wireless gaming..

[Conure]

hey all,

 

i'm about to move into a new place and unfortunately the only way to access the internet is with wireless broadband. it is a fast service but i'm concerned the signal wont be enough for gaming ( living alone i will have little else to do). anyway, i used my phone (i am pedantic) and can only get 2 bars of wireless signal out of five. is that sufficnent for skype and gaming etc?

 

dont want to be stuck in a room with nothing to do!

 

 

ccheers

[Krebs20]

I have played games off my 3g phone tether in the US when cable internet went down. I ran teamspeak and FC2 just fine. I had 50-100 ms more ping. But it didn't affect the flight at all. I don't know what you have in the UK for wireless speed. In the Us where I live is it quite good. The wireless strength didn't matter as long as it was consistent. If its all ways 2 bars your ok. If its going up and down a lot, its not going to work well. At my parents house. My phone will jump towers and everytime it does I get a large lag spike. Sometimes enough to drop teamspeak.

I hope it all works for you and best of luck. There is hope.

[EtherealN]

Regarding connection and reception, this depends a LOT on carrier. I have two wireless connections that I use depending on weather (not kidding!), and both give 2/5 reception. One of them usually lands at between 4 and 8 megabit down and 1 to 3 megabit up, depending on time of day. The other pretty much never goes above 1mbit up. Both typically maintain effective pings between 70 to 120. The faster works well for pretty much anything and everything, except when the weather is bad - then it loses connection constantly and I have to switch to the other one which works for most gaming but voice comms start getting choppy.

 

Generally, I'd totally recommend that you try to get a deal where you can try it out for a while first. If they don't allow this option, you could purchase a good modem yourself, without a plan, and use one of those pre-paid net functions - and that way test several carriers. In a great extent it does often depend a lot on carrier - in both of the carriers I use, the transmitters are on the same tower, so there's no difference in distance or coverage as far as LOS goes - only whaterver frequencies they use or specific antenna makes etc.

[hassata]

Both typically maintain effective pings between 70 to 120.

 

That's better than my landline lol. Ping is the key for gaming. A max of 100-150 is what you need to have a decent chance in shooters. 50 and you're laughing.

[EtherealN]

Well, pings on more long-range stuff is usually faster - in DCS it typically travels between 180 to 250 on the servers as long as it works as it should, but back when I could have landlines (it's not at option now due to the damned things having been dug into the earth to get less maintenance from fallen trees and snow - but the ground here heaves so much it always shorts the line...) it was a lot higher - I pretty much have the same ping as I had then but with a small "overhead" so to speak added to it.

 

I sometimes wish I lived in a city, like my brother, and get some of that awesome fiber action going. Those pings are just disgustingly good, but I love it out here where my cats can roam free and no-one is bothered by me playing loud music at 2am. :D

[Yskonyn]

I have been gaming on a wireless connection for some years, but went back to a cable.

MMO's and FPS games especially do not like the variable signal and this usually results in lag or warping in-game.

At the time flight simming did not seem to be impacted as much.

Still, I am happy I went back to a cable; rock steady throughput and superb pings.

For serious gaming I would always recommend having a cable connection if possible over a wireless one.

[Kuky]

I can confirm wireless is not good for gaming because it introduces extra latency (lag), most definitely get cable connection instead, if using DSL2 modem, connect the PC to it via ethernet cable and use wireless for browsing forums etc and laptops (they are made for mobility :D)

[EtherealN]

Kuky, perhaps you didn't see this: "unfortunately the only way to access the internet is with wireless broadband"

 

:P

 

You can get things eminently playable with wireless anyhow though, as long as the provider and location is up to the task. 70-90 isn't as good as you can get on cable, DSL or fiber, but sometimes those simply are not an option. If the copper sucks (or is non-existant), then wireless is all you've got.

[Vekkinho]

Here's my landline best results:

Ping is never greater than 30ms - that's awesome if you ask me but,

DN - never greater than 4.7Mbit

UP - happy if at 0.20Mbit

 

and this costs cca 30€ per month...real SNAFU with Croatian T-Com...

[EtherealN]

Here's my landline best results:

Ping is never greater than 30ms - that's awesome if you ask me but,

DN - never greater than 4.7Mbit

UP - happy if at 0.20Mbit

 

and this costs cca 30€ per month...real SNAFU with Croatian T-Com...

 

I wish I could swap with you, I'd love 30ms pingtimes (and better jitters). :D