Wireless Broadband For FPS Gaming?

by **Omen** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:31 am

Hello… That’s the question, will Wireless Broadband work for FPS gaming?

I have been stuck on a 56k forever and finally Wireless Broadband is an option for me. I am 2000 ft to far for DSL and the cable company wont spend the money on the box needed on the cable line for me to have cable (oh yes that sucks to see 8 cable lines right in front of my house that I can’t be connected to). Also we know satellite is a no go for FPS games.

Back to the wireless… I am about two miles from the new tower so I am in the range (per e-mail from wireless ISP), that is if the tress are not a problem, no buildings in the way.

This is what they have on connection and cost, yes the cost is up there for the higher stuff…

Basic
384Kbps/1.5 Mbps $39.95

Advanced
512Kbps/1.5Mbps $79.95

Preferred
768Kbps/1.5 Mbps $129.95

Premium
1.5/1.5 Mbps $299.95

Professional
2Mbps/3Mbps $399.95*

Ultimate
4Mbps/5Mbps $499.95

I am hoping the “Basic” will do it for gaming. But I would go to the “Advanced” if I have to, needless to say the others are a no go, that is just to much money for a on line service. The install cost is $179.00 and the radio and antenna is theirs, so if I cancel they take that back.

So is anyone playing FPS games on line with wireless and if so what is the connection you have? How is the ping times? How is the lag (has to be better then my 56k)? Please give any info you can. Thanks

by **cavalierlwt** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:43 pm

Hop on dslreports.com and get into their forums. Often they will have a forum devoted to specifically your wireless ISP. Also, I would post the name of your wireless ISP and what state you live in, just in case someone on here has the same ISP. I think good gaming is possible, but like everything, it's all dependant on the ISP. If they suck and don't care about gaming, you're screwed. That part is pretty much hit and miss.

by **Omen** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:01 pm

Ok will do...

I live in West Central Florida and the ISP is http://www.nextconnectnetworks.com . Not sure who they could be connected with, if they are with some other ISP.

EDIT... I don't know if I should cry about this or not... Next connect networks web site is down at this time.

Also I did a "Whos Who" and they seem to be on there own, I can't seem to find a big ISP working with them

by **LordShard** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:31 pm

Ask your neighbor to get a router, then ask if he will sublet you a portion of his for $10 a month.

(or supply your own router)
If he has 4Mbps DSL you could get 1MBps and he wouldn't notice to much.

by **Omen** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:24 pm

Um ok thanks... If that was possbile but it isn't, they have the same problem I do about getting highspeed in my above post... I only have one house close to us and he is a 1000ft form us.

by **cavalierlwt** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:40 pm

You know what I'd do, I'd get the Basic
384Kbps/1.5 Mbps $39.95. If nothing else, it is better than a 56K modem, there's at least a decent chance it will be ok for gaming, and at the very least it will be decent for surfing the web. On the forums, some of the people with Broadband Wireless did have decent pings, most of their complaints that I could see were the same complaints that DSL/Cable users have: their ping went skyhigh at certain times of the day. In any case, it's an issue with the 'normal' network, and probably not a wireless issue. I guess you need decent line of sight to the towers, not having trees or buildings in the way.
Have you called their tech support and asked them about gaming, pings etc? If you do, just remember that latency is the important thing (the ping times) not bandwidth. Some of the people in the forums actually mentioned being able to ping their tower (you have to get the IP address), and that would be biggest issue I suppose. Do any of your neighbors have the Wireless? If so, have them ping ECGN and a few others.
Good Luck!

by **Omen** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:17 pm

cavalierlwt thanks for the reply... I haven't gotten as far as talking to tech yet, waiting to see if this is a thing I can use for gaming. I do have a tree problem, but I would say maybe just a few are in the way to the tower, but no buildings are in the way.

No one around me that I know of is using wireless and if they were they ALL would be closer to the tower then me, lol all 4 of them.

About 384Kbps/1.5 Mbps... I was thinking going with that speed and trying it out, it should be fine... Just like you said, ping is what we are looking at, not just speed. Also I thought it would be easier to go up in speed then it would be to go down (in the ISP eyes), maybe even some "tweaking" could be done.

by **Horsepower** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:57 pm

one of our admins uses a wireless broadband connection, but he's in Ohio. he sometimes gets ping spikes and frequent disconnects. if you asked him, he'd probably say that it's better than dialup. i do know that on it's good days, he will kick just about anyone's ass in a BF2 jet so it does work and it is possible to get some decent games in.

by **Omen** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:28 am

Sounds good... The tech is coming out today to check everything out. We talked about the trees and he feels with the the tower only being 2 miles away and the power it is putting out there shouldn't be a problem.

Right now I am only playing bf1942 (would like to play bf2, no 56k setting) and I can get on some servers with a 150 ping. Not a bad ping at all, BUT for some reason I get "connection problem" windows more with a lower ping. I could be on a server with 200+ ping and not get kicked once all night.

lol I don't know what I will do... I have been playing with 56k lag so long, it's going to take a bit of getting use to not having my 56k lag.

by **RCglider** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:32 pm

I had wireless for about 2 years, was their 3rd customer. The technology is perfectly capable of supporting gaming, but it's all hinged on the ISP's equipment and if they care about gamers.

When you sign up ask them if they have special channels for gaming; mine did. It took them a long time to iron things out and there were lots of problems at first, but those I know who still have the service say it's pretty reliable now. Ferret still has it.

For the first several months they used us new customers as guinea pigs and for a time left it wide open at 6m+ up/down. That was nice. No charge either.

I was 20 miles from the tower. They installed a tower right in town later on but I never switched to it.

http://www.speednetllc.com

by **Omen** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:33 am

Thanks for the replies... I have it hooked up but with problems. For some reason my on board lan is pushing out but not taking anything in. At this point I am not sure if it is my computer or one or more IPs they setup. I guess I will get a PCI Lan card just to see if that will work.

The tech stayed here for about 2 hours trying to figure out what was going on, the connection was fine on his computer for testing, but when hooked up to mine, nothing. Oh I am so close to feeling the speed.

by **Omen** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:23 am

Well I got it up and running, thank God... Ping went from 150 to 200 down to 25 to 35 on a game server I go to. Wow I am a happy gamer now.

Thanks everyone for your input.

LOL I never new a web page could load so fast!

by **cavalierlwt** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:31 am

Awesome, glad it worked out so well for you!

Wireless Broadband For FPS Gaming?

Wireless Broadband For FPS Gaming?

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