Performance of online gaming with ADSL2?

Joel wrote:As per an earlier thread of mine, I'm in the process of upgrading both my PC and Internet connection. For the Internet, i'm getting an ADSL2 connection. It's also worth noting that I live in the city. I'm very interested in getting into online gaming. How is the performance of certain games with ADSL2? I've heard that you can have high pings and drop outs and that Cable is the ultimate and perhaps, the most reliable connection for online gaming. Unfortunately cable isn't available in my area so it wasn't an option.

Well it all depends on how far away from the Telephone exchange you are, the age of the wiring in your place, the provider, etc. Let me elaborate and hopefully put your mind at ease...


What kinda speeds are we talking about?

Unlike Cable, ADSL suffers from speed deterioration the further away you are from the exchange. So while it is rated to have a maximum transfer speed of 24mbps (that's megaBITS, not megaBYTES) the best you will probably get if you were less than 100m from the exchange is a 21mbps sync speed (which is the speed that your modem negotiates with the exchange as being you maximum sustainable transfer rate). The further away and this speeds gets slower. It can go as low as 6mbps if you are 5 or so km away. But also old wiring can deteriorate your service as well... but there is nothing you can do about that. I myself am about 600m from my nearest exchange and achieve a sync speed of 21mbps, and for you being in the city area you are probably fairly close to your exchange so you don't need to worry to much.

If you want a really good idea of what speed you will be getting from your service, try this ADSL map from TPG: http://www.tpg.com.au/maps/... simply locate your address, click on your nearest exchange (marked by the blue markers) and check to see your coverage. Once you have selected your local governing exchange it will show you it's coverage and what speeds are achievable to what streets and house numbers. Simply click on any part of the map and it will bring up a table of what some of their customers are getting in terms of sync speeds. It's a really good way of checking.


Are there any bits and pieces that will help maintain a strong connection?

Also, each new ADSL 2+ service you get usually comes with an in-line filter. This is something to place on the phone ports in your home if you want to connect up your telephone to the same line. It simply separates the telephone signal from the internet signal and cleans it up a bit for you. These are essential in ensuring best reliability. You need one for every phone you have connected. But if you only have one, use the one that should come with your service (if they offer it).


Is the service reliable, does it drop out?

In terms of reliability for general usage and online gaming, it depends on which company you go with... the guys who do that map above (TPG) are REALLY good from my experience. I have been with them for a few years now and have even set up services for many good friends who have all been very happy with them. I honestly don't recall any drop outs using the service, and I also do a lot of online gaming using the Playstation 3 and the service is insanely quick. In fact, when I moved back to my folks house (for a few months between places) I had to use their cable service and I found it to be significantly slower than my current ADSL 2+ service. So if you are worried about drop-outs and speed don't be... that kind of thing is old news, and TPG is a great company to go with.


How much does it cost?

Well if you go with TPG they have some really good deals at the moment. The one I use (which is the best value in my opinion) is $49.99 per month and that entitles you to 100GB of usage (50GB on-peak, and 50GB off-peak). They also offer discounted installation and connection costs for longer contracts and offer to supply you with a modem or modem/router at a discounted cost as part of the set-up service (if you don't already own one). They also offer 1 free in-line filter for you to use.

http://www.tpg.com.au/


Cub... are you paid for this?

Not one cent, but for some reason I get a real kick out of people being happy with anything I can help them with. Woohoo!


Hope this helps.

-Cub. =o)

I'm with tpg adsl 2+ and the speed varies throughout the day. Mornings till 2pm very fast,
evenings gets slow until about 11pm. I installed a central splitter & re wired with high speed network cable to improve my speeds but it made no difference.

If I need top speeds I download in the mornings or late at night when it's off peak time.

a good aussie site for testing speeds - http://www.speedtest.net

plumgas wrote: a good aussie site for testing speeds - http://www.speedtest.net

Speedtest.net is not an Aussie site. It's run by Ookla which i based in Kalispell, Montana. But it does have plenty of Aussie mirrors for you to test indeed. It's a great site.

If you want a more local site try this one too: http://www.ozspeedtest.com/

-Cub. =o)

At some point Cub, you're gonna spill the beans on why Australians call their country Oz.

I've always had a theory that it's because Aussie sounds like Ozzy and then you just shortened it somewhat.

Am I in the ballpark?

-Fred

You go it Fred!

Australia is pronounced "OZ - TRAY - LEE - YA" when pronounced like an Australian. Or if you want to be REALLY Aussie, its more like: "A - STAY'LL - YA".

And in typical Aussie fashion of being too lazy to pronounce long words (or even add spaces in some sentences) we decided to shorten the name of our own country to OZ.

Another interesting fact, you will NEVER hear an Aussie say the phrase "Pop another shrimp on the barbie"... although we do say Barbie a lot to describe a barbecue, nobody says "shrimp", we say "prawns". It is however true that if you live here you are considered lucky if you have not yet been attacked by either a shark or crocodile in the water, a deadly spider on land, a boxing kangaroo on the grass or drop bears in the bush.

-Cub. =o)

crocodiles only attack the yankies............LOL

had a laugh the other day when someone who I can't remember came to sydney air port & asked where are the kangeroo's, generally all american's think we have them hopping all over our international airport........LOL

Cubase wrote:

Joel wrote:As per an earlier thread of mine, I'm in the process of upgrading both my PC and Internet connection. For the Internet, i'm getting an ADSL2 connection. It's also worth noting that I live in the city. I'm very interested in getting into online gaming. How is the performance of certain games with ADSL2? I've heard that you can have high pings and drop outs and that Cable is the ultimate and perhaps, the most reliable connection for online gaming. Unfortunately cable isn't available in my area so it wasn't an option.

Well it all depends on how far away from the Telephone exchange you are, the age of the wiring in your place, the provider, etc. Let me elaborate and hopefully put your mind at ease...


What kinda speeds are we talking about?

Unlike Cable, ADSL suffers from speed deterioration the further away you are from the exchange. So while it is rated to have a maximum transfer speed of 24mbps (that's megaBITS, not megaBYTES) the best you will probably get if you were less than 100m from the exchange is a 21mbps sync speed (which is the speed that your modem negotiates with the exchange as being you maximum sustainable transfer rate). The further away and this speeds gets slower. It can go as low as 6mbps if you are 5 or so km away. But also old wiring can deteriorate your service as well... but there is nothing you can do about that. I myself am about 600m from my nearest exchange and achieve a sync speed of 21mbps, and for you being in the city area you are probably fairly close to your exchange so you don't need to worry to much.

If you want a really good idea of what speed you will be getting from your service, try this ADSL map from TPG: http://www.tpg.com.au/maps/... simply locate your address, click on your nearest exchange (marked by the blue markers) and check to see your coverage. Once you have selected your local governing exchange it will show you it's coverage and what speeds are achievable to what streets and house numbers. Simply click on any part of the map and it will bring up a table of what some of their customers are getting in terms of sync speeds. It's a really good way of checking.


Are there any bits and pieces that will help maintain a strong connection?

Also, each new ADSL 2+ service you get usually comes with an in-line filter. This is something to place on the phone ports in your home if you want to connect up your telephone to the same line. It simply separates the telephone signal from the internet signal and cleans it up a bit for you. These are essential in ensuring best reliability. You need one for every phone you have connected. But if you only have one, use the one that should come with your service (if they offer it).


Is the service reliable, does it drop out?

In terms of reliability for general usage and online gaming, it depends on which company you go with... the guys who do that map above (TPG) are REALLY good from my experience. I have been with them for a few years now and have even set up services for many good friends who have all been very happy with them. I honestly don't recall any drop outs using the service, and I also do a lot of online gaming using the Playstation 3 and the service is insanely quick. In fact, when I moved back to my folks house (for a few months between places) I had to use their cable service and I found it to be significantly slower than my current ADSL 2+ service. So if you are worried about drop-outs and speed don't be... that kind of thing is old news, and TPG is a great company to go with.


How much does it cost?

Well if you go with TPG they have some really good deals at the moment. The one I use (which is the best value in my opinion) is $49.99 per month and that entitles you to 100GB of usage (50GB on-peak, and 50GB off-peak). They also offer discounted installation and connection costs for longer contracts and offer to supply you with a modem or modem/router at a discounted cost as part of the set-up service (if you don't already own one). They also offer 1 free in-line filter for you to use.

http://www.tpg.com.au/


Cub... are you paid for this?

Not one cent, but for some reason I get a real kick out of people being happy with anything I can help them with. Woohoo!


Hope this helps.

-Cub. =o)

WOW...everything but the kitchen sink Thanks heaps, Cub, very much appreciated. I checked the weblink but unfortunately TPG doesn't have one of their exchanges in my area but Bigpond definitely do (my service provider). I live inner city so i'm sure it will be adequate for gaming.

Thanks again

big pond are highway robbery, I am forced to use them at work as when I moved my company telstra said it was too far away from the exchange & I had to connect wireless & big pond was the only option. check the adsl2 website for a list on providers in your area.

http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/detail ... ystart.php

I agree with plumgas, DO NOT go with Tesltra! They are overpriced and underwhelming. In fact, anything Telstra related is generally a piece of s**t. their equivalent packages start at well over $100 p/m... it's a joke. If you go with Bigpond, I will disown you.

-Cub. =o)

I actually knew about the shrimp-thing (I'm really sorry for derailing the thread so badly, but I have a bit of trouble when it comes to controlling my curiosity!)

Maybe you could help me out with another aussie phrase then. What... The hell... Does "Don't come the raw prawn" mean?

As in "Don't come the raw prawn with me, mate!"

Is it similar to "Don't bullsh*t me!" or something?

And oh yeah, on a yearly basis, how many big-ass spiders do you run across? (Or vice versa - how many spiders run across you on a yearly basis?)

-Fred

Fred Buer wrote:I actually knew about the shrimp-thing (I'm really sorry for derailing the thread so badly, but I have a bit of trouble when it comes to controlling my curiosity!)

Maybe you could help me out with another aussie phrase then. What... The hell... Does "Don't come the raw prawn" mean?

As in "Don't come the raw prawn with me, mate!"

Is it similar to "Don't bullsh*t me!" or something?

And oh yeah, on a yearly basis, how many big-ass spiders do you run across? (Or vice versa - how many spiders run across you on a yearly basis?)

-Fred

Hmm, you are pretty much right with the raw prawn quote, which is said when someone is trying to deceive someone else. Eg. If someone was to come home late for something and they told a lie about why they were out so late you'd say "don't come the raw prawn to me!". Or if someone was selling you something for much more than its worth. It's rarely used nowadays, and I have never used it, although I have heard of it. It began back in WW2 but I have no idea how it came about in a literal sense.

As for spiders summer is probably the worst time as they tend to come indoors to get out of the heat. The most scary (in my opinion) but they aren't really deadly is the Huntsman spider. They're lanky, huge (often the size of an open extended human hand) and crawl all over the place. By far my most hated spider:

http://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgr ... 28164.jpeg

...I encounter them most often in the car. Have had them crawl across the dash, in front of the windshield, and even had in excess of 3 on the car at once.

-Cub. =o)

Evil looking thing. However by far the worst one I've seen is the one called Tunnelspider. Might also be called a funnelweb spider methinks. The one that gets up on it's hindlegs and shows off some major fangs, at any rate. Deadly as hell too.

As a sufferer of arachnaphobia I can tell you this much - I ain't going to Oz!

Cub, you are however most welcome up north. We got snow!

-Fred

And neither am I! That spider is huge! They just ... crawl all over the place ... and you find them in the freakin car as big as your hand?!? *Does the creeped out get it off me dance ... * Yuuuuck.

well we don't have kangaroo's & crocodiles crawling over australia & the spiders I am sure everwhere has spiders.