Ntl Online Gaming

14-09-2003, 20:39

isn't is about time NTL upped the upload speed for the 600 to 256 which would put it in line with ADSL providers.

I've been hosting a game of Battlefield 1942 today and people have been complaining of lagging and their was only 2 people playing at the time. Its the new version so its all up to date too

Steve H · 14-09-2003, 20:40

Agreed, It'd be nice to see the upload increased tottaly.. But at the mo, this doesnt look feasible for Cable companies.

DeadKenny · 16-09-2003, 12:53

It would be great. Does mean I'd drop the 1Mbps service and go back to 600 of course, as I only really have the 1Mbps for 256kbps upstream.

To me, with the upstream limits, NTL's services are much more expensive than ADSL because you need a higher package to get the same level of upstream

.

As for feasibility, there has been mention about technical limits... hmm, if you can have 256kbps on 1Mbps, then why not on 600kbps? Surely it's just a cap issue?

Dooby · 16-09-2003, 14:42

I believe its to do with the protocol/transport ( DOCSIS ), in that it is only really designed to work at a 1:4 ratio for upload:download ( having said that I believe the upload for 128k is 64k, so it can be done ) I think BBKing or someone mentioned before some trials regarding a 1:2 ratio and that it didnt work too well at 256:512

Ignition · 17-09-2003, 11:43

It's absolutely to do with DOCSIS. At current cap on 600k service and 150k, in some areas there is more upstream traffic than downstream, in the majority of areas it's no better than 2:1 ratio in favour of downstream.

Remember that on ADSL you connect to a DSLAM and the only limitation to symettrical connections is the signal quality to your home rather than bandwidth at the exchange, which is symettrical. The current version of DOCSIS doesn't have any provision for this, and ratio of total bandwidth available is about 2:1 downstream to upstream. There are things that can be done to improve this slightly however these require considerable work and expense (not to say it won't be done at some point tho!)

To be honest that's the main reason. Remember home connections weren't originally conceived to be hosting games or, more pertinently, be uploading 100% of the time on p2p networks. Supplying a 256k upstream on 600k service would increase upstream congestion hugely which would then result in loads of upgrades having to be done, which have to be paid for by Mr customer at the end of the day.

Upstream usage is already massively disproportionate to downstream use without doing the above. That would badly skew it even more.

There's your choice really. 256k would be simple to supply, but the extreme congestion, and packet loss + latency ensuing from this, really wouldn't be worth it, would it?

Hope that explains things. Not a question of ntl: being mean just that at current usage levels it would be a bad idea.

The trial BBKing was referring to I vaguely remember, was a 'silver-plus' service. Not sure what the feedback was, but going by the fact nothing has been heard about it since it can't have been good.

17-09-2003, 12:01

Good info their JustAnotherN00b but dont agree with "paid for by Mr customer at the end of the day."

We the customer are NTL's biggest profit maker on BB so its about time they started respecting us or sooner or later they could find themselve's loosing us and not just their TV & phoneline customers

Stuart · 17-09-2003, 12:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Defiant
We the customer are NTL's biggest profit maker on BB so its about time they started respecting us or sooner or later they could find themselve's loosing us and not just their TV & phoneline customers

Yeah, that is true. Bear in mind, however, that most people don't seem to mind the upload speed and NTL are not likely to spend millions (or at least hundreds of thousands) of pounds upgrading the network to keep a few customers happy. That's not to say they won't upgrade in the future.