Quick question about Ripwave and gaming.

ReefBreak

I may finally be able to get my hands on some BB after many months of headbanging with those fúckwits in Eircom. Ripwave appears to solve my woes as my phone line doesn't qualify for BB, and I can't install a satellite dish in my apartment.

Anyway, with a D/L speed of 512k and an U/L speed of 128k, is Ripwave suitable for playing games (notably Half-Life 2 when it's released)? I've never used broadband at home, so I'm quite ignorant on the whole issue.

Also, will the supplied equipment be able to take higher speeds at a later date? Or will I have to get a new Ripwave modem if/when IBB decide to offer greater speeds at some stage in the future?

Thanks, etc.

Moriarty

Ripwave is generally useless for FPS gaming. Pings are usually in the 200-500ms range, which is generally worse than a normal modem connection. Generally it's fine for browsing and downloading etc, although some people have had persistent problems even with that. There's a few active threads in here about the ripwave service in particular at the moment.

Ripwave

Moriarty wrote:

Ripwave is generally useless for FPS gaming. Pings are usually in the 200-500ms range, which is generally worse than a normal modem connection. Generally it's fine for browsing and downloading etc, although some people have had persistent problems even with that. There's a few active threads in here about the ripwave service in particular at the moment.

Pings are high, but they aren't quite that bad.

Ping statistics for jolt.co.uk (195.149.21.11):
Packets: Sent = 30, Received = 30, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 92ms, Maximum = 121ms, Average = 112ms


Ping statistics for www.boards.ie (82.195.131.128):
Packets: Sent = 30, Received = 30, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 145ms, Average = 101ms

Most of the delay is in the link from the modem to the transmitter - I presume it's due to the encryption and decryption on the signal.

Ping statistics for 62.231.49.1:
Packets: Sent = 30, Received = 30, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 110ms, Average = 94ms

ReefBreak

Ripwave wrote:

Pings are high, but they aren't quite that bad.

Cheers Moriarty/Ripwave.

Moriarty says no to for using it for FPS gaming. Ripwave, would you recommend it?

jonski

I believe it's also the unstable nature of the ping that can make it unsuitable for fps games online , having said that my knowledge of it is all hearsay . For fps games you really need to keep the ping fluctuation to a minimum you could play better with a steady ping between 120 and 130 than you could with a ping fluctuating between 70 and 140 .

Maybe if Ripwave has time he could run off a "ping -n 100" to jolt around 8 tonight and see if it variates much . That would give you a good idea . If you want it for gaming then don't think " oh I'll make do" because after a few weeeks it will drive you round the twist .

John.

Adey2002

playing fps games on IBB wireless is not a very nice experience. You'll be ripping your hair out and throwing PC parts out of the window after your first attempt.

machalla

Since the new ripwave has only a 30 day contract in effect its probably worth taking a chance on it if you have no other BB alternative.

Ripwave

machalla wrote:

Since the new ripwave has only a 30 day contract in effect its probably worth taking a chance on it if you have no other BB alternative.

If you're one of the 2,000 that don't have to pay an installation fee, that's definitely true. Once they start charging for installation, it'll be a different story.

Ripwave

jonski wrote:

Maybe if Ripwave has time he could run off a "ping -n 100" to jolt around 8 tonight and see if it variates much .

There's a ping -n 30 response in the post above yours, Jonski.

Ripwave

ReefBreak wrote:

Moriarty says no to for using it for FPS gaming. Ripwave, would you recommend it?

Beats me - I don't do FPS.

GreeBo

pings from right now ~ 1am to jolt.co.uk

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 65ms, Maximum = 341ms, Average = 139ms

Im not gonna paste them all but here is the last chunk
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=143ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=91ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=121ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=101ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=157ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=112ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=291ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=141ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=132ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=291ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=91ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=191ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=122ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=246ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=76ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=270ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=341ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=56

jonski

Ripwave wrote:

There's a ping -n 30 response in the post above yours, Jonski.

Saw that Ripwave , but it's all in the detail , and the post by redoxan says it all .

The difference in such a short space of time @ this hour of the night would make next to impossible to play FPS games .

John

Ripwave

jonski wrote:

Saw that Ripwave , but it's all in the detail , and the post by redoxan says it all .

The difference in such a short space of time @ this hour of the night would make next to impossible to play FPS games .

I got a lot less "jitter" than Redoxan -
Minimum = 92ms, Maximum = 121ms, Average = 112ms

Having said that, I noticed that the modem was giving a flashing red signal as I left this morning - I didn't have time to turn on the PC to see if I was getting a signal, or to check my intruder logs to see when the signal had dropped out.