Hope Im not going to regret this....

[GDW]

After using modems for the past five years Ive decided to go for ADSL. Now because I live in Northern Ireland Ive only got the choice of Openworld or NTL. Im happy with my phone service from BT and have a basic Sky subscription which is miles better than NTL ...so Ive chosen Openworld.

I use the internet mainly for surfing, downloading and a bit of TFC gaming. After reading some of the posts on this forum Im beginning to wonder if ive done the wrong thing.

One query I have is do BT supply a modem within their installation charge or is this extra. I didnt see mention on their website that there would be an extra charge for this. Can anyone enlighten me.

 

[SoWat]

You're going to regret this

You could be lucky and get a decent Home Gateway (HG), but BTO still seems to worse than the rest when it comes to gaming. General webby stuff is fine.

They supply you with an Alcatel USB 'slug' (assuming you're going for Home500).

Hope your line tests go ok!

 

[old.Reverend Flatus]

Nooo, don't got for BT Ope...ah, too late.

 

[Perplex]

Should have used a lifeline mate - BTo sucks ass compared to NTL Calemodem

 

[Moving Target]

yep

 

[Wazzerphuk]

BTo pales in comparison with my old winmodem ffs :/

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Waiting on ISDN

Whilst I was hoping for an ADSL connection from BT,unfortunatly they don't have it available in my area .However,I am now awaiting an ISDN conversion,which I've been told will happen on 2/11/01 .
Do any of you guys use it on Barrysworld servers? and if so what kind of oing times should I expect for both 64k & 128k respectively?.
Let's face it,it'sgotta be better than a 56k modem!!.My last modem was a dreaded winmodem (dare I say it) and it sucked big time.My present one being a hardware one has shown an improvement with pings in the 130-170 range on a good day.
Any feedback would be appreciated,Thanx..

 

[throdgrain]

Ive used isdn for the last year or so now.I honestly think it's a better alternative to adsl for gaming purposes ,tho not for downloading!
with a decent isp i get 35-60 ping on q2 .45-75 on c.s. and 50-80 on q3.even with bt anytime isp my pings are mostly only 10 tp 20 up on those figures.Bear in mind tho bt anytime has its bad times,ive had pings up to 300 then! but that usually only lasts for a day or two,and u can use another isp for then .
make sure you get a good terminal adaptor,its makes a difference.i got an asus one from www.solwise.co.uk. well cheap and very good!
last thing,64 to 128 makes little or no difference on ping times i'm told .
good luck

 

[kameleon]

you are right there mate a good isdn adapter makes all the difference i bought a cheapo one as a stopgap because the shop didnt have any Asuscom cards in stock. My ping was about 100. As soon as I installed the Asuscom card it dropped to 45-60.

It doesnt make your ping any lower when you tie both channels together for the 128k in fact I found it made it worse! Just use the 64k for gaming with a surf package and you can enjoy cheap and enjoyable gaming.

P.S. whatever you do dont get the card BT offer to supply they are crap

 

[Embattle]

Thats because by bonding the channels you only increase your badwidth.....you should be able to increase your rates though and maintain the same ping with both channels bonded.

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Re:Waiting on ISDN

Thanx for the info you guys supplied me regarding the ISDN.
I must say I am surprised that there isn't any noticable difference in ping between 64k and 128k.Let's face ie,that can only be a good thing,as yawl will know 128k access involves using x2 64k lines which incurs 2 call costs but the pings that have been mentioned in the last few posts are very respectable and more than adequate for gaming.
It's mainly for gaming I want it anyway.As I'm taking advantage of BT Surftogether 1 line will be free but with the 2 it wouldn't, YES!!,he jumps with joy at the thought of no extra cash outlay.
I'll have to hunt about and find a decent ISP which offers good connection speeds and as close to the backbone as poss.
I've heard some horror stories about BT Anytime so I'll be giving them a body swerve I think.
And also cheers for the suggestions about the cheap terminal adapters,I suppose you get what you pay for uh?.
Cheers & beers SoulKlekta.

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

I've been checkin out throdgrain's suggestion of Solwise regarding prices and such like,don't you think they're just a little more expensive than BT?,or does the cash-back scheme compensate for this?.
I'm looking for opinions here guys,I take it that the general feeling is that the Asus terminal adapters are probably the best to go for yeah?.
I'm planning to go get rid of some of my disposable income this weekend on a PCI adapter,I was looking at the £40 - £60 range.I'm hoping I can get kitted out with something half decent for that kinda cash

 

[throdgrain]

Well i got the isdn from BT.I dont think it matters who u get it from cos its dial up,i.e whoever you please.
however i got the terminal adaptor from solwise,the asus model.this cost me like 35 quid at the time or something.the bt one i remember was about £50 at the time.Bear in mind the difference between the two is about 50 ping!! i'd say i'd buy the asus one even if it was 100 quid and the bt £50,let alone the other way round....!
i dunno how much the bt TA is nowadays,but i'd call it a false economy.Trust me on this please....
buy an asus TA!

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Thats good enough for me m8!,the difference between £35 and £50,however long ago it was, is £15 better in my pocket than in BT's in anybody's money!.
When you refer to the BT ta,do you mean the BT Speedway

 

[throdgrain]

ya thats it,the speedway.ppl i know have got that and ping at 100 on the same servers i ping at 45-60.
even with bt anytime occasionally.....

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Hi yawl ,well thats the nice man in the grey van with the ladders on the roof been round,he came on Friday (2nd Nov as promised actually!!).

I was climbing the walls that first night,there it was,that new box stuck on the wall with 2 blue RJ-45 sockets just screaming out for some kind of insertion:smileysex

I went straight into town on the Saturday morning after a couple of calls to check prices etc.
To my dismay though,I couldn't get an Asus TA anywhere,Shock Horror!!.

I ended up with an internal Winbond PCI TA,it does the job though,I've been getting pings in the 40-50's when playin pretty much anywhere on Q3,a big reduction from 150+.

I'm getting higher pings on Q2 than Q3 though,am I right in presuming this is connected to the net code in Q2?,any suggestions as to what my 'rate' should be for 64k/128k?.
I think I've set it at 5000 and 10000.

I still plan to get an Asus model though,what model is the Asuscom card you are using Kamelion?

Mental Note;Go look at Asus web-site and see whats what.

 

[Jaypers]

SoulKlekta,

How much did your ISDN cost you in total?

ADSL is supposed to be a bit dodgy for gaming, if ISDN is cheaper and its more reliable then maybe it is a better option.

Quick ADSL question as well, I live about 2 kilometers away from my ADSL exchange, does the further away you are from the exchange make a big difference to quality of ADSL service?

By the way you can see how far you are from your exchange here…

http://www.nothing-on.tv/adsl/std_query.html

JayP

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

I'm under a mile from my exchange m8 but because it's a rural area the exchange isn't equipped for ADSL uke: .

ADSL was my first choice when I decided to go for broadband but , as you can guess,I was spewin when I found out I couldn't get it.

I know it's much faster than ISDN,take for example live streaming video at about 80kb per second!!,you can only imagine what that would do to your ping times in Quake

About the only difference (IMHO) the distance you are from the exchange would make would be net connections improving & degrading depending on how many people are surfing etc via your exchange,which in reality isn't gonna make any difference to your connection speed.

I have BT HomeHighway ISDN which costs £39 per mnth with a £13 call allowance but my Surftime package is included in the £39 which,in effect brings my call allowance down to £7 per month.

 

[Jaypers]

thanks for the reply mate

na f00k that then, i'll just go for adsl

nildram seem a good option

cause bt are cunts

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

I dunno if that sounded clear or not m8?,
the £39 per month is what you pay for your ISDN (HomeHighway),that includes line rental and thats your Surftime all in.

The call allowance is,I suppose BT's way of sayin thanx ,as thats how much free calls (either peak-rate surfin or voice calls) you get.

I would have had the ADSL if it had been available in my area without a doubt,the speed is much faster.
Still,on sayin that,I'm gettin ping times in the 30-50's on most servers I play on.
I play Quake 3 & Quake 2-CTF (old habits die hard )

 

[throdgrain]

at the moment you'd be mad to get adsl for gaming.just read this thread! adsl is racked with packet loss and high pings atm

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Yeah totally m8!,this and other forums I frequent have all threads in em about the same thing.

I know BT are causin a lot of probz just now with their ADSL,some of the other providers aren't too hot it seems either .

Btw,I like your clan site,it rox!.
I have TYB versions of Dreamweaver,Flash-5 & Fireworks-4 but I haven't installed em yet.

You got many RA3 players in KEA?

 

[throdgrain]

Thanks m8 yes we do but mostly u.s. players for some reason
i am more q2 and cs meself ...

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

You can't beat abit of Q2 fraggin dude ,I like Q2-CTF but I also njoy Q3-DM,Q3-TDM and RA3.

Were you ever into RA2?

 

[throdgrain]

i ve plyd it but mostly u can find our players on g.i.newt xatrix server.u have to have the reckoning mod to play tho.i.p is 195.147.246.71.27910 maybe see u on there sometime.
will we be seeing ur clan in the savage tdm league soon?

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

Yeah I have The Reckoning and Ground Zero dude,

I must admit,I prefer the Xatrix Mod over GZ.
Tell me,is the GI: Darkhour DM server still up?,that was a regular haunt of mine a couple of years back.

A Clan is a bit of a sore point for me just now m8,I'm not calling anyone down but I'm waiting on a try out for a Q3-TDM clan,they seem a well organized clan just pretty busy I think??.

Also a Q2-CTF clan,I have been told I'm in,told to use the tag etc but haven't been in any games or even told where the clan web site is,or praccys for that matter!!

At the moment I'm just 'freelancing' so to speak,I had thought about trying to form a Q3 clan but then I thought about all the work involved and thought better of it LOL.

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

How often do you go on the GI Xatrix server? and what kinda pings do ya get?

I've been gettin good pings on Jolt servers recently,I play CTF on Jolt (1) CTF server a fair bit.

 

[throdgrain]

darkhour is still up and running i play on it sometimes
on gi newt i get like 50-60 ping pretty much all the time,and on good days it can go down to 40 and below.i been playing that mod for years now,i took a break for a few months recently,but i crept back on it last week and have plyd a lot since then.its prolly cos i know most of the ppl on there,its a bit of a backwater so to speak,and so you dont get any cheats or (too many) wankers on there!

 

[old.SoulKlekta]

GI : Darkhour was a bit like that from what I remember,you seemed to get your regulars on it & no ass-holes (well,not too many )

I'll mark it in my game browser & keep my eye on it,does it use the standard iD Xatrix maps or custom maps?,the reason I ask is coz I don't have too many custom maps for that mod and I h8 d/l'in em from the game,it 'steals' bandwidth from peeps playin on the svr too.

Is thodgrain you player name too yeah?

 

[throdgrain]

sure m8 throdgrain is the only name i use. mider{KEA} fishy{KEA}
morto{KEA} and quite a few others are also to be found on there
yep darkhour was the first server i remember using for q2,there was ADS clan members on there then [for example],and there still are now.thats what i like,a bit o continuity lol