Sattelite Internet question

[Ike0069]

I have a friend that lives in a very rural area and cannot get DSL or cable. He's tired of dial-up because he works out of his home, so he's going to switch to sattelite internet (his company will pay for it).
So how will this affect gaming? His son really wants him to get WoW, but will it be playable? What about FPS games?

 

[Amaroque]

Satellite is usually worse then a dialup modem when it comes to gaming. The lag is too great for any FPS game.

However, it's perfectly fine for everyday surfing, and downloading. In that respect, it's much faster then any dialup modem.

 

[UsandThem]

It has been years (1999 or so) since I have read anything on satelite internet, but from what I remember it was fast coming down, and dial up speeds going up.

 

[CTrainBEB]

blarch, terrible for gaming. Satellite's are speedy because they send very large packets back and forth, so surfing and downloading will be faster. Unfourtunatly, because they are so far away from the computer using them it takes a long time for the packets to get to and from which means mondo lag in games.

 

[Greenman]

I know a fellow who uses satellite, fast connection, but he can't play fps games because of lag.

 

[Ike0069]

Yea, I kind of figured that FPS games wouldn't be playable. But what about WoW and others like that? I have no idea as I don't play any RPG's. Is lag a big concern for those games?

 

[flatblastard]

You can get a faster satellite connection, if your willing to pay about $120-150+ per month. He should have no problem getting access to these speeds, especially if a commercial acount.

 

[boshuter]

I have the starband satellite internet and all I can say is..... forget much online gaming, at least fps which is all I play. Not sure about the rpg's. The satellite is great if there is no other option. It beats dial up by a LOT. Uploads speeds are not great, but they are a lot better than dialup, downloads are great.... if you don't go over about 100mb at a time, they cap the download and after around 100mb it will drop to dialup speeds. Online surfing is not great, a lot faster than dailup, but you can even notice the lag in that. Bottom line is; it's too damn expensive, the software is bloated and buggy, and the 100mb cap is bs..... but... if you live where I do, it's the only option.

 

[flatblastard]

Also...

There will still be the delay, or, lag if you will, but with a better transmitter (more watts) come slightly faster uploads I believe.

 

[boshuter]

Originally posted by: flatblastard
You can get a faster satellite connection, if your willing to pay about $120-150+ per month. He should have no problem getting access to these speeds, especially if a commercial acount.

A faster connection won't help with the gaming concern, it's fast enough anyway, it's the lag time that kills the gaming and there is no way around that.

 

[flatblastard]

Also...

There will still be the delay, or, lag if you will, but with a better transmitter (more watts) come slightly faster uploads I believe.

 

[flatblastard]

Originally posted by: boshuter

A faster connection won't help with the gaming concern, it's fast enough anyway, it's the lag time that kills the gaming and there is no way around that.

Sorry about the double post, but
Your telling this to a cert. vsat/starband/direcway/pegasus installer.

 

[Conky]

Yep.. built in lag of at least 300-500 milliseconds makes sattelite worthless for FPS games. He could probably play WoW though as reaction time is not as critical.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: flatblastard

Originally posted by: boshuter

A faster connection won't help with the gaming concern, it's fast enough anyway, it's the lag time that kills the gaming and there is no way around that.

Sorry about the double post, but
Your telling this to a cert. vsat/starband/direcway/pegasus installer.

Speed isn't the issue here, it's latency. Even a 6 megabit connection isn't going to offset a 2000 ms average ping time...

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: boshuter
I have the starband satellite internet and all I can say is..... forget much online gaming, at least fps which is all I play. Not sure about the rpg's. The satellite is great if there is no other option. It beats dial up by a LOT. Uploads speeds are not great, but they are a lot better than dialup, downloads are great.... if you don't go over about 100mb at a time, they cap the download and after around 100mb it will drop to dialup speeds. Online surfing is not great, a lot faster than dailup, but you can even notice the lag in that. Bottom line is; it's too damn expensive, the software is bloated and buggy, and the 100mb cap is bs..... but... if you live where I do, it's the only option.

Maybe you have crappy dialup? People don't understand that dialup isn't THAT Slow. If you were ACTUALLY connecting at 56K speeds you wouldn't be bitching at all and think it's relatively good. But instead people connect at speeds like 42K but then it slows down to 28 to 14K. If your REALLY lucky you will connect at 50K and the speed will slow down to 36K which is a LOT faster. Also ping times aren't too bad unless you are pinging a bad server/have line issues. I was playing raven shield and I had a ping of 200 which wasn't too bad (connected at 45K). In the most optimal situations you probably could get pings around 100ms.

 

[boshuter]

Originally posted by: flatblastard

Originally posted by: boshuter

A faster connection won't help with the gaming concern, it's fast enough anyway, it's the lag time that kills the gaming and there is no way around that.

Sorry about the double post, but
Your telling this to a cert. vsat/starband/direcway/pegasus installer.

LOL... well that won't get you a free beer.. I got certified to install them also, just to save money on my system and do them for friends. The certification is only so they can charge an outrageous fee for installation. When I got certified about 3 years ago all you had to do was take a simpe online test.


Philippine Mango.... Try downloading 50-100mb upgrades to games or software with 56k. I get excellent download speeds, now I can keep up to date drivers and software without worrying about it taking all night to download. I do agree that gaming on dialup is preferable to gaming on satellite, by far. 56k dialup is ok..... but I hope I never have to go back to it.

 

[flatblastard]

Originally posted by: boshuter
LOL... well that won't get you a free beer.. I got certified to install them also, just to save money on my system and do them for friends. The certification is only so they can charge an outrageous fee for installation. When I got certified about 3 years ago all you had to do was take a simpe online test.


Philippine Mango.... Try downloading 50-100mb upgrades to games or software with 56k. I get excellent download speeds, now I can keep up to date drivers and software without worrying about it taking all night to download. I do agree that gaming on dialup is preferable to gaming on satellite, by far. 56k dialup is ok..... but I hope I never have to go back to it.

Maybe you passed a simple test to install residential grade starband systems, but I bet it stops there. So your certified? What level?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Yep.. built in lag of at least 300-500 milliseconds makes sattelite worthless for FPS games. He could probably play WoW though as reaction time is not as critical.

Honestly, I doubt even WoW would be playable. When we're talking about healing and using other abilities, the immense lag basically means a sattelite user is always going to be too slow to respond in tight situations.

 

[flatblastard]

Yur right there. I'll admit that anyone interested in serious gaming shouldn't be looking at a sat. But if the only alternative is a crappy dial-up, then sat is the way to go.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: flatblastard
Yur right there. I'll admit that anyone interested in serious gaming shouldn't be looking at a sat. But if the only alternative is a crappy dial-up, then sat is the way to go.

I'd take the 150-200ms of ping from a good dialup service over satellite any day.

Of course, having no low-latency broadband at all would probably drive me to insanity.

- M4H

 

[flatblastard]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: flatblastard
Yur right there. I'll admit that anyone interested in serious gaming shouldn't be looking at a sat. But if the only alternative is a crappy dial-up, then sat is the way to go.

I'd take the 150-200ms of ping from a good dialup service over satellite any day.

So would I. By crappy dial-up I meant, those who live in very rural areas, where dial-up is not "good", or bad wiring and whatnot.

Of course, having no low-latency broadband at all would probably drive me to insanity.

I know what you mean...i'm stroking my cable modem even now