Satellite Internet question

[FishingBuds]

anyone using satellite Internet with live gaming?

[BASSclary]

Used to use it with xbox live, cable is much faster IMO.

[FishingBuds]

yea my upload was 179 and my download 310, i guess theres nothing to do to make it faster

i hear you need a 256 up load for no lag time

[NateFollmer]

We sell Hughesnet at work. The problem with satellite internet isn't the speed as you think of speed (when people say speed they usually mean bandwidth). Yes you can get satellite internet at the same speed (bandwidth) as dsl or cable but where satellite lacks is in the latency department. You may hear people talk about ping time, this is latency. It's the time it takes for your information to get to or from another computer or server. It takes a long time for your info to go from your computer, up to the satellite, back down to the "internet", then to the server.this is  usually too long for real time applications like gaming and Voip.

[NateFollmer]

Thought of a better explanation:

Your internet may be able to download at 256 kbps, but it's taking that data say 5 seconds to reach you. By the time you get the data from the game sever that I am standoff in front of you in a game, I already blew your head off before your data got back to the server that you wanted to fire at me you won't notice this lag while web browsing because it doesn't matter if there's a delay in the data.

[FishingBuds]

Thanks Nate, I have the hughes pro 1.2 kpbs, and if i get what ya saying, going up to the 2.0 kpbs may not help enough for live gaming?

[fourbizz]

also worth noting that satellite internet is only insufficcient for some types of games. shooters, racing games, sports games. The lag will be a problem. But in strategy games and mmorpgs, it will probably be ok.

[FishingBuds]

Back here by the woods we had to settle on dial up, which limits you as we all know, I didn't learn much about the net this way.

Then they offer satellite which, was greater speed for me and I learned the net more and played around with it, so I got to see what you can do with the net, now I found out that my satellite service that is NOT cheap is holding me back, I can't be the only one thats noticing this as a customer. I thought it was great at first, but for the price????????? Im not getting a good deal.

I would have to pay up to $350 a month for 5kpbs when you can go to wow for $57 bucks for 8kpbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >

[NateFollmer]

yeah it depends what kind of games you play as fourbizz said. I wouldn't play any first person shooters or quick reaction games like that.

I don't think it matters if you have the highest or lowest plan because it's still going to take the same amount of time for the lag. I know its hard to understand and sounds wrong ha ha. Ok this isn't the best explanation but think of it this way. Your modern can send at 1.2 Mbps and receive at let's just say 512 kbps. Ok your modem sends out the 1.2 Mb in 1 second, it may take the satellite a few hundred milliseconds to get that data, then send it back where it needs to go. then the receiving server sends its data, it gets stuck waiting a few milliseconds at the satellite, then your modem pulls it in at 512kbps. You don't notice this when your downloading because the lag is "hidden" because you only need to download a web page once. When you play games, you are more than likely downloading a bunch of little bits of data every second so every bit has that lag, thus causing the huge slowdown.

that's a harsh way of explaining it but it works

[NateFollmer]

Do you have good cell service? most phone providers offer "aircards". They are usb devices that give you internet through the cellular phone network. You have to see if your network is 3G or 4G if you have Sprint. That lag is still there but it isn't as bad as the satellite. The only downside is att and verizon only give you 5 Gb of data per month (that's 5120 MB... Each jump in bytes is 1024... Like 1 MB is 1024 kb... A web page can range from 12 kb to 200kb). Hughesnet actually caps your usage too, but they do it on a 24 hour period. After you go over your threshold, they cut your speeds drastically for 24 hours.

[FishingBuds]

Nah, I'll stick with what I got for now. I may consider going back to dial up, Im realizing its not worth the cost with what I have.

Been playing rainbow six and if I hide and snipe its does ok, but that boring after awhile

[NateFollmer]

Yeah Hughesnet is kind of a "holy crap I need highspeed internet and nothing else is available" kind of system. It works, but it's pricey! Hopefully they pump some DSL your way. Get a petition started with your neighbors. If you get enough people to sign it, they may put DSL up there. We run into that a lot around here.

[Stringjam]

Bandwidth is actually a measure of the range of the frequency band allowed to be transmitted - measured in Hz.

Throughput is the actual "speed" measurement (kbps, mbps, etc). 

Bandwidth has generally become the catch-all term to describe data transfer speed (throughput), but the terms are actually completely different (but related).

Just some random worthless info for the day.  8-)

[NateFollmer]

Bandwidth is actually a measure of the range of the frequency band allowed to be transmitted - measured in Hz.

Throughput is the actual "speed" measurement (kbps, mbps, etc).

Bandwidth has generally become the catch-all term to describe data transfer speed (throughput), but the terms are actually completely different (but related).

Just some random worthless info for the day. 8-)

Yeah I constantly call it bandwidth I thought of a simpler analogy for all this internet junk so here goes (if anyone even cares):

Ok, your computers are like train stations, the cables and all the network stuff that connects us all together are the tracks, the train cars are data packets and the trains speed is the 'throughput'.

Now, to explain why the sat. has the lag:

Two trains leave the same station on parallel tracks. Each has 10 cars and each is traveling at the exact same speed. The only difference is my train (dsl) only has to travel 100 miles and your train (Hughesnet) has to travel 200 miles. Once your train pulls into the end station, it's traveling at the same "speed" it just had to go further. So the workers on the platform can unload the cars (the data) at the same speed, they just waited longer for it....

You may already understand, but I thought of that last night and had to share it HAHA.

[FishingBuds]

Nate my head hurts cause Im still thinking

BUT, why do you think TuneTown works on Satellite instead of live gaming on Xbox?

TuneTown is live, is it not the same compared to Xbox live gaming on rainbow six?

[BASSclary]

I'm not sure what TuneTown is, but xbox live is very picky so just a little bit off will give you major lag. Haha I wise man once said, "Women think giving birth is hard, obviously they've never played Call of Duty on a laggy connection."  8-)

[NateFollmer]

Toon town doesn't need to be "real time" like rainbow six does. Yes your walking around and chatting with each other, but it doesn't need to be as quick to respond as R6. Tt is lagging, you just dont notice Xbox live is horribly coded on the network end. I got the opportunity to work on an xbox live game with the Unreal Engine (it was never finished so it didn't get released, you'd be surprised how much that happens in the gaming industry), it just seems like xbla is passing more info than it needs to and sow be optimized better. Some games are better than others, but the entire system needs an overhaul.