10 replies to this topic

[Crusher]

I would like to see those folks who know how to gather their PC hardware specs and performance information post it in here. There are many of us who can advise you as to whether or not your throughput speeds and hardware are going to give you a poor to excellent experience with JNPG.  You just need to show us what you currently have to work with.

 

WE all want to pitch in and help those who cannot help themselves.

[pingzing]

Connection speed  yes its 440k ps download and upload about 1/3 of that, yes its very bad

I dont even bother trying to upload anything, and download well i need all day for bigger files

Higher speed coming soon to area from 20mbs to 100mbs- we are very excited

will have fibre to node, but still copper wire to house- we would have to pay extra for fibre to house - 

But  you guys say-  BIg deal-  yes we are so far behind here 

Adsl2+ modem- dlink 502T

 

Cant watch alot of stuff online its too laggy and stops/starts- so i dont bother 

 

Cheers

[Crusher]

Connection speed  yes its 440k ps download and upload about 1/3 of that, yes its very bad

I dont even bother trying to upload anything, and download well i need all day for bigger files

Higher speed coming soon to area from 20mbs to 100mbs- we are very excited

will have fibre to node, but still copper wire to house- we would have to pay extra for fibre to house - 

But  you guys say-  BIg deal-  yes we are so far behind here 

Adsl2+ modem- dlink 502T

 

Cant watch alot of stuff online its too laggy and stops/starts- so i dont bother 

 

Cheers

 

I most certainly hope you get an ISP that can provide you with at least 30 megabits throughput speed. That speed is very good for world-wide connections of JNPG.  You would be able to host MP games. I've been playing Links 2003 for many years and often asked the other players what their throughput speeds were.  In general, 30 megabits appears to be a very decent number for MP gaming. Obviously the faster the service the better "file download" experience is too.  You would most likely find you can download any file from a fast and modern server at 1.5 to 2.5 Megabytes Per Second.  That would be huge compared to what you have to experience now.  You also want a latency of 5 to 20 milliseconds if possible between your computer and your ISP.

 

 

What is your motherboard model, processor model, video card model and how much RAM do you have?

 

Note for old and new, non-techies

To newcomers who are not familiar with throughput speeds versus download speeds:  Throughput is the actual speed you are paying for from your Internet Service Provider. Throughput is measured in Bits Per Second referred to as Mbps.  Download aka Transfer speeds are measured in Bytes Per Second referred to as MBps.

 

Example:  If I were to download a file from Microsoft Store it would most likely download at 6 to 9MBps. That is because the service I purchased from my ISP is 150Mbps (megabits per second throughout speed).

 

When a faster ISP comes to your area your old modem and router may not be compatible with their service or they may be outdated to handle the type of speeds in your service contract. Most ISP/s give you the Modem/Router that will handle your speeds with ease. IMO it is best to have an Internet Service and forgo the dual or triple service packages for Internet, Phone and Television.  The inherent problems with all three running through the special Modem create problems.  A Modem/Router strictly for Internet connections is a far better choice.  In our home we choose to pay for Basic Cable for TV, about $25.00  a month.  We do not use the same provider for our Basic Landline, about $25.00 a month (we use our mobile phones most of the time).  Our Internet Service is $65.00 a month and provides us with 150 to 180 Mbps.  A total of $115.00 before taxes.  Because our Internet speed is very good we don't need to play the usual $150.00ish dollars a month for 500 channels.  Basic cable TV in our area gives us the ABC, NBC, PBS and another 12 stations, all in HD.  If we want steaming videos/movies we have Netflix at $17.00 a month. Add it all up and it's a savings of over $1000.00 to $2000.00 a year compared to folks to who want all the TV stations on their Cable TV Box.

 

My approach to staying connected is to keep things separated and simple. That way if one connection is a problem it is not effecting my other connections (the 3-in-1 Modem).

[Sliceapottomus]

I thought the upload speed was the most important number to focus on????? every one banters back n forth but the latency is the most important number which is why 'PG has the ping value available to see.. the following is taken from a search and I find it very informative..

First of all, keep in mind that an Internet company cannot arbitrarily change your upload or download speed to whatever they want. While they do have a degree of ability to configure speed, there are no dials there labeled "upload speed" and "download speed" that someone could turn.

What happens is that the Internet company buys this expensive high-tech gear, and configures it for customers to have a certain speed. You want to upgrade from the 3Mb to the 5Mb plan? They configure your connection to go through the 5Mb gear. So there are limited combinations of speed points that they can provide to you since each of those combinations requires more networking gear.

MOST Internet users ONLY care about download speed. They want web pages to show up fast. They want to download streaming video on YouTube or Netfix fast. They don't care about uploading anything to the Internet other than sending e-mail or sending the network request to fetch a web page. So the Internet companies invest their money in solutions that provide the fastest possible download speed.

That's why they don't sell you the ability to arbitrarily choose a fast upload plan. They would lose money purchasing the required equipment that relatively few customers would pay to utilize.

EDIT: So for online gaming, upload speed does two things depending on whether you're a client of the game (such as joining an xbox game or playing WoW) or the server (such as hosting your own XBOX game).

If you're the client, then you're sending the server the stuff that you do. Are you attacking another player? Are you casting a spell? Are you swinging a sword? Are you running away? You send that information to the server so that what you are doing remains consistent with what other players are doing.

If you are the server, then you're receiving all this information about what the clients players are doing. You are then relaying all of that information back to the other players. For example, if client player John is fighting client player Jane, then it's the server's job to send John's computer or xbox that Jane is casting a spell; it's the server's job to send Jane's computer or xbox that John is swinging his sword. That way, the same things happen consistently in both John's and Jane's gaming experience.

Upload speed nor download speed are typically important for gaming. Here's why (it's an over simplification, but fairly accurate). All you really need to receive is information about what buttons that another player is pressing. All you really need to send are what buttons that you are pressing. If I press the A button while holding the directional pad left, and then I send that information to another player, then my character does the same thing on both xboxes. That's not very much data. You could get away with sending it over a 56K modem.

What IS important is latency. How fast does information about what I'm doing get from my xbox to the other player's xbox? Let's say that Jane is attacking me. I quickly press the defend button. Now imagine that the information about my having pressed the defend button takes 2 seconds to get from my xbox to the server, and then to Jane's xbox. Oops! Too late. The server thinks that Jane killed me before the information about my hitting the defend button was processed.

[Crusher]

[Sliceapottomus]

Those numbers are great crusher how do they compare at busy times and when you connect to  someone other than your own service provider?

[Crusher]

Those numbers are great crusher how do they compare at busy times and when you connect to  someone other than your own service provider?

 

I have run latency/ping tests at both speedtest.net and Xfinity.com during game play many times. The average during weekend prime-time is about 18ms when hosting.  Joining is not something I do much unless I have already had a good experience with the person hosting the game. If I experience really bad lag I will tell the host that I am going to leave the game after a hole is completed. No sense completing a round when lag is terrible but good to let the host know (in a nice way) that hosting might be problematic for him/her.

[Crusher]

I decided to take a speedtest.net after posting the above.  The time is 10:36 PM EDT. I am not in a game or connected to a computer for a remote help session.

 

[3199E5kennetharry]

Just be glad you're not in the UK, unless you've got virgin 200mps

[Acrilix]

Speed tests may be a guide, but they really don't tell you whether your ISP is up to par for playing JNPG.

My tests always show a good system but I can't play the game at certain times, on certain days, because the game breaks up so badly. Other people on the same network with much lower speeds and pings don't have the same issues - it seems that the system is just oversubscribed in certain areas of the country, and peak times ruin the game experience for some players.

[Buck]

I saw a “bot” perusing this page, so I thought - why not bump it...

 

Especially prescient since PG servers were down last night for a bit and for a brief moment I did wonder if my ISP was at fault

 

Narrator:  They were not