Personally, I've never really had a consistently good ISP (aside from when in university), though the closest I've ever seen to consistent was back when I had Comcast in Massachusetts over a decade ago. To be fair, that was back when I also played games like HL/DM/TFC and other shareware games on an IBM laptop though, and probably didn't notice certain things like jittering very well to begin with, haha.
In a nutshell, trust local reviews wherever you can find and specifically see if you know any gamers around where you live that you can ask what they would suggest. It truly does vary from area to area, and sometimes you may even be doomed to a certain ISP if you live in some areas like I do (the outskirts of the RDU area in central North Carolina). For example in my case, I'm pretty much forced to have Time Warner Cable, or Road Runner as they also go by, as an ISP, and have to face some of the most ridiculous routing to game servers in general. That poor routing is thanks to TWC's Internet backbone being probably one of the most inconsistent, poorly understood (at least by their Customer Support) aspects of the company ever, and despite numerous requests, it apparently "can't be fixed".
I still have TWC though, but thankfully I get to move back on-campus soon and get to split an apartment, so yay for large public research university T1 line with 60-70 ping to the other side of the country (Cali).
Pheeshanyone lucky enough to have google fiber yet? When I had verizon fios it was fantastic...stable and good upload.
Apparently the Raleigh-Durham area is getting Google Fiber in the future according to their website, though that entirely depends on how the areas here "prepare" for it. Should be exciting to see if it does come through in more and more places though.
Personally, I've never really had a consistently good ISP (aside from when in university), though the closest I've ever seen to consistent was back when I had Comcast in Massachusetts over a decade ago. To be fair, that was back when I also played games like HL/DM/TFC and other shareware games on an IBM laptop though, and probably didn't notice certain things like jittering very well to begin with, haha.
In a nutshell, trust local reviews wherever you can find and specifically see if you know any gamers around where you live that you can ask what they would suggest. It truly does vary from area to area, and sometimes you may even be doomed to a certain ISP if you live in some areas like I do (the outskirts of the RDU area in central North Carolina). For example in my case, I'm pretty much forced to have Time Warner Cable, or Road Runner as they also go by, as an ISP, and have to face some of the most ridiculous routing to game servers in general. That poor routing is thanks to TWC's Internet backbone being probably one of the most inconsistent, poorly understood (at least by their Customer Support) aspects of the company ever, and despite numerous requests, it apparently "can't be fixed".
I still have TWC though, but thankfully I get to move back on-campus soon and get to split an apartment, so yay for large public research university T1 line with 60-70 ping to the other side of the country (Cali).
[quote=Pheesh]anyone lucky enough to have google fiber yet? When I had verizon fios it was fantastic...stable and good upload.[/quote]
Apparently the Raleigh-Durham area is getting Google Fiber in the future according to their website, though that entirely depends on how the areas here "prepare" for it. Should be exciting to see if it does come through in more and more places though.
omzfios is really good if you have the cash for it
but as they say pick 2
cheap
stable
fast
Unless you can get Google Fiber. Unless you don't consider $70 cheap, even though it is for what you get.
[quote=omz]fios is really good if you have the cash for it
but as they say
[quote]pick 2
cheap
stable
fast
[/quote][/quote]
Unless you can get Google Fiber. Unless you don't consider $70 cheap, even though it is for what you get.
Move to a city that has Google Fiber!
Move to a city that has Google Fiber!
fios is pretty much the only reason i was ever able to stream especially with my pos graphics card
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3692036179.png
fios is pretty much the only reason i was ever able to stream especially with my pos graphics card
[img]http://www.speedtest.net/result/3692036179.png[/img]
avoid at&t in Illinois at all costs. They wanted to rewire my entire house because at peak usage times I was getting sub 1mbit speeds + euro ping. Their customer support is nice and you can get your routing changed at will via the phone.
avoid at&t in Illinois at all costs. They wanted to rewire my entire house because at peak usage times I was getting sub 1mbit speeds + euro ping. Their customer support is nice and you can get your routing changed at will via the phone.
I think any isp that provides fiber optic is your best option. But I had AT&T before and got about 10 ms less than with my current isp, Sonic.net.
I think any isp that provides fiber optic is your best option. But I had AT&T before and got about 10 ms less than with my current isp, Sonic.net.
Dave_avoid at&t in Illinois at all costs. They wanted to rewire my entire house because at peak usage times I was getting sub 1mbit speeds + euro ping. Their customer support is nice and you can get your routing changed at will via the phone.
Wait, you say 'avoid them', then give a good review?
The wiring in your house may have been the problem, if you're on DSL over old phone lines.
[quote=Dave_]avoid at&t in Illinois at all costs. They wanted to rewire my entire house because at peak usage times I was getting sub 1mbit speeds + euro ping. Their customer support is nice and you can get your routing changed at will via the phone.[/quote]
Wait, you say 'avoid them', then give a good review?
The wiring in your house may have been the problem, if you're on DSL over old phone lines.