Questions about gaming lag, virgin & infinity...

Sarge75 · 10-05-2013, 19:55

Hi, im currently on vm 20mb and seem to get quite a bit of lag when playing black ops online, ive tried every suggestion I could find on the net to improve things but none of it has made a blind bit of difference.

So now my question, is there any chance that changing to 30mb or 60mb may help? Or would the lag most likely be exactly the same?

Also on a side note, if things don't improve I may switch to bt infinity when its available here. Does anybody here use infinity, how does it compare for gaming?

If I had infinity installed can I have the line split so that it enters my property in 2 different places, so that I could have the phone and hub in 2 different rooms, like I have now with virgin or would this have to be done internaly with extensions or something?

Thanks guys, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Sephiroth · 10-05-2013, 20:47

I use Infinity & Virgin Media. My son mentioned lag on the VM circuit a few months ago - so I switched him onto Infinity.

A few weeks ago, he complained of lag on BT Infinity (ping to be precise - Black Ops) so I switched him back to VM where he has remained. In between the last two episodes, my circuit went from one upstream channel to two; the upstream is the critical item for this sort of gaming.

Being on 20 meg, if you have the older cable modem, you can't get two upstream channels. So you can report your modem as damaged (you'll need to turn internet off for a few days) and you'll get a SuperHub - or you can upgrade to 30 meg. The speed upgrade itself will do nothing.

Hope thathelps. BTW, if your area is hopelessly congested, it may not work out.

pabscars · 10-05-2013, 23:05

It would be easy for me to jump all over this and blame Vm as being crap for gaming but that isnt always the case (see above) but as soon as you mentioned (lag Ops) I thought it might not be all Vm's fault after all.

Firstly I play Black ops 2 a lot (stopped at 5th prestige) only because Black Ops 1 via xbox or PS3 is so laggy I point blank refuse to waste another minute with this reched game. I moved away from VM to Sky for gaming reasons mostly and I now have a pretty much perfect line for gaming, but and it's a pretty massive but, Black Ops 1 and 2 have to be the worst FPS game ive played from a lag perspective, and it can manifest itself in many ways.

By far the worst for me is host lag, thats when you pull host at the start of the game and suddenly you struggle like mad to get a kill, years ago on games like COD 4 when you got selected as host you got a host advantage and could seriously kick ass.

However with the more modern equivelant like Black Ops 2 they build in an element of lag to prevent the host from having the advantage, sometimes (most times for me) If I pull host the game plays like crap, so bad sometimes I rage quit and when I do back out of the game it comes up with the message about changing host, which proves my argument (in my eyes at least).

So cutting through all the usual possibilities, like wireless or wired, port forwarding blah blah blah, I would seriously try a different game and see if you experience the same issues whilst playing it.

I know it sounds like I hate Black Ops, but I dont, some games I can have great fun on, others suck major ass, its just the way the game is managing your connection at that particular point in time, or the host has a poor connection, or host lag.

These points may be contrevertial to some but Ive been playing FPS games for ever and you get to know how a game should play and when it's not quite right, even tonight I played a few games on my xbox and got elements of lag in 2 out of 3 games, so I back out and low and behold I'm host again.

Of course it may be possible your on a bad part of VM's network and changing to a higher speed may improve things, the only real proof is by giving it a go and seeing for yourself.

colin25 · 11-05-2013, 07:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabscars

It would be easy for me to jump all over this and blame Vm as being crap for gaming but that isnt always the case (see above) but as soon as you mentioned (lag Ops) I thought it might not be all Vm's fault after all.

Firstly I play Black ops 2 a lot (stopped at 5th prestige) only because Black Ops 1 via xbox or PS3 is so laggy I point blank refuse to waste another minute with this reched game. I moved away from VM to Sky for gaming reasons mostly and I now have a pretty much perfect line for gaming, but and it's a pretty massive but, Black Ops 1 and 2 have to be the worst FPS game ive played from a lag perspective, and it can manifest itself in many ways.

By far the worst for me is host lag, thats when you pull host at the start of the game and suddenly you struggle like mad to get a kill, years ago on games like COD 4 when you got selected as host you got a host advantage and could seriously kick ass.

However with the more modern equivelant like Black Ops 2 they build in an element of lag to prevent the host from having the advantage, sometimes (most times for me) If I pull host the game plays like crap, so bad sometimes I rage quit and when I do back out of the game it comes up with the message about changing host, which proves my argument (in my eyes at least).

So cutting through all the usual possibilities, like wireless or wired, port forwarding blah blah blah, I would seriously try a different game and see if you experience the same issues whilst playing it.

I know it sounds like I hate Black Ops, but I dont, some games I can have great fun on, others suck major ass, its just the way the game is managing your connection at that particular point in time, or the host has a poor connection, or host lag.

These points may be contrevertial to some but Ive been playing FPS games for ever and you get to know how a game should play and when it's not quite right, even tonight I played a few games on my xbox and got elements of lag in 2 out of 3 games, so I back out and low and behold I'm host again.

Of course it may be possible your on a bad part of VM's network and changing to a higher speed may improve things, the only real proof is by giving it a go and seeing for yourself.

Agree with this. i play black ops alot, host sucks major.

Upload speed is important, and ping (in my humble opinion),

But as said above, hosting tends to be reason for lag (I will often quit game, if I spot my connection lagging, and 9 times out of 10, I was hosting the game)

pabscars · 11-05-2013, 13:40

Just for kick's last night, me and 5 other friends played Cod 4 (private matches) all night via the xbox, the host was in Canada and the game played smooth as silk, one of mates who is on Vm's 100 Mbps tier was suffering from lag (warping) most of the time.

Tazz · 11-05-2013, 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I use Infinity & Virgin Media. My son mentioned lag on the VM circuit a few months ago - so I switched him onto Infinity.

A few weeks ago, he complained of lag on BT Infinity (ping to be precise - Black Ops) so I switched him back to VM where he has remained. In between the last two episodes, my circuit went from one upstream channel to two; the upstream is the critical item for this sort of gaming.

Being on 20 meg, if you have the older cable modem, you can't get two upstream channels. So you can report your modem as damaged (you'll need to turn internet off for a few days) and you'll get a SuperHub - or you can upgrade to 30 meg. The speed upgrade itself will do nothing.

Hope thathelps. BTW, if your area is hopelessly congested, it may not work out.

I think we need to also add that with Infinity if the connection has had a high level of interleaving applied to it the ping will be higher (I seem to recall your Infinity connection has a massive minimum latency Seph) Since I have moved from VM to BT Infinity ping has been nothing but stable and extremely lower than my VM connection because I have no interleaving applied.

Oh and lag... sorry what is lag? not seen that since the move

Qtx · 12-05-2013, 02:08

If a gamer has a choice of openreach fibre (infinity/sky) or VM, they would be a fool to take the VM line. VM's jitter problems which cause problems with games are well known and can persist for a year without virgin fixing it.

Lag, warping and other issues went when I dumped virgin and went to Sky. Gaming is much smoother now with a lower ping which is consistent

Harryn9000 · 12-05-2013, 03:52

fifa is another game that is bad for lag

Sarge75 · 12-05-2013, 14:51

Quote:

Being on 20 meg, if you have the older cable modem, you can't get two upstream channels.

I have the vmdg280, can this get two upstream channels and is this being done as part of the upgrade?

My phone exchange now says its accepting orders for infinity but I still cant get it, i live about 2-3 miles from the exchange. Could anybody give me a rough idea of how long im likely to have to wait for my cabinet to be enabled or is it impossible to say.

So for now ill have to stick with virgin and hope that things improve, but if they don't then when i have the option i will be switching to infinity.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Sephiroth · 12-05-2013, 14:55

No - the VMDG280 is not DOCSIS 3 compatible.

Yes - as part of the speed doubling, you'd get a Superhub which will support up to 4 upstream channels.

Jumping · 12-05-2013, 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarge75

My phone exchange now says its accepting orders for infinity but I still cant get it, i live about 2-3 miles from the exchange. Could anybody give me a rough idea of how long im likely to have to wait for my cabinet to be enabled or is it impossible to say.:

You need to find out when your FTTC cab is up as it doesn't matter about the exchange distance for FTTC.

What does the FTTC checkers says when you put your number or post code in?

The streetwork page is good to find out if Openreach is doing something near you.

Sephiroth · 12-05-2013, 16:41

Also you can have alook round your immediate area. If the BT cabinet has a larger newer cabinet a few yards away, then Infinity is available or shortly to be available to you.

Harryn9000 · 12-05-2013, 18:07

u could be waiting months my nearest exchange got done at christmas and i still cannot get it i'm looking june at earliest so just signed new contract with virgin still next year

Chrysalis · 13-05-2013, 14:03

BT and VM no comparison really.

Generally jitter is the prime factor for FPS type games.
Base latency is also a factor but in my opinion 2nd to jitter and packetloss, unless the base latency is hugely high.

Seph's son probably was used to a certian base latency so his game got thrown off with seph's highly interleaved line.

Sarge75 · 18-05-2013, 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jumping

You need to find out when your FTTC cab is up as it doesn't matter about the exchange distance for FTTC.

What does the FTTC checkers says when you put your number or post code in?

The streetwork page is good to find out if Openreach is doing something near you.

Tried the checkers and they say this, "We couldn't find any information about your postcode. This usually means that there are no current plans to roll out a fibre product to your postcode area" , so it doesn't look good and there's no sign of any new cabinets either.

I have another question, can you have congestion on one speed tier in your area and not on another or would all speed tiers be affected the same?