Recently Moved - Getting Lag Whilst Playing HON

[C45P4R]

Hi all.

I recently moved from the UK to New York and the place I have moved into already has an internet/tv plan set-up as I share my flat with 4 other people. Unfortunately my ISP is the dreaded Comcast. I would certainly not chose such a terrible company myself.

Speed wise, the connection is decent. The problem comes from reliability and coping with several people accessing it at the same time. It mostly runs fine when I am the only person using the internet, but even then it will occasionally completely drop connection for no apparent reason. Usually stays down for a few minutes and randomly comes back up again. Just long enough that I lose so much experience and gold that its pretty much GG. As you can imagine, it's just about the most infuriating thing I have ever encountered in my life.

My other housemates primarily just stream TV and movies. Sometimes it isn't a huge problem, I just get annoying lag spikes and other times the connection gets so bad it just kicks me out the game. I had a Comcast "Engineer" come who was as useless as you would expect and just moved the router to a new location.

I HAVE TO FIX THIS! My Question:

What can I do to remove the issue of lag when other people are using the internet? All I want is a playable game, it doesn't have to be perfect. Will a new router help? Do I have no choice but to campaign for a new ISP? A new service plan? I've been told we already have the best that Comcast offers. I am not surprised that their best is worse than what I have experienced for close to a decade.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi all.

I recently moved from the UK to New York and the place I have moved into already has an internet/tv plan set-up as I share my flat with 4 other people. Unfortunately my ISP is the dreaded Comcast. I would certainly not chose such a terrible company myself.

Speed wise, the connection is decent. The problem comes from reliability and coping with several people accessing it at the same time. It mostly runs fine when I am the only person using the internet, but even then it will occasionally completely drop connection for no apparent reason. Usually stays down for a few minutes and randomly comes back up again. Just long enough that I lose so much experience and gold that its pretty much GG. As you can imagine, it's just about the most infuriating thing I have ever encountered in my life.

My other housemates primarily just stream TV and movies. Sometimes it isn't a huge problem, I just get annoying lag spikes and other times the connection gets so bad it just kicks me out the game. I had a Comcast "Engineer" come who was as useless as you would expect and just moved the router to a new location.

I HAVE TO FIX THIS! My Question:

What can I do to remove the issue of lag when other people are using the internet? All I want is a playable game, it doesn't have to be perfect. Will a new router help? Do I have no choice but to campaign for a new ISP? A new service plan? I've been told we already have the best that Comcast offers. I am not surprised that their best is worse than what I have experienced for close to a decade.

If the speed of the connection is ok, then I'd say it's the router that's the problem, bot the line. You could get a decent router like an asus one and set the QoS to give gaming preference. It's very effective.

 

[Androcles]

If the speed of the connection is ok, then I'd say it's the router that's the problem, bot the line. You could get a decent router like an asus one and set the QoS to give gaming preference. It's very effective.

I'd say that normally, but this is Comcast he's talking about, they're notorious for badly shaped packets, random dropouts, hidden caps and such, and not just in one area, it's across the whole of the US.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'd say that normally, but this is Comcast he's talking about, they're notorious for badly shaped packets, random dropouts, hidden caps and such, and not just in one area, it's across the whole of the US.

Ah, ok then, that makes a big difference. Was thinking it was a UK package, not heard of them myself.

 

[Androcles]

Ah, ok then, that makes a big difference. Was thinking it was a UK package, not heard of them myself.

Comcast's one of the biggest providers in the US especially on the east coast, however because they're so big and the fact that they care more about their phone/TV networks the internet side of things is very poorly managed and their infrastructure is not very good, and when you consider that they also control a good chunk of the east coast backbone network entering the US via Boston (if I remember rightly), it's pretty sucky for internet on the US east coast, especially when trying to access servers in Europe.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Comcast is a pile of rubbish, so probably nothing you can do about it, other than go with another company.

I wouldn't bother with a new router, it's usually the connection that's an issue, not the router.

 

[Androcles]

Comcast is a pile of rubbish, so probably nothing you can do about it, other than go with another company.

Might not be as easy as people think, the US is actually worse than the UK for internet access, from what I hear you're usually limited to one major and a few minor providers in an area and it's hit and miss as to whether the exact location you live is provided by any of them. There's huge areas of the US still using dial up or satellite connections because there's no broadband or cell net in their area. For a country that's supposed to be pretty technologically advanced they're actually quite "backwater" in some areas when it comes to internet connections if you know what i mean.

 

[Wozza63]

Might not be as easy as people think, the US is actually worse than the UK for internet access, from what I hear you're usually limited to one major and a few minor providers in an area and it's hit and miss as to whether the exact location you live is provided by any of them. There's huge areas of the US still using dial up or satellite connections because there's no broadband or cell net in their area. For a country that's supposed to be pretty technologically advanced they're actually quite "backwater" in some areas when it comes to internet connections if you know what i mean.

Theres a lot of places limited to dial-up or dial-up like speeds.

My recommendation is packing all your stuff and moving to one of the cities with Google Fiber

Just kidding, you can try a new router. It can often be the cause of some drops. Also are you on wireless internet? You could always try to hook up an ethernet cable to the router because there may be a lot of things that can ruin signal in almost any building. Plus living in a flat you probably have all kinds of wireless signals floating around from the flats all around you.