I am currently using a satelite connection for my internet connection which also includes playing MMORPG’s (WoW, mostly). It’s frustrating having to convert from cable/dsl connection that I had been so spoiled with to this wacky system of clear skies and fluctuating lag (avg 1550 ms to 8000ms).
Living out in the country has it benefits, but technology is limited out here. SO indicated the possibility of switching my connection to an ISDN server, but does not know how that compares to dial up or satelite connections. As far as email, surfing, and the like we can keep it with the satelite - it’s the gaming performance that I’m after (the faster, the better!)
What are the differences in performance and the benefits?
If there are multiple computers, will this slow things down & how much?
Dialup is 56K. ISDN Is either 64K or 128K, depending on if it’s one or two channels (though ISDN T1 could be brought in just as easily, but would probably be too expensive. Satellite you already know.
The biggest issue is the latency (lag). For browsing & downloading, latency isn’t so important, and the actual speed of the connection becomes the primary concern.
For gaming, it’s critical, and a good portion of it is simply coming from the trip from your house, up to the satellite, and back. 24K miles x 2 = 48K miles, near enough to 1/4 second of latency right there (light moves 186K miles/s). At a ping of 250ms+, many (most) non FPS servers would boot you out, and from my Ultima Online days, would have made the gaming unplayable. While a server can somewhat compensate for some differences in ping times, anything over a second would be outrageous… to both you, and the people you are playing with.
I used DirecWay and hated it for a year and a half before cable got to my area. On long downloads, no matter what the source, I never got much above 100 K.
I arranged to get ISDN and while finalizing the details discovered that our local phone company put two different exchanges in one of their buildings, and declared that a user on one exchange would pay long distance charges when calling to the other exchange. Then they put the ISDN ISPs on one of these, and all the ISDN users on the other. I think I was going to pay $30 per month to the ISP, and this little trick was going to add another $180 a month going to the phone company (if I used the time allotment I had selected). So I cancelled. This would be a good thing to watch out for.
A couple weeks later I found a large new box on my outside wall, next to my network interface box for voice phone. I opened it and found some electronic looking boxes with various labels that often included “ISDN” in the text. So I called and said, You folks put ISDN in anyway, can you come take it out? And they patiently explained that I was looking at my voice phone network interface box, or else my electric meter, and I don’t have an ISDN box. I kept insisting I did, and they kept telling me they understood how easy it was to become confused, but I’m looking at a voice phone box and an electric meter only. Then I ask, if I take whatever this is on my wall and remove it and sell it, as long as I still have a network interface box, the phone company won’t be mad at me, right? This confused them, this time. Eventually I waved down a phone company truck, and told the driver I had an extra ISDN box, and he could have it if he would come remove it, which he did.
We’re using Wildblue right now for internet access. It’s the only way I can get high bandwidth that supports VPN for work. Originally (pre-Pixilated) I had DirecPC and had no complaints for many years. Would probably still be using it if not for work.
Then I shifted to ISDN for a while when I was attempting online FPS gaming. That was a total flop as far as gaming, but almost adequate for VPN so I stayed there until I heard about Wildblue. Switched and have been happy for my needs.
Enter Pixilated and her WoW addiction. Bandwidth is great but ping times are killing her. Literally. I suggested ISDN as an alternative because I believe that WoW doesn’t have the data requirements that something like Battlefield 1942 does.
I can set up the routing so that WoW traffic goes over ISDN and everything else is on the satellite but I need to confirm that ISDN is actually a viable solution.
So thanks for any information you might have.
I can’t quote the specifics of your potential ISDN providers, but it should be a vast improvement for WoW needs. I know ISDN latency is pretty good, and googling around I’m seeing numbers between 100 ms and 500 ms for online gaming. ISDN also should provide plenty of bandwidth for WoW, since it’s slow but playable on a dialup line.
>Bandwidth is great but ping times are killing her. Literally.
Wow! What’s she got?
As noted for online gaming latency is king. Bandwidth requirements are minimal, particularly for something like WoW. 128k ISDN will do much better than satellite.
However, for those music downloads and such bandwidth is more important than latency.
For general surfing and e-mail (barring large attachments) ISDN would work better.
IIRC satellite has lousy upstream speed as well. Usually not a big deal for most but could be an issue.
I have a case of lag blindness : A mysterious epidemic of sudden lag affecting virtually all humanity, leading to society’s collapse. So-called because victims move in jerky sporadic movements. Often results in painful death.
Lag ranges from 1500ms - 8800ms
Ok, dial-up is a little more consistant with a 1550 lag. That’s a little bit better than the satelite.
I don’t know if you’ll get ISDN for a decent price, but it would be the best all-around in terms of ping and bandwidth combined.
Actually dial-up can have decent pings, I used to get 170ms or so consistently on my dial-up. Of course if you try to download anything it’s UNGODLY SLOW. Anyway it was good enough to play Day of Defeat and Counterstrike.
Another option you might consider is Sprint EVDO (Mobile Broadband.) If you’re near one of their cell towers for about $50 a month you could have a 1.2 megabit connection with around 160ms ping. The ping is a bit variable for me, but I’m 5 or 6 miles from the tower.
I do believe there is a Sprint tower near here and SO has their cell service so I might try that. Downfall is that you cant share it with another computer at the same time.
If you buy a router that is EVDO compatible you can. I use a Kyocera KR1, the KR2 model is out now too.