Satalite Internet users....

[AirFlyer]

it costs more then 10 to maintain a dial up connection. 

True enough, I don't remember anymore since it's been a long time since I had dial-up but whats the cost of having a second line installed in a household these days and maintained.

[Tec]

My Econ 101 teacher used to like to drill into us that it's all about choices.  Even when it seems like we don't have a choice, we always do.  You can only get Sat because you live out in the boonies?  So what, that's your choice to live out there, you know you are going to miss out on some things that others who live in more populated areas will have.  Got a Sat package because you got a good deal on it?  So what, Sat is know to be crap for gaming so why would someone who games get it?  If you already have a land line Netzero is $9.99 a month.  Now you can choose to play, but this will cause your phone to be busy(which is nice, no interruptions).  If you're too concerned about missing a call, and want a second phone line... that's your choice.  You can chose to just miss calls, or you can choose to play.  Oh you have a 1200ms ping and it's rock solid. AWESOME! Except the fact that 1200ms=1.2 seconds. 

1.2 seconds in air combat is an eternity.

[fudgums]

My Econ 101 teacher used to like to drill into us that it's all about choices.  Even when it seems like we don't have a choice, we always do.  You can only get Sat because you live out in the boonies?  So what, that's your choice to live out there, you know you are going to miss out on some things that others who live in more populated areas will have.  Got a Sat package because you got a good deal on it?  So what, Sat is know to be crap for gaming so why would someone who games get it?  If you already have a land line Netzero is $9.99 a month.  Now you can choose to play, but this will cause your phone to be busy(which is nice, no interruptions).  If you're too concerned about missing a call, and want a second phone line... that's your choice.  You can chose to just miss calls, or you can choose to play.  Oh you have a 1200ms ping and it's rock solid. AWESOME! Except the fact that 1200ms=1.2 seconds. 

1.2 seconds in air combat is an eternity.

some people really exaggerate their ping rates, by a lot in most cases. If Im constantly over 1000ms, I don't fly or just log off completely. I'm usually around 500ms, which isn't bad considering that when I was on dialup, it was around 250-300ms.

[bj229r]

My Econ 101 teacher used to like to drill into us that it's all about choices.  Even when it seems like we don't have a choice, we always do.  You can only get Sat because you live out in the boonies?  So what, that's your choice to live out there, you know you are going to miss out on some things that others who live in more populated areas will have.  Got a Sat package because you got a good deal on it?  So what, Sat is know to be crap for gaming so why would someone who games get it?  If you already have a land line Netzero is $9.99 a month.  Now you can choose to play, but this will cause your phone to be busy(which is nice, no interruptions).  If you're too concerned about missing a call, and want a second phone line... that's your choice.  You can chose to just miss calls, or you can choose to play.  Oh you have a 1200ms ping and it's rock solid. AWESOME! Except the fact that 1200ms=1.2 seconds. 

1.2 seconds in air combat is an eternity.

Damn right

I live in said boonies, and the only reason I DONT have SAT (I guess it's about 1/2 the speed of DSL?) is this game--I'd still have to pay for 2nd phone line and dial-up service

[Bronk]

<--not saying anything

Good.. you shouldn't.

[Bronk]

some people really exaggerate their ping rates, by a lot in most cases. If Im constantly over 1000ms, I don't fly or just log off completely. I'm usually around 500ms, which isn't bad considering that when I was on dialup, it was around 250-300ms.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,68316.0.html
1) Your ping is some what irrelevant to the servers. If it is below 300ms, then you are golden. I see complaints from people complaining about their ping going from 10 to 60. To Aces High, you have the same connection at those rates.  
However, the best connection is one that is steady without wide swings in the packet latencies.


Better off with a stable dial up.

[greens]

Good.. you shouldn't.

                                                                                         

[Ardy123]

keep a lid on it greens, I know you wanna talk... 

[Ghastly]

"The problem with satellite is 22300 miles up and 22300 back.  

The speed of electricity is the same on a phone line as it is on a T-1."

WELL GUESS WHAT,

radio signals (sat signals) travel at the speed of light 186,000 miles per second,  
electricity travels at   ready     186,000 miles per second

it isn't the speed of the signal but rather all the extra handling that get in the way

Dmdchief would get a prize - if there were one, that is  - for pointing out (correctly) that the distance isn't the biggest part of the problem.

The typical propagation delay (i.e. "signal transmission time")  for a satellite connection is not horribly unreasonable - it's on the rough order of about 250 ms (round trip).   And 1/4 second is right in the range of the latency associated with a telephone modem.  So why, we ask, is satellite so much worse (in general) than a modem for flying?

The real problem is packet queuing and scheduling - remember, a satellite connection isn't "point to point", like a telephone line.  It's a radio broadcast - and you are sharing the bandwidth of the satellite channel with every other satellite user.  And as a result, by far the largest component of latency on a satellite connection comes from the time it takes for the system to get around to sending you your packets, and in you waiting to send yours up - imagine 10,000 laptop users trying to share one WIFI connection and you start to get the idea.  

When you think about it, it's pretty close to miracle how far sat connections (speaking generally) have come in the last few years in eliminating jitter.  If there's one thing that's more detrimental to Internet-based game play than latency, it's drastic variations in latency.  Jitter is what causes warping, not latency.  

And you might as well give up - many of the folks who've never lived in a truly remote area just don't get it and aren't going to.  They have an entirely inaccurate set of preconceived assumptions based upon their own experiences that's in no way representative of the reality you face.  You might as well be discussing calculus with a hamster.

<S>

[hlbly]

I live rather rural myself . I have one question for those of you that live in the brush . Why not dsl ? No need for second phone line as dsl uses different freq. then phone does . It is competitively priced , while not as fast as cable . Mine seems to be far more stable then over sold cable system in town . My variance in delay never gets to 100 ms . It is not so good for the dl of files . It does seem to work great for the game . The equipment is fairly old as well . Not long ago your only choice was a party line ,where I live .

[Bronk]

I live rather rural myself . I have one question for those of you that live in the brush . Why not dsl ? No need for second phone line as dsl uses different freq. then phone does . It is competitively priced , while not as fast as cable . Mine seems to be far more stable then over sold cable system in town . My variance in delay never gets to 100 ms . It is not so good for the dl of files . It does seem to work great for the game . The equipment is fairly old as well . Not long ago your only choice was a party line ,where I live .

I believe distance dependent from a hub.

[Ghastly]

I believe distance dependent from a hub.

To elaborate, it's dependent upon the wire length from the central office - and at distances of much over 5000 ft, things get iffy.  At over 15000 ft, you probably won't get a solution at any speed.  (And in some instances, it can be mind boggling how the wire travels - a building a block from the CO might not be within the distance specs)

And anyway... hilbly's question is a great example that highlights what I meant by the differing worldview....

Just as one example, there are places in Arthur county Nebraska - which is by far not the most rural of areas in the continental United States - where the straight line distance from the CO to the telephone approaches 40 miles.  (I spent part of my time growing up there, and in fact went to a one room school there for 2 years - and my brother in law's family owns the telephone company that services the area - he and another coworker/co-owner maintains it.)  

Most people can't even imagine a telephone company that services roughly 1300 square miles that has a total of less than 5 owner/employees - or that services and maintains every piece of equipment (from handset to switch) for well over a 1000 square miles with 2 people.  

And cable based Internet (or even TV)?  DSL?  FIOS?  Yeah, sure - maybe in this century.

And there are plenty of places that are even more rural.  

<S>
 

[fudgums]

.

[1701E]

I live rather rural myself . I have one question for those of you that live in the brush . Why not dsl ? No need for second phone line as dsl uses different freq. then phone does . It is competitively priced , while not as fast as cable . Mine seems to be far more stable then over sold cable system in town . My variance in delay never gets to 100 ms . It is not so good for the dl of files . It does seem to work great for the game . The equipment is fairly old as well . Not long ago your only choice was a party line ,where I live .

Want to know some BS?  The Cable wires stop 4 miles from my house and the closest DSL hub is 3.2 miles away.  From what I've read the max range of a 1.5MBps connection from DSL is 3.1 miles.  I still hold hope that cable/DSL will extend coverage to more areas throughout the country quickly though.
Around here anyways we are getting all new Cable internet wires and more DSL hubs (or whatever it is that extends coverage) so there is hope.
I would love DSL personally, cheap, reliable, fast, no bandwidth, low ping, etc.

[bj229r]

I live rather rural myself . I have one question for those of you that live in the brush . Why not dsl ? No need for second phone line as dsl uses different freq. then phone does . It is competitively priced , while not as fast as cable . Mine seems to be far more stable then over sold cable system in town . My variance in delay never gets to 100 ms . It is not so good for the dl of files . It does seem to work great for the game . The equipment is fairly old as well . Not long ago your only choice was a party line ,where I live .

DSL runs on whatever copper is on the pole I believe, but there has to be equipment for it every couple thousand feet or so, and that is not going to be forthcoming from Verizon, as they are losing their arse in the residential market. Cox, on the other hand, ran cable into my area...but alas, they stopped like ONE FRIKKIN MILE AWAY!. At 8 houses or so per mile, not cost effective, and the county, who GRANTED them a monopoly, isnt going to force them