Satellite Internet for WOW. Need opinions.

[Whittle1523]

I need help deciding between Hughesnet and Wildblue Exede satellite internet to play WOW and Diablo 3. The latency and bandwith concerns are my biggest issues.

Wildblue offers up to 12 mbps upload and 3 mbps download(Not guaranteed). I am wondering if this is enough to run these games, and what else I could do to ensure that latency stays between 500-700.

If anyone has any history with either of these companies please give me your insight. I live in the sticks so these 2 are my only options sadly.

Thank you.

[Nosonia]

you sure its not the reverse? 12 down and 3 up?

If its 12 down and 3 up, you're fine.. if its 3 down, you may experience some lag if you or anyone else is doing anything on the internet... 3mbps is pretty slow for download speeds.

[inux94]

With sattelite internet, you're going to have pings between 750-2000, with 1000-1100 being the stable ping.

A couple of years ago Greenland had sattelite internet, WoW had a ping between 900 & 1400, sometimes up to 10.000. =)

[Flatspriest]

First thing is Hughes is crap. Dial-up internet works better than they do and has better customer support.

[Kanevil]

I get 2k MS Home/World for WoW with WildBlue.

[glo]

Earth to satellite travel is about 22,000 miles up, then back down again. The laws of physics slap you with 260ms~ round trip right there. Then you have to factor in that your computer needs to acknowledge packets. So you double that number to 520ms~. Then you need to factor in the actual network resistance (processing, QoS, etc etc) and you'll tack on another 40ms~. So now we're at 560ms.

Then factor in travel time from the satellite's ISP infrastructure into the general internet, back to the satellite operator's ground satellite, up into space, then back to your home location, and you're looking at another 200ms.

TLDR: It's physically impossibe to get lower than 750ms~ latency on satellite internet. And that's best case scenario. Most users get around 1,000ms - 1,200ms on a good day.

[LordSpaztic]

After living in rural Alabama for 3 years and had to suffer the horror that is hughes net. I must advise you RUN THE FUCK AWAY AND STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE. I'm not joking, or kidding, or even going to sugarcoat it. If the internet is a major part of you life, you need to move again, and stay out of rural areas. Satellite Internet is the most horrid joke of an ISP. Don't think you're just going to be laggy or slowed down experience because it doesn't work that way.

It doesn't matter what speed you have, it's all shit. EVERYTHING, no matter what will have a 1 to 3 second lag, not because of speed, but because of physics. Packets to, then from space takes a lot longer than your average cable in the ground.

You're also subject to "FAP" (No seriously, It's called that.), It means Fair Access Policy. This will governor your entire internet browsing life. You cannot exceed over x (depend on how much you shell out) megabytes a day/week of downloaded content, if you exceed you're fucked with slower than dial-up speeds, and barely able to even stay connected to simple chat programs like Gtalk, or MSN. Sites like youtube, torrenting, video streaming, deviate art, downloading a wow patch, or even a new expansion will most likely exceed this very quickly.

You're also subject to what I'd call "the random shit" factor. You're never stable. Could be a clear blue day and your satellite dish is point towards the sky at the best possible angle and then BOOM, DC'd from the net for an hour for no reason, you're also going to become the weatherman and start cursing, screaming, and downright wanting to tear your hair out when it rains. You'll also want to shoot all the birds in your local 5 mile radius because you'll be DC'd from the net because one flew past the transmitter.

Also, Might just be hughes.net, but it keeps a list of the sites you've visited and how much bandwidth was used there on their servers aswell. I hope you don't mind sharing your fetishes with the Tech Support you'll be calling to ask why the hell your internet is out when it a clear sky, or when you've magically gone over your "fap" limit because you wanted to watch a youtube for all of 5 minutes.

Moving on to more WoW related problems.
Depending on a server: You may not be able to enter certain areas due to extreme packet travel time and end up DC'ing because your modem can't send or receive them fast enough and starts to choke up. You can notice this by your modem randomly going out on a clear blue day.

Also, no matter how fast you move, if you're going to PvP or Raid. Give up. You'll always take excess damage from everything, because Blizzard's servers are going to assume you're still standing in that horrendous green shit on the ground till 3 seconds AFTER you've finally moved out of it.

Brightside: If you out dps people on skada or recount, laugh. Not only that, but rub their faces in it. They deserve it for all the hell you go through trying to chain those GCDs together. =D

Seriously, if you get Satellite internet, get new hobbies. It will drive you insane, and rape your wallet of all the green stuff in it.
If I think about it, I think after all I've paid hughes.net in those 3 years, I could have paid a phone company 60 miles in the nearest town to run a new cable in the ground for DSL. Even if they charged me 1$ per foot of cable.

I hope you find this information. Stay away, don't get bent over a barrel like I did.

(Yes, Yes, I might get banned for swearing a lot but eh, I said I wasn't going to sugarcoat it.)

[Zyzzyx]

After living in rural Alabama for 3 years and had to suffer the horror that is hughes net. I must advise you RUN THE FUCK AWAY AND STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE. I'm not joking, or kidding, or even going to sugarcoat it. If the internet is a major part of you life, you need to move again, and stay out of rural areas. Satellite Internet is the most horrid joke of an ISP. Don't think you're just going to be laggy or slowed down experience because it doesn't work that way.

It doesn't matter what speed you have, it's all shit. EVERYTHING, no matter what will have a 1 to 3 second lag, not because of speed, but because of physics. Packets to, then from space takes a lot longer than your average cable in the ground.

You're also subject to "FAP" (No seriously, It's called that.), It means Fair Access Policy. This will governor your entire internet browsing life. You cannot exceed over x (depend on how much you shell out) megabytes a day/week of downloaded content, if you exceed you're fucked with slower than dial-up speeds, and barely able to even stay connected to simple chat programs like Gtalk, or MSN. Sites like youtube, torrenting, video streaming, deviate art, downloading a wow patch, or even a new expansion will most likely exceed this very quickly.

You're also subject to what I'd call "the random shit" factor. You're never stable. Could be a clear blue day and your satellite dish is point towards the sky at the best possible angle and then BOOM, DC'd from the net for an hour for no reason, you're also going to become the weatherman and start cursing, screaming, and downright wanting to tear your hair out when it rains. You'll also want to shoot all the birds in your local 5 mile radius because you'll be DC'd from the net because one flew past the transmitter.

Also, Might just be hughes.net, but it keeps a list of the sites you've visited and how much bandwidth was used there on their servers aswell. I hope you don't mind sharing your fetishes with the Tech Support you'll be calling to ask why the hell your internet is out when it a clear sky, or when you've magically gone over your "fap" limit because you wanted to watch a youtube for all of 5 minutes.

Moving on to more WoW related problems.
Depending on a server: You may not be able to enter certain areas due to extreme packet travel time and end up DC'ing because your modem can't send or receive them fast enough and starts to choke up. You can notice this by your modem randomly going out on a clear blue day.

Also, no matter how fast you move, if you're going to PvP or Raid. Give up. You'll always take excess damage from everything, because Blizzard's servers are going to assume you're still standing in that horrendous green shit on the ground till 3 seconds AFTER you've finally moved out of it.

Brightside: If you out dps people on skada or recount, laugh. Not only that, but rub their faces in it. They deserve it for all the hell you go through trying to chain those GCDs together. =D

Seriously, if you get Satellite internet, get new hobbies. It will drive you insane, and rape your wallet of all the green stuff in it.
If I think about it, I think after all I've paid hughes.net in those 3 years, I could have paid a phone company 60 miles in the nearest town to run a new cable in the ground for DSL. Even if they charged me 1$ per foot of cable.

I hope you find this information. Stay away, don't get bent over a barrel like I did.

(Yes, Yes, I might get banned for swearing a lot but eh, I said I wasn't going to sugarcoat it.)

A thousand times, this. I played WoW one time on Wildblue satellite in rural Washington (where they JUST got DSL after years and years of sat), pings were consistently 2500ms, unplayable. It was the same each and every day. Fortunately I didn't have to be there more than that, but the speeds were horrible, and worse when the weather was bad (which was most days).

[Xanthelei]

I need help deciding between Hughesnet and Wildblue Exede satellite internet to play WOW and Diablo 3. -snip-

Hi. I was directed here by a guildmate of mine who reads MMO, and I decided I needed to sign up so I could chime in. I've used both of these service providers at some point: first we went with WildBlue because they were lumped in with Dish Network. Yay one bill, right? Problem is, their customer service is beyond terrible. When I can out-tech the tech support guy (such as him not knowing what a traceroute is) there's something wrong. After our router was compromised and our MONTHLY download allowance used up (I believe they've moved to a daily one, but read the fine print! When we were with them, your download allowance only reset every 30 days.) and WildBlue refused to do anything about it, we dropped them and switched to Hughesnet.

Now I admit Hughesnet isn't the best, but at least I can get real tech support if I'm firm enough. And you will have to be firm, either way, that you want it fixed and they must fix it. Actual gameplay has no difference between Hughes and WildBlue, so you're looking at price and customer service as the deciding factors. My vote would be for Hughesnet, of the two, but both are better than dialup for playing WoW (been there, done that), and both will lock you into a two-year contract.

Now to address playing WoW and Diablo over satellite internet: I've been playing WoW over satellite for about 4 years now, since the end of Burning Crusade. Yes, the latency is high, and you won't be guaranteed to be top dps. (I did manage a few times on my hunter in ICC, though.) You may not be able to PvP, but I've been a raider/casual the whole time, so I don't know. I will say this though: don't let these people tell you to quit WoW. You can be a good dps in 10 mans (I've had issues with 25s lagging me out of the game), and if you're good at triage you can heal. Tanking is a little trickier, but it can be done. I've done all three of these things at some point in the game.

A good day for me, the latency shows at 1200 ms, with around 2500 ms being my cap before the game is unplayable for me. Realistically, I see about a second's worth of lag from when I press a button to when the spell is cast. Usually you'll see latency rise during 'peak' hours when kids and parents are home and surfing the web. Also, don't forget to slide that lag tolerance bar to the max, it does make a bit of a difference.

TLDR; I prefer Hughesnet over WildBlue due to WB having horrible customer service, while Hughesnet has passable service, but the actual internet is about the same. Read the fine print about the Fair Access Policy! And make sure you understand it! (Cannot stress that enough.) And if you have questions on actual gameplay, feel free to look me up in-game. My main is Xanthelei, Suramar-Alliance; I'm leveling Erikka, Suramar-Alliance; and if I'm not on either of those toons, ask someone in my guild to try to contact me. I might be off doing college-prep stuff.

(You could also PM me here; I'll set it so I get notifications in my email.) Best of luck with the new internet, and remember, lag can be overcome.

[netwire]

I've used WildBlue for about 2 years, and let me tell you.. it's terrible! If you can get a cell phone signal I would highly suggest that you get a 3G/4G modem and use that. It will play a lot better.

[Whittle1523]

Thanks for all the opinions. Sadly I do live in rural Alabama(go figure). I wish I had another option to be honest, but I am stuck with what I have. I may give Hughesnet a chance as I tried WB 2 years ago(Not the new Exede satellite though). It was unplayable, due to the 3 second lag. Would any certain kind of modem help any? Also should I play wireless from laptop or use an ethernet cord?

[glo]

Thanks for all the opinions. Sadly I do live in rural Alabama(go figure). I wish I had another option to be honest, but I am stuck with what I have. I may give Hughesnet a chance as I tried WB 2 years ago(Not the new Exede satellite though). It was unplayable, due to the 3 second lag. Would any certain kind of modem help any? Also should I play wireless from laptop or use an ethernet cord?

The latency isn't going to change with Hughesnet.

[Deleted]

The minimum theoretical latency you could get is around 235ms, assuming geostationary satellite, round-trip distance 70,000km, radio waves traveling in a vacuum, etc etc. In reality expect it to be much higher. It's probably not suitable for gaming at all, at a guess.

[glo]

The minimum theoretical latency you could get is around 235ms, assuming geostationary satellite, round-trip distance 70,000km, radio waves traveling in a vacuum, etc etc. In reality expect it to be much higher. It's probably not suitable for gaming at all, at a guess.

That's not how the internet works though, packets need to be acknowledged, which essentially doubles the round trip time since it needs to happen twice over. You're also not factoring in that it's not a 2 way street.

It's - Computer to satellite -> satellite to ISP -> ISP to internet -> internet to ISP -> ISP to satellite -> satellite to computer, and that's ignoring packet acknowledgement...

Double that trip and you get your theoretical latency.

[Deleted]

I'm well aware how it works, I am merely stating the minimum theoretical latency you could achieve, on paper. The implementation of various protocols and applications will greatly increase it, in addition to atmospheric effects, contention, etc etc. There is a long list.

[glo]

OP you would be much better off using 3G or 4G service from a local cellphone service IMO.

[Whittle1523]

I have 3G there with verizon but its very spastic, so how would I go about doing that?

[Twistedklown]

I used to use wildblue. at the time their fastest available speed was 1.5mb down 500kb up. I would normally run a ping of 800 - 1200+. A friend of mine used hughes net with 3mb down and 756kb up and his ping was 1800+.

I finally got dsl in my area, and it's the same speed as my friend's hughesnet. But i get a ping in wow of 58 - 60, and ping on vent is 15. The travel time delay for data going to the satellite and back is what kills it. Very soon getting fiber optic, almost finished being installed down my street. am so looking forward to that.

Anyway, if you have no other option than satellite then go with wildblue. just my opinion though. not sure how much hughesnet runs per month, but wildblue was $80/month for me. But when you have no other choice, you pay it or do without.

[albatross1]

as many had stated. satellite conection is horrid for stuff that requires <500ms response time in order to be optimal (say goodbye to fps, wow, diablo (diablo if lags freezes, not like wow that if lags lags and then sends a bunch of data). an other stuff... on the bandwith size without updating while playing wow consumes barely 8KBs of bandwith. i know this because i ran while ago a lan private server just for curiosity of how it works.

[Bluelol]

Back in Wrath one of our raiders had Satellite internet and he would lag in ventrilo about a second or two. It baffles me how he was able to keep up on dps.