Moving and in desperate need of help

[asjdwf]

Hello all,

I am moving to the country and have a choice between Hughes Net Gen4 which I hear is horrible for gaming, Verizon or TMobile but not unlimited data for a mobile hotspot, and a place called WIFI Midwest which is a fixed wireless internet company with unlimited data. Below is what WIFI midwest offers:

Residential #2 1 - 3(computers) 1 Mbps(download) 512 k(upload) 2 Mbps (burst available) $54.95
Residential #3 1 - 5(computers) 2 Mbps(download) 512 k(upload) 3 Mbps(burst available) $64.95

Does either of these two options look like a good bet for gaming on WOW, Xbox live, PS3/PS4, and streaming movies? Please help I am sooooo confused LOL. Also, what does burst mean?

Thanks in advance,

AJ

 

[Elixer]

Both those deals are crap. Wouldn't be good for gaming, or streaming. Heck, how can they get away with offering such crap speeds ? Unlimited data at those speeds is laughable.
It would be OK for e-mail and viewing some web pages. That is about it.


Burst just means for the first few secs, you might get a higher speed rate, then it goes back to 'normal'

 

[asjdwf]

So is gaming fees able at all on hughesNetGen4? It's the only other choice other than a wifi hotspot and only 13 gb data from tmobile

 

[lupi]

You may get by with ok performance in PVE content in those, but for competitive PVP play, you're going to need the cellular hotspot.

 

[Fardringle]

No, you definitely do not want to use Hughes for gaming. If you get a REALLY good connection you might get down to around 600ms ping now and then. On an average day it will be well over 1000ms.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

Gaming on the Midwest Wisp would be ok, after all its the latency that matters the most not the download speed.

 

[Elixer]

I am curious OP, can't you get cable / DSL in your area, then get a router with wifi ?

 

[asjdwf]

Nope. I have a bunch of satellite Internet provider s and one wisp. And am I correct in that HD video will be a no go?

 

[smitbret]

Those options are horrendous..... for an urban home.

My parents live 30 miles from nowheresville and have been in the same situation.

Eliminate Satellite as the latency is just going to be too great to game and the data limits are almost the same as you would probably be getting with the wireless Hot Spots from Verizon or T-Mobile. The speeds from Verizon or T-Mobile will undoubtedly be the fastest but once again... data caps.

If it were me, I would go with the 2mbps wireless. My parents are on a similar plan. It is slower than you'd probably like but it will get the job done. For basic surfing and gaming you'll be fine. You'll just notice it for things like downloading files and streaming video through the internet.

It's the price you pay for the rural life. It's always funny when I see some of the responses to situations like this. People that are used to life in metro areas are often completely oblivious that there is a completely different lifestyle out there where $G LTE & 50mbps internet connections are just not available.

 

[asjdwf]

Man you guys/girls are such a big help.

 

[azazel1024]

I'd go with the WISP. It isn't great speeds, but it should work fine for gaming.

Yeah, streaming HD video will be a deffinitely no go. If you can actually get that 2Mbps down, you should still be able to do Netflix, it is just going to be SD that you are getting.

HD content is going to be around 7Mbps required (4-5Mbps for heavily compressed HD).

I am a litle suprised that the WISP is THAT slow, but it could be that they have pretty limited infrastructure in place to support their bridges/access points so they don't want to oversell what they can't support.

I have seen some that slow before, but it was generally a matter of very long distance/non-line of sight, not that their actual package was that slow (I generally see in the 4-12Mbps range for what they sell with "your actual performance will vary based on range, line of sight and antenna issues").

 

[Elixer]

Nope. I have a bunch of satellite Internet provider s and one wisp. And am I correct in that HD video will be a no go?

Problem is, with all those devices you have, you are basically screwed if you try to connect multiple devices at the same time.

In your situation, you have to ask yourself, what do I do more, gaming, or watch streaming (or...) then go with the fastest option you can get.
Satellites have huge delays, so that pretty much kills gaming.
Those wireless options kills off all but the most basic functions you can do on the net.
I am betting that actual speeds from wisp will be much slower than they say as well.

I suppose the best you can do is don't sign a contract for either, then try one for one month, then switch to the other for the next month, and see which one works best for you.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

Man you guys/girls are such a big help.

You asked, we answered.

Use the WISP.

 

[MongGrel]

You asked, we answered.

Use the WISP.

GL

 

[gsaldivar]

What town or city are we talking about...?

 

[nsafreak]

I'd be curious as well. The op might want to make 100% sure that those are the only options available. I have a friend that lives out in the country as well, in the outer portion of Round Hill, VA specifically. It would seem that there are enough rich folks there though to attract the telcos at least though since she has FIOS 100/50 service at her household.

 

[asjdwf]

If anyone would like to look see if there is any providers I am missing I would greatly appreciate it. An address close to me that is for sale is 5035 Hampton Drive Hillsboro Missouri 63050.

If someone can find a different service it may warrant a reward LOL.

 

[nsafreak]

Well I've done some digging around and you have at least 1 other option, potentially 2 based on what I've found. One is another WISP under the name Brown Dog Networks, not a lot faster at 3Mbps but it's something. The other option is Charter Cable. Their website doesn't seem to recognize the address given but according to US Census Data the service is supposedly available there. Given from what I see on looking at that neighborhood on Google Maps it's feasible that they may have brought cable to the area. At the very least it's worth giving them a call to confirm one way or another if the service is available.

 

[asjdwf]

Charter is 1.5 miles away...they aren't there yet. Brown dig us also not there.

 

[nsafreak]

Dang, looks like WIFI Midwest is your best option in this case. Hopefully Charter plans to come to your area in the not too distant future but it'll be the best bet in terms of latency.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Hugesnet is junk, the contract BS they put you through is a scam!!!!!

 

[asjdwf]

Just found out cricket wireless offers 20gb of data for 55 dollars a month. How Fast Would Gaming And Stuff Burn Through that?

 

[azazel1024]

Gaming, not fast. You are generally talking only a few dozen to a couple of hundred Kbps. WISP can easily handle your gaming needs.

What WISP can't handle is streaming HD content. However, 20GB of data is maybe around 20hrs of HD streaming per month. Figure .8-1.2GB per hour. Not a lot.

It may also be slower, depends on cell tower location, what modem is in use, line of sight issues, antenna, etc.

Just look at windows, for a single device you are probably talking 100-400MB a month for updates to just windows, email could easily be 50-500MB a month, depending on what kind of emails you are sending and receiving. Basic web browsing can be a couple of GBs a month. Gaming might be all of 100-200MB an hour, which if you do a LOT of gaming can easily be 10-20GB a month, if not significantly more (200Kbps * 3600 = 90MB/hr, 10hrs a day is 900MB a day, 30 days is 27GB a month, though 10hrs a day of gaming does seem a little much).

Don't even consider downloading games...sure a small game might only be a few hundred MBs, but a big game can be 30-60GB of data.

Another option is a dual WAN router and two ISPs. Go WISP for everything that is not bandwidth sensitive and can be done at a slow speed, and then send everything where you need more bandwidth through the wireless option. Some good dual WAN routers can also setup rules for data limiting, so you can send everything through the Cricket wireless connection and once it hits 20GB (or 19.9GB to be safe) everything else then goes through the WISP.

 

[lupi]

One thing to watch out for is game ptches/dlc and such. In this new misguided everyone has wonderful broadband so let's remove physical media so we can make more money per sale from the consumer, those will tear through your allowance.