A poll for satellite internet users. What is your ping? I need to know.

[RSI]

Long time dialup user here. The only highspeed internet available to me is Cable by videotron. They are great except that they limit you to 6GB of downloading per month, which is utterly ridiculous and horrible and baaaaaaaad IMO. But I'd rather live with that than 5KB/s downloads with dialup!

Anyway, this homo is arguing with me about how satellite wouldn't be so bad. I agree it wouldn't be "so bad" - but I don't think i'd want to have horrible ping. Last time I had the chance to use satellite, I observed that the ping was 2-8x worse than my dialup connection. The lowest possible ping was about 400-500ms, while the average was 750-800ms. If I'm not mistaken, that's how it works - the signal gets sent to space and back - satellite - right? Wouldn't it be impossible to have great ping? It's just common sense, no? Correct me if I'm misinformed please!

Now, I don't play many online games - but I do occasionally, and that would be eliminated with satellite. I've seen as low as 6ms ping with the cable provider above (granted that's not average, but the power/capability is there). With my 56k connection I can play Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Starcraft/Broodwar, Quake III Arena, etc - and I can still kick some ass. Do you think I would be able to do that with satellite? I don't. If I play Unreal Tournament on Justin's server (and I've mentioned this before), I can get 130-140ms ping. That's pretty acceptable for gaming especially with dialup!

So, really, broadband = for quicker browsing and downloading, and no phone line takage factor.

What I want to know, is if satellite has improved. I know there are satellite users out there. So please come out of the shadows and let us know what your ping is!

-RSI

 

[vash]

Satellite game playing won't be happening for you, especially if you want to play a game where net connection has a serious impact (i.e. FPS games). My friend's employer sells this kind of stuff and you'll be seeing 300-400+ ms ping everywhere you try and play. The downstream is great on satellite, but the playability isn't.

vash

 

[RSI]

<< Satellite game playing won't be happening for you, especially if you want to play a game where net connection has a serious impact (i.e. FPS games). My friend's employer sells this kind of stuff and you'll be seeing 300-400+ ms ping everywhere you try and play. The downstream is great on satellite, but the playability isn't.

vash >>

That's what I thought. thanks.

-RSI

 

[Alienwho]

I went from a T3 to sattelite. I went from 60 pings, to about 300 ping. Online gaming is now officially impossible for me (well games that I like, like UT and other FPS).

It wouldn't be so bad if my upload didn't SUCK so much. My download/upload ratio is about 200/1.

 

[ViperXX]

I'm using Starband internet service and my pings are in the 1000ms. Impossible for gaming like UnReal T, Counter strike or any other fast paced game. The only available other service availbale out here in rural New Mexico is dial-up which is slow as hell. Don't get satellite if you have access to dsl, cable or Isdn.