Thread: Do You Like Your ISP?

I have ATT Uverse and it's crap (For gaming). It has been getting worse and worse. My in game ping has been yoyoing from 70's & 80's (good) to over 110-120+ (very Bad lag!). I have 12 mbps down and 1 mbps up and should not be having this issues. I have been trying to get it worked out with their Tier 2, ICU, and Alkatel groups for over a week now but its still going on. I don't have the TV service just the internet uverse. It happens when me gaming is the only activity taking place but it gets worse when my wife streams her Pandora. Netflix makes it worse too but not as noticeably so as Pandora. I think they keep adding more and more customers and running lots of traffic through the same group of IP's causing latency. Plus there is something called "inter-leveling" that supposedly adds more latency regardless of anything else. They tell me all kinds of different info.

I think I'll give it another week and switch back to ATT DSL or Charter as those seem to be the only two options in my area, DFW, TX. I wish we had Verizon FIOS available but not such luck.

So, I was curious...

• Anyone out there like your ISP?
• What is it?
• What do you guys think is minimum DL and Upload speeds for gaming, and streaming Netflix and Pandora at the same time? (the best ATT DSL is up to 6 mbps DL and up to 1 mbps Upload and I'm not sure if that would be enough).

You game pretty well on a 1MB/s DL if your ISP is good, but more is always better.

I use my station's internet mostly, which is through Suddenlink although, since it's a business line, I don't get throttled and we get the full speed all the time.

At my parents' house, I have Verizon Fios, which also isn't throttled, and I am very happy with it.

Steaming anything is definitely going to have an effect on your ping though.

Compared to my last ISP, which was terrible....yes.

My current one is Windstream.

I have Charter cable for TV and Internet. I hate them for many reasons (mostly service related) and would love another option, but in my neighborhood they're it. That said, I have no issues with their internet connectivity or ping, and gaming is smooth as silk.

I'm chagrined to hear that U-verse is problematic for you, as U-verse is likely to be the only other option I'll have for the foreseeable future (if it ever rolls out in my area). I'll probably try U-verse if it becomes available; I can always switch back to Charter if U-verse sucks.

Anyone else have gaming issues with U-verse?

I've got Time Warner for internet. I'm fairly happy with the service. We seldom have outages and the few latency issues I've had in the past have been tied to maintenance work being performed in my area. My other option is U-Verse and for me that's not even an option. I refuse to give Southwestern Bell nee SBC nee AT&T a penny of my money. Still bitter from a bad DSL experience several years ago. Another factor is that TiVos are incompatible with U-Verse. What's frustrating is Verizon FIOS is less than a mile from my house, but because of exclusive franchises granted to telephone companies, we'll never see them in our area.

Streaming Pandora and Netflix at the same time of gaming could very well be the source of some your issues. When my wife streams Netflix when I try to game, I notice my ping goes up by at least half (if not double) my normal latency. Thankfully, my ping is normally in the 20ms range, so it's not a huge issue. Sadly, most ISPs won't go out of their way to resolve latency issues if it's not easily fixed. Latency doesn't impact the majority of their users (Web browsing & e-mail).

Yes. FiOS FTMFW!!!

Attachment 5228

Yes. I love it. I have had Charter cable, AT&T DSL, and now this. Of the three I like FiOS the best, and DSL the least.