Broadband Online Gaming

[jac114]

O,k I have been thinking about getting broadband for sometime now and know plenty of you have got it.. Now there are more games on the market for online gaming it seems worthwhile getting.. My question IS: what connection speed will work ie 150/256/512

and does anybody now how much the xbox live package costs? and is there any cost for online gaming with ps2/xbox.. I have looked about and tiscali seem to have a good deal

(free modem free connetion and 512k for £24.99)

but I just get so confussed as to what you need

craig

[ColinBarber]

I would say you need a 512 link for X-box live so that there is enough bandwidth for the speech to work.

[Dodgy]

I've got the PS2 My mates have the X Box and they say it great. i haven't connected my PS 2 to the internet yet but i will be soon. as for Broadband colins right 512 is the min. as for service provider I'm with AOL (free modem free connetion and 512k for £27.99) now i no it's £3 more but there help line is free,which can be a great benefit if needed.

[Dunkie]

AOL has terrible Latency with lots of online games....

I would get a standard ADSL (512K) with someone like nildram for gaming.

Or even use Jolt as they have their own gaming servers and so the pings will be a lot lower.

The thing that is important with online gaming is the ping to the hosted server, the lower the better.

Xbox live (£40 to buy the kit) is free for a year and then £4.99 per month thereafter.

One thing to note is that if you are only using an xbox and not a PC to connect you WILL need a broadband router and NOT a USB modem which is what a lot of these free deals offer to be honest.

you will need to connect your Xbox to a router to connect to the internet via adsl so please bear that in mind when you are ordering. If you use a pc you can do a smiliar thing using ICS (internet connection sharing) and a network switch/hub.

One thing to also note is that some ISP's do block some protocols and ports on their service so make sure they do confirm that Xbox and PS/2 ports and protocols are fully supported and that the router will not block these.

if you need any more help let me know.

Dunk

[jac114]

thanks for that advice dunkie.. spot on mate.. i will get broadband into pc then i will connect xbox into pc as well.. although i must confess to not knowing how to set up internet sharing or what box i need or can i just use an t10base ethernet card?

cheers dunkie

craig

[Dunkie]

craig let me know how you get on

I have some crappy 10mbit 4 port hubs here I can let you have one or two with a couple of patch leads (let me know how long you need em!) to help you get setup.

pm or post here if you need any more help mate.

[teabag]

you need a router which is compatable with the X box to share the internet connection.

we use the Netgear RP 614 it works very well, have 3 computers and X box on it, and also is a firewall. cost about £50 from simply.co.uk.

network cables and other bits are cheap as chips from screwfix

Belkin offer a similar model it is cheaper but more complex to set up.

Xbox live kit costs about £30 and also includes you 1 year subscription.

our connection is telewest blueyonder 512Mb

hope that helps

[jac114]

so do i have to have xbox live..?? or just a router with broadband connection or both??

[phunt]

youll need both xbox live subscription and broadband connection.also as a quick side note,if your xbox is chipped make sure its xbox live compatible b4 you go online because if it isnt youll get your subscription banned and youll need to do some jiggery pokery to get it back or maybe even end up having to buy another subscription.

[OLI_EP3]

Check out

THIS

I know Plusnet are good and have some good packages depending on what you want.

512k for £19 (I think) but that doesn't support P2P or kazaa like file sharing.

I play command and conquer zero hour on a 56k and it seems ok on 1v1s I think 256k is sufficient for most but as many have said, 512 is minimum for consoles.

[liam]

Be very careful with your internet provider as a lot of them tie you up to a contract for 12months i use pipex £23.44 per month self installations free modem and 2 free microfilters. Also i have heard that nildram is a good ISP Ccheck them out just do a search on google for webpages