Thread: Question on Online Gaming

It says on the backside of the WoW box that 56k is the minimum requirement. Broadband is recommended though.

I suggest you go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and try pinging Paris. The WoW EU Servers are located in France afterall, so that should give you a rough idea of how your latency should be. However, with as small a connection as yours, the bandwidth will probably affect your ping. If you can get broadband on a reasonable price, I suggest you get it.

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Luxembourg was the closest i could get to France

So what do you think? Playable? This is with dial-up btw, so will i see a significant improvement if i switched over?

470/314 ping?

Er...there will most likely be major lag. 150-200 ping is kind of pushing it in games like CSS and HL.

In WoW, 200 ms latency is usually the maximum playable level. Unless you can get a fiberoptic uplink directly to Paris, I don't think you can get below 200 ms. Africa's internet is basically shit.

Of course, you will be able to play, but definitely not PvP. PvE is possible, probably, though not as a healer.

In Australia everyone playes wow on about 150-500ms its not bad at all.

dude, get mdsl

thats the mobile internet, its like a usb you stick in your laptop


I went africa, recently, and they were all using that.


Better than 56k

Originally Posted by Yonin

dude, get mdsl

thats the mobile internet, its like a usb you stick in your laptop


I went africa, recently, and they were all using that.


Better than 56k

The connection on the 3G network is usually pretty high, but so is the ping, which is impractical for gaming.

Originally Posted by Marvo

The connection on the 3G network is usually pretty high, but so is the ping, which is impractical for gaming.

im currently using this kind of connection. so if i switch to broadband will i see a significant improvment in my ping? Also is there anything i should watch out for when we pay for a broadband connection. Like how for bandwidth there is mbps, what determines ping? just distance?

1Mb/s would be ok...

Originally Posted by Vincanity

im currently using this kind of connection. so if i switch to broadband will i see a significant improvment in my ping? Also is there anything i should watch out for when we pay for a broadband connection. Like how for bandwidth there is mbps, what determines ping? just distance?

Anything above 512kb/sec is enough for gaming pretty much any game, though getting a bigger connection is usually nice, like if you want to stream videos. However, want you must avoid, is a bandwidth cap. Like, you can only download 1gigabyte each month. That sort of crap is really annoying for gamers. I'm not sure if they do stuff like that down in Africa, though I'd imagine that they do. Usually 3G network connection have bandwidth caps actually.

Just make sure there's no cap, and the connection is above 512kb/sec, and you'll be fine.

And yes, the ping will most likely be better over broadband than the 3G network. The bandwidth might be lower though.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Anything above 512kb/sec is enough for gaming pretty much any game, though getting a bigger connection is usually nice, like if you want to stream videos. However, want you must avoid, is a bandwidth cap. Like, you can only download 1gigabyte each month. That sort of crap is really annoying for gamers. I'm not sure if they do stuff like that down in Africa, though I'd imagine that they do. Usually 3G network connection have bandwidth caps actually.

Just make sure there's no cap, and the connection is above 512kb/sec, and you'll be fine.

And yes, the ping will most likely be better over broadband than the 3G network. The bandwidth might be lower though.

data products
BLUE BROADBAND SERVICE
This is a mobile broadband service provisioning high speed internet access for a wide range of applications and customers, ranging
from professionals, mobile executives to students.
Multi-links Telkom Blue broadband offers you an incredible web browsing experience designed for you to achieve more no matter
who you are or for whatever purpose you are on the internet. Blue broadband is powered by the Rev. "A" EVDO Technology. It's a
personal wireless service.
PRODUCT BENEFITS:
Blue broadband allows you to be connected to the internet wherever you are.
Download and run video clips in real time.
Highest EVDO data downloads currently available in the industry.
Instant access to the internet.
Download of streaming media, music, heavy files, photos, and email etc with incredible ease.
Dual function (EVDO Rev A and 1X data rates)
Quickly download complex files, load web pages and view attachments at high speed.
Blue broadband provides you service outside of cable - modem or DSL areas. You can access your corporate VPN (Virtual Private
Network).
Download speeds of up to 900 kbps.
EVDO ROUTER
The 3G Wi-Fi Router will let you create your own Wi-Fi hotspot via 3G network (EVDO) at home, office, vehicles, and anywhere.
With your Wi-Fi Router you can connect up to ten computers on our 3G Broadband service in the office or anywhere and enjoy the
ultra sonic speed of our 3G broadband service.
PRODUCT BENEFITS:
Designed to provide a more cost-effective solution to 3G Broadband service.
Multiple access to EVDO service.
High return on investment.
Easy installation of service Connection to 10 PCs (Max) at a time
Has 4 LAN ports
It is a wireless Router
Has back up battery
Speed upload/download Average of 880/297
i found these 2 services. which one is better 4 gaming?

The first one, most likely.

but i also want to play on my ps3 and the first sounds like a usb. does the usb work with consels?

The USB modems require software, mm? Not going to be usable unless you network the connection.

oh ok. one more thing
i thought mobile broadband had more ping. if i get the router wont i have a more stable conection? im really considering one of these. It says it has an average speed of 880/297 download/upload. The usb says up to 900 kbps, so im assuming thats the maximmum. so im just wondering which would be more stable, cuz from the text im getting the idea that the router would b better. plus i would be able to use my ps3 on it. im not a techwiz so is there anything u can get from tht text tht says the blue broadband would be better?

Oh well hold on, both of those are wireless. I'm not sure of what technology is being used in the first example. Can you get something that is more specific?

i cant anymore info on it but i believe the first one is a usb stick that can connect you anywhere. The second is a wireless router that you can use at home to provide internet for everyone around. Wireless routers usually have ports that allow you to connect directly to the router making it more stable. I asked my cousin and he told me that its a router, so i shuld be able to plug in directly. Im pretty sure the 1st is a usb bc it says you can connect from anywhere.

Yes, but the second option relies on the 3G network, which basically means that the router is not being plugged into anything, you just turn it on and it jumps onto the 3G network.

If those two are the absolute only options you have, I suggest you take the lesser evil, which is probably the second option.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Yes, but the second option relies on the 3G network, which basically means that the router is not being plugged into anything, you just turn it on and it jumps onto the 3G network.

If those two are the absolute only options you have, I suggest you take the lesser evil, which is probably the second option.

well technically it has to be plugged into something since its a router. and im pretty sure it is bc my cousin told me and he fixes ppls internet and stuff. Also it cant be a usb becuase it says you can connect up to 10 PCs.
Yes i think these are my last options because apperantly they are the fastest isp in nigeira lol. bk in holland i had 54mbps ;(.
So a download/upload average of 880/297 is fine i think? im taking thier word for it when they say average so i might get up to 1mbps. Let me know if this speed is also fine for more high-end games. I read somewhere a guy from australia was playing WoW with servers located in the US(way further than nigeria and europe) and he was getting 550 ping. He did a little thing with his registry and now gets around 250 ping. Also hes working with a 256kbps connection. Do you think if i do the same as him i would see something around 100 ping? or would it be higher simply because im using an african isp. I get the feeling my connection quality would be lower.
heres the little method i found said to decrease ping up to 75%
The Process-
1 - TcpAckFrequency - NOTE if you are running
Windows Vista this setting may not have any effect
- a hotfix is needed which i'm tracking down. This
works fine under Windows XP
Type "regedit" in windows "run.." dialog to bring up
registry menu
Then find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\
There will be multiple NIC interfaces listed in there,
find the one you use to connect to the internet,
there will be several interfaces listed (they have
long names like {7DBA6DCA-FFE8-4002-
A28F-4D2B57AE8383}. Click each one, the right one
will have lots of settings in it and you will see your
machines IP address listed there somewhere. Right-
click in the right hand pane and add a new DWORD
value, name it TcpAckFrequency, then right click the
entry and click Modify and assign a value of 1.
You can change it back to 2 (default) at a later stage
if it affects your other TCP application performance.
it tells windows how many TCP packets to wait
before sending ACK. if the value is 1, windows will
send ACK every time it receives a TCP package.
Once you do this change restart your computer and
load World of Warcraft. You should see a nice
latency reduction.
btw thanks a lot Marvo . I would give you "thanks" but im on my phone and i cant see the button.

You don't understand. The 3G network operates through radiowaves. Sure you can have a good connection that transmits data quickly, but because of the distances that it has to work through, you will have a mostly high and very unstable ping.

The router you are getting could easily be a 3G modem, which means it just requires power, and then it jumps onto the 3G network on it's own, which indeed means you won't need to plug it into anything, except power of course.

I have no idea about the technology the first option is using, which is why I'm not suggesting it. From what I can see, it also operates over some kind of wireless technology, but I'm not sure.

This is from my personal experience though, maybe you'll be more lucky with 3G, and you'll get a reasonable and stable latency.

ok. so if i find a broadband isp thats around 1mbps and not 3g then im good?

I don't know, from what I heard internet in Africa is shit. But something that runs over phonelines should be better than 3G, atleast in ping. But if you the only thing you can get is 56k modem, I don't know really. I guess you'll have to go with 3G in that case.