best fibre broadband for gaming? latency/ping

Hey guys, my contract is up shortly and i am looking around for a isp which can offer a good service even at peak times. I have used virgin media which is unusable due to huge ping spikes(i have tried everything). Plusnet has been pretty good other then slight delay in evenings which does effect my gameplay.

I am looking at possibily bt or idnet's gaming package which they state is prioritised and there is no delay even at peak times.

if anyone could contribute feedback on who usually has the lowest ping times it would be great in making my decision. I am from yorkshire so around 12-16ms pings to bbc.co.uk.

kind regards

Its all down to what packages are available to you in your area.

Like can you get Fibre, is it FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) or FTTP (Fibre To The Premises)

I am one of the lucky ones to be able to get FTTP (Infinity 4) with BT and I get the following ping to the BBC Site:

ping -4 bbc.co.uk

Pinging bbc.co.uk [151.101.128.81] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 151.101.128.81: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=54
Reply from 151.101.128.81: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=54
Reply from 151.101.128.81: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=54
Reply from 151.101.128.81: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 151.101.128.81:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 3ms

And the following ping from Google's Site:

ping -4 www.google.co.uk

Pinging www.google.co.uk [216.58.206.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.58.206.99: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.58.206.99: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.58.206.99: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.58.206.99: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 216.58.206.99:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 4ms

There are other people with other providers that have better pings than me.

I mostly get around 300Mbits down, but it does drop down in the evenings, but never drops below 200Mbits.

I have only had my speed drop down to about 45Mbits the once, but after phoning BT they resolve it and its been fine since.

Now, how is it for gaming?
Hmmm, that would depends where the online game is being hosted doesn't it.
I play online with US and EU friends, and I get about 160ms latency with my US friends which I think is good considering the distance, and I get about 7 to 9 ms latency with some EU (well UK based services) I get around 9ms latency on Blizzards World of Warcraft EU Servers and 140ms on their US Servers.

Those 140ms and 160ms latency might seem high but it depends on the type of game, but I use to play World of Warcraft on the US Server back when I only had 4Mbits ADSL 2+ connection and the latency used to be around 400ms and it was still playable.

Now how does this feel in the evenings, for me I have noticed the latency doesn't change at all.

I would also wait for other peoples comments before deciding.

Paul

Just be aware that ping times largely depend on your geographical location and how far you are from your ISPs servers or the location of what you're trying to ping. Most such locations are in London and you will find those with single digit ping times live in London or close to it. If your ISPs servers are in London,your ping times of 12-16ms seem to be about right from someone in Yorkshire - moving to another ISP may improve your ping times by a few ms or give you slightly worse ping times. You need to compare your connection to another connection (on a different ISP obviously) on the same FTTC cabinet or exchange in your city/town/village, for a more realistic comparison. So ask your neighbours/friends/family living in your street or locality what pings they're getting at evenings and also have a peek at their TBB BQM. Alternatively tell us what exchange and/or FTTC cabinet you're connected to and someone on TBB may come along (in the same location) and give you their feedback.

Btw I would take IDNet's gaming package claims with a pinch of salt, there was someone on here not too long ago who was experiencing evening slow downs on that package. Don't get taken in by any ISP's marketing fluff, just use hard evidence which I can't re-iterate enough MUST be from a connection on the same cabinet or exchange. Otherwise you're comparing apples with oranges. You may find one of the bargain basement ISPs (BT Retail, Vodafone, TalkTalk, Sky etc) offers the best peak time performance in your location...with the added bonus of being cheap as well

Good luck!

Just to add: I'm getting approx 20ms on a FTTP connection...from the Scottish Highlands. Unless I can change the laws of physics, I won't get much better ping times than this as my ISP is based in London

Edited by deleted (Sun 04-Feb-18 08:00:51)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Just to add: I'm getting approx 20ms on a FTTP connection...from the Scottish Highlands. Unless I can change the laws of physics, I won't get much better ping times than this as my ISP is based in London

I am about 3 to 3.5 miles (birds eye view), 4.3 miles by car from Telehouse in London which is probably also why I get low latency.

Mind you 20ms from Scotland is very good.

Paul

Interesting, so would you say a ping of circa 20 ms from down here in Devon on BT FTTC is normal?

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

Interesting, so would you say a ping of circa 20 ms from down here in Devon on BT FTTC is normal?

What are you pinging?

Paul

Wow, them ping times are amazing, unfortunately there is only fttc available in my area and ftpod which is to expensive.

Thanks for the constructive input.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Just to add: I'm getting approx 20ms on a FTTP connection...from the Scottish Highlands. Unless I can change the laws of physics, I won't get much better ping times than this as my ISP is based in London

I am about 3 to 3.5 miles (birds eye view), 4.3 miles by car from Telehouse in London which is probably also why I get low latency.

Mind you 20ms from Scotland is very good.

Paul

mmm, i think i will just stick with bt and see how it goes. Since idnet use the same exhchange but different equipment i doubt there will be any improvement compared to bt.

Google.

In reply to a post by hassy123:

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Just to add: I'm getting approx 20ms on a FTTP connection...from the Scottish Highlands. Unless I can change the laws of physics, I won't get much better ping times than this as my ISP is based in London

I am about 3 to 3.5 miles (birds eye view), 4.3 miles by car from Telehouse in London which is probably also why I get low latency.

Mind you 20ms from Scotland is very good.

Paul

mmm, i think i will just stick with bt and see how it goes. Since idnet use the same exhchange but different equipment i doubt there will be any improvement compared to bt.

I think BT are ok, any issues I have had have been resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

I still say wait to see what other people say first, there might be better out there.

I chose BT due to the other couple that supported FTTP cost a lot more for the same speed that we wanted and that we also got a free install and activation

Paul