*sigh* The DSL search continues...

[[AK]The Beast]

Anyone have 768/128 service? I can get a connection that speed for $40/month, which comes a bit closer to fitting my budget. Will that provide me with OK pings in games like Battlefield? (I'm specifically thinking about gaming; web browsing is slow but livable with my dialup.) Also, if anyone knows of a good broadband provider in the $30-35/month range, let me know.

[[AK]Hylander]

Beast,

The bandwidth doesn't really have a direct correlation to your ping times. Your ping times are really determined by the route your packets take to their destination and back. Bandwidth really matters in terms of "speed" really in regards to downloading large files and whether you can host games, etc.

The big advantage of DSL, ISDN, Cable, etc is that it is a pure digital connection and does not have to be converted from analog to digital and back again which decreases your ping times.

I'm an advocate of DSL over Cable, but having that argument is useless because you will find people on both sides of the fence. That 768/128 is more than enough for general gaming purposes. You won't be able to host much gaming, but as far as joining it should be fine. Not a bad price as it's right in the range. (Although I'm sure you are going to get someone with cable claiming they get 500 gigaflops for $29.99 a month - but just ignore them. ).

I pay $89.00 a month for 1.5/384 DSL with COVAD which also includes a dial-up account (up to 10 hours a month), Static IP Address w/NAT (253 private IPs), 15 email accounts, 10mb website (haven't used), and included a 4-port Zyxel Router/DSL Modem/Hub/Switch with NAT. So your sense of "value" may very well be different than mine or someone with cable who pays $30 or $40 a month.

[Widowmaker]

I have a 640/128 DSL line. Works fine for gaming, as Beast said do not expect to host games on it but for playing it works great.

Actualy my line tests lower than that, I think I am only getting 110 up. That concerns me but there are of course all kinds of excuses why it is slower.

[Glanzer]

One big difference between DSL and cable is that cable is a shared connection, meaning the more people in your cable area using it, the less bandwidth you get. DSL on the other hand is supposed to provide a guaranteed bandwidth.

I use cable and so far I haven't run into any problems at all gaming. But when I'm browsing the net it sure is slower during the evening than late at night.

[[AK]Hylander]

Originally posted by [AK]Widowmaker
I have a 640/128 DSL line. Works fine for gaming, as Beast said do not expect to host games on it but for playing it works great.

Man.. I can never get proper credit around here!!

[Widowmaker]

Did I say Beast? Damn my eyes! They offend me, pluck them out!

Sorry Hylander, it should say "As Hylander said"

Sorry, it won't happen again

[[AK]The Beast]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I e-mailed the company today (stickdog.com, if you're interested) and learned that the $40/month rate is only for customers who pay in advance for 2 years of service. Since I don't have a thousand dollars socked away in the bank (and if I did, I don't think I'd use it to buy two years of a DSL service I've never heard of ), it looks like I'm lost in $50/month land. The best of that crop is Earthlink--I prequal'd myself and found that I can get 1.5 mbit/128 up for the same price as the competition's 768/128. I keep telling myself I can't afford it, but the power gamer locked deep inside me is getting louder every time I have a lousy ping to a Battlefield server. At the rate I'm going, I'll have it by Christmas.

[Widowmaker]

Be wary of Earthlink. They use PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet), basicaly turns your DSL into a dial up style of service, you are not connected till you click a connectoid and enter a username and password. Your performance may vary.

The biggest problem with PPPoE is it adds to packet size so depending on how fat a game makes its packets you could be loosing some. Adjust your MTU size to 1200 or lower is recomended. If you have a router then the PPPoE software that is required can be handled by the router but you will likely still suffer some MTU problems so you will need to adjust them on both the router and the PC.

We have had massive headaches trying to get PPPoE setups to work with our VPN product (CheckPoint SecureClient) as PPPoE adds a virtual adapter to the network stack and gets confused once the SecureClient software is installed. Getting a third party router to handle the PPPoE package is our only solution but it is problematic.

I have no idea if it will even affect the performance of games but many have complained about streaming media performance with PPPoE since it has a tendancy to fragment packets. Adjusting MTU seemes to help.

[[AK]Palooka]

Nevada Bell DSL is PPPoE, and I have had nothing but smooth sailing. It is by far the most trouble-free broadband service I have ever had. In fact, in almost a year, my service has only been out for a few hours, and it's always rock-solid.

[Widowmaker]

Alot of PPPoE problems are attributed to the PPPoE software vendor they use. Do you know what Nevada Bell uses just out of curiosity?

Earthlink I believe (I may be totaly wrong) uses WinPoet for PPPoE. It is my opinion that Enternet is a better choice, less overhead and therefore less problems. In any case I am just biased against PPPoE since it has consumed more of my time with VPN problems than any other occurance.

[[AK]Hylander]

Widow,

That's not entirely true about PPPoE - at least not in all cases. My friend had Earthlink 1.5/128 service and it worked very well for him.

Also, my COVAD DSL uses PPPoE but the login/pw is stored in my Zyxel Prestige Modem/Router/Switch/Hub and it is "always" on and I have a static IP. My last ISP, Fast.net (which is a COVAD partner) did not have any PPPoE and I was only 1,300 feet from the CO. I'm now a little under 8,000 feet from the same CO and my pings times and speed tests are better with COVAD than they were with Fast.net. =) Might have had something to do with the telco lines (I had a separate data line with Fast.net, no linesharing) but I've had no problems with streaming media, etc.

I had Verizon DSL for a very short time (less than 30 day trial) about 2 1/2 years ago and I did have to login everytime I started my computer and that sucked. But then again... the DSL was down 28 our of the first 30 days so that was the least of the problem.

[Widowmaker]

I made mention of a router to handle PPPoE up there. Also I fully admit I am biased by my experience supporting Checkpoint. It also should be noted that the BRAND of PPPoE can vary considerably in its effectiveness. PPPoE, all brands, by nature and design adds additional information to packets so can (not always) cause packet loss/retransmits which screw up streaming video and in worse cases even totaly drop a connection.

If I were running a PPPoE connection I would use DR.TCP to set my MTU at 1200 and call it good. You can go to www.dslreports.com and in their Tools section there is a tweak tester. It will run a little test then ask for info about your line (type, advertised speed, brand of PPPoE) then give suggestions for tweaking for best network performance using DR.TCP (with a download link to it). It is not a perfect test but works pretty well.

Your ping times, of course, are probably independent of PPPoE software as you know. Probably has more to do with the actual providers network or the copper itself.

You have a static IP and PPPoE? That is about unheard of. Are you sure you have a static on your router to the CO or are you set behind the router with a static on the PC itself and dynamic for the router to the CO? Just currious.

Hell, PPPoE could be great for gaming or it could suck, lots of variables there and a lot depends on the PPPoE software from what I understand. I personaly don't like it but that is because of my personal bias.

[[AK]Hylander]

Widow,

To answer your fixed / static IP question.. Yes and No.

COVAD used PPPoE to provide you with your IP address, but their product is designed so that a specific IP address is tied to a specific username and password so that the same IP address is always given to that user.

I can actually buy an additional 5 "fixed" IP addresses for $10 a month if I had a need to do so. I have 1 IP address with NAT, but I would need to upgrade the firmware on my Zyxel Prestige 643 in order to handle the additional IPs and since at this point it "ain't broken" - I'm not "fixin' it".

[Widowmaker]

Ah, thanks Hylander. I got it now. I've read about that package now that I think about it. Not realy a "static" IP in the traditional sense.