Good connection speed for gaming.

Emjay86

Emjay86

Emjay86

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Hey guys and sorry if this has been mentioned or posted before. Couldn't find it... Im not very good at the search feature apparantly :rolleyes:

Im moving into a new house next week and im looking at getting internet access (obviously!) and im wondering what speed connection ill need to be able to do online gaming hassle free i.e. minimal lag.

Cheers chappies!
 
Can you get BE LLU services in your area? if so then that's one I would highly recommend :) or Sky LLU
 
As far as online gaming goes, it doesn't use that much throughput - for 90% of games 512kbit down, 128kbit up will be more than enough - although if your sharing the connection with other users more is better.

The important thing is latency - things like using fastpath mode instead of interleaving (if using ADSL) can help here.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Ill be sharing the internet connection with my partner who will only be using it to browse websites from time to time and use emails and so on. The majority of the internet will be used by myself for gaming.

Ive been told to steer clear of BT services as apparantly they are appauling.

Im used to using Virgin media and ive never had issues with them on my current setup which is a 20mb connection. The only latency issues ive suffered is when everyone is using the net (2-3 laptops + my pc).

Ive looked at my area and I do have access to LLU although only a very small group of providers can offer it.

Those include AOL, 02/BE, C&W/Bulldog, Sky/Easynet and Talktalk (CPW).

Im currently thinking of sticking with Virgin Media but im still open to suggestions.

Thanks for the help so far!
 
Virgin customer here - if you can get the 50 meg package, then I would higly recommend it.

One side note - if you're a league of legends player, a lot of virgin customers have been having latency issues recently and they seem to be dragging thier feet fixing the underlying issue.
 
before you get Vm check with neighbours and their forums to see how congested the network is in the new area.

The size of the connection has nothing to do with the latency. Vm 30mbit is the lowest they do now days more than enough.

If you are wanting Cable or Sky tv then the choices are much more obvious as part of a bundle.

LLU ADSL2+ or Virgin cable
 
Fibre services (even FTTC like BT Infinity) offer much better latencies than conventional ADSL connections. Try to get any of those. I'm on Infinity and I usually ping around 15-20ms in most games.
 
Ok so apparantly I have to enter an 18 month contract with BT to connect my phone line.

I can't get fibre optic apparantly because as the house is a new build they aren't allowed to dig up anything and lay cables for at least 2 years.

This has all made me think of going with BT for my phone and internet and just use a freeview box for my TV.

As ill be using the phone line for my internet connection im curious as to whether BT's internet is actually any good.

Have any of you guys used BT for their internet before and if so how good/bad was it?

Thanks
 
I'd avoid BT as their internet is usually overpriced and you have to deal with them! Can highly recommend sky LLU as its excellent but like all ADSL services its dependant on your line quality, distance from the exchange etc.
 
Yea im not really pleased with going with BT.

We have arranged for a guy to install it all from BT but that will be on the 29th.

That still gives me time to sort the issue with another provider.

The initial reason why im going to BT is that I was told BT need to connect my line.

Apparently BT aren't the only ISP who can connect the phone line and Virgin are one of those. My issue however is that whenever I contact Virgin I get next to no help. Ive called their helplines 4 times and twice I spoke to people who didn't seem to care and the other two times I spoke to people who said they would have to ring BT and see if im registered with them ad that they would call us back. They didn't call back...

Ive also used the online chat system on their website and all the person/robot (whichever it is) suggests is to add my post code into the finder and add my details in manually which will then get a response within 72 hours. This is a process I did over a week ago and I still havn't had a response.

Im going round and round in circles here and im starting to get really stressed out over it. I just want internet access, a phone and TV yet whoever im contacting doesn't seem to care. You'd think they would try and help me if it meant they'd be getting another customer...
 
Hey again guys ive done some more looking around and figured its easier to drop Virgin.

Ive done some looking on which? and one of the ISP's they suggested as being really good (they had only 3 recommended) is utility warehouse. I can get what I want for a decent price and I can get it soonish which is great.

My next question is they offer a free router that comes with it. They have two possible options, fixed router or wireless.

Now the wireless I can see being good as my other half uses her laptop and mobile and I also use my mobile from time to time. My only concern is using a wireless connection for gaming.

Is there any advice any of you can share with me on this?

Thanks in advance!


Edit:


Also what would I need to get for my PC to pick up and use wireless?
 
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If you are worried about lag/latency then connect via ethernet to router.

As for a good ISP I believe Be/O2 (same network) has been mentioned I know that I am about 1kM away from my exchange but always got ping rates back from servers between 5-15ms, which is pretty good. Also Be I know have a special dedicated gaming profile they can put you on to ensure you get the best response times. I am still with Be but I no longer game.

You will need a USB/PCI/PCIe wireless network adapter to make your machine wireless.
 
Wireless routers should still have Ports on the back for wired connection to your gaming PC, don't worry... Just run some cat5 cable or get the phone installed nearish to the PC.

Or you would need a PCI or PCI-e Wireless card for your PC. I wouldn't get a USB style plug in one personally.

Shame you ruled out Vm so fast.. they might be the superior choice, depending on distances.

As mentioned how far are you from the exchange? if you are 1.5km you are gonna start to see some pretty low speeds..

the Fibreoptic BT FTTC and VM Cable dont really suffer too much from distances, but you can sacrifice some latency for them.

ADSL is still by far the fastest latency for me i ping <10ms to anywhere in London.
By comparison VM is 15 to 20ms. and jittery as hell in the evenings.

You really need to find out your exchange distance.

Hmm no doesnt matter you got BT line coming.. good luck .
 
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I wouldn't worry about wireless gaming. I've done it for years without any issues whatsoever. All the doomsayers will tell you to run a cable but unless you're 50ft from the Router it'll only add 5-10ms onto your ping which isn't enough to make a difference.

For reference, The server I play Bf3 on almost exclusively. I'm Tesslacoil, and as you can see the fact I'm wireless makes no difference to me.
 
Efour2 said:
the Fibreoptic BT FTTC and VM Cable dont really suffer too much from distances, but you can sacrifice some latency for them.

ADSL is still by far the fastest latency for me i ping <10ms to anywhere in London.
By comparison VM is 15 to 20ms. and jittery as hell in the evenings.
Click to expand...

Fastpath FTTC is going to give the same latency as fastpath ADSL.
 
i thought all FTTC was interleaved, good to know i wonder if many ISPs will turn it off for you in reality tho ?
 
Thanks for the replies.

Weve cancelled our BT package as frankly all ive heard is bad things with BT and although they were helpful on the phone that made me very cautious of going with them.

Also I didn't feel too happy about having to take out an 18 month contract.

Utility Warehouse seem to offer decently priced broadband packages and so we are thinking of going with them.

I CAN get O2 and because ive been on contract with them for over 2 years id get 6 months free but it does end up a few quid more expensive than utility warehouse.

Ive also heard O2 take a long time to install everything and they dont seem to provide a router either upon installation.
 
Efour2 said:
Wireless routers should still have Ports on the back for wired connection to your gaming PC, don't worry... Just run some cat5 cable or get the phone installed nearish to the PC.

Or you would need a PCI or PCI-e Wireless card for your PC. I wouldn't get a USB style plug in one personally.

Shame you ruled out Vm so fast.. they might be the superior choice, depending on distances.

As mentioned how far are you from the exchange? if you are 1.5km you are gonna start to see some pretty low speeds..

the Fibreoptic BT FTTC and VM Cable dont really suffer too much from distances, but you can sacrifice some latency for them.

ADSL is still by far the fastest latency for me i ping <10ms to anywhere in London.
By comparison VM is 15 to 20ms. and jittery as hell in the evenings.

You really need to find out your exchange distance.

Hmm no doesnt matter you got BT line coming.. good luck .
Click to expand...

I ruled out VM because after 2-3 weeks of constantly contacting them they didn't help me with my issue nor did any of them seem to care. By all accounts if a provider can't find your address on their system they are meant to manually input it (provided theres evidence that it exists, like being registered with the post office which we are). no one bothered to do any of that and every time I called up to ask them to update their database they just told me they do it every month and they have to wait. They also seemingly avoided helping me at every given opportunity.

While ive used VM in my current house for many years theres one thing that ive always known to be terrible with them and thats their customer support. Its not even worth the hassle and frankly my recent experience with it just goes to show that.

Their internet has been pretty good with me and ive very rarely disconnected and never suffered bad speeds but ive exhausted all avenues to trying to resolve the issue and none of their staff seem qualified enough to help with the issue. Its their loss not mine really...
 
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