Playing games online off a 3G/4G Dongle or Mobile internet?

[Deleted]

Basically, the speed I get for my households internet is very low, making games impossible to play when people are using the internet, (I get ping of about 300-1500ms.) Upgrading the internet would be both expensive and inconvenient, I was wondering whether a 3G/4G Dongle would suffice for just gaming, I would use the household internet to do things like web browsing, watch videos and the occasional download etc. I'm not a heavy gamer, I would probably play for about 10-15 hours a week, so I don't think I would need a dongle with extremely high memory limit.

Also, what about getting a phone with a contract and unlimited internet and connecting my PC to it? Does it work well? Is it expensive? I'm also guessing my PC would need to have a wireless card for this to work too.

Any suggestions? I've never had to consider this, nor have I ever used a dongle and I barely use a phone as it is so I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to this.

Thanks

[lordmatthias]

It all depends how good the mobile internet access I'd in your area. I would do research and test it out first. Mobile data can vs extremely unreliable andslots if youare connected to old towers out are really far away from the tower. Also unlimited plans are often not actually unlimited, they will throttle you once you hit a certain mark in data usage. I use my mobile data for gaming while I am traveling because I often find it is better than hotel internet but I don't think I would replace my home internet with it.

[Meri]

I played via 3g during WOTLK, I say investigate - the best networks let you play at around 200-300ms, the most economic one was much higher. I still have no idea how I managed to get through NAXX with 1s long lags..

[Shyxlol]

When my ISP screwed something up back in April I used my Iphone 5's tethering function (USB, not WiFi) to play FFXIV.
The FFXIV servers are located in Montreal while I'm in Germany. My usual ping was ~140ms +-20. Using tethering it was about 190~ish but was spiking to 250ms. I could listen in TS3 but when I talked my ping spiked to 400ms.
Not sure how much better a "real" dongle is compared to that. But I wouldn't expect a great latency/experience.

[Deleted]

200-300ms is way too much for me if I want to play a game like Dota 2, it would honestly need to be around 60-100ms at most. I can't get 4G in my area at the moment so I would have to settle for 3G. I'm not going to replace my home internet with it, I would just like it so I can game with. The server I would be connecting to is in Luxemberg. Any more suggestions?

[Deleted]

It seems like going through mobile broadband/dongle is quite risky, I don't really want to waste money on something that might not work well. I may just have to look into getting my broadband upgraded to fibre.

[Lavalashlol]

I tether off of my cell phone at all times at work, and it does really well. However, raiding stresses it a little bit and I get some lag then.

[Stormspark]

It seems like going through mobile broadband/dongle is quite risky, I don't really want to waste money on something that might not work well. I may just have to look into getting my broadband upgraded to fibre.

It will work, but it will not work well. 3G prioritizes voice calls over anything data, and it's not set up for low latency gaming.

[Rawrsaysme]

It all depends on towers I've been tethering 4g for about 6 months now with no issues but that's as long as I have 4g. I have unlimited as well D3 WOW ESO none of these have any noticeable lag for me. It's possible to do on 3g but you most likely will lag some and gaming while streaming music from like YouTube will lag you like crazy. Where I'm at I have no internet options aside from this and I'm content with it

[Parksy]

I play WoW on occasion with tether depending on my travel schedule. I use about 45 to 50 mb a hour raiding mythic highmaul. I maintain a 60 to 65 ms connection on 4g. I don't think 3g would have decent enough ping to play any sort of game in a competitive nature.

[insmek]

I spent a summer living in a hotel with crappy internet. Instead of dealing with that, I tethered my phone. Verizon's 3G connection was extremely usable for online gaming. I don't remember ever really having awful ping, and the download speed was more than good enough for online gaming. I wouldn't recommend it for downloading or streaming, but for online gaming I'd go for it.

[Sunnydee]

I played via 3g during WOTLK, I say investigate - the best networks let you play at around 200-300ms, the most economic one was much higher. I still have no idea how I managed to get through NAXX with 1s long lags..

those days are over my friend..


Taken with my laptop when i feel like playing garrison in my bead.
About 50MS ingame.

[fixx]

3G connections usually have much higher latency than 4G (over 10x worse) so that should help with online games quite significantly. Assuming you have adequate 4G coverage.