burner:
dont know if this is the right place to ask this but am currently on skys basic (but free) 2mb broadband with an average speed of 1690-1700kbps. Now i dont really know what this means (fast or slow?) and my question is; my PS3 is permanantly 'wired' to the router and i sometimes experience delay and judder in online gaming, will upgrading to 20mb for the obligatory £5 per month make any difference?
replies greatly appreciated,
Stu Barber.
1690-1700Kbps is quite slow, it's the same as 1.6 to 1.7Mbps. Sky Basic though is capped at 2Mbps - so you're not going to be able to get much more than what you are getting unless you upgrade your Sky broadband package.
The 1.6 - 1.7 is also not very indicative of what speed you might get on an upgraded Sky package because of the cap. E.g. if it wasn't capped and you were getting 1.6 - 1.7 - then it would show you're too far from your exchange to get anything faster so no point in upgrading.
Online gaming is quite reliant upon ping and latency - if ping is high then you will experience judder as you are. Ping is to do with the time it takes for a bit of data to go where it's going and then come back again. Latency is to do with hanging (e.g. delay).
You can't really fix ping and latency unless you go with a gaming orientated ISP who prioritise gaming traffic and make sure ping and latency stays low for the gamers, such as BE or Plusnet.
Upload speeds are also quite important in gaming - more so than the download speeds. As Sky cap the basic broadband at 2Mbps down, the upload speed is likely being capped too. So upgrading may give you a faster upload speed which will help with your gaming.
It's also likely that an upgraded broadband package, e.g. without the speed caps, is not guaranteed, but would be reasonable to expect it to have better ping and latency rates.
The other thing to keep in mind - although it's probably less of an issue with Sky due to their usage limits - but cheaper packages tend to suffer from stricter traffic management and speed throttling.
Sky Unlimited is totally unlimited with no fair use policy, traffic management or speed throttling. So you'll never be slowed down just for using it too much. Although, with a 2GB monthly usage limit on the Sky basic package - you can't be gaming very much ?
Personally, if I was you I'd upgrade to the Everyday broadband package and see what that's like. It's got a 10Mbps speed cap so should have faster upload speeds, and it has a slightly bigger usage limit of 10GB. If you notice your gaming improving, then you can always upgrade again to the Sky Unlimited - which is only £10 a month - if you wanted to.
If you want to get really good online gaming then consider switching to BE broadband or Plusnet Pro, but if you just want to improve what you've got I'd upgrade to the next package up and see what the difference is.
It might be worth reading up a bit on it too, there is a Sky broadband review here
http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/articles/is-sky-broadband-any-good.html and also a guide on gaming broadband here too -
http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/best-buys/gaming-broadband.html - which should help to explain how to get 'good gaming broadband' a bit more.