Which broadband for gaming?

Aekeron said:
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 :/
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I take your point in that they could be a bit more forthcoming with the details of these trials before they actually initiate them.

I still don't have a problem with the limits tbh, either the current ones or even the proposed ones which are currently being trialled. I'm speaking from a personal perspective here on the 20Mb service, not sure what the limits are on the lower tiers. Restricting downloads to 3GB for five peaktime hours in the evening seems perfectly fair to me if it maintains QoS for average users. Quite why all the "moaners" suddenly need to download multiple gigabytes of data during these hours is beyond me when they have all day and/or night to do it. The upstream limits are set to 74% of what is technically possible to upload at full speed during the limited period and is thus clearly aimed at those who leave their bittorrent clients running 24/7 to get themselves an "uber" ratio :rolleyes:

The new proposed limits being trialled are for the daytime but are set at 50% of the current evening ones, so 6GB between 10am and 3pm which is still more than reasonable imo. When you can download over 60GB while you sleep, why do you need to download so much stuff at other times when it's more likely to impact other users on the network!?

I think a large number of customers have completely lost sight of the contended nature of domestic broadband tbh.
 
Can't argue with that. However, if I can get away with basically having 1:1 contention for a connection, I'll go for it :p Be currently offer that...and for yourself at least, VM do to...so fair enough really...

The 3GB thing for 20mbit users isn't too bad. For lower tiers it's a fair bit worse though - according to a site I've just looked at it's 300 GB and 800GB for the smaller packages. I've got a feeling it's been double since then however. Even so, with 4mbit and a 600MB limit during the evening, you could easily download a game patch and/or stream some video and easily limit yourself to a 1mbit download and very low upload...not really optimal.

The VM package I have is 20mbit and I do have to say that the off-peak newgroup downloading on it is *damn* nice. However, for everything else, I do prefer my Be connection :)
 
i was with VM for about 10 years...they were great at first but the past few years they really went down hill...i would class them as rubbish compared to BE who i am with now.

their own IT techs will tell you they are over subscribed too and customer support...god help you.
 
Ivwe been with Virgin from when it was NTL, only had 2 days in 4 years where ive had internet issues. Never been restricted on usage and seems good enough to me, often have wow and 2 screens of eve running with no issues.

Guess it depends what area you live in for what service you can get, good luck with your pick.

ColiN
 
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



BE BE BE BE BE BE :D I love BE lol :)



Had a choice of BE or Virgin when I moved to my flat and it worked out cheaper to go with BE because I wasnt interested in TV channels etc. Pings are equal or lower than my mates Virgin cable pings when I play TF2 and down speed is about the same :) up speed is great obviously... but most of this is because I took great care in getting a flat close to the exchange :P
 
ntl or virgin cable but if you want fancy multiplay do special gaming broadband its very dear though.thing is most get reasonable ping say 50-60 which is good enough for general play.
 
Since moving to the UK I have dealt with BT, Sky, and now BeThere.

BT was atrocious as I'm sure most of you know, Sky was better...but ping times were only so-so and customer service not great at all.

BeThere is completely different.....EXTREMELY fast downloads AND pings....very fast, responsive, polite customer service. Unlimited Bandwidth is nice as well since I use about 140-150gb/month in downloads and uploads.

In CoD4 on Sky I was getting 60-70ms pings to a few of my favorite servers...on Be I get 30-40ms.
 
I've had Virgin and it's very over-priced for what you get althought it was problem free for a good 2 years.

I'm now with Sky Max and me personally i have a STABLE 60-70 ping ok it's not fantastic but i play a lot and notice no major issues, a lot of people i know with Sky get much better pings so it must just be my location.

(I have phoned up about max_delays)
 
Phal said:
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



BE BE BE BE BE BE :D I love BE lol :)



Had a choice of BE or Virgin when I moved to my flat and it worked out cheaper to go with BE because I wasnt interested in TV channels etc. Pings are equal or lower than my mates Virgin cable pings when I play TF2 and down speed is about the same :) up speed is great obviously... but most of this is because I took great care in getting a flat close to the exchange :P
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thats quite sad on so many levels, it doesnt really make sense to advice it because of this reason too, because its an unfair test, ADSL becomes worse and worse the further from exchange you are, and you are saying BE is great, but because you live next to the exchange, which the OP most likely doesnt.
 
Do not go anywhere near VM.

They are abismal. I am booking a BT phone line this week so I can jump over to ADSL.

VM works fine 50-80% of the time, then randomly for days upon end you either have no connectivity or pings are floating around the stratosphere. Not only that, you have to phone up a premium number now for help on their crap network. They say they will repay you this plus some, but thats *******.
 
peetee said:
thats quite sad on so many levels, it doesnt really make sense to advice it because of this reason too, because its an unfair test, ADSL becomes worse and worse the further from exchange you are, and you are saying BE is great, but because you live next to the exchange, which the OP most likely doesnt.
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The poster is being honest though - Saying that the speeds are great for them due to being next to the exchange. Far better than not mentioning that.

In this day and age, it's not actually that crazy/sad to take internet provision into account when you move house - it's so vital for many business/work uses that having access to a good provider at a decent speed can improve your quality of working life quite considerably.
 
Aekeron said:
The poster is being honest though - Saying that the speeds are great for them due to being next to the exchange. Far better than not mentioning that.

In this day and age, it's not actually that crazy/sad to take internet provision into account when you move house - it's so vital for many business/work uses that having access to a good provider at a decent speed can improve your quality of working life quite considerably.
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we're talking pings here, theyr not all that relevant for business work use, and if its for that you buy a business line.
Its not like theres much of a speed difference between ISPs is there, come on really thats a fairly poor arguement.
I agree sometimes it could be poor if you are too far away, but moving NEXT to the exchange on purpose is just plain sad as far as gaming goes, which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

We cant actually advice the OP on ISPs until we know where hes living, the postcode etc..

Virgin are bloody brilliant at both the places I use it, newcastle and hartlepool, but that doesnt mean im going to tell him virgin, because what if hes in a trouble spot.
All ISPs have bad patches etc, so dont say the whole ISP is rubbish just because you live in a bad area please.
 
peetee said:
we're talking pings here, theyr not all that relevant for business work use, and if its for that you buy a business line.
Its not like theres much of a speed difference between ISPs is there, come on really thats a fairly poor arguement.
I agree sometimes it could be poor if you are too far away, but moving NEXT to the exchange on purpose is just plain sad as far as gaming goes, which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

We cant actually advice the OP on ISPs until we know where hes living, the postcode etc..

Virgin are bloody brilliant at both the places I use it, newcastle and hartlepool, but that doesnt mean im going to tell him virgin, because what if hes in a trouble spot.
All ISPs have bad patches etc, so dont say the whole ISP is rubbish just because you live in a bad area please.
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The poster you quoted isn't saying Virgin is rubbish...

I agree that distance from the exchange has little effect on pings and yes - business uses isn't what this thread is about. I completely agree that what you get/go for depends on area so knowing their location would be a big help in being able to give advice.
 
yea i know he isnt saying tis rubbish, but theres a few throughout the thread slating various ISPs and most of its aimed at VM, which is pretty bloody stupid for these forums, I think the problem is that some people are so up themselves they think whatever they say is fact, which is infact false, because they are narrow minded and ignorant.
 
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