What is THE BEST gaming ISP?!?!

[Macman]

SERVER BASE: DUBLIN (LEFT) // MANCHESTER (RIGHT)

Im currently playing EVE and on the 360
Browsing Forums

Brothers on the PS3 playing COD online

Parents on PC downstairs online.

Not bad I think

[Splash]

Another happy Be* customer here, though I'm on Pro if that helps. Broadband profile set for max stability, with gaming mode enabled. Annex M for the faster upload. Also running with a Vigor 2820N, couldn't comment on the BeBox as I found it to be a steaming pile of turd in terms of reliability. Still, you pays your money you takes your choice

Finally I'm on a moderately long line too, certainly not sat over the road from the exchange.

[Robscure]

No, I'm not wireless, I'm connected directly to the modem via ethernet. The modem has built in router though.

You don't need Be Pro, that is only for the extra upload, just go for the middle package and save a bit.

Enable "gaming mode" in your profile which removes some error checking on your line which reduces latency by quite a bit, if your line is not stable you may not be able to use this feature.

Well it's only a couple quid more and I don't want to sell myself short, just incase it helps a little bit.

Another happy Be* customer here, though I'm on Pro if that helps. Broadband profile set for max stability, with gaming mode enabled. Annex M for the faster upload. Also running with a Vigor 2820N, couldn't comment on the BeBox as I found it to be a steaming pile of turd in terms of reliability. Still, you pays your money you takes your choice

Finally I'm on a moderately long line too, certainly not sat over the road from the exchange.

Does modem make that much of a difference that I should buy a new one? Will it improve gaming speed/connection/stability over ethernet or is it only good for wireless purposes?

I did a test that said my max speed on adsl from my exchange would be like 8mbps... I don't know how true and accurate that is though... as I don't have a BT line yet for it to be tested properly.

Also, I'm 1km from the exchange.

[Splash]

The download and synch speeds were faster with the bebox, but stability was pretty poor.

[Georgy291]

BE

/thread

never had a issue with then. The house mates can aggressively torrent and i still dont see the difference in gaming...this may be to the fact we live across the road from exchange

[Robscure]

BE

/thread

never had a issue with then. The house mates can aggressively torrent and i still dont see the difference in gaming...this may be to the fact we live across the road from exchange

Thanks

I think I will be going with Be* unless something amazing comes to light before.

[Georgy291]

Thanks

I think I will be going with Be* unless something amazing comes to light before.

their customer support is also something i liked alot. We live across the road from the exchange and you would expect for us to have full 24mb speed. The router does sinc at 24mb then after an hour or so drops to 13mb and stays there. We called be up and they actually done something about it, most ISPs would have prob said something like line distance other factors out of control blah blah blah

[Bugbait]

I’m on Be/O2 16Meg (not rated for more so not point) for £5/month (have O2 mobile contract) and usually see 20-35ms (sometimes drops to 12-15 and anything over 50+ is now considered bad) in WoW connecting to their Paris servers. That’s the latency as measured by the WoW client. This requires a minor network tweak though. With default Windows settings I was seeing 120-250 most nights.

My direct distance from the exchange is about 800m or so with the official copper distance being 1.2km or so.

[watercooled]

Hmm, VM has been great for me too, I nearly always get host on XBL and basically never notice any sort of lag, unless the host is bad of course. Also I nearly always have the lowest ping in the server on KF. And this remains true even if I'm downloading at full speed in the background, although that's more down to your router than your connection. About pages not loading etc, not using wireless are you? And don't pay any attention to the Windows signal strength indicator, even if it says full strength just try wired.

NOTE: Don't pay any attention to the B* rating or the lack of packet loss test, I don't have Java installed on this PC so you'll just have to take my word for it - it is zero when I test it.

[Zak33]

I believe I'm using fibre optics.

let's see the router you use, and the connections that go into it.

I can't see that Virgin Fibre optic is all that bad...so I think you're on ADSL.

[Zak33]

And look at sadbuttrue's test on Be*, it's far better than your Zen test.

and how far away from the local exchange is sadbuttrue?

I'm nearly 5 miles away...

[Zak33]

Also, I'm 1km from the exchange.

what... a BT exchange?

I may surrender from this debate in a while...but one more try

Are you on FIBRE OPTIC Virgin broadband or on ADSL Virgin Broadband?

I think you've got a great chance of getting a MUCH better gaming experience by going with BE (I won't push Zen anymore.....) but only if Virgin IS ADSL.

If Virgin is on Fibre Optic, then you have a different issue and they DO need to send an engineer.

If you want to change to BE you will need to make sure you have a live BT phone line, and the monthly charge for that needs taking into account (about a tenner per month)

[sadbuttrue]

My BE package is Unlimited.

You are approximately 1.67km from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!

Connection Speed 	12334 kbps 	1183 kbps
Line Attenuation 	31.5 db 	18.1 db
Noise Margin 		9.6 db 		9.5 db

As mentioned above, if you're miles from an exchange you may be better off with Virgin.

[k3vst3r]

That's mine


Further away server

[Zak33]

OK, I think the Opening poster would benefit from people stating their actual download speeds and then comparing them to what the ISP's SAY they'd get by using thier telephone number/postcode checker.

I realise, fully realise, that Ping isn't download speed, but it's a good comparison of the bull that the companies are capable of spouting to get people to sign up.

Example:
Today, right now, I'm getting 5.4 mb
Zen says I will get approx 3.5 Mbps (and that is the lowest I ever get)
Be says I will get approx 7meg (quoting that it's BT's figure they're using) and I've never ever got that
and Virgin, states

Get up to 20Mb broadband
and ironically BT states I will get Approx 3.5mb/s.... so why Be claim what they do, when BT's own page claims 3.5 is a mystery.
Get the fastest broadband your phone line can handle, up to 20Mb. Unlike some others, we won't limit the speed you get, so you always know you're not paying for something you can't use

So... go figure.

Comparing what they SAY you will get to what you ACTUALLY get is a safer bet.

[watercooled]

VM says 10/512 (they are rolling out 10/1 but my area isn't actually listed as done yet AFAIK).