ISP advice? Do i need to change for good gaming quality?

[adam1712]

I currently am with AOL and have been since i can remember so we are on a rediculasly cheap deal and not tied in since the contract ended years ago... They often ring up and offer us 'new deals' which are slower and more expensive than what we currently get.

Using speedtest.net i have checked and we get a consistant ~3.5 download, ~0.35 upload and a ping around 45. With 0 packet loss and 1ms jitter.

I know these arent the biggest speeds in the world but i think (and this is what i am asking on here for) that they are decent for online gaming, mainly going to be battlefield 3. I can upgrade to BT fibre optic if i want but i will be stuck to an 18 month contract for twice what i am paying now. I will get 26 download and 5 upload but they wont give me latency information. And from what i have been looking at online it can be very hit and miss with fibre and with BT.

I can deal with the slower down/up speads aslong as i can play battlefield 3 (which ive just built an expensive whole new system for) online without lagging around everywhere.

And to add to the mix BT infinity throttles P2P file sharing which apparently can effect some games (making them unplayable)

What do you guys think i should do?

Thanks

 

[Mu33rto]

Go to http://www.dslreports.com/search search using youre zip code. And see what your neighbors are saying about the ISP near you. -->Sounds like a spam post<--- its not..lol

 

[roagie]

The main thing you're looking for is low latency, so the fact they are not giving you this is suspect. This is the response time from when you press the button until the time that action was recognized. To me down and up speed would be secondary *within reason of course*.

I googled the term BT Fiberoptic and gaming, and it seems users are fairly happy with their results. I would find someone with the service and grill them mercilessly!

 

[adam1712]

Thanks mu33rto but im in the UK, that is the exact kind of website i could do with though!

And roagie i understand that, would you say that latency of 45ms is okay? And would you say my download/upload is sufficient to play online (i read somewhere if your getting over 1MB/s then your getting more than enough)
And i was going to ask around but i can find no one with it aruond here

 

[steimy]

The download should be fine, and unless you are hosting a game that requires your bandwidth to support it then upload should not come into play much.

I had 8 down and only 450kb/ps upload and was fine gaming online with the exception of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 where i could not host due to extremely low upload rates. You may experience a bit of lag here and there just because you are in a room full of people who just plain have blazing fast internet but nothing major.

But i will say i do not like internet companies that throttle anything. So if i had no money issues, and it were me i would probably search my area for my options. Who could i go with to get the most speed for my money and not get locked into any contracts if possible.

Off-topic: Battlefiled 3 is going to be amazing. I have the Xbox version on preorder myself. Being two discs it must be huge.

 

[roagie]

45ms is fine . And yes your down/up is good too. I don't see any problems unless you run into throttling.