Good connection speed for gaming.

Emjay86

Emjay86

Emjay86

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Location
Wales
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!
 
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!
 
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
 
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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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...
 
KIA said:
They're reselling Opal wholesale. Avoid if you care about having low latency for gaming. Spend peanuts and get a poor connection or spend a few quid more and have a decent gaming experience.
Click to expand...

So would you suggest getting O2 instead?

They seem to be my only viable option...
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
From that I'd say Sky mate, keep an eye out as this time of year theres normally some decent discounts to be had.

EDIT:
speak to sky also they may be able to set you up a line and then you wouldn't haev to messa botu with BT too. Line rental can be had far cehaper tho ;) just shop around and check over on MSE.

I was very concerned over moving from my VM cable connection to ADSL with sky, not really had any issues with them however.
Click to expand...

I had a friend who was with Sky once and he had consistantly poor connection speeds (every game was unplayable, pings of over 200 regardless of where the server was) and the connection kept dropping.

Because if that I havn't even looked at sky
 
Ive managed to look up sky and they actually find us on their database. Awesome!

Also to get a broadband, phone and TV package its fairly decently priced.

Im tempted to go with them but how good is their internet?

Thanks
 
I think he just grumbled in all fairness...

Im a bit scared of what to go for here because I don't want to suffer 12 months of poor service if I can help it...

Grrrr decisions!
 
Ok so I just called Sky to set up an order and the guy said we werent on the Royal Mail database and we also weren't on the BT database.

This is a bit annoying as when I use the post code finder on Royal Mail we are blatently there. The house position is wrong but it finds our house and post code. We are on the database.

Any suggestions on what I can do?
 
Just called again and the woman told me the complete opposite of what the guy told me earlier and apparantly because im on the post code finder it shouldn't be an issue...

God this has been stressful!
 
Managed to sort out a deal with Sky and they will be installing my TV next sunday and my internet/phone on the 30th.

Bit of a bummer as I was wanting internet so I could play Star Wars: The Old Republic come launch day but nevermind.

Finally sorted out a bloody ISP!

Thanks for all the feedback and help guys!
 
Avalon said:
Virgin won't install you with cable because it's a new build, it's rare that a developer will arrange for ducting etc to be put in so it's BT/LLU only. I've just jumped ship from Virgin 50mbit to Sky LLU, so far they've been reasonable, it's obviously not going to win in a speed test but as a combined package free movies for 2 months, £100 M&S voucher and £135 cash back and only £10 to install the lot has made it worth while.
Click to expand...

Thats what I have gone with.

Hopefully I wont have any issues with it but I can always change it in 2 years time...

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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