How do I get better latency for MMO games?

InternetSwag

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Hi there, my friend has a Mweb line, line speed is 1 meg. It's also uncapped, idk if it's unshaped.

He gets about 300-350 ms in WoW, I get around 600-700ms.

I was thinking of buying a USB dongle modem for internet, would that be faster and have lower latency? I'm a bit cautious about that though, because you hear they don't have as much uptime as adsl lines.

Otherwise I can upgrade my Telkom line that is expiring soon, how do I 'shop for better latency'.
I know it had got a lot to do with the server I connect to, but 300ms would be a big upgrade for me. I play on EU WoW.
 
you get a isp that uses sat-3 on not seacom.

try webafrica, or if you are in cape-town area you can also use mweb.

usb dongle will give you worse latency.
 
I am in Cape Town, so Mweb would be best bet? Do they have a listing of their offers on their website?
 
Ahh perfect! Thank you! I currently have a 3gb cap and 384 line speed so going uncapped 1mb will be like heaven. I'll just need to make a few phone calls first. Thank you once again.
 
If it's uncapped it is definitely not unshaped, unless he is paying R100k per month. If he wants better latency buy an additional unshaped account with 1 or 2GB on and switch to that only when gaming.
 
If it's uncapped it is definitely not unshaped, unless he is paying R100k per month. If he wants better latency buy an additional unshaped account with 1 or 2GB on and switch to that only when gaming.

It's not for him it's for me.

How much latency would a 1mb unshaped line get?
 
I am running a 4Mbps line with Webafrica and my latency was between 350-450 before Christmas and just after Christmas not sure what they did am getting latency between 200-250ms without any ping programs and my line is shaped I would recommend going with Webafrica
 
Hey InternetSwag,

If you're interested, drop me a PM with your details and I'll get a Sales dude to give you a shout quickly.
We have awesome latencies, especially if you go with the Home Pro, bundled with FreeZone :)

Lemme know!
 
Hey InternetSwag,

If you're interested, drop me a PM with your details and I'll get a Sales dude to give you a shout quickly.
We have awesome latencies, especially if you go with the Home Pro, bundled with FreeZone :)

Lemme know!
I checked out your signature, those prices are very low - I like that. It says 'would you like to add an adsl line', does that mean I can buy uncapped from Web Africa and run it on my telkom line? Will that still yield 1mb line speed?

Also, does line speed effect latency?

Thanks, and sorry for all the questions, but WA seems like the superior option by the looks of it.
 
Ahh perfect! Thank you! I currently have a 3gb cap and 384 line speed so going uncapped 1mb will be like heaven. I'll just need to make a few phone calls first. Thank you once again.

Hi InternetSwag
If you would like I can arrange a consultant to contact you to answer your questions.
Just send me a PM and I will arrange this.

Regards
MWEB Guy
 
I checked out your signature, those prices are very low - I like that. It says 'would you like to add an adsl line', does that mean I can buy uncapped from Web Africa and run it on my telkom line? Will that still yield 1mb line speed?

Also, does line speed effect latency?

Thanks, and sorry for all the questions, but WA seems like the superior option by the looks of it.

Good start :)
Adding your line means you can transfer it to you if you like, giving you a bundled deal with cheaper line rental. Otherwise you can still run the account off your Telkom line without having to transfer it to us.

The account will run at the speed you purchase, it's something that's limited on our end. Line speed may increase latency. For gaming, have a look at 1Mbps and up - also makes your downloads much better than 384kbps ;)
Should I PM you a Sales guys contact details and he can walk you through the package in a little more detail?
 
for those people comparing 1mb vs 4 mb vs 10mb etc it makes absolutely zero difference on your ping

please dont mislead people into thinking that if you get a 4mb adsl circuit its gonna have better latency compared to a 1mb adsl circuit.

yes of course the ISP account matters, but not the adsl circuit sync rate

the only exception would be that your IP based application requires more bandwidth than your connection is able to supply... Then your ping will be adversely effected. good example would be online gaming, but no game I know of even uses a 384k to its full use. Not even wow. Hon uses about 4k a sec... lol
 
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for those people comparing 1mb vs 4 mb vs 10mb etc it makes absolutely zero difference on your ping

please dont mislead people into thinking that if you get a 4mb adsl circuit its gonna have better latency compared to a 1mb adsl circuit.

yes of course the ISP account matters, but not the adsl circuit sync rate

the only exception would be that your IP based application requires more bandwidth than your connection is able to supply... Then your ping will be adversely effected. good example would be online gaming, but no game I know of even uses a 384k to its full use. Not even wow. Hon uses about 4k a sec... lol

I completely disagree. Up to a certain point you're correct, and beyond that point you need to recheck some facts.

I jumped from a 384 to a 1Mb line and I'd be lying if I said that my latency remains the same.
Pta -> Jhb dropped from 32 to 18ms
Pta -> Ctn dropped from 65 to 39ms
Pta -> London dropped from 290ms to 185ms

It all comes down, actually, in the majority, to some factors, mainly your upload speed. Download speed has less of an impact on your latency, as long as you have sufficient bandwidth available to provide instant space for the packets.
I can download at 75KB/s and still have a 250ms ping to London, but as soon as I start using up valuable upload speed, my latency increases.
And yes, this has been tested countless times by not just me. Tested it with a 10mb line too, same results.
 
I completely disagree. Up to a certain point you're correct, and beyond that point you need to recheck some facts.

I jumped from a 384 to a 1Mb line and I'd be lying if I said that my latency remains the same.
Pta -> Jhb dropped from 32 to 18ms
Pta -> Ctn dropped from 65 to 39ms
Pta -> London dropped from 290ms to 185ms

It all comes down, actually, in the majority, to some factors, mainly your upload speed. Download speed has less of an impact on your latency, as long as you have sufficient bandwidth available to provide instant space for the packets.
I can download at 75KB/s and still have a 250ms ping to London, but as soon as I start using up valuable upload speed, my latency increases.
And yes, this has been tested countless times by not just me. Tested it with a 10mb line too, same results.

you know you just compared your openweb vb account vs your webafrica openweb gold account :p

big differences is vb is seacom , webafrica is sat3, data centre for vb is jhb and webafrica is cpt.
 
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