-20ms - And this is where my main concern arrives. I'll be committing to Sky or BT for 12 or 18 months respectively, and it will be a major faff to go back.

Is anyone here using BT Infinity / Sky Fibre for their ISP, and can comment on gaming latency (especially BF3) at all?

Cheers,
 
Im with virgin, i would have thought any fibre network would be fine? Its ADSL that is a bit hit and miss isnt it? And really, whats the difference between 20ms and 60ms realistically? I cannot imagine that anyone who isnt playing professionally can really find that .4 of a second important.
 
BT Infinity here and it's fine for gaming. Regularly pinging ~15 to a lot of UK servers.

Can you get LLU where you are? If so, who can you get it with?

Avoid VM and avoid BT Internet (Infinity is fine, BT Internet is not).
 
Lived at 4 different properties with them and no issue, always get bang on what I'm supposed to.

The ex Telewest people seem to receive a better service though.
 
McGray said:
Lived at 4 different properties with them and no issue, always get bang on what I'm supposed to.

The ex Telewest people seem to receive a better service though.
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That's great but yeah.. once again, depends on your area and your expectations of a broadband service. This point comes up again and again.

VM's service varies massively from area to area.

Most ADSL services don't vary from area to area so much (aside from LLU provision). Your line length will decide your maximum sync speed but if your ISP is good your connection quality (especially for VOIP and gaming) is likely to be good. If you end up with a cack ADSL ISP then you'll probably also have cack internet wherever you go.

edit: agreed /re ex-Telewest areas often having it better than some others (for example, Manchester, ex-Nynex :S )
 
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In the past 1 - 2 years I've used BE, BT, Sky copper and Sky Fibre

BE: Good but expensive
BT: Dreadful
Sky copper: Good, did the job and service was good, but ping times were pretty poor (always seemed to be 10-15ms higher than my mates when playing css back then)
Sky fibre: FANTASTIC! Pings are the lowest they've been in my 6 years of having my own home.

I've got Sky TV, Broadband, phone and line rental all clumped into one bill, makes life a lot easier.

EDIT: oh and parents on BT infinity which also seems to be good, though I'm not a fan of icky traffic shaping ;)
 
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Thank you all for your responses.

FrenchTart said:
BT Infinity here and it's fine for gaming. Regularly pinging ~15 to a lot of UK servers.

Can you get LLU where you are? If so, who can you get it with?

Avoid VM and avoid BT Internet (Infinity is fine, BT Internet is not).
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Yes, looking at Samknows I can. I've had a look on BT's website, I can get 56.3 down and 19 up according to their checker, and Sky confirmed on the phone I can get the same.

To be honest, Sky is winning so far based on it being slightly cheaper. However the cost difference is about £10pm and in the grand scheme of things (TV, phone and broadband combined) £10 isn't massive.

If BT is a better product than what Sky can offer (Sky's leadtime is currently about 5 weeks!!! but their installation is free) then I'll go with them, although they are on an 18 month contract.
 
I've got a Sky HD TV, phone and Fibre Optic package having swapped from Virgin Media and I can't fault it. Had it since May and not had a single issue with speed, connections or slow peak hours. Virgin on the other hand was an awful experience for 18 months of the two years I put up with them for.

And if you sign up through Quidco you'll get anything from £80-£140 cash back, plus vouchers.
 
Dale said:
Thank you all for your responses.



Yes, looking at Samknows I can. I've had a look on BT's website, I can get 56.3 down and 19 up according to their checker, and Sky confirmed on the phone I can get the same.

To be honest, Sky is winning so far based on it being slightly cheaper. However the cost difference is about £10pm and in the grand scheme of things (TV, phone and broadband combined) £10 isn't massive.

If BT is a better product than what Sky can offer (Sky's leadtime is currently about 5 weeks!!! but their installation is free) then I'll go with them, although they are on an 18 month contract.
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From what I hear Sky and BT Inf are pretty much on par. The only issues I've heard about Sky are the lead times on installs, missed engineer appointments and sometimes slightly shoddy routers. If you're not in a desperate rush then personally I'd go with Sky.
 
Another vote for BT, trouble is m8 with ISP's just because we get good service from the ISP we all use does not mean you will. You could get a shocking connection and bad customer support, one of those things with broadband you never know until you get it yourself.
 
Been with Telewest since the start.

Been great, pings are amazing, like 5 on CSS. BF3 was never a problem either. Under 20 easily.
 
voorhees1979 said:
Another vote for BT, trouble is m8 with ISP's just because we get good service from the ISP we all use does not mean you will. You could get a shocking connection and bad customer support, one of those things with broadband you never know until you get it yourself.
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Pretty much it. I know someone through the VM community forums. He lives about 750m away from me as the crow flies, and is in a different postcode band and on a different bit of kit from VM. His connection has been perfect since the doublespeed crap, mine has been dire.
 
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