View Full Version : Minimum broadband speeds for gaming??
PerryPingu
19-04-2010, 15:38
Hi Timeless folks!!
Just a quickie for some advice on selecting the right broadband speed to play on-line games like 2142 and BC2??!!
I'm moving house and will have to build a new plan for my internet and phone. The phone company offers speeds up to 10mb and 20mb. Obviously 10mb is going to be a bit cheaper so I was just wondering if I can get away with this and still play on-line happily!
Your own experiences and advice as always would be appreciated!!
Cheers,
Perry :)
Speedstar1776
19-04-2010, 15:47
higher bandwidth = better ping
10mb is enough in my opinion, only if you are a highspeed/much downloader than is the 20mb better :D
Get what u can afford pingu and use servers which are close to you, or at least low ping servers. Higher bandwidth does not mean better ping.
A higher bandwidth broadband means you can download more per second, it does not raise or lower your ping.
The more IP's you connect to and the more distance/the more hops, the more your ping will fluctuate. :)
XxXButcher
19-04-2010, 16:48
I only have around 2700 - 3000 kbit/s, wich is very low,
but I play with a ping around 55 on UK (mostly London I guess).
I would like to get 10000 - 15000 kbit/s, but it's not available where I live
(arse of the world obviously :rofl:). This should be enough for good gaming.
2MB its more than enough for gaming....
Ping has nothing to do with bandwith, for a long time, I had one of the lowest speeds on timeless, yet also one of the lowest pings.....because I live near, and have a decent ISP
Your decision on speed should be based more on things such as how many people are using it, and how fast do you need to download large files
Speedstar1776
19-04-2010, 17:29
....... more upload -> better ping.......
10mb downsteam -> 1mb upstream, so 20mb downstream -> 2mb upstream (in germany, mostly)
but more upload is better for the ping
DN-Ghost-
19-04-2010, 17:59
Or just get one like mine 150 mb/s :-)
....... more upload -> better ping.......
10mb downsteam -> 1mb upstream, so 20mb downstream -> 2mb upstream (in germany, mostly)
but more upload is better for the ping
Nope speedie, this is incorrect.
XxXButcher
19-04-2010, 18:43
Nope speedie, this is incorrect.
no it isn't
in germany you get around 10% of the download speed as the upload speed
(correct)
I played with normal internet connection for a while and had a ping around 55,
then my upload speed decreased by around 50% and my ping was over 120.
More upload is truely better for the ping.
(correct)
You can't get a good ping to the server next door if you have 100000 kbit/s download
and 56 kbit/s upload.
--> The bigger the better :)
Chriss-FIN-
19-04-2010, 18:50
I have not noticed any ping changes when i have changed my internet upload speed from 0.5 to 1 and finally 2 megs... Only ping drop which i got was when i changed my ISP (around minus 10-15).
no it isn't
in germany you get around 10% of the download speed as the upload speed
(correct)
I played with normal internet connection for a while and had a ping around 55,
then my upload speed decreased by around 50% and my ping was over 120.
More upload is truely better for the ping.
(correct)
You can't get a good ping to the server next door if you have 100000 kbit/s download
and 56 kbit/s upload.
--> The bigger the better :)
Nope sorry and i'm not gonna spell it out. :google:
So, lets go googling!
bandwidth has nothing to do with ping. Its like the difference between sending a small package through UPS or a package twice as big through UPS. You can get more stuff there with the big box, but still takes the same amount of time to get there.
Hello doomsdaydave11,
This is a message from Lamont with Embarq Customer Support. I see you had a concern about your ping rates. I want to explain that the ping rate will not change based on the bandwidth that you are subscribed to. There are several factors that can determine your ping rate, the game server you are connecting to, one of the servers in route to the game server, a problem on our side of the network, etc. Embarq utilizes multiple backbone providers. In general, any latency found via trace-routes on the Embarq side of the network consistently over 300 MS should be reported to our technical support. Embarq considers 300 MS latency as acceptable. Please do some trace routes to your game server so we may determine if the latency is occurring on our Embarq network. You can call our technical support for further troubleshooting, or provide me with your phone number in an email and I can do more research to see if there are any other options we can try to improve your latency. We are working hard to reach out to our customers that are not completely satisfied with our service and striving to improve our service with your help. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help you.
Lamont L.
Embarq Customer Support
SMNP.Lamont.l@embarq.com
For additional support please visit www.embarq.com/support or call 1-877-646-3282
XxXButcher
19-04-2010, 19:08
Nope sorry and i'm not gonna spell it out. :google:
o.k. make a selftest, get a 56k modem and tell me what ping you get :P
it will be slightly different
That does sum it up quite well. People get a little mixed up with speed of their connection (Mbits/s -the speed they can download or upload) and their ping (the speed of which u can connect to a server or whatever)
o.k. make a selftest, get a 56k modem and tell me what ping you get :P
it will be slightly different
Ok, I wont waste my time, and will just tell you the results I know I will get.
I ping www.timelessgaming.com and take an average over say 50 readings, of 32bit packages
Thats 32 bits, we have a 56Kb modem, lemmie just do some maths here..... (56*1024*8)/32 = 14336
So we can send a maximum of 14336 packages in a second, my ping is about 30ish ms (for arguments sake)
Which means, I have to send 500 packages backwards and forwards, and back and forth, for a second, and my ping will be....you guessed it still 30ms
In real terms, games use less than 100kb/s to run online
That means as long as your internet connection is over that, the game will run at the same ping (assuming the same path is taken each time, and ignoring random fluctuations).
Your turn sir.....
o.k. make a selftest, get a 56k modem and tell me what ping you get :P
it will be slightly different
Ur missing some info here, you really ought to go have a little read.
As you may need around 30-50k per sec to run BC2 lag free and a 56k modem will download at around 6k per sec then obviously you will lag here but this has nothing to do with ping and the speed of which it takes to connect to a server.
So you would lag terribly with a 56k modem because it simply does not have the bandwidth to run something like a game which needs around 50k a sec.
So based on this knowledge, you will need around a half mbit/s broadband connection to run this game with the same lag or connection or ping/latency as someone who has 100mbit/s connection.
Where a high speed broadband connection comes into play and where you get mixed up with speed vs ping is for EG, 100mbit/s sec broadband is much faster than 1mbit/s broadband simply
because you can download a large file at roughly 100 times the speed of the 1mbit/s connection. This has nothing to do with ping as the ping will be the same, so long as you are routing
to the server or file etc in the same way.
XxXButcher
19-04-2010, 19:21
I mean if you have a
- 100,000 kbit/s connection, 10,000 kbit/s more or less don't change that much
- 3,000 kbit/s connection, 10,000 kbit/s more will make a difference
For a week my provider had problems and I had no internet,
as a gift they gave me the double bandwith, wich was 6000 kbit/s
and my ping went down from 55 to 34 ms.
Of course route and "traffic jam" and stuff also matter,
but with a really crappy connection a better one will really change a lot...
Wich leads me to the question:
What internet connection do you have pingu?
PerryPingu
19-04-2010, 21:47
OMG!! First off folks thanks so much for taking the time to post, you all know so much more than me it's scary! I don't even understand most of which you said! I don't even know what a ping is! Well except for ping(u)!!! Lol
I have a cable connection at present, bundled with my tv and phone which is pretty quick. But ithink new place is not in cable area, so will be provided through virgin media or bt. (im in uk) I suppose I can go with 10mb and if t doesn't work can upgrade to 20 mb!
Thanks again though folks. In the mean time I better start googling pings and broadwidth! :)
OMG!! First off folks thanks so much for taking the time to post, you all know so much more than me it's scary! I don't even understand most of which you said! I don't even know what a ping is! Well except for ping(u)!!! Lol
I have a cable connection at present, bundled with my tv and phone which is pretty quick. But ithink new place is not in cable area, so will be provided through virgin media or bt. (im in uk) I suppose I can go with 10mb and if t doesn't work can upgrade to 20 mb!
Thanks again though folks. In the mean time I better start googling pings and broadwidth! :)
I'm with Virgin and 10meg. They are very good, even better if you're close to an exchange. Go for Virgin over BT m8.
2 to 10 meg is plenty ;)
I'm with Virgin and 10meg. They are very good, even better if you're close to an exchange. Go for Virgin over BT m8.
2 to 10 meg is plenty ;)
I'm also on virgin, at 8MB though.
I have no problems what so ever gaming even with another 5 people using the internet, and I'm using wireless.
Problems only start if I do a big download myself on the same PC at the same time.
I was with virgin on 10MB and it was fine, mow with sky ( gave me a better price for the BB,TV etc ) and still no probs playing on line. like hornet says try not to go with BT as the home hub is not that good ( my in-laws work for BT and he don't recomend it ) so if you can and only want BB then virgin but if you want the whole pack then look at sky as well.
Speedstar1776
20-04-2010, 15:29
:offtopic:
alright, i am a noob
PS: thx for my apprenticeship in the biggest german IT company, ive learned nothing about internet and broadband... nice
:offtopic:
Speedstar1776
20-04-2010, 15:33
hmmm...
and what about FastPath? that makes your ping better
:offtopic:
alright, i am a noob
PS: thx for my apprenticeship in the biggest german IT company, ive learned nothing about internet and broadband... nice
:offtopic:
Are you serious? This is a basic thing really m8y.
hmmm...
and what about FastPath? that makes your ping better
Anything to reduce your 'hops' from your location to the destination file or server will reduce your ping. I'm gonna guess that fastpath does just this.
Each hop will take time to get to (latency) /ping in milliseconds (ms) and depending on the demand on that route, the amount of bandwidth in use, will slow/speed
up the process, perhaps increasing your ping, then there are other things to consider, fault tolerance, interference, magnetic, radio and lost packets.
All these things slow you down especially during peak times, which will also affect you locally, if for eg your ISP is very busy.
On top of all this, your PC will also lag you and increase latency with programs/updates etc running, eating away at your resources affecting your 'ping' ;)
doomsdaydave11
24-04-2010, 01:47
So, lets go googling!
Hey that's me :o. I was googling for an old account and came across this...
But yes you're right. I live in Seattle and was playing on Texas servers. My old DSL was 1500kbit/350kbit. I was getting ~130ms ping in most cases in Counter-Strike. I upgraded to 3000kbit/700kbit and my pings dropped down to ~95ms. Noticeable? Yes. Anything past that I doubt it mattered. I did a few tests of my own and around 600kbit upload it stopped mattering. It just plateaued at 95-100ms.
However, some provides do tend to have better latency than others. If my service provider didn't suck, I'd probably have lower pings too.
You don't need fiber optic internet to game :).
Fiber optic decreases ping indeed.
Now Iīve been fighting a war on ping since I started gaming online. I live offshore away from every major server in the world. So for me itīs imperative that I play on servers which are placed as close as possible. I choose UK servers because our country has a Line which is connected directly to the UK and has the smallest distance for my packages to travel.
I get 55-60 ms when playing on Timeless servers in BF2142. I have no idea what I get in BC2, but guessing that when the ping says "180" it means 80 ms ping (why itīs written so, I donīt know but it fits well to the lag I get in game, for instance when it shows 260 I would assume this to be 160 ping etc.).
Then again Iīve seen faceless been down on 99 ms... which would mean that he has -1 ms ping and he can therefore see in the future when playing BC2 :P
Doomsdaydave, you should always look for servers that are placed as close to you as possible. If you find a server called something like "Killing server (Seattle)" then try joining it. Also try writing in search "Seattle" see if you find some servers with "seattle" in their name. That should get you closer to find a server with more soothing pings for you :)
my 5 cents .
Chriss-FIN-
26-04-2010, 15:03
Also OS tweaking can help getting ping lower, i example have stopped "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" service as i noticed it was eating my computer resourses non stop... also i have list for similar stuff at Windows, but i hadnt time to test them yet...
Hmm.. whatīs this windows media player thing?
Chriss-FIN-
26-04-2010, 18:12
It something needed if you share media in your own homegroup, like XBox conneted to computer. I think some of these services "scans" stuff all the time...
Also i have read that at Windows 7 homegroup can eat much resources and disabling it will get better performance... this is what im going to test next, as i only use pc as gaming, no need printers and all other kind of stuff... Below is list which i going to test through when i have time and motivation :) All of these are on when installing W7 and depending from users are not needed.
- HomeGroup Provider
- HomeGroup Listener
- Function Discovery Provider Host
- Function Discovery Resource Publication
- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- PNRP Machine Name Publication Service, Peer Networking Grouping, Peer Name Resolution Protocol, Peer Networking Identity Manager
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
- UPnP Device Host
- SSDP Discovery
- IP Helper
- Diagnostic Policy Service
- Print Spooler
and would what you say youīve gained from in less ping?
Chriss-FIN-
27-04-2010, 17:01
I think more stable ping, not tested it anyhow tho. I have usually disabled all unneccessary processes right away, but im not so familiar with W7 yet.... but less background internet traffic cannot be bad. And that homegroup thingy should stable "lag" which are caused other things than network connection, i have fast lag/freeze at GTA IV which happens around once in 5-10 minutes and i has been said to help those...