Minimum bandwidth needed for voice party chat, and online gameplay, for Tekken 7 PS4?

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious. My friend is "borrowing" Wifi from a neighbor (with permission!), from two stories up.

I hooked him up with a USB high-power N300 Wifi adapter, for his PC, and that basically sort of worked, sort of didn't. It worked most of the time, so he didn't complain.

However, I also acquired some high-powered AC1200 routers, and he suddenly called me one day and said that he wanted to install a high-powered router, so he could get his PS3 online.

So I did, and it basically sort of worked. But then, I realized, he was dealing with double-NAT with the configuration that I set him up with. ("WISP mode")

So, in order to avoid the double-nat, I configured a pair of the routers, as layer 2 Wireless Bridges, and had him wire one of them to the neighbor's router, LAN to LAN, and then the paired router, to his PC and new PS4.

Well, that also worked, and seemingly helped with the NAT situation.

But according to the "Internet Setup" on PS4, he's getting anywhere from 160-220 kbit/sec down, and 15-100 kbit/sec up.

Yes, not even a Mbit/sec down or up. Pretty pathetic.

He gets similar speeds, with either the router in WISP mode, or the paired router in Wireless Bridge mode. Doesn't seem to matter much.

I mean, two floors up, it's probably amazing that he's getting a connection at all, that's semi-stable.

He really needs to get his own internet, but every time I bring it up, he dismisses the idea, as that would be "not good enough". ("50/50 FIOS service from Verizon for $40/mo"? CRAP, according to him! Not good enough for real gaming.)

I tried to sell him on Comcast Internet Essentials, which is $10/mo for 10-12Mbit/sec down, and like 1.2Mbit/sec up. (He's on a really tight budget.)

He thumbed his nose up at that too. ("Isn't that worse than DSL"?)

I honestly feel that either would be fine for online gaming purposes, although the Comcast 10Mbit/sec down connection would be limited for downloading games and streaming to Twitch.tv and the like.

The FIOS would be, I think, perfect for him.

Any way I can convince him to get an actual wired broadband internet connection?

He's been putting himself through "internet hell" for like the last year or two.

He does work, part-time, but I feel that he should be able to afford $40-50/mo for internet.

 

[Ken g6]

"Can" you at least set him up with a cantenna? http://m.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cantenna

 

[VirtualLarry]

I thought cantennas were for line-of-sight long-haul links. Not for punching through several floors of a crowded apt. building.

 

[XavierMace]

If he can't afford $50/mo for internet, tell him to stop spending so much time on Twitch. Admittedly I'm probably snobbish when it comes to speed, but I'd consider 50Mb my "minimum" considering my usage. In regards to his specific usage, I believe the "standard" Twitch stream is 720p at 2000kbps. So if he's recording, not watching the Comcast offering isn't sufficient bandwidth for even a single medium quality stream.

Frankly your friend sounds like somebody who thinks everybody owes him a handout. I recommend dumping him. My life was substantially happier after I did that with similar people in my life.

 

[cmdrdredd]

So he dismisses 50Mbit as not enough but is happy to be borrowing wifi which is more trouble than it's worth. Sounds like someone who is just unwilling to pay for anything. Sorry but if you cannot pay for your internet, you don't need the internet.

 

[Tweak155]

10mbit sounds like it would work for the thread title scenario, as long as that's the only thing consuming bandwidth at the time. The FIOS would be overkill, but would likely avoid any chance of weak streaming points which might hurt only getting a 10mbit connection.

 

[purbeast0]

Playing a fighting game on wifi is basically the cardinal sin to the fighting game community.

 

[mnewsham]

FiOS would be overkill, but also the lowest ping most likely. FiOS gives me 4ms ping to rocket league east coast servers, 5ms ping to CSGO east coast servers, etc, etc.

Though being on Wifi will add a fair amount in and of itself.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Sounds like you should just drop him as a friend. I know the type. They are always asking you for advice and when you give it to them, they don't listen or do the opposite.

He realizes he can get free internet from his neighbor AND make you do all this research/setup for him for free.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, he signed up for a 200Mbit/s down internet from Comcast, for a promo rate of $59.99/mo.

The next cheapest was 10Mbit/s, for $49.99/mo.

 

[cmdrdredd]

That'll do it, it's what I have. Well technically I have 150 but I always get at least 180, sometimes around 200Mbps. Waiting for someone to come to the neighborhood with fiber. AT&T is doing fiber in the area but not in my neighborhood yet. 1Gbit up and down for $80/mo and they are offering zero data cap for new subscribers.

 

[Tweak155]

Nice, maybe his eyes will be opened.