Guild Wars on Satelite Internet

[zoomy942]

Well, since i live out in the middle of nowhere now, i have to get satelite internet. i dont play any games on the pc besides Guild Wars, and from what im readin, guild wars works okay on Wild Blue and HughesNet...so wish me luck fellas:thumbdwn:

[vandalous]

It plays ok but lags out at times. I've got HughesNet and play GW every so often.

I seem to notice the lag more when I'm in a party with other players. PVP was nigh impossible due to the lag. However, your experience may be better than mine if you're closer to the hub in Minnesota. Good luck!

[zoomy942]

yeah, im in idaho. any idea which is better? HughesNet or wild blue?

[J-Mag]

Well, since i live out in the middle of nowhere now,:

Why'd ya move??

[zoomy942]

i ended up getting a job as the IT firector of a large landscaping company. trouble is, the housing in the small resort town is very expensive. so i moved out of town about 20 miles.

[J-Mag]

i ended up getting a job as the IT firector of a large landscaping company. trouble is, the housing in the small resort town is very expensive. so i moved out of town about 20 miles.

An IT firector, eh? You get to burn computers? :D

Which town btw? (i have family in Moscow)

[zoomy942]

lol, my typing sucks sometimes. the job is in sun valley, but i got a house on west magic lake,.... about 20 miles south

[zoomy942]

also, i noticwed that verizon has their broadband internet here. thast tempting. its a shade slower than satelite but the ping times are WAY WAY WAY better. 100-200ms versus 1000-1500 for satelite

[vandalous]

I don't know anything about Wild Blue so I can't really compare the two. I'm partial to HughesNet since they aren't going anywhere and if I'm outlaying $300+ for initial equipment and installation charges, the company I'm giving my money to better be around for a while.

Don't let the marketing fool you - there's latency inherent in Satellite Internet due to the distance between the bird (satellite) and the earth station (you). They might try to tout how they have "advanced algorithms" and crap to compensate but they cannot overcome basic speed of light limitations. I get anywhere between 800-1500ms latency using the best non-static IP consumer plan.

One other thing to think about is each provider's FAP (Fair Access Policy). To ensure the shared bandwidth is equally distributed, satellite providers use FAP to limit the amount of data transferred in a given time period (usually an hour). Each plan has a different FAP limit and recovery rate so check on that for your planned usage. Say goodbye to hugh file transfers though. If I have to DL more than 400MB in an hour, I'll hit my FAP limit. That limit is per account, not per user, so you'll hit the limit faster if you have several networked computers downloading at the same time.

Rural internet sucks. Can you get ISDN where you're at? I live in the 1% of California that cannot get ISDN. Lovely...

Here's the HughesNet community (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat) at BroadbandReports.com if you want to read further...

[Roadhog]

also, i noticwed that verizon has their broadband internet here. thast tempting. its a shade slower than satelite but the ping times are WAY WAY WAY better. 100-200ms versus 1000-1500 for satelite

how about qwest?

[zoomy942]

nope, no qwest. but im checking into isdn and verizon. i like verizon the most because its a very simple solution compared to satelite. and mny verison phone gets decent signal. the service i would get will be the 144K version but the ping times are whast matter to me... cause its all about Guild Wars. :)

[evilghost]

I used to be with HughesNet back when they were DirecWAY. I was on 1050Mhz transponder on Satmex5, AFAIK it was 115 deg azimuth. One thing you need to be sure you understand is the FAP (Fair Access Policy) with Hughes. Also latency is around 1500ms to 2000ms round-trip.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat is a great place to get more information. When I used to have satellite I'd pretty much live there.

Wildblue has a less restrictive FAP. When you understand the FAP with Hughes you'll see it's like driving 200mph for the first 20 miles of a 500 mile trip and walking the remaining 480 miles on foot; it's that slow.

I'd go with Verizon.

[zoomy942]

thanks evilghost. im gonna get the usb thing i need for verison ordered today through my company. 144K isnt great, but if i remember correctly, clearwire is 150k right? cause thats what i had back in Boise Idaho.

im more interested in ping times that anything else

[evilghost]

Can you not get EVDO out there? Then you're looking at speeds more like ~1Mbit instead of the 1xRTT 144Kbps speeds.

Also note, you're upload speed will suck. It's ASYNC so you're going to see about 5 to 10Kbps upload speeds (56K dial-up modem speeds)

[zoomy942]

oh hell. so, checking where i am at.. try looking at 83352 on the verizon site for the data stuff. i thought i was in the 144K area. they have that area in big cities thats super fast that i dont get. hmm.. now i wonder if guild wars will work. it should, cause dial up is fine for guild wars.

iof its okay, could you check that zip for me and tell me what you think (since you seem to have a handle on it)?

[vandalous]

Am I on everyone's ignore list? :(

Anyway, if anyone can see this, Sprint EVDO is very fast and their coverage has been steadily improving. If your area is relatively flat, chances are good that you'll have access to their EVDO network.

[zoomy942]

:hug: lol, youre not ignored buddy:) im looking into the sprint option as we speak

[zoomy942]

it looks like im ion the nextel coverage, but its 20-40k.. not very quick. and i think i fall just outside the sprint coverage

[evilghost]

Looks like you're 1xRTT but may be on the fringe of EVDO. If you can afford two dial-up lines you can always use bonded dialup (PPP-Multilink) to get better speeds (~112Kbps).

Satellite is very expensive and the latency is an annoyance. Bear in mind that weather in both locations (the NOC or your local weather) will affect performance.

If you get a 1.2M dish you can go with the 256Kbps inroute but it'll cost you.

[zoomy942]

so, since i dont sit in sprints coverage, and keeping in mind my latency concern. still think verizon is a good bet over satelite?

[evilghost]

so, since i dont sit in sprints coverage, and keeping in mind my latency concern. still think verizon is a good bet over satelite?

These would be my options I would look at:

1) DSL or iDSL
2) ISDN
3) Bonded Dialup
4) 1xRTT/EVDO
5) Satellite

Each one of those I would weigh in the cost factor. The FAP, headache with satellite, and latency would make that be my last resort.

[zoomy942]

im certain there's no DSL out here. which sucks. ive been checkinbg into isdn, but since ive never used it im kinda having a hard time finding anything (help?). now, im not even sure what bonded dialup is:).

[vandalous]

If there is a WiMax option in your area, that may be something to check as well.

I use satellite because there is no other option out here. Even our phone lines are crappy and get only around 26Kbps due to the noise on the lines. If you go the multilink route, make sure your phone lines are decent so that you can get the 85-95 Kbps throughput.

Ah rural living - nice and quiet but man the intarweb sux! :D

Edit: If you want to be a balla, you can get a T1 or even a fractional T1 for only a few hundred a month! ;)

[evilghost]

im certain there's no DSL out here. which sucks. ive been checkinbg into isdn, but since ive never used it im kinda having a hard time finding anything (help?). now, im not even sure what bonded dialup is:).


I'd look at 128Kbps ISDN, ISDN is a digital line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISDN

Bonded Dialup or PPP-Multilink is simply two or more dial-up modems bonded to give you the sum of the bandwidth. I'm not sure if it load shapes across the lines (AFAIK they do) and I know the ISP must support this feature as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_to_Point_Protocol#Multilink_PPP

[evilghost]

If there is a WiMax option in your area, that may be something to check as well.

I use satellite because there is no other option out here. Even our phone lines are crappy and get only around 26Kbps due to the noise on the lines. If you go the multilink route, make sure your phone lines are decent so that you can get the 85-95 Kbps throughput.

Ah rural living - nice and quiet but man the intarweb sux! :D

Edit: If you want to be a balla, you can get a T1 or even a fractional T1 for only a few hundred a month! ;)

Vandalous is exactly right. If your PSTN lines are only throwing 26Kbps then multilink is worthless and you'll need to look at ISDN or the other options.

We've got DSL out in the sticks now and I love it.