Dial up vs DSL/Cable Question

[Westy]

I saw this on another forum:

(ie: in regard to AH) "The only way to saddle up on a target without seeing mini warps is to have a very good connection with dsl or cable.. dial up guys have no chance to excel in AH. This sim looks real good, but it isn't really for the masses yet."


 How many dial-up users out there find this to be true? How many who have cable or DSL do?


 For me? I find that it made no difference going from a 33.6 dial up connection, way back in the beginning, to cable modem service. It made no difference in AW (connects still had large variance and delay) or in AH (delay and variance was still great).  I did stop getting dumps/disconnects from my ISP for sure and large downloads are a snap  

 
 -Westy

[Staga]

ADSL 256/256 with ping about 170ms. Sometimes I see a little mini-warps but usually these guys got a bad connection.

[Ice]

Two pilots engaged both with dsl will be fine...you with dsl/them with dial-up...not as good.

The nature of the internet itself will not allow perfection.

The statement above is ridiculus...been doin this for over ten years...it's never been an issue for me...perhaps I've been fortunate to have quality isp's? Who knows...I can only speak to my own experiences

Hi Westy

Ice

[dolomite]

ISDN here, brother uses dial-up. The above statement pasted from the forum is simply not true. The quality of your ISP is the most important issue, followed by the routing it takes to get to the game servers.

[Wardog]

Dolomite is right...

A lower speed connection is better for online play. Going back to AW DOS days and WBs the adive back then was 9600 buad was the best connect speed for online games.

When the 28,8 and 36,6 modems came out, it was suggested to keep ypur connect at 19,000 baud. There was a ton of documentation on the reasons for this and if i find it, ill post the link.

So guys like Nath that think an ADSL is best for AH doesnt know much about online gaming.

As a matter of fact, HT or Pyro may remember the reasons for this as they also go back to AW DOS days.

ADSL means nothing if a router into HTC is porked.And some days i go though 18 routers.

Dog out......

[Tac]

my old 56k ISP= 800-1200ms ping on games

Cable=90ms on games.


Hell yeah!

[Gunslayer]

Sorry, but anyone that says it is better to have a slower connection for online play is just full of bull. How could having a higher ping time make for better game play? Yes the quality of the ISP makes a difference, but with cable or dsl the connection is digital, not analog , which means the connection is almost always more consistant. Try making a call on a cell phone on analog roam then try it on digital mode. Hear that fuzz on analog? So does your modem. That fuzz = packet loss when your playing a game.

When you saddle up to take that kill shot and the guy warps outta the way, it might be his connection, but if your playing on a modem it is most likely yours. When my squad is flying formation, I can always tell the guys who have modems because there planes look like they are shaking and warping all the time.

I have a cable and i get a consistant 80ms to the hitech servers. And i would definetly never trade that for my buddy Deezcamp that lives a few mile from me but has a modem. He gets about 300-400ms.

[Servo]

Having cable as made things much easier for me. While I was in Australia I was dialed up with 56k and there were a few key differences:

1) On 56k, if I collided with someone, I would get credit for the kill nearly every time (if it was a HO).

On cable, if I collide with someone, I never get the kill.

2) On 56k, I hosed people down (due to the damage being delayed) - I just wouldnt stop shooting until I saw a part fall off.

On cable, I can pop a few rounds into someone and see (pretty much instantly) what damage I've dealt.

3) On 56k occasionally it would look like I got away without a scratch in dire situations, only to be blown to pieces a few seconds later.

On cable, this never happens.

4) On 56k, sometimes I would plow someone with rounds, only to have someone else shoot the con a few seconds later and get credit for the kill.

On cable, this never happens.

There is a clear advantage to having better ping. The game is still wonderfully playable with slow connections, but anyone who says it's better (or even the same) is mistaken.

[Fishu]

 

Originally posted by Wardog:
Dolomite is right...

A lower speed connection is better for online play. Going back to AW DOS days and WBs the adive back then was 9600 buad was the best connect speed for online games.

When the 28,8 and 36,6 modems came out, it was suggested to keep ypur connect at 19,000 baud. There was a ton of documentation on the reasons for this and if i find it, ill post the link.

So guys like Nath that think an ADSL is best for AH doesnt know much about online gaming.

As a matter of fact, HT or Pyro may remember the reasons for this as they also go back to AW DOS days.

ADSL means nothing if a router into HTC is porked.And some days i go though 18 routers.

Dog out......

Well, I would say that ADSL is best, if we dont go for some really expensive deals.
Expecting that you're using same router as you have used with modem.
(thats the case with me)

Since those days, which I remember well (I've played warbirds with 14.4k modem), requirements have gone up.
Of course you can play AH with 56k modem, but ADSL is still better, due to lower latency (I'd get 160ms to HTC from Finland, with modem a. 270ms) and has bandwidth for sure.

I just wonder whats your point with saying nath doesnt know anything about online gaming if he says that ADSL is best.
Assumed that ADSL and modem user would have routers with same quality.

I guess we could as well use Voodoo 1, since it did work couple of years back fairly....?
same bad logic in that comparison, with more noticeable difference.

[F4UDOA]

Dudes,

I have a cable modem with outstanding bandwidth. Here is a great tool to check your actual through put against what your ISP is claiming.

 http://msn.zdnet.com/partners/msn/bandwidth/speedtest50.htm  

I get over 1.5meg consistently without interruption.

However here is my experience with AH.

I am in an HO in equal A/C starting at about 1k. I start firing and my NME starts firing. My virtual bullets seem to get stuck in the deley of his inferior bandwidth. Where as his bullets seem to zoom to me at an incredible rate. In other words if I HO someone and we both die 99% of the time he will get a kill message and I won't. Reason my PC gets and sends the report of damage back to the server much faster than my virtual opponent.

Think I'm exaggerating? Try fighting a warping A/C and see who benefits from the net lag, you or your lagging NME.

[Fishu]

 

Originally posted by F4UDOA:
Dudes,

I have a cable modem with outstanding bandwidth. Here is a great tool to check your actual through put against what your ISP is claiming.

 http://msn.zdnet.com/partners/msn/bandwidth/speedtest50.htm  

Just one problem with this...
It doesn't tell connections to everywhere..
For you, it might be local, for me, it might be another side of world almost and tapped to bad router.

In fact, I got better connection to HTC than to ZDnet... (lost packets to ZDNet, but not to HTC or many others)


*LOL* I switched to my another ISP, heres the result from ZDNet:

Your line speed:

4080 Kbps
500 K bytes/sec


Okey, I lost my trust on that site  

[This message has been edited by Fishu (edited 03-04-2001).]

[TheWobble]

 

So guys like Nath that think an ADSL is best for AH doesnt know much about online gaming.

AH from Victoria with Dialup@ 33.6/28.8/and 19.2  Ping around 250ms. a few disconnects here and there

Cox 1mbit down 256k up.  35ms never disconnected unless server goes down.

yea sure you go ahead and believe dialup is better for games..and I will keep laughing.

Cable and xDSL are the best thing to ever happen to on-line games.  anyone who says otherwise...doesent have Cable or DSL and is just trying to deny the fact that they are missing out.  

[Voss]

I have no problem with my current modem. I learned a lesson though. If you ever hear the name "WinModem" break out your shotgun and use said modem for skeet.

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[Wingnut_0]

I've played all my years with a 56k dial up.  Currently I always connect to my ISP at 48k and ping the AH site at 130ms avg.

I've seen ppl with both style of connections have terrible connects.  I for one have tried setting my modem down to slower connect speed to see and the result was horrible.

Funny thing is, over on the MSzone there of course are some terrible connects most of the time.  It use to not be that way and though some may have encountered differently, I never saw the types of warping problems there that I do here.

One reason was that anyone with over a 350ms was lucky to even get in the game as the server would boot them.  The other was that it was completely unplayable to them at that connect.

I never saw "micro" warps except on rare basis till I got here and have never seen the amount of "blaming on connections" for game oddities that I've seen go on here.

The faster the better!  Packet loss is a multitude of problems that aren't just because you have a DSL line vs. dial up.


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Wingnut
Luftjagerkorps
 

The quality of the box matters little.  Success depends upon the man who sits in it  -  Baron Manfred von Richthofen

[This message has been edited by Wingnut_0 (edited 03-04-2001).]

[nonoht]

i'm around 250-300ms with 56k modem
it seems to be playable...