PS4 And Xbox One Pose Major Problems For Internet Providers

As Sony's Playstation 4 launched midnight today in the UK, there are some potential pitfalls that mean consumers might not get the most out of their systems unless they carefully consider their home network.

[allformats]

Internet providers have been rubbing consumers too long.

While Japan gives 1000 Megabits to its consumers... We're here freaking struggling with 10....

[black0o]

dude i'd gve my 1st born for ur ISP .. i'm stack with 2Mb :(

[Kayant]

Looooool damn same here even though am quoted to supposed to be having 20MB most I have gotten is 2.

[0ut1awed]

@Kayant

You do realize that there is a difference in bits and bytes right? There are 8 bits in a byte.

Anything involving networking including advertised networking speeds are shown in MegaBITS. Now everything you see on your physical devices like a hard drive or cell phone are measured in megaBYTES. That includes the download speed shown in your browser and applications like steam.

So with your advertised 20 megabit per sec internet you should be averaging a 2.5 megabyte per a sec download speed.

Overall I agree about internet speeds though. Most of the current ISPs need to be dethroned big time. Here's hoping google fiber spreads faster than wildfire.

[Pogmathoin]

Yeah, will be switching to Bell Vibe internet here in Canada in January, better be a blistering fast as they claim, got 10 Mb right now, do not think I ever reached it..

[SolidStoner]

Here in Latvia we have 500Mb no problem..... but its a small country, no huge investment here :)

on the sad note we will only get PS4 next year.. we cant even register our country.. have to wait..

and Japan gets PS4 only February 22, 2014! So you all should be happy!! ;)

[MazzingerZ]

Scandinavia does just fine

[UltimateMaster]

The US is the country that pays the most for their bandwidth in the world, more than twice the second country and the tendency keeps having higher prices for lower bandwidth caps.

[Dakriz]

Lol I have over 100 and I dont use more than 15 at a time lol

[P0werVR]

Finally a point made. This will give a rise in demand for faster internet speeds and who better prepared than Microsoft. It seems as if they knew this transition will happen.

You have Google Fiber lighting the fire under the arses of Major ISPs becoming a major threat as there services catches on. But on top of that all, you have the FCC pushing for fiber in every state by 2015. Probably only in the "lucrative regions".

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1...

Xbox One, future proof?! Yes!!!

[Majin Uchiha]

I have 90mbs :)

[itBourne]

Yeh, in my tiny ass town its $70 for 10 megs down and only 1 meg up. Like wtf, I cant even stream. Phone companies fuck you over too, I do not even use internet on my phone yet they force you to have it, you do not get a choice. Even if I did use it, $40 for 2 gigs a month, wtf is that, I could burn through that in 1 day.

The copper mine here had a fiber optics line ran all the way to town, but... its only for them = /

[andrewsqual]

@0ut1awed Don't Google own Wildfire too ;)

[komp]

Some in the UK are still stuck on 3-4mb down and 500kb upload speed (DSL)...

[Ripsta7th]

Damm can you even play a single online match?? It would take days to download a couple gigs like that

[Smoey]

I live in the middle-of-nowhere in the UK and I get 75mbs. Thanks BT!

[MrDead]

I'm on 60mb with Virgin which I'm happy with, I'm sure they are pairing up with Sony to offer a 200mb connection

[dantesparda]

8-10mb down/~800k up, Boston, Version DSL, cant get fiber optic yet (FIOS) and i dont want to pay almost double or more to Comcast to get faster speeds

[kingPoS]

I'm in the same boat.

@Ripsta7th; I can play online on 3Mb just fine, it's just huge downloads and patches that take all day to finish. If RCN were in my area I'd sign up up a heartbeat. #**k Concast! and they're mandatory contracts.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[SheenuTheLegend]

dont even talk about india ...
Paying 30dollars per month for 1mbps
and the cap is 15gb
people there is a bad bad world out here

[boeso]

I guess you guys would laugh at 300kbps actual speed?

[dantesparda]

You poor soul

[kingPoS]

I feel ya bro, I feel ya!

Gateway MT6706 2008

[Sodeadly123]

Weak sauce bro. I've got 100kb max download and like 20 upload. It took me like 4 straight days to download blacklight retribution on my pc.

[RandomGamer]

I get like 650-800 kbps ..... I use to get max 150 kbps which I had for like 8 years so I know your pain.

Also drives me up the wall people complaining about like 5-10 mb speeds .I would probably kill for that kind of speed .

[sprinterboy]

10, get 120mb myself in the UK, all for £35 per month :) not having a go but most gamers moan about there speed but are not Willing to pay for it. here in the UK they give free broadband with there tv package and they wonder why it's crap lol. Seriously the consumer needs to wise up, ifs like anything in life you get what you pay for

[SilentNegotiator]

The USA is waaaaaaay bigger than Japan and has a lot of gaps in population. It's no surprise that Japan had it easy in setting up the latest wiring.

There are certainly AREAS where you can get great internet in the US, but because the population is generally so much less dense, it doesn't make as much financial sense for companies to deal with installing the latest.

[deecee33]

@allformats

Gotta agree. Given that (in the US) most ISPs are also cable providers I just can't be sad for them. They make you buy a ton of what you don't want to get what you do want

[mandf]

That's why digital downloads aren't the future.

[madara0sama]

Maybe in 10 years

[Fireseed]

Google Fiber says otherwise...

[denero1]

they're fighting google fiber with all of their fiber O.o

[dantesparda]

@Fireseed
Im not sure exactly how much it costs, but its like 1 billions dollars (or more!) to wire a city.

[iceman06]

Google Fiber IS awesome...but is also limited to only a couple of cities in the US. Internet providers are crapping their pants, and probably fighting behind the scenes, to get whatever traction it is gaining to halt. Eventually it will normalize. But, right now, it's still years away before we see fiber optic access everywhere. (infrastructure has to be laid and that is costly to a city...which probably needs roads and bridges just as much as internet access)

[edhe]

My 60Mbps line says it's now.

[n4rc]

I disagree... You don't need Google fiber to utilize digital content..

My plan is 20/10 with a 150gb cap.... How many games a month are you really buying?

And the bandwidth is more then enough when it can download as i watch cable or even while its off and im at work..

Im planning to go digital for almost all titles save for games i know wont have replay value

[LordMaim]

Which is why I question "always on" initiatives, game streaming like Gaikai, or the strategy of offloading calculations to the cloud. The infrastructure is there for digital content, but not quite ready for anything that would be impacted by latency.

[curtis92]

You can thank the big guys at ATT, comcast & verizon for owning all the pipelines in America and squeezing every ounce of money they can out of them while offering inferior speeds compared to other countries. Google Fiber can't spread fast enough.

[Ripsta7th]

Fiber will be expensive thought, i beleive its $100 a month

[curtis92]

For what it offers compared to what I get right now for $71/month, ILL TAKE IT :)

[iiwii]

I could get their TV+Gig Internet package for less than what Time Warner rips me off for now for a 30Mb connection:

https://fiber.google.com/ci...

Google full TV+Gig Internet, 1TB box, 1TB cloud storage, Tablet, etc $120
Time Warner TV+30Mb Internet $150 (nickel and dime you to death for every little remote or dvr box)

Which looks like the better deal. Just look at all that Google offers with their service. I hope they come to the East Coast next.

[n4rc]

Damn.. Hoping they love Canada too... Or the crtc doesn't hate them Lol

I have a cogeco package that's 20/10 w/ 150gb cap and digital cable with DVR and it's about $116 a month.

[JasonKCK]

IDK I get 24Mbps from AT&T for $30 a month. The only reason I get it for $30 is because there are about 5 ISP's in my city so they need to stay competitive. I wish more cities had those options because some ISP's charge up to $100 a month for half that speed, with data caps.

[Eonjay]

"Internet providers pose major problems for Ps4 and xbox one customers" <--- fixed. Technology is advancing but the ISP want to keep providing the same mediocre service.

[BattleTorn]

Mhmm.

This is good. IPSs will only improve their infatructure when the demand exist.

[Aleithian]

Real happy I get 50/25...

[emerica2214]

My ISP offers 100Mbps download and 15Mbps upload, but it cost $100 per month.

[deadfrag]

Very important for online play UPLOAD SPEED!Some people dont even understand that the upload speed is actually more important than the download speed when playing online game,especially if we like to spank or kill the adversary.The more the upload speed the less bullets we need to take enemys down online,some times people complain about lag but the problem is that the upload speed of the connection its too low so the actions like shooting down someone take more time.The real problem is that ISP providers always give low upload speed compared to download speeds it should be 50/50.

[kingPoS]

You speak of an oft unknown truth. Upload speed does matter, especially with remote play.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[Benchm4rk]

Thats why I don't play online much anymore. Most I get is 300kb upload

[iiwii]

That's why I always complained about Time Warner, they would keep claiming that they were "increasing your download speed for free". And they did. I went from around 5Mb download to 8Mb... then a year or so later it was 10Mb and then it went up again to around 15Mb. But I kept saying I didn't want all of the extra download speed, instead they should increase the upload since it stayed at 512kb upload during all of those "free upgrades".

They finally started to offer 20Mb down-1Mb up (turbo), and 30Mb down - 5Mb up (what I currently use), and 50Mb down - 5Mb up (had that and didn't see a lot of improvement in gameplay and it was expensive as heck).

[n4rc]

Another misconception...

Upload bandwidth only really matters if your host.. The actual traffic for a peer is peanuts and was limited by xbl.. And its like .5mb or less

Latency is the end all, be all of online gaming.. Always has been, always will be.. And that is never advertised by isps because there are too many variables to consider

[KingDadXVI]

The article is right on the money with exception to ISP's needing to find a way to monetize these new uses of their bandwidth. I would totally oppose any type of monetization of passing data on the internet while they still charge you a monthly fee. I live in Canada and our two big carriers are Bell and Rogers. I refuse to use Rogers as they have data caps and I have no intention of every paying twice for a service. Bell has no data caps and at their mid tier plan I get 80Mbit/s down and 30Mbit/s up. The main thing left here is for NAT to go. It is nothing but a quick fix for running out of IP addresses. IPv6 needs to be implemented now.

The ISP's in Canada and I would assume elsewhere are making money hand over fist and need to provide the infrastructure with out additional fees. The fees we already pay are for that infrastructure.

The other thing they mentioned that was a good point for those out there that don't know much about networking is the use of wireless for gaming and streaming. It can work but is unreliable at best. Direct Ethernet with a minimum of Cat5e or even better Cat6 is the only way to go for streaming HD content and online gaming.

[dantesparda]

"The other thing they mentioned that was a good point for those out there that don't know much about networking is the use of wireless for gaming and streaming. It can work but is unreliable at best. Direct Ethernet with a minimum of Cat5e or even better Cat6 is the only way to go for streaming HD content and online gaming."

Can you explain to me how i can test and compare wireless vs wired. Cuz when i compare it i cant notice a lick of difference. I get the same download speeds and i never notice any difference with lag from wired to wireless. How is it unreliable?

[Benchm4rk]

@dantesparda

I cant speak for you but my own experience with wireless was bad. I couldn't even stream a hd video off xbox live with it stopping every 2 seconds. Went direct ethernet connection and its 10x better

[KingDadXVI]

To your first question I don't know of a way to test the signal from your console to your wireless modem/router/gateway. You can test the connection with a laptop/smartphone in the same spot that your console sits but the wireless adapters will be different so this is not definitive. It would still probably be useful as I guide if you were going to move your console to a different room or spot in the same room. You could test the signal strength with the laptop/smartphone by putting it in different locations in the room you want the console set up in. There are tons of apps out there for free that can show you the connection strength and speed.

On to the question of how it is unreliable. I just want to mention that I said it can work. The main thing with wireless is that it is limited in range, attenuated due to the objects it has to pass through, and suffers interference from other devices that emit microwaves at or close to the same frequency as your router/gateway/modem.

For interference the main culprits are microwave ovens (when in use) and cordless phones (also when in use). For these you can find out what frequency they operate at and then go to your wireless modem/router settings and pick a channel whose frequency is the furthest away. Or you can get a dual band modem/router which should give you the option of the 2.4 GHz or 5GHz range. Be aware though that some cordless phones also use 5 GHz. Also if your using the modem/router supplied by your ISP it may not have dual band.

Attenuation is the other factor. It is the weakening of signal strength as the microwaves pass though things. This can be, the air, the walls, ducting, wiring, and just he things you have in your house. Some things are reflective to microwaves and some absorb them. Remember that microwaves are just light that you cannot see as it is a frequency your eyes can't detect. So some materials are opaque to microwaves just like some are to visible light.

The unreliability is due to the fact that some of these factors you can't control, like someone using the microwave, density and humidity of the air, where the metal like wires, ducting, or metal studs are in your walls. If you happen to live in an apartment your neighbors can affect your signal too.

The one other issue that can arise is if you have a lot of traffic on your wireless network. I use both wireless and Cat6 cabling for my home network. For me I have 3 printers, 2 laptops, and 3 smartphones that can access my network. The printers are not a big deal but the smart phones and laptops when in use can seriously drain my wireless bandwidth which is limited to 54Mbps for "g" and 100Mbps for "n". Note that those are only theoretical maxes and you don't really get that. Once my kids start watching YouTube on laptops and smartphones I loose a lot of bandwidth. So I have Gigabit Ethernet to all my other hardware via Cat6 cable.

Sorry about the length of that but it is difficult to explain in a real short way and I skipped quite a bit of stuff.

Network cable is not susceptible to these things. If it works for you that is great but a hardline network connection is the best.

[marioJP87]

Glad as hell that I have a 50Mbps down / 5Mbps up connection.

[MadMen]

The next war is Tier pricing, it will come at some point, be ready. We should all unite and fight against that.

[EazyDuz22]

I get at best 500kbps download speeds...
I envy people living in the centre of large cities.

[mhunterjr]

Poor ISPs... They'll have to invest in their networks instead of continuing to rape their customers... No sympathy...

[JackVagina]

Didn't sony announce some kind of ISP deal at gamescom? Cant really remember

[Redrever]

for anyone that needs a great speedtest its never failed me yet and 99.95% its always told me my speed is 2.9mbps upload 0.7 0.8 after getting my new buffalo router its been steady 0.9mbps at one point my router pushed me a 3mbps download upload 1.1mbps, testmy.net

[Nocando]

Yeah, the problem of having to invest in real infrastructure instead of using shitty 40 year old copper line.

[starscream420]

I Agee all I can get is 1meg down and half a meg (almost) up......I can get on live and PSN but in multiplayer it hurts....especially the upload. I wish I could get 10 meg or more.....

[kingPoS]

Why in heck are isp's dragging their feet over the implementation of ipv6. It seem like many ISP's are still pushing the Ferrari. lol

My Western Digital router is ready!

Gateway MT6706 2008

[GraveLord]

Go physical.

Digital Downloads may be convenient but most of us have bandwidth caps and/or slow internet speeds. Even if we don't, there are cases where PSN can be really really slow for odd reasons. The infrastructure just isn't there for consumers to go fully digital, not without sacrifices.

[Kingoftherodeo]

its horrible here in the states comcast which seems to be running a monopoly in some states by paying cities to keep competition away. comcast has a data cap yep so does at&t and charter along with other top providers. they all have a data cap hidden with in your account. you get charged more for going over that now imagine those who play lots online and stream netflix, now add other home users say family members all streaming. yup the data cap gets reached fast. the isp providers pay off most cities to keep competition off their area as they also control dark fiber thats right comcast has fiber they just choose not to use it. since theres no competition in areas they just buy the lines and keep us under control.

[GrilledCheeseBook]

Screw the ISPs, their margins are more than enough to compensate for prgress. They should have been reinvesting and improving infrastructure this past decade rather than stagnating and doing whatever they've been doing with their cash.

[iceman06]

But then how in the hell would they be able to line their pockets with money!?!? /s

[PickAShoe]

I can't wait for Google Fiber to kick my AT&T Uverse out of business.

[Hozi]

Trinidad and Tobago, $200ttd ($31.20usd) per month for 5Mbs.

[bornsinner]

get bt infinity fibre optic its reliable stable and no throttles or fup's zero packet loss never disconnects i get 56/12mbps

[DarKnightDave]

Sounds like I got the most pathetic service, U verse basic which I get at best 240 kbps. I hate it, I'm switching to charter next month. With them I can get up to 30 mbps for $29.99/mo. Can someone tell me if their service is pretty good?

[KiLLeRCLaM]

I pay for 25Mbps and get like 40 with distributel in Ontario unlimited download

[neogeo]

I got 94megs down and 23 megs up Comcast here in Lake Worth FL for $33 per month. No lie. http://stage.results.speedt...

[iiwii]

Did you hack your cable modem? Time Warner charges like $64 for 30Mb down 5 Mb up.

[neogeo]

2 things.
1. I live in a great area so it's luck.
2. I'm friends with the comcast rep that works inside Bestbuy. I got grandfathered into a better deal then you can get on the phone and it's a permanent deal not a promo.