DescentBB

Ok, I was wondering for D3, would T1 11MB Cisco Wireless perform better or worse for gaming?

In a town about 13 miles away I have a really clear shot at their tower and I've heard of people hooking up X-Box's to this system.

Hmmm interesting. It seems the actual tower is only 6 towm blocks away from me on a local water tower. No big buildings in the way. Humidity is about 27 and we get crystal clear reception of TV and radio stations coming from towns that are about a 45 minute drive from where I live. We are basically on a desert where mostly potatoe feilds and sage brush are located. Anyway, thoughts?

Find civilization and move there.

And ick @ T1. Why spend the money when you can get cable?

wireless = bad mmmkay?

too much packet loss for gaming.

High throughputs mask the loss when surfing though!!

Yeah, so you want to give me some money so I can move to civilization? I can't afford it and won't for quite some time. I'm kind of stuck where I am. I won't go into this again. I'm not a rich kid like some here.

I just need something better than 56k. Only thing we have is 56k and Wireless here.

You never know, you might get lucky, and end up with only 1% loss. We're running a Cisco 54Mb/s wirless system at work, and my initial testing showed 3-5% loss pretty much across the board, and that was parked within 10 metres of the WAP.

I tested Walker Wireless here in NZ. It peaks at 10Mb/s from a good server, but even with LOS to the transmitter, and under 2km away, the loss was anywhere from 2 to 8%. This was measured on file transfers, not gaming packets, but one would imagine the loss to be similar.

Is there any way you could take a floppy with Ping Plotter on it to a location with the service? You really need latency and loss times - or some promise from the ISP you won't be worse off than on a 56K.

How do you use Ping Plotter and where exactly would I take it?

The main thing is.... is it better than 56k at least?

I have never in my life seen a ping below 380ms in Descent 3 for me. That is on a top of the line server. This is with a 56k modem. Most times it's somwhere between 500-900ms.


All there is period is 56k and I don't even play games anymore at all on-line. I would love too but I can't. I would at least like to be able to play Desert Combat and Descent 3 on-line. Maybe some Battlefront would be cool. But at the moment, any game for me is unplayable. I can't hit anything.

mob-messenger wrote:But at the moment, any game for me is unplayable. I can't hit anything.

and neither can the people playing YOU

380ms is the best you've seen on a 56k but normally its 500-900? damn. When I used a 56k our lows were anywhere between 200-280 or so. Highs probably around 450 or so. Course, we had about 4 or 5 numbers to call into so we might have just found a good one

Still didn't matter much, people still bitched. Course when you're playing D1/D2 with everyone who either has Cable or DSL by that time it did suck. Once I got Cable it was a nightmare playing people who used dialup.

It really depends on line of sight than anything else. The more things between you and the tower means higher ping times and lower signal strength. Your biggest concern should be where the tower is, and if you can see it.

Telephone lines around here just suck in general. As for line of site, the only thing in the way might be a single tree but I think the tower is actually higher than the tree is. There aren't any really big thick structures between the tower and my house. Not like in a city where you have sky scrapers. We have mostly small houses and trailer houses in town here.


They have difficulty hitting me but they CAN hit me usuually just fine. I can't even time, dodging a smart missile lock at that ping most times. And homing missiles rip me a new one every time their fired. Those are impossible for me to dodge. I see them go past me and hit a wall. Then all I see is my ship explode. I can get about a 10 kills to 60 deaths ratio in game. Those kills are very well timed too. Usually only happens if I jam them in a tight space with a smart or I let them follow me in a hole and punch 'em in the nose with a mortar. Sometimes if their ship is allready half dead and can scrape up a kill but not a really honorable one. But I haven't had a single good dogfight 1 on 1 starting at full sheild strength on both sides in a long time other than some peer to peer games. That is why I quit internet gameing period and starting playing X-Box. I would really love to play on-line though.

As per our previous conversations, your situation is really unique. Wireless is inherintly lossy, so you have to actually test and compare if your online experience is really improved and worth the money you spend verses your current setup. Only then can you really judge for yourself if there is an acceptable improvement. And notice how I said acceptable, as once again, wireless is lossy by nature.

Hmmm.... I was also wondering, anyone know about satellight and how it is for a connect?

mob-messenger wrote:Hmmm.... I was also wondering, anyone know about satellight and how it is for a connect?

Satellite (note the correct spelling) is even worse. You're talking maybe 256kBps down/50kBps up with ping times being nearly 5 seconds minimum. Thats only on a clear day. Your net will be shitty anytime the sky is cloudy, and flat out forget it if it rains. The kicker is...it costs nearly 4x as much as a DSL connection thats atleast 4x as fast. Thats not even counting setup...

Hey mob-messenger, what wireless system are they using? 900 MHZ, 2.4 GHZ, or 5.8 GHZ?

Some systems are licensed some arent't.

What area of the Universe do you live in, and the name of the ISP your looking at so I can help you out with research.

MD- Yeah I thought so. I had a friend that says her Dad runs on satellite (sorry about the spelling. I hadn't had any sleep in two nights when I wrote that. I just barely got home from working freight. Otherwise I would have spelled that correctly.) She said that they get a decent connect but I can't verify that they are using satellite. I saw their antenna or dish (not sure which it is, although it must be a dish if their using satellite) today on my way out of town and it has a little rectangular plate on it that is located on top of their house. Looks like a dish but it's rectangular so I can't say for sure. They don't use it for gaming (at least I don't think they do). They said that it is only $30 a month compared to the $50 a month the wireless isp that I was looking at charges. I figured it would cost more so maybe their just using wireless and she is confused?


Canuke- I'm not sure what the service is called. I called an office that you sign up for it at. It is a very small place that you really can barely even notice. I'm going to run over there tommorow and ask them about the service and the following questions:

1. What are loss/latency times should I expect?
2. What is the upload speed and is it 256 kps or greater?
3. What frequency are you running on?
4. Do you use an antenna or just a roughter?
5. Is there a warranty, and if so, what agreements are made within that warranty?
6. Can you send a guy out to check my reception for free?
7. What equipment if any do I need to provide?
8. Is there any way I can hook up the antenna or roughter and other equipment myself? (looking for a way to reduce setup price.)
9. Are there any other fees rather than setup fees and of course the monthly fee?


Anything else? Also, as I understand, it is straight satellite rather than having a bunch of added channels.

Ask them for a free month's demo... and put it through it's paces.

Tell them you'll sign up for a year and hint perhaps longer if they will offer you a trial period.

Namebrand of their wireless network, i.e. waverider.

10. What sort of trial period do they have.
11. What namebrand of wireless network are they running on.


Ok, got it cheif.

I'm thinking that I probably will just get it in the end.

I rarely play game over the net anymore anyway but it would improve my work and windows update processes. Takes me a week or so just to update!


My folks also would like to have the phone since my family is actually coming back together now, somewhat. So the phone needs to be open at all times.


It would probably at least be better than my current 56k as is even if not used for gameplay. If it at least remains even with my 56k for gameplay and my download/upload speed increases.