• beefcat@beehaw.org
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    9 months ago

    i play games online, and wireless is prone to jitter and lag spikes.

    you don’t notice these things when browsing the web, streaming movies, or even downloading large games. but in multiplayer games it’s a problem

    i have gigabit fiber in my neighborhood though, so i’m not being forced to choose between shitty cable and compromised wireless

    • ColeSloth
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      9 months ago

      I also game online and have no lag or jitter(unless it’s server side and everyone is complaining). Like I said before. I have good ping and zero packet loss. Sounds like you had a bad wifi set up.

      • cobra89@beehaw.org
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        9 months ago

        Define “good” ping. (Latency is the proper term)

        Edit: Nvm, just saw your other comment. 50ms isn’t bad.

        30ms+ is high for cable in my experience. I was getting routinely in the high teens and low 20s.

        On fiber I get less than 10ms.

        • ColeSloth
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          9 months ago

          That’s all the way through the gateway using its wifi, too. I’m sure if I plugged in the ethernet cable and skipped the wifi it would shave off like 10ms.

          Can’t beat it for just $30 a month.

      • beefcat@beehaw.org
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        9 months ago

        Average ping isn’t really the problem with wireless, it’s packet loss. But my concern wasn’t WiFi, which has gotten pretty good, though still prone to issues with certain home designs and building materials. My concern was cellular networks. 5G reception at my house with two different major carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile) is just OK at best, and I measure plenty of packet loss and lag spikes. It’s not a problem for my phone, but I would find that unacceptable for my home internet.

        I don’t think we will ever reach a point where wireless technologies are as good as a hard connections. All the neat tricks we use to eek more bandwidth out of wireless spectrum like time division multiple access are equally applicable to both copper and fiber optic lines. And those copper and fiber optic lines have the benefits of having much more spectrum available to use, not having to share spectrum with nearly as many devices, and not having usable spectrum limited by line-of-sight. They also benefit from not needing to share nearly as many clients over the same medium, since each individual wire is it’s own medium, rather than sharing the same RF medium as every other wireless device in your locale.

        • ColeSloth
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          9 months ago

          There is no packet loss on mine. If I ping 20 packets, I get 20 packets. 100%

          • beefcat@beehaw.org
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            9 months ago

            20 packets is a very small sample size.

            ping also won’t necessarily capture all lost packets over wifi. Many are lost and re-transmitted by the wifi hardware without anything higher in the stack being aware.

            • ColeSloth
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              9 months ago

              Look, man. Keep trying to spin things as hard as you can, but my wifi doesn’t lose packets, and “higher than the stack” hiding dropped packets is pure baloney, since that would still show a substantial increase in ping time. Stop trying to make yourself feel vindicated for buying expensive internet.

              • beefcat@beehaw.org
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                9 months ago

                Hey man, I’m just speaking from 15 years of industry experience. Like I said, if you’re happy with the performance, that’s great. But I can objectively measure (and feel) the difference, so don’t go trying to tell me my personal experience is somehow invalid. People should know that there is, in fact, a difference. You’re not even addressing what I said about the latency and just getting hung up on packet loss.

                Also my internet is not expensive. My city has a municipal fiber network, and I only pay about $50/mo for symmetrical gigabit service. I don’t need to “vindicate” myself here. I don’t think people should have to settle for wireless internet to get away from Comcast when fiber is a faster option without compromises.

                • ColeSloth
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                  9 months ago

                  Industry experience in game lag? Ok. I guess I have 25 years experience starting with the original starcraft…

    • mayooooo@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      I think in my part of europe cable is the only realistic solution, every home cellular thing has a download limit. All of the cable offerings here are flat

    • kapx132@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago
      • secuirity cameras are safer if they are connected locally using ethernet cables, Wi-fi cameras are vurneable to jamming.