Networking Experts - Is my theory valid?

[doublefrangelico]

OK Sometimes I have a good response playing Guild Wars and sometimes it just is too laggy.

In both these instances, the measurement on UtTracestar is constantly between -78 to -80.

Also, whenever my IBurst is laggy with Guild Wars, I dial up using Bluetooth to my phone and GPRS to MTN. This works fine. (a handy tip for those GW addicts)
Also, in both instances, the transfer rate is the same(I know this has nothing do with latency, but just throwing it in there...)
So the problem isn't with the GW servers or the international link in those instances. (unless IBurst uses a different intl. link?)

So taking that into consideration, here's my theory:

1. If the modem signal is constant in both instances

• and if the Connection to GW via GPRS works fine when IBurst sucks

surely it means that the
WBS towers or proxy servers or something at WBS is causing the bad latency?

 

[fishfly]

Maybe it's the Overloading the ppl are talking about?

As of late my connection has been fluctuating as well on tuesday my connection was so crap I could only play at 12am

Last nite my connection was flying like a whore
tonight? I got a feeling it's goign to be medicore

 

[doublefrangelico]

that sounds all too familiar.....

 

[rustic]

Is it not to do with shaping, i know iburst shapes but does MTN?

 

[doublefrangelico]

I don't think that Shaping would affect the latency.

In any case, sometimes it's fine and sometimes it sucks, so that should already discount Shaping being the culprit. (I never go over my cap)

 

[doublefrangelico]

An unexpected Improvement

I don't accept failure easily so I started trying things which might not make immediate sense.

I hadn't upgraded my Firmware because it is such a schlep to drag the modem out of the roof and connect it via USB in order to do the Firmware upgrade.

I did it and also upgraded my drivers to the latest version (dunno what the previous version was, cos there's no Fcking way to tell, so i had to set up Internet Sharing again for some fcking reason mumble mumble)

Anyway

the result was that I could play Guild Wars again without lag. It might be a coincidence but time will tell.

I'll let you know

 

[seburn]

There is something that can cause this anomaly:
utTraceStar only gives you the signal strength, in general this is an accurate measure of your connection.

There is however the Frame Error Rate as iBurst calls it. IE you can sometimes have the same signal strength but not the same signal quality.

If you ever looked at the menu for DSTV you will see they have these 2 indicators as well Signal strength and Signal Quality.

But there is probably little you can do about this besides what you have done.

There is a slightly changed ping test program called outrace that can measure the quality of your connection, and in some cases re-aligning the arial to a lower signal strength can improve your connections lag. I advise the use of both programs for ppl who still have issues like yours after just using my program. You can do a less reflective ping test yourself while running my app type ping www.iburst.co.za -l 1 -t in a cmd window.

-l 1 limits the waste of bandwidth to 1 byte each time
-t allows the test to carry on infinitely

To end the Test press ctrl c and look at the average min max stats. More importantly packets lost should be 0.
This ping test must be done while the connection is not being used otherwise results are near useless.

 

[doublefrangelico]

Thanks will try that

Thanks Seburn

I'll try that.

What is the cause of reduced quality with the same signal strength though? is it simply an anomaly in the connection? Weather, overloading?