Best Broadband Provider in Dublin for Online Gaming?

mcgooch

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on the best/most reliable broadband provider for online gaming in Dublin city centre?

I hear Eircom are very good, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/opinions on BT or NTL/Chorus. Has anyone experienced any problems with online gaming when using either of these providers?

many thanks,

mcgooch

pizzahead77

Are you able to get Smart Telecom broadband?

They host the gaming servers for lanparty.ie which will really help the in-game ping times

mcgooch

I currently have Smart broadband and it's very good for gaming. I'm moving apartment soon so was just interested to see if there were any better services available. I may stick with Smart becuase their internet service is very good for gaming and very reliable in general. It's their television service that's really dreadful, but I guess I could get that from another source.

thanks for the reply,

mcgooch

pwd

pizzahead77 wrote: »

Are you able to get Smart Telecom broadband?

They host the gaming servers for lanparty.ie which will really help the in-game ping times

never noticed the smart server in the server list in tf2 oddly.
All the servers on lanparty.ie were shown as empty when I looked just now. Are there prearranged times when people play on them?

BrotherGrim

I've used Eircom, BT & I'm currently on Irish Broadband fixed wireless 2Mb & tbh, there's little difference between them. I get a better ping on IBB than either of the other 2 but can't torrent. BT billing is a mess & any serious comms problem Eircom has will effect the other phone type connections (BT etc). A plus for IBB is I can host a game as its 2Mb each way. A negative is some UK servers I get a high ping (60-70, usually 20-30) but thats through peak hours.

christophicus

Don't go with Eircom for gaming. Atm their ping times are all over the place.

Smart are aguably the best. Their servers never really have too much activity though from what I have seen.

Scoti

mcgooch wrote: »

I currently have Smart broadband and it's very good for gaming. I'm moving apartment soon so was just interested to see if there were any better services available. I may stick with Smart becuase their internet service is very good for gaming and very reliable in general. It's their television service that's really dreadful, but I guess I could get that from another source.

thanks for the reply,

mcgooch

Unfortunately you need to find out which providers you have available. You already have Smart but unfortunately you probably can't get it where you are moving, as far as I know you will be, most likely summerhill exchange (I believe that is the closest one to you). Maybe someone in that Area (Croke Park - North Circular Road) might know if Smart is available...

Maybe you have other options such as Magnet fiber. BT has LLU2 on summerhill (you should know this very well...), that's not a bad option either but it will all depend on your line conditions, if good then you will be ok as you can remove high interleave and switch to fastpath.

Also, make sure that your new apartment is not exclusive to a particular ISP such as NTL or Smart (as in Smithfield), otherwise you will have little IPS to choose from!

pwd

If you go with smart you should ask on their forum if your line is suitable for interleaving to be turned off. It lowers pings quite a bit if they do this. They're responsive too: They did it for me overnight when I asked on a Sunday evening.

Mountjoy Mugger

Scoti wrote: »

Maybe someone in that Area (Croke Park - North Circular Road) might know if Smart is available...

That's the Summerhill exchange, and I have it for years. No problems.

Mountjoy Square (if you hadn't guessed).

If you're around Cabra, Dorset Street, you will probably be on a different exchange - e.g. Dorset Street is on the North Main exchange, IIRC.

Hank Scorpio

Stay with Smart you`ll seriously regret it down the line if you dont...

UPC as second if smart not available

Magnet: Rory

Magnet would have direct links to the States and UK so the ping would be good and short.

Also contention may be an issue so i would go with a low contention supplier (Magnet and Smart).