Best Broadband/Internet Package to run xbox live? What have you got? - Saxperience

AJ-VTR · 4th October 2010, 14:50

hi all,

want to buy xbox live but wondering where to start, whats the best package to get?

Also, what have you got? And is there any lag??

Cheers

Jamb0 · 4th October 2010, 15:14

im with gay tisacali and i can host 6 people with no lag on my line

Fulch · 4th October 2010, 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by AJ-VTR

hi all,
Also, what have you got? And is there any lag??
Cheers

I'm with o2 cos I get it discounted being a contract customer. no lag as long as no one else in the house is doing anything major, like sometimes my brother trys to upload to youtube, that causes loads of lag but part from that its all good.

Wizzy · 4th October 2010, 17:47

It doesnt really matter who the provider is, just shop around for the best deal. Most will use the standard BT phone line so speed will be roughly the same. Fibre Optic is the best option to go for, available from Virgin and in some areas BT.

Ping time is what matters most for gaming, rather than bandwidth.

Penn · 4th October 2010, 18:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wizzy

Ping time is what matters most for gaming, rather than bandwidth.

Not true. Although a lower response time is better for your actions being sent to the host, packetloss is the biggest problem when online gaming. Even a low % of packetloss can completely fuck your connection up and you'll be skipping back and forth uncontrollably.

Also, upload speed is critical for online gaming. If you have an utter shit upload speed, you won't be able to send your data back to the server fast enough which makes you appear laggy. This is especially the case when hosting games on xbox live as you have to keep updating every player's actions as fast as possible. If you're connection can't keep up, everyone connected to you lags.

Virgin Media are currently upgrading all of their cable upload speeds free of charge:

10mb down = 1mb up
20mb down = 2mb up
50mb down = 5mb up

1mb up is perfectly adequate for hosting games on xbox live without lag so if you jump to one of the faster packages you're set to host some big games without an issue!

MikeyW · 5th October 2010, 16:27

All I know is I run fine at 20Mb but lucky us down here are going to be the first county for Virgin to use their new 100Mb broadband which should be fun.

MAXSTARR · 6th October 2010, 19:48

Virgin Yo. fibre optic ftw

crabzy · 6th October 2010, 20:03

i have 1MB and i run xbox ok dose lag little when everyone on pc , they use to say on xbox 2MB is handfull to run an xbox

Heftydanielson · 7th October 2010, 09:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamb0

im with gay tisacali and i can host 6 people with no lag on my line

I am with them and they take the piss sometimes but all round they are ok.

Steve · 7th October 2010, 09:51

Virgin Media is the best for broadband as long as you get it over the coax cable not via the telephone line.

they are upping their upload speed to shortly.

Steve · 7th October 2010, 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeyW

All I know is I run fine at 20Mb but lucky us down here are going to be the first county for Virgin to use their new 100Mb broadband which should be fun.

100mb is rapid, we have a few of their 1gb links in at work (i only have a 100mb Lan card in so can't test the full speed)
It crashed my PC (which is decent) downloading at full speed, it couldn't cope hahaha was like 11-12mb/s download speed.

Aly · 7th October 2010, 10:00

Virgin Media is good but it's shit in the North East, when I was with them I used to get very inconsistent latency.

Currently with Be.
Only £17 a month get about 11mb from 24mb and 1.3mb upload.

Usuaully always get host on MW2 which is an advantage to have

And no peak time slow speeds, the speed you connect to is the speed you get.

Steve · 7th October 2010, 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aly

Virgin Media is good but it's shit in the North East, when I was with them I used to get very inconsistent latency.

Currently with Be.
Only £17 a month get about 11mb from 24mb and 1.3mb upload.

Usuaully always get host on MW2 which is an advantage to have

And no peak time slow speeds, the speed you connect to is the speed you get.

NE is one of the best areas for virgin media.
I have been with them over 16year (well telewest) and the home internet has only have been off 3 times, 2 of which were them upgrading the cable.
Might be different where you live though alister.

The test didn't even allow the connection to go to full speed before it ended.

haz_pro · 7th October 2010, 10:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

NE is one of the best areas for virgin media.
I have been with them over 16year (well telewest) and the home internet has only have been off 3 times, 2 of which were them upgrading the cable.
Might be different where you live though alister.

The test didn't even allow the connection to go to full speed before it ended.

Surely that upload speed isnt right? thats really high, even higher then mine at university, although my download speed is constantly 95 - 100 mb.

Are you using a wireless router or plugged directly into the modem.

I only get about 20 with virgin media at my house

Steve · 7th October 2010, 10:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by haz_pro

Surely that upload speed isnt right? thats really high, even higher then mine at university, although my download speed is constantly 95 - 100 mb.

Are you using a wireless router or plugged directly into the modem.

I only get about 20 with virgin media at my house

the test was struggling and still going up but it ended before it would peak, they only run for a few seconds. If it ran till it peaked then the results would be higher.

I myself dictated the limit at 100mb download and 100mb upload.

Aly · 7th October 2010, 10:41

Steve I was on Virgin/NTL/Cable & Wireless when the fastest speed they provided was 368k!

Honestly Cable in the North East is shit because the infrastructure server in Middlesbourgh is crap.

OK maybe they might have upgraded it from when I was with them but many times it would go off.

I used to hate the speed throttling.

In the evening latency would often spike around 40-75ms and speed would drop from 20mb to 5mb.

And I wasn't even a heavy downloader.

DSL is better than Cable since you have the ability to go through independant LLU servers and companies so you can choose your line.

With Cable you get the one they give you.

When BT get their Fibre optic service working properly this will be much better than Virgin since they use "true" fibre optic, the type that is transmitted to large companies and schools.

Steve · 7th October 2010, 10:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aly

When BT get their Fibre optic service working properly this will be much better than Virgin since they use "true" fibre optic, the type that is transmitted to large companies and schools.

Technically DSL has only one provider behind the scenes. BT regardless of who provides your internet. and you still get dictated by how spunky your phone line is, phone lines will never be better than a dedicated coax.

What you on about True fibre optic?

Steve · 7th October 2010, 11:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aly

Steve I was on Virgin/NTL/Cable & Wireless when the fastest speed they provided was 368k!

In the evening latency would often spike around 40-75ms and speed would drop from 20mb to 5mb.

Think someone is telling porkies tbh

Viper · 7th October 2010, 12:20

Internet was awesome for me when I was at uni.

Steve, was the BT building on my road the exchange?

Aly · 7th October 2010, 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

Think someone is telling porkies tbh

I'm not I first got Broadband in 2002 and they offered 328k, I was with them until they had 20mb.

And what do you mean BT have DSL?

Steve do you even know what LLU is?
BT have nothing to do with LLU.

So you're wrong there for a start.

Don't go starting having a DSL/LLU argument with me, you will lose, I used to host and rent rack servers and I know most of the stuff I know from a young age of probably around 13 years old.

Let me ask you this Steve,
If Virgin Media and Cable is so good,
Then how come all the major UK Game Hosting companies use LLU and DSL Fibre optic to host their service.

Surely If Cable was better they would use it?