Internet Speed and Pings?

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
5,479
14
81
I have a quick question the concerns Internet Speed and Pings.

Couple of Questions:

1.) Does your download or upload speed determine ping? (I think it's both, but what matters more, especally for gaming).

2.)My cable connection through Cablevision (Optimum) goes at or about ~5MB/s give or take a MB/s depening on network usage. That seems fast, but my question is, is it fast enough for gaming? I think so, but just making sure. I usally get good ping times, is there a site to test internet speed/ping times?

3.)My upload speed, I don't really like Cablevision, if you wind up uploading too much each month, they start throttleing your connection, and limited you upload (and maby download speed). It pisses my off, because all I really have to do is game enough and they'll start doing it. Then I have to CALL them up on their 24 hour tech support to get my full speed back and a speach on how you are not to use your cable connetion as a sever and not to upload alot. Look, i wish I could tell Cablevision that I use Bittorrent (for legal stuff), I got a Linux Distro through it faster then I ever would have through an FTP sever. Now, just because I wanted to share and get my ratio up to 1.00 (so i'm no leacher), I get SCREWED!

#3 really isn't a quesion, just a statement on how much I hate Cablevision. I can't wait for FiOPS to get to my neighborhood. (I think in about 2010 they will, but I will probably not be living here anymore, so I'm still pissed off).

Please try and understand what I asked and answer/comment to your ablility. Thank You.
 

biff 24 2000

Senior member
Jun 1, 2005
391
1
0
i can answer #2, 5MB/s will get you some really low pings in games and it will be plenty trust me, i have DSL with a max speed of 512kbps and i get decent pings in games
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
5,479
14
81
I just found out I get 15MB/s download speed. Need to call the cable company tommorow and sort my speed issues out.
 

comphollic

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2003
1,751
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Originally posted by: wizboy11
I just found out I get 15MB/s download speed. Need to call the cable company tommorow and sort my speed issues out.

OOL is slowly upgrading their speeds to 15mb.. they will start in Long Island, then to Connecticut and New Jersey.. They said they will have the speeds upgraded to 15mb by summer of 2006.

5mb/s is more than enough for gaming.. u might be having some issues with ur connection, because most OOL customers (including myself) receive 8-9mb/s.

As far as OOL capping you, i believe they capped u because of you utilizing all of the upload bandwidth for long period of time. You must have abused the upload in order to get capped. I've uploaded large files at 1mb/s, for a good hour or two, even three, and I've never been capped. If you are going to be uploading through bittorrent, I suggest limiting the upload bandwidth to 30kb/s or 40kb/s, which is what i set it to, and I've been seeding linux ISO for weeks, and havent been capped. Try what Ive been doing, and see if u'll get capped again.
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
5,479
14
81
Originally posted by: comphollic
Originally posted by: wizboy11
I just found out I get 15MB/s download speed. Need to call the cable company tommorow and sort my speed issues out.

OOL is slowly upgrading their speeds to 15mb.. they will start in Long Island, then to Connecticut and New Jersey.. They said they will have the speeds upgraded to 15mb by summer of 2006.

5mb/s is more than enough for gaming.. u might be having some issues with ur connection, because most OOL customers (including myself) receive 8-9mb/s.

As far as OOL capping you, i believe they capped u because of you utilizing all of the upload bandwidth for long period of time. You must have abused the upload in order to get capped. I've uploaded large files at 1mb/s, for a good hour or two, even three, and I've never been capped. If you are going to be uploading through bittorrent, I suggest limiting the upload bandwidth to 30kb/s or 40kb/s, which is what i set it to, and I've been seeding linux ISO for weeks, and havent been capped. Try what Ive been doing, and see if u'll get capped again.

In bittorrent I cap it at 15-30kb/s.
 

Muhadib

Member
Jan 11, 2005
168
0
0
If gaming is your only concern then get DSL for sure. Cable uses a ring topology that forces users to share a portion of bandwidth, meaning that you may not always get your share of it. DSL is inherently different in the fact that as long as you are close enough to the central office, you will always get what you pay for every time all the time.

The biggest network hog of a game I have ever seen requires ~128 kilobits/sec (That?s 16 kilobytes or 0.125 megabits). All games require network stability and low latency; bandwidth is not really an issue at all.
 

ScottMac

Moderator<br>Networking<br>Elite member
Mar 19, 2001
5,471
2
0
The issue is not "speed" but latency, which in broadband connections are two separate issues.

You can have a real fast network connection with a lot of latency (delay), you can have a fairly slow connection with less latency .... there are many possible factors.

The numbers you see with ping reflect the round-trip time for the connection (actually, an echo request, the processing time to recognize and respond to the ping, and the echo reply ... three separate potential sources of delay).

If the device you are pinging is busy, it may not respond to the ping immediately (ping is a fairly low priority for most devices). Ping is a tool to determine reachability, not latency.

A better tool is traceroute (or MS: tracert) ... which (if permitted for the full path) will give you a segment-by-segmant latency figure.

FWIW

Scott