Is FiOS worth it?

[blamb425]

I've got Comcast 5MB, and i'm considering getting Fios 15mb. I ping about 80 to NY servers (I live near Seattle), how much of a decrease in ping could I expect? Is it worth all the trouble?

 

[Fenixgoon]

your ping is mostly a result of location. what are you paying now vs 15mb fios?

 

[Ika]

It won't be worth it if you pay more for better gaming internet (unless you have dialup, in which case you shouldn't be gaming in the first place).

 

[Bateluer]

I am thinking it will come down to cost and service. Are you happy with what you are paying Comcast and the quality of service you are getting from them? Given Comcast's craptacular service seen in other parts of the US, coupled with their privacy issues and bandwidth throttling issues, I'd drop them in favor of FiOS myself.

 

[blamb425]

Comcast is actually fine, but I'm looking to see if FiOS can provide me with lower ping for gaming--I have a cousin who says his FiOS service is great

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: blamb425
Comcast is actually fine, but I'm looking to see if FiOS can provide me with lower ping for gaming--I have a cousin who says his FiOS service is great

as mentioned, ping is mostly based on location. i doubt you'll see much, if any, improvement for that.

find game servers that are physically closer to you.

 

[imnot]

I have FiOS and absolutely love it. Granted, I'm on the East Coast and play at servers located in the East. I have 20 meg down and 5 up, and get around a 5 ping regardless of when I play. I've also downloaded 20 gigs worth of crap while playing, and only went to around a 7 ping. Hate Verizon in general, love FiOS.

 

[pontifex]

lucky. i'm on East Coast too and no matter where I play, i can never get a ping below 70. i have 3 mb DSL through Embarq.

 

[hi tek]

because of a 1kb NAT table, you won't be able to fully take advantage of the speed, unless you configure the supplied router to act as a bridge

 

[blamb425]

@ imnot:

How do you ping to Seattle servers? Thanks

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I don't think having a 50 ms ping instead of an 80 is really going to help.

 

[Check]

Originally posted by: pontifex
as mentioned, ping is mostly based on location. i doubt you'll see much, if any, improvement for that.

find game servers that are physically closer to you.

Close...

Ping has to deal with the hops to the server you get getting at. Usually being closer helps, but I can tell you as a former Adelphia customer (road runner now) that Verizon DSL gives lower pings than Adelphia in my location.

 

[CP5670]

I am in the same situation as the OP. I have the Comcast 8m/768k service and it works pretty well most of the time, but I recently got FiOS as an option here. I may be overpaying for the Comcast service as well, since I have a TV/internet package even though I never watch TV (the combined package was inexplicably cheaper than the internet by itself). I haven't checked what the prices for FiOS are like though. I'm pretty happy with the download speeds I get right now, but if FiOS reduces game latency it may well be worth switching to.

I don't think having a 50 ms ping instead of an 80 is really going to help.

Actually, a difference like that would be very significant in many fast paced games.

 

[blamb425]

bump

 

[SoulAssassin]

speed of light is a bitch sometimes

 

[rh71]

I just got FIOS today and my ping in WoW is low 100s... whereas it was just about 150ms on crap DSL. So no, it's not worth it if you were just doing it for ping's sake.

 

[Throckmorton]

Why don't you play modern games?

 

[PingSpike]

I would think it would help. I mean, the main reason dialup has shitty pings is because of all the extra time it takes to convert to analog from digital then back to analog. And fiber moves at the speed of light over the lines...I'd imagine you can't really do much better then that right?

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: rh71
I just got FIOS today and my ping in WoW is low 100s... whereas it was just about 150ms on crap DSL. So no, it's not worth it if you were just doing it for ping's sake.

WoW and MMOs in general are terrible games to gauge ping off of.

Ping is latency and hop based, tracert the server you are trying to play on and see where your ping spikes up. If it is outside of comcasts network then it really isn't comcasts fault. But that doesn't necessarily mean it won't be better with FIOS since the hops from your FIOS provider may take a different path to the server in question.

However, if the ping spikes directly at the server, there is absolutely nothing you can do about that. If it spikes within your comcast network, you have serious issues that need to be resolved, or abandon them for FIOS.

 

[SonicIce]

Like others have said; it would upgrade your bandwidth, not your latency. And 5MB is plenty for almost any game.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: imnot
I have FiOS and absolutely love it. Granted, I'm on the East Coast and .... I Hate Verizon in general, love FiOS.

I'm currently on Verizon DSL in central NY state and it seem like a dog at times. If I can get a deal on FIOS that costs similar, I'll jump. Right now I'm paying about $29/mo but I really don't want to pay more than that for internet.

 

[maxster]

Get it. How much more is it per month?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
Like others have said; it would upgrade your bandwidth, not your latency. And 5MB is plenty for almost any game.

I'd want to get FIOS more for reliability reasons. Comcast has been absolutely horrible lately as I'm guessing more people in my area have signed up and are sucking up the shared bandwidth while making it harder to send signals upstream. Cable just sucks like that. I've noticed my upstream power level has been sitting anywhere from 50-53 dBmV so there's not much margin for error. Any higher than ~54 dBmV falls out of range and tells my modem to reset itself. My modem is off a home run off a single split after the drop, so its not like I can do anything else to clean up the signal.

 

[JasonK]

15/2 package here, let me know if you need any assistance. Vz construction side here

 

[hdeck]

the only way you will improve you ping to servers in games like CS is if you get on better pipelines (ie connect through a T1 network or w/e, like a college dorm/apartment). you can have 50mb internet and your ping isn't going to improve much over 5mb internet.

and while we are on the subject, you aren't going to notice any difference in performance playing cs with 80 ping vs. 40 ping. if you think you are, you're just making excuses for why you are dying/not killing the opponent.