Basic broadband requirements for XBox Live?

PJTierney

Hi guys.
Right now I've no internet/broadband coinnection at home though I'm looking to change that in the near future.

What I want to know first is; what sort of broadband speeds (what MB down and up) should I be looking at to get a solid connection to XBox Live?

Thanks in advance

mcgovern

As fast as you can get
But I think generally at least ~3MB down is recommended (depending on ISP, area etc of course)

Shammy

Faster the better , although 1 meg will do . If its fps's your into , its better to have low ping and good upload speed.

corcaigh07

im on 3mb eircom, its very good for XBL. Ping rates are going to be a issue for you too, the fastest service may not be the best for gaming.

thenightrider

The best BB to get is Cable upc etc if not get it trough a phone line as the wireless BB all have very high ping's

PJTierney

Many thanks.
How can I check in advance what the ping rate is like? What stats am I looking for on Eircom/Imagine etc. sites?

Shammy

thenightrider wrote: »

The best BB to get is Cable upc etc if not get it trough a phone line as the wireless BB all have very high ping's

Funny my wireless carries a solid 2 meg upload with a ping of 15, much more reliable then many friends i have that use upc.
But upc is much more reliable than than dsl.

cython

Shammy wrote: »

Funny my wireless carries a solid 2 meg upload with a ping of 15, much more reliable then many friends i have that use upc.
But upc is much more reliable than than dsl.

If you're getting that via pingtest.net on UPC, then it may be distorted, because the firewall (enabled by default) on the UPC cisco router massively interferes with that, causing huge packet loss, while somehow not affecting games. I think I've gotten similar pings to your 15 on UPC once I disabled that firewall

Grumpypants

I have vodafone 3mb line (land line not the mobile one)which is 40 euro a month and works fine.

Schorpio

yeah, as everyone has said, around 3Mb, with as low a ping as you can get. A ping under 30ms would be perfect, but definitely not more than 100ms.

celtic723

Schorpio wrote: »

yeah, as everyone has said, around 3Mb, with as low a ping as you can get. A ping under 30ms would be perfect, but definitely not more than 100ms.

My pings about 105ms and i don't lag at all.

Having the right ports open on your router and having good upload and download speed is far more important to me.

Schorpio

celtic723 wrote: »

My pings about 105ms and i don't lag at all.

Having the right ports open on your router and having good upload and download speed is far more important to me.

Some games will work fine with a bigger ping and some will be crippled. For me, I find that games like Halo 3 seems to work fine with a larger ping, but COD and Fifa 10 are crippled by it. If I were getting broadband for Xbox Live, I would definitely try to get a low a ping as possible.

It's not just all about ping tho. Jitter and general quality of service make a difference too. If cable is an option, I'd probably go with that.

celtic723

Schorpio wrote: »

Some games will work fine with a bigger ping and some will be crippled. For me, I find that games like Halo 3 seems to work fine with a larger ping, but COD and Fifa 10 are crippled by it. If I were getting broadband for Xbox Live, I would definitely try to get a low a ping as possible.

It's not just all about ping tho. Jitter and general quality of service make a difference too. If cable is an option, I'd probably go with that.

I can see where you're coming from alright but i play MW2 every day of the week and don't lag at all tbh.

As you said it does depend on line quality.

PJTierney

Many thanks, I'll look into things.
One more question: Is wireless okay? (incase a wired connection + line rental costs me too much)

thenightrider

The only wirless i know of the top of my head is irish broadband breeze its 4mb down and 4mb up that is ment to have low pings the wiimax has very high pings and a lot of people complaning about it

Shiminay

Imagine's WiMax service is an abomination unto mankind - steer well clear of it. If you're not in a UPC cable area (and your profile says Limerick, so I don't know what service they have there), get DSL. I'm paying €55/month for 24Mb from Magnet.

PJTierney

This is what I'm looking at at the moment:

http://www.bbnet.ie/Packages/?county=limerick
3 down / 1 up

According to this I can't get DSL (I'm roughly halfway between Newcastle and Rathkeale): http://handelaar.org/maps/exchanges2.php?radius=4.5

I can't find a coverage map of UPC anywhere, and when I type my address into the website it says it can't find me. If anybody has a link to a UPC coverage map that would be great

Shiminay

That's not a terrible deal alright, shame you might be a bit far from the exchange for DSL. Have you any neighbours close buy with a working BB connnection that might be able to tell you of their experiences? No harm asking on the Limerick County forum if you haven't already what people are using.

TheMooseInNam

PJTierney wrote: »

This is what I'm looking at at the moment:

http://www.bbnet.ie/Packages/?county=limerick
3 down / 1 up

According to this I can't get DSL (I'm roughly halfway between Newcastle and Rathkeale): http://handelaar.org/maps/exchanges2.php?radius=4.5

I can't find a coverage map of UPC anywhere, and when I type my address into the website it says it can't find me. If anybody has a link to a UPC coverage map that would be great

I'm pretty sure PermaNET have coverage all over Limerick with their wireless network, so if DSL isn't an option, try them.

I've found them brilliant here in Kilkenny over the last 18 months. High QoS, pings around 65ms and not suffering too badly from contention at peak times. Limerick would have a different base station so I don't know how that one performs.

Might be an option for you.