ISPs and ping to local game servers

[bishibosh]

I want to know:

What ISP's actually have decent latency and no packet loss?

After being stuck on Smart Village for a few years I longed to get ADSL. Then 2 months back, Telkom finally started installing lines to my complex and I got a 4Mbps line. I initially signed up with Afrihost and after a month of poor service I got trial accounts at axxess and webafrica. Then I spotted the Vox special and signed up with them. What I've found is:

[table="width: 500, class: grid"]
[tr]
[td]ISP[/td]
[td]Ping (local Dota server)[/td]
[td]Packet loss[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Afrihost[/td]
[td]~120[/td]
[td]3% - 15%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Axxess[/td]
[td]~120[/td]
[td]3% - 15%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Web Africa[/td]
[td]~90[/td]
[td]0%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Vox[/td]
[td]~100 (300 all day the one day though)[/td]
[td]2%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Smart Village[/td]
[td]~55[/td]
[td]0%[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I've had issues with Smart Village and packet loss before but at the moment they actually seem to be providing a better service than the other DSL providers I've tried. After hating them for so long, I can't believe that ADSL ISP's are so terrible. I thought getting 60ms ping to a local game server was bad and expected better from DSL.

The packet loss issue also affects youtube, because the player just gets stuck or starts stuttering.

 

[ashfaak]

Interesting. Where are you located? Which games?

Edit: Saw Dota in the table now

Ran these on Web Africa Home Capped. I'm in Cape Town.

Dota SA2 (Cape Town)

Ping statistics for 197.80.200.1:
    Packets: Sent = 29, Received = 29, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 30ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 30ms

Dota SA3 (Joburg)

Ping statistics for 196.38.180.1:
    Packets: Sent = 28, Received = 28, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 46ms, Average = 29ms

 

[bishibosh]

Yeah I should have mentioned. I'm located in Cape Town and talking Dota 2. The ping times in my table are based on what the net_graph command in dota showed me. The packet loss was based on me pinging local google.com server (ping google.com -n 100), which is a fair measurement because I get packet loss regardless of what I'm doing (gaming / browsing / streaming).

To follow your more accurate measurement methods though:
Smart Village - 4Mbit uncapped

Ping statistics for 197.80.200.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 99, Lost = 1 (1% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 49ms, Average = 26ms

Ping statistics for 196.38.180.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 98, Lost = 2 (2% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 18ms, Maximum = 46ms, Average = 21ms

Afrihost - 100GB capped

Ping statistics for 197.80.200.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 35ms, Maximum = 413ms, Average = 48ms

Ping statistics for 196.38.180.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 33ms, Maximum = 455ms, Average = 71ms

Vox - 100GB capped

Ping statistics for 197.80.200.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 200ms, Average = 35ms

Ping statistics for 196.38.180.1:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 198ms, Average = 32ms

For some reason Smart Village is leaking packets this morning and the DSL isn't. But the ping time jumps up to very large maximums on the DSL, where SV is way more stable.