Which broadband for gaming?
- Thread starter Goldfingers
- Start date
How I wish I could get Be in my area.. 
Oh, and I'd never go with Virgin, not after this: http://informitv.com/articles/2008/04/11/virginmediaboss/
Oh, and I'd never go with Virgin, not after this: http://informitv.com/articles/2008/04/11/virginmediaboss/
Don
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with TitanDSL here (Entanet)
my lowest ping is around 15
my lowest ping is around 15
It's amazing, no slowdowns eva. I get upwards of 2mb / sec off a good ftp site and between 20 & 40ms pings on a uk COD4 server.
TitanADSL - simply the best ISP i've ever had...I get about 15ms pings to www.jolt.co.uk
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No way, stay away from Nildram. They used to be very good but then they were taken over Pipex who were then taken over by Tiscali I think. There service started to detrioate with them and I ended up going to BE Unlimted.
Or get the phone line too, It costs me £22 for..
4mb(think its been upgraded now, not sure..) unlimited broadband
Landline with FREE 24/7 landline calls, and about 1/3rd off calls to mobiles
Oh &
Theres a free tv service that some naughty people plug £70 cable boxes in to get all channels..
Man of Honour
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It's not unlimited - you've got the STM. And on 4mbit once you hit it you're instantly locked down to 1/4 speed...and it's not exactly hard to hit the limit.
If you want the free TV service (or free broadband for that matter), you don't need to rent a VM line. I presume the OP is looking for *legal* ISP advice though to be honest.
I offered him legal ISP advice, I also notified him it comes with a 100% legal free tv service, though some people choose to abuse this and plug 3rd party boxes in to unlock all channels instead of the usual freeview&virgin ones(also OnDemand stuff is great).
It makes it easier to get the free tv service if they install it themselves for you with the internet..
The usage policy isnt that bad, just avoid downloading between 4-12 I think it was, thats the only time you get capped - its 700mb or something for the 4mb - for someone wantnig a gaming ISP that surely would be a good point, everyone downloading too much at PEAK GAMING times get bandwidth crippled to not affect your conncetion.
When i used to play games a lot i downloaded overnight and during the day and played games after college when the UK community is generally active, as did everyone else I knew.
It makes it easier to get the free tv service if they install it themselves for you with the internet..
The usage policy isnt that bad, just avoid downloading between 4-12 I think it was, thats the only time you get capped - its 700mb or something for the 4mb - for someone wantnig a gaming ISP that surely would be a good point, everyone downloading too much at PEAK GAMING times get bandwidth crippled to not affect your conncetion.
When i used to play games a lot i downloaded overnight and during the day and played games after college when the UK community is generally active, as did everyone else I knew.
You're the one spouting rubbish. Despite some having problems, most of us have none. Get a solid 19+Mbps at all times of the day here without any issues. When I did have some slow-down due to capacity problems towards the end of March, they upgraded the UBR two weeks later and all was back to normal. Been with them over six years and still very happy.
And please don't start up with the STM drivel again, there's enough discussions on that elsewhere. Suffice to say their restrictions are perfectly reasonable and limited to peak periods. I've certainly not had any problems with them despite downloading well over 100GB in an average month and nearly 300GB in a heavy one. Many other ISPs have far harsher restrictions.
Besides, gaming is all about latency...
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Man of Honour
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The reason it came up was due to the poster claiming that the service is unlimited... It isn't. And the cap on the low-end package (vs, say, the 20mbit package) is low enough that you can hit the cap simply by downloading the latest patch for your games and some light browsing.
Pings are fairly similar on Be and VM - I'm using both at the moment. Obviously, this is assuming you're using fastpath with Be.
Comparing ISPs and talking about the positives and negatives of both is hardly 'chidlish'. The amount of people on this board that seem to take personal offence when you point out anything wrong with their ISP is pretty shocking - as you said, no ISP is 'all sweetness and light'. There are some ISPs that are better than others though...and though I wouldn't describe VM as 'rubbish', they certainly have their faults, and they're more pronounced than Be's. That said, the matter becomes moot if you're not lucky enough to be in an area that can get Be and/or your phone line isn't amazing quality - ADSL can only be as good as the phoneline and that is VM's primary advantage.
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o2 is excellent.
They don't have any caps, any usage times etc.
Their fair usage policy goes along the lines of ''excessive use we will contact you etc.''
so basically what they're saying is you can download what you like....
Pings are great, just moved from Sky and getting 50ms back to 15ms+ pings
They don't have any caps, any usage times etc.
Their fair usage policy goes along the lines of ''excessive use we will contact you etc.''
so basically what they're saying is you can download what you like....
Pings are great, just moved from Sky and getting 50ms back to 15ms+ pings
2.9mbps down, 1mbps up
Man of Honour
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o2 use Be's network so it's not too shocking that they're good
Fair enough, didn't realise latency was that good on Be. My only experiences of ADSL are with BT's network, obviously pays to have your own. BTW, what's fastpath?
I was responding specifically to Skeeter's comment that "VM are rubbish".
I don't take offence when people criticise VM but I do take offence when people generalise about any ISP on the basis of a few isolated problems which all ISPs will experience in various regions at various times.
I have seen good things about Be and my local exchange is enabled but frankly I'll never take the risk of moving for the simply reason that I've never had a BT line in this house and thus have no idea of its quality. I could go through all the upheaval of moving to a BT line only to find it's crap and I get hopeless speeds. As I said, right now I'm fortunate enough to be having no problems with the VM service or their current STM limits. I get 19Mbps at all times which I'd be highly unlikely to get from Be. This could well change in the future if my VM speeds start to suffer or they revise the STM in a way which adversely affects me but until then I'm sitting tight.
I appreciate that many other VM customers aren't having such a good experience and some selfish idiots are getting stroppy about the STM limits but that doesn't warrant branding the whole service as "rubbish".
Have to say this always cracks me up.
Of the ISPs claimed to have "no limits", how many have fair usage policies like this in their T&Cs?
Frankly, I'd much rather have properly defined limits and times which I can then work around with confidence, rather than some abstract fair usage policy where I never know if and when I'll get tapped ont he shoulder - provided these defined limits are reasonable of course.
Don't kid yourself.
Man of Honour
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Put simply (rather than bombard you with acronyms as some love to do), it's a mode you can run your ADSL connection in that sacrifices some of the inbuilt error-correction in return for lower pings. On poor quality lines this can lead to more disconnections (and a loss in throughput) but on a good quality line it means lower pings and higher throughput - always good
I personally always choose fastpath as I really hate interleave (the standard error-corrective mode).Fair enough. I can definitely see your point. Most people seem to think that only their personal experience is a true representation of an ISP's performance whereas in reality it's far more complex than that.
I would do the same in your shoes. There's not a great deal of point for you to switch. Perhaps if you really desperately needed the higher upload (2.5mbit) you could get both at once for a bit and compare...but you probably don't, so there's no point
To be honest, I do think the current extended STM trials are rather underhand. It seems completely out of order to extend the STM to outside of the publisised hours without any kind of customer notification :/
I agree for the most part. o2 use Be's network and historically haven't enforced their FUP (much as Be hasn't - even for people download hudreds of gigs/mont). Even if Be suddenly start being arsey about it, the short term contract means you can escape quite easily. Less so for o2 as it's a 1 year+ contract iirc. The price you pay for cheaper services I guess...
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