ADSL or ADSL-Max - which is better for gaming?

I'm shortly moving house and am looking at a new ISP. I've been with Pipex for 3 years on a fixed 512k service (I'm too far away from the exchange to get faster) and mainly use ADSL for gaming and general surfing - not a big down-loader other than the odd game patch! To be fair to Pipex, I've generally enjoyed low pings e.g 21-25 in Call of Duty.

I've checked with sam.knows and am pleased that my new house which is much nearer the exchange should provide 'up to 7mb' on ADSL-max and can provide 2mb non-max.

I've noticed that most ISPs only offer Max rather than fixed 'non-max' ADSL and that the latter is often more expensive than the max products. To be honest, I'm more interested in a nice low ping than maximum down-load speed. 2mb would be fine. However, I'm concerned about interleaving which I understand can be a problem with Max and have a friend on Zen who has seen pings rise by about 20-25 since joining Zen on a max service, where apparently BT are ignoring requests to remove interleaving.

The question is, would I be safer going for a fixed 'non-max' service? For example IDNET who are on my shortlist offer a the 2mb service which is the same price (

Which server do you use (I can ping it from my Entanet ADSLmax connection to let you know the effect of being with a decent ISP, with interleaving on)?

Interleave can be opted-out by the ISP placing an order, it adds about 10-15 ms to ping times.

Thanks for the quick responses.

I play on this COD1 server: 84.234.17.54:28960

and this COD2 server: 84.234.17.54:28970

I would be really interested to see the results of your pinging test.

I didn't realise that you can request interleaving to be 'off' at the point of order.

Many thanks.

Edited by incubus (Sun 31-Dec-06 13:24:20)

Pinging 84.234.17.54 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=123
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=123
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=123
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=123

Ping statistics for 84.234.17.54:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 10ms, Maximum = 11ms, Average = 10ms


Looking good from a Newnet Max circuit, no interleaving applied tho....

That's an excellent ping Zarjaz. Thanks for taking the trouble to do that.

Out of interest, what speed ADSL-max do you achieve?

Newnet were also on my short-list, but I note there is some discontent due to their recent price hike.

From a UKFSN/Entanet connection, 4064kbps sync (so, a 3500kbps IP profile), and with interleaving applied:

Pinging 84.234.17.54 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=121
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=121
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=121
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=121

Ping statistics for 84.234.17.54:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 30ms, Average = 29ms

Prior to interleaving, it was about 20-21ms (BTW, the fastest of any ISP I've been with - although I haven't been with Newnet, and Kudos to Zarjaz for the excellent pings )

My speeds are usually around the ;
Download Speed: 5799 kbps (724.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 372 kbps (46.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
..mark. I get full 8128 sync and have a 7150 profile. The price hike at Newnet is a little alarming, but then as a Lite user it shouldn't bother me, in fact it should make things a little better.

Be wary of taking ping times from other Max users, as a lot depends on the stability of your individual line and the hardware combination.

e.g. I've got a Max line and a SAR-600E stays connected almost all the time, but a DG834GT drops out a lot, and a DG834 appears to be stable enough.

Andrew

Here are ping from 2 IDNET lines, one with interleave on, the other off. They are on 2 different exchanges about 15miles apart.

Bear in mind that ping results depend upon distance the user is from Telehouse (about 1mS per 100km measured whever BT's VP goes) For me 250-300km at a guess.

I know IDNET support both MAX and fixed rate lines. You could start on MAX and if it did not suit you regrade back to a Fixed rate line.

Tim.

Pinging 84.234.17.54 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=124

Ping statistics for 84.234.17.54:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 37ms, Maximum = 39ms, Average = 38ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Tim>

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>ping 84.234.17.54

Pinging 84.234.17.54 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=124
Reply from 84.234.17.54: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=124

Ping statistics for 84.234.17.54:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 16ms, Average = 15ms