Author Topic: Would an "external modem" increase bandwidth? (Read 351 times)

daddog · « **on:** July 25, 2004, 08:41:54 PM »

I have been using internal modems for years, but just heard that an external would increase my bandwidth. Even 5 or 10k would help. Best I can log on is 26k.

No I can't get cable, or broad band of any kind. Nor can I afford satellite at this time. Just have to work with what have.

Thoughts?

bloom25 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 25, 2004, 10:30:51 PM »

A good external modem might connect a little bit faster, but that's only because most external modems are not a winmodem. (This means they are hardware, rather than software based.) I doubt an external modem would connect all that much faster if you connect at 26400 baud right now. An external modem (since they are hardware based) will reduce the load on your CPU a little (if you had a winmodem) and do generally hold their connection better.

(BTW: Satellite internet access won't work well for AH because the connection latency will be too high. Your ping time in AH if you used satellite would be at least 750 ms and could be much higher than that.)

DSL is probably the best from a strictly online gaming standpoint.

2bighorn · « **Reply #2 on:** July 25, 2004, 11:17:05 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by bloom25
DSL is probably the best from a strictly online gaming standpoint.

Form this standpoint of view, an OC192 would be waaaay better

Ghosth · « **Reply #3 on:** July 26, 2004, 07:29:27 AM »

Daddog, could be wrong but I suspect your major limiting factor is going to be your phone lines. NOT your modem.

nsty1 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 26, 2004, 08:31:26 AM »

Daddog,have you tried calling your phone company? guess should've asked,are you running your online service through your phone company? if so,they should be able to offer other dial-in numbers.My self,i have qwest.net same for home service,and just by changing numbers,my connection avg's about 46500,never under 44000.Plus check condition of phone lines coming in,including phone jack. Further,i've tried an external modem and yes,results can be generous.

hope this helps.

wrag · « **Reply #5 on:** July 26, 2004, 09:19:51 AM »

Yo got really bad lines where I'm located. No DSL, No cable here, satillite way to expensive and laggy. Was using an internal and could barely break 26k on a very good day.

Got a U.S. Robotics External that hooks to com1 and best I get now is 44k.

External can deal with line noise better! But gotta get a good one! This one was right at $120 U.S. Got it at Comp USA for $80. Talked to manager about an add that was in the paper and he offered to sell me this one for that price.

I connect to AH with modem purposely set right at 38k (37,333) AS PER SKUZZY's recommendation. Seems with my phone lines 38k is most stable for AH and Stable is abit more important then speed.

I get a pretty good connect. From time to time I get some packet loss that affect gunnery and acm, somewhere in the hops a server gets porked I guess, but log for awhile when that happens or reconnect. You can tell when it's happening. You light someone up big time with many hit sprites, and nothing falls off and no apparent damage occurs and they keep right on flying. Or on your front end what you see says there is just know way they can hit you and BANG your plane falls apart! I've checked with pingplotter right afterward on some occasions and found bad packet loss (as high as 75%) at one hop affecting all that follow or even a totally porked hop (100%).

Note: With my system if I get a lockup that requires a shutdown/reboot situation then I almost have to remove and reinstall AH. Something happens to the part of AH on my machine that talks with the AH server and I get the above ALL the time. After I remove and reinstall goes back to hitting and avoiding just fine.

I check with pingplotter, if I'm getting allot of packet loss with AH, at startup screen--net status, and none with pingplotter then I just might need to remove and reinstall AH

Hope this helps and GL

daddog · « **Reply #6 on:** July 26, 2004, 11:20:42 AM »

Quote

(BTW: Satellite internet access won't work well for AH because the connection latency will be too high. Your ping time in AH if you used satellite would be at least 750 ms and could be much higher than that.)

I had heard satellite was not the best for gaming, but when I could afford it I wanted to try it. DSL or Cable is what I would like, but they just don’t offer it yet. Thanks bloom. I will try the external and see if I get a bit more.

Ghosth, I am sure you are right, but I am willing to try about anything to improve my bandwidth.

Quote

Daddog,have you tried calling your phone company? guess should've asked,are you running your online service through your phone company? if so,they should be able to offer other dial-in numbers.

Nasty thanks for the tip. I have called them, but they don’t offer broadband or any kind of Internet service. My ISP is Mlode.com and am happy with them. My pings are usually quite low, but I need to increase my bandwidth.

Quote

Got a U.S. Robotics External that hooks to com1 and best I get now is 44k.

External can deal with line noise better! But gotta get a good one! This one was right at $120 U.S. Got it at Comp USA for $80. Talked to manager about an add that was in the paper and he offered to sell me this one for that price.

I connect to AH with modem purposely set right at 38k (37,333) AS PER SKUZZY's recommendation. Seems with my phone lines 38k is most stable for AH and Stable is abit more important then speed.

Thanks Wrag. I will have to try the external. I have a squadie that is sending me one. I will cross my fingers and hope for a bit of an increase.

I think before summer is over I am going to go door to door and see who from the CO box on would get broadband if Frontier (my phone company) offered it. After talking to some of the linemen they said that would be my best chance of getting broadband up here.

Chairboy · « **Reply #7 on:** July 26, 2004, 11:49:33 AM »

Satellite is absolutely unusuable for playing games, heed his advice. The signal has to travel over 40,000 miles before it gets to the other server, then another 40,000 miles from that server back to you. Consider that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second and suddenly the lag becomes very real. Almost a half a second of straight up physical lag, and THAT doesn't include any of the delay from the satellite company to the game server.

JB73 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 26, 2004, 01:46:45 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Chairboy
Satellite is absolutely unusuable for playing games, heed his advice. The signal has to travel over 40,000 miles before it gets to the other server, then another 40,000 miles from that server back to you. Consider that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second and suddenly the lag becomes very real. Almost a half a second of straight up physical lag, and THAT doesn't include any of the delay from the satellite company to the game server.

sattelite sends data via a phone line from what i know.

i was told those little dishes on your roof can not / do not have the ability to transmit.

data is recieved through the dish, but sent through a phone line... and if a storm goes through you lose connect, just like you lose the picture.

bloom25 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 27, 2004, 02:02:06 PM »

Actually satellite is 2 way via the dish. (One Watt transmit in the KU band.) In the past telephone was used for the uplink.

Satellite is great for downloading files, but latency keeps it from being viable for online gaming. (It also is difficult to use for PPTP VPN connections.)

(I am certified by Hughes [Direcway] networks BTW...)

JB73 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 27, 2004, 06:13:35 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by bloom25
Actually satellite is 2 way via the dish. (One Watt transmit in the KU band.) In the past telephone was used for the uplink.

wow really? thats kinda creepy that all those dishes can send information... how long until that is used in a cladestine way?!?

anyway shows how out of touch i am with current technologies lately LOL

bloom25 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2004, 10:52:38 PM »

Your average DirectTV and Dish Network dishes do not have an transmitter on them.

I'm talking about the Direcway and Starband dishes. These dishes generally look more like the older Primestar oblong dishes. (They are a little bigger than the dish used for TV.)

flyingaround · « **Reply #12 on:** July 29, 2004, 12:44:25 AM »

Another big. diff w/ external modems vs. internal is that MOST internal modems are Software modems that use system resources, vs. externals are Harware modems that don't. In general the Hardware is worth the extra $$ and are much more stable.

U.S.Robtics external hardware modem is the way to go.