360 / Good broadband provider?

looking_around

Hi, I recently got myself a 360 ..and as you can guess I'm eager to go online with it.

I currently have 3G broadband. Which works up to a point. It seems to have a moderate NAT setting and apparently the best is "open". Not to mention my "network" settings often 'drop'/disconnect.

I'm in Newcastle West, Limerick.
And I'm wondering whats the 'best' broadband provider currently out there? Which do you use and hows your experiences with them been.

At the moment, I'm looking at UPC 10MB deal (the cheapest) but I don't know.

So, which would you suggest, if you can?

halolma

hey mate, I am with UPC for over a year now... and I have a 30MB connection, never ever had a problem with connection, latency or lag etc...

I would say that you should give these a go... takes awhile to get to chat to someone in support, but when you do, they are one of the friendliest to chat to, that I found in my opinion anywhere in the country.

I would recommend them to anyone!

zero19

I've been getting upc broadband for the last two years and i'm happy with the service i get.

Smoggy

I have UPC 10meg also, it works perfectly fine.

dunworth1

i have the 20mb from them and play perfectly fine online

Trevor451

UPC is by far the best ISP in Ireland. If its available in your area get it!

iMuse

Trevor451 wrote: »

UPC is by far the best ISP in Ireland. If its available in your area get it!

This. I would love to be able to get UPC in my area so if you can get it go for it. Fibre Broadband generally has lower latency than the DSL BB provided by eircom etc which is the most important thing when choosing a provider for gaming. The only other important thing from a console gaming perspective is Upload speed and UPC offer speeds far superior to the rest.

strife

Also With UPC its 100%, 100% of the time iv never had an issue (touch wood)
Iv had a few providers eircom included upc are by far and away the best!

siblers

If you're lucky enough to get UPC then go for it, Fibre Powered BB is the best broadband availble in the country

looking_around

Well..unfortunately ..I can't get UPC in my area ... had to call them up

Only choice I have here..is ripple or eircom. And eircom being too expensive,for me at the moment ... I have to go with ripple.

Anything is bound to work better than what I have now :P

But thanks all.

siblers

What's your budget?

looking_around

@siblers:

well ..€40 is the max I'm able to pay atm.

With ripple ..I'll be getting unlimited download, 8mb dl/1mb ul .. .. The speed could be better but anything better is also much higher in price X_X ..so guess it will have to do.

Not having a connected phone line limits my choice as well ):

naughto

have you tried vodafone iam with them the last year and have had no problems. u get a 70gb download limit a month for 43euro.iam on 8mb laind i get about 5-6mb

dunworth1

naughto wrote: »

have you tried vodafone iam with them the last year and have had no problems. u get a 70gb download limit a month for 43euro.iam on 8mb laind i get about 5-6mb

he has said he dosent have a land line

naughto

they will check his line to see if it will take bband for free.eircom wanted 50e to do it the f1uckers.surley thers a phone connection in the house but with out the phone being connected

v3ttel

Just to balance it out, I'm in Limerick City and my UPC connection is total rubbish. It'll drop anything up to 2 or 3 times an hour at its worst, and can go for 5 mins at a time. Makes gaming online a total nightmare (especially when even a 1 second connection drop disconnects you from the EA server).

If I download something like a film/tv show, everybody elses speed goes to dial up. (30Mb package).

Something is wrong somewhere.

dunworth1

i'm in limerick city and have 20mb upc and very rarely have any problems
and there's about 20 guys on here that can conform that.

i also have noticed that i have been the host on cod:bo games quiet often.

when you or anybody else is downloading on the connection they will get the max bandwidth available (unless its setup as to limit per user) in your case 30mb or about 3.5MB/s download

when someone is doing that if anyone tries to play games online there will be very little bandwidth available for the game even though it uses only a small amount.

its the speed that it takes to go from you to the server and back again (ping)
and when downloading aswell your ping can be affected.

looking_around

@naughto.

tbh, ripple is cheaper @ 39.99 ..(40) and unlimited download, same speed. I will get to test it with my xbox before any contract is started too.

@Rooney. heh, the internet dropping is annoying.
With the 3G... I can connect to others with the DS and play ..but its constantly disconnecting.
I've found though...that if I restrict everything else from using the internet. (Like automatic updates, messengers or even browsing) while gaming.. it stabilizes the connection...

Or as dunworth kinda said.
Maybe when you're downloading, set the bandwidth for that, to low. It'll be slower to download but it should help with the gaming.

My main problem with my current provider (3g) is the bloody NAT settings that restrict the 360.

zackonmac

looking_around wrote: »

My main problem with my current provider (3g) is the bloody NAT settings that restrict the 360.

See this http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70605868#post70605868

Elite_Etnisa

I see that not many of you know that online gaming is mostly your ping / latency not you down / up speed. You can have a 100 mb internet and a ping of 100 and still get killed by someone with 1 mb internet and ping of 20 .

Dues Bellator

VRRrrrrroooooom:D

looking_around

Elite_Etnisa wrote: »

I see that not many of you know that online gaming is mostly your ping / latency not you down / up speed. You can have a 100 mb internet and a ping of 100 and still get killed by someone with 1 mb internet and ping of 20 .

Its not like broadband providers tell you the "ping" when you're looking at which to choose...so you can only go by speeds and hope.
Also ... my problem..and most peoples it seems ..isn't the speed but the NAT...

looking_around

At almuno.. thats cool... thanks

I actually have a ping of 164ms 0o.

Dues Bellator

Elite_Etnisa wrote: »

I see that not many of you know that online gaming is mostly your ping / latency not you down / up speed. You can have a 100 mb internet and a ping of 100 and still get killed by someone with 1 mb internet and ping of 20 .

always seem to have a ping of around 18 to about 35 , its been like that since i had it installed about 4 years ago.