Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: saggs on November 29, 2017, 09:25:20 PM
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Just bought a house and moving in. Where it is has no access to wired internet of any kind. I even looked into satellite, and it's iffy if it'll work because of trees (I'm far enough north that the angle to the satellite is only like 5° inclination.) But I know that latency is very high with satellite too, and the provider hughesnet has horrible reviews everywhere I look anyway.
Currently the only option I've found is getting a Nighthawk LTE mobile hotspot router and an unlimited plan with AT&T, since I do get a 4G lte signal here.
Question 1) I've tested the signal with my smartphone and a speedtest app, but my phone plan is Straight Talk piggybacking on AT&T towers. The speed is marginal (2-4 mbps) and the latency is kind of high (200-300 ms). I ran a speedtest in town and it was all much better. My question is if I get a data plan with AT&T, will I see faster speeds and lower latency? Or in other words, does AT&T throttle speeds on virtual carriers like Straight Talk who use their towers?
Question 2) If that's what I've got then; Is AH playable with 300ms or more latency? Everywhere else I've played the game I've had pings around 100 or less, will I miss every shot because I'm 1/3 of a second behind the rest of the game?
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This link: http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,68316.0.html
States that 300ms or under is golden.....
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This link: http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,68316.0.html
States that 300ms or under is golden.....
I believe you are correct.
I used to have 250ms and my connection in game was stable.
I think what really matters is that those numbers maintain about the same value. If they're jumping all over the place there will be warping in the game.
Coogan
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I use Verizon 4G LTE, and need a signal booster to get that. My latency is typically more in the 95-160 ms, which is pretty nice, but is variable and sometimes gets very high. I've had satellite for quite a few years, and it was unplayable due to the latency. When I had satellite and wanted to play AH, I added a dial up account, because that usually had unplayably high latency. Of the choices you seem to have saggs I think the 4G will work the best for you. Good luck!
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You can get a signal booster from AT&T for $100. I think you get a 30 day trial to make sure it works also.
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I use Verizon 4G LTE, and need a signal booster to get that.
Same. My pings are 100ish, but steady. Works great.
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I use an att 4g lte hotspot.... my ping is 60 to 100 and works perfectly :salute
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Thanks for the replies, I ordered the router from AT&T but it won't ship for a couple weeks. Till then I'm using my phone hotspot, but it has limited data.
Back to my first question, does anyone know if AT&T throttles or limits the virtual carriers that piggyback their towers? I'm just wondering if I can expect faster speeds on AT&T proper, then I'm getting now with a Straight Talk sim card. I tried netflix streaming last night, and it stops to buffer a lot, even in SD.
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Can't give you a direct answer, but perhaps call AT&T tech support?
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It really depends on the cell tower placements in your area, if your signal bounces between a few local towers often there is a chance that you will have a fairly unstable connection and you ping will suffer. It also depends on the volume of traffic that the tower/towers receive or service. If there are a lot of child companies renting towers then you have to factor in their service volumes as well.
In all honesty, as DaddyAce has stated, call their tech support to get the nitty gritty on your area for cell service and stability.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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My dutch nieuws website informed me today Verizon is gonna roll out 5G for home usage in 2018. That might be interesting for you.
DutchVII
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Well... I don't think this is gonna work.
Got the router from AT&T, and while the speeds ARE marginally faster, the variance is still all over the place. I launched the game and just watched the ping on the arena screen. Watched it for a few minutes, and the lowest I saw was 177, highest was like 680, and it changes wildly.
So I guess not AH3 for me. Bummer cause the last month it seems like the numbers where slowly starting to come up... the price I pay for living out if town I guess.
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Well... I don't think this is gonna work ... the price I pay for living out if town I guess.
How very far out of town do you live? Or what is the quality of 4G LTE in your whereabouts? And how flat is the area between your house and the nearest base station? And how much trees do you have near your house?
I'm curious, because we've been sharing an LTE connection for a dozen players at our Autumn meetings for some years now without issues. The meeting place is situated at the end of a field a few kilometres away from the village centre in a commune of 4500 inhabitants spread over 177,66 kmē. The house is on a low hill in a very flat area.
I have a customer who used to struggle with his connections because he lives on the lakeside in an area with high hills and lots of forests towards the nearest base station. The solution was an external antenna on top of a 9 metre pole. That allowed him to get a good signal 15 km across the lake.
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You might experiment with a Yagi Directional Antenna (director) for 4G. It may cost $40-$75, and the benefit can be hit or miss, but worth it if you can play. There are probably HAM wizards in your area that can test your home for the best placement, etc.
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I am also in a rural area about 2.5 miles from the cell tower. I had to install an outdoor antenna aimed at the tower and a repeater amplifier to get a good signal. Cost over $500, but it is our only option for internet service other than satellite which wouldn't work at all for AH. Getting 70ish pings with low variance.
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I have a regular 4g LTE hotspot....I use a usb wireless adapter (belken N model????) to get net to the computer...I have 3 bars on the internet device and get pings of 60 to 100 with no warping or anything...ping of 600 bad...I played for years on a sat connection of 300 to 400 and really didn't have any problems though....except for collisions :noid :noid :noid
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Just to clarify what I'm experiencing.
I don't believe the over the air signal is the problem. Both my phone, and the mobile hotspot I got show a full strength 4G LTE signal, which never waivers. But in spite of the strong signal the internet is slow with horrible latency/variance.
I'm led to conclude therefore that it's not the signal from me to the tower that's the issue. But perhaps whatever connection the tower uses to get to the internet.
On the same network in town, with less bars (signal strength) on my phone, and no LTE (just plain 4G) I tested and get 100-150ms ping and 20-25 mbps download. vs at home I get 300-700+ ping and 0.2 to 4 mbps download with a perfect 4G LTE signal. It varies a lot too, tonight it seems to be marginally better then it was last night.
So thanks for the suggestions, but I don't think a signal booster will make a difference. I wonder if there is just more data traffic to the tower than it can handle...
EDIT: I'm gonna run pingplotter and post the results. Maybe there will be some clue there, I just don't know how to interpret it.
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.I played for years on a sat connection of 300 to 400 and really didn't have any problems though....except for collisions :noid :noid :noid
You are a lot closer to the satellite in OK then I am up here in the sub-arctic. From talking to the hughesnet dealer the very best latency you could get this far north is gonna be 500+, and then there's the issue of trees since the satellite is only 6 or 7 degrees above the horizon.
I'm scared to even try hughesnet though, after looking for reviews online... I can't find a single positive review of their service anywhere.
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Here's a pingplot. I don't know what to make of it, except it's not good. Although I'm getting slightly faster speeds (2-3 mbps) tonight then last night.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-489XjKP/0/8bb913da/L/i-489XjKP-L.jpg)
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You ran the ping plot to our WEB server. The game servers are on a different network. Try running the Ping Plot to 71.252.137.153.
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And if that looks the same, try plotting to the marketing site your ISP. If that still looks as red, the shareholders might be interested.
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You ran the ping plot to our WEB server. The game servers are on a different network. Try running the Ping Plot to 71.252.137.153.
Here you go.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-WLTfpM9/0/6e75a2bb/L/i-WLTfpM9-L.png)
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Well, hop #3 is where it all goes bad. You need to contact your ISP about that one. Show them that Ping Plot. Something is amiss. There should not be a 300% increase in ping times between #2 and #3.
Packet loss is too high, even for a wireless connection.
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Well, so far it's a big thumbs down for AT&T customer service. They don't even have an e-mail for technical support/service. They just expect you to use their live 'chat' or post in their support forum. Neither of which has gotten my any answers or support.
They keep trying to run through troubleshooting checklists with me for the device or my over the air signal, even though I show them the ping plot which makes it obvious the problem is with their network and not my device or the signal it's getting.
I'll be returning the AT&T hotspot router this week, and maybe I'll check in and see if Verizon has any service here... I doubt it though, verizon is still new in Alaska, and doesn't have a very robust network up here yet.
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Well, so far it's a big thumbs down for AT&T customer service. They don't even have an e-mail for technical support/service. They just expect you to use their live 'chat' or post in their support forum. Neither of which has gotten my any answers or support.
They keep trying to run through troubleshooting checklists with me for the device or my over the air signal, even though I show them the ping plot which makes it obvious the problem is with their network and not my device or the signal it's getting.
I'll be returning the AT&T hotspot router this week, and maybe I'll check in and see if Verizon has any service here... I doubt it though, verizon is still new in Alaska, and doesn't have a very robust network up here yet.
My experience with Verizon is that at least I can at least talk with a helpful tech rep, although I recall having to dig a bit to get their number. I've never tried raising the question of a bottleneck in their route, other than local signal issues.
There is a new promising satellite network coming in the next couple of years. Elon Musk's SpaceX company is promising improving rural internet access and gaming-capable latency by using a network of low-orbit satellites. Here is a brief article: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/
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Well, so far it's a big thumbs down for AT&T customer service. They don't even have an e-mail for technical support/service. They just expect you to use their live 'chat' or post in their support forum. Neither of which has gotten my any answers or support.
They keep trying to run through troubleshooting checklists with me for the device or my over the air signal, even though I show them the ping plot which makes it obvious the problem is with their network and not my device or the signal it's getting.
I'll be returning the AT&T hotspot router this week, and maybe I'll check in and see if Verizon has any service here... I doubt it though, verizon is still new in Alaska, and doesn't have a very robust network up here yet.
The biggest issue I have had personally by calling into ATT wireless is talking to someone that barely speaks english. Makes it real hard to try and get something done