Wireless -> Wired

[Leto Kynes]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently subscribed to a Wireless ISP, namely Webbit. Many of you might know that Webbit is wireless. And with wireless, of course, there's high ping and all that stuff I assume that's bad for gaming. My question is, is there a specific reason as to why wireless can't handle online gaming (well) ? I need a decently detailed explanation, as I need to use it as proof to my dad that we should get a wired internet connection.

If you'd like to know, I'm using TimeNet's Webbit and I am trying to get TMNet's Streamyx. These should sound familiar if you live in Malaysia.

Also, TMNet's currently having an offer now and I can save around RM100 if I can get him to change his mind before 31st July.

Thanks a bunch,
~Leto Kynes

[mbossman2]

wireless is a shared network bandwidth technology...it is akin to a wired hub...only 1 person can send/recieve at a time otherwise collisions occur. with any latency sensitive application (voice, video, on line gaming) the non-dedicated bandwidth will affect the overall response time. for your father, I would attack on the voice side: most of the IP telephony providers (vonage and the like) will perform fairly to very poorly on a wireless broadband connection.

[Leto Kynes]

Thank you for your reply. I am now one step nearer to getting Streamyx.

wireless is a shared network bandwidth technology...it is akin to a wired hub...only 1 person can send/recieve at a time otherwise collisions occur. with any latency sensitive application (voice, video, on line gaming) the non-dedicated bandwidth will affect the overall response time. for your father, I would attack on the voice side: most of the IP telephony providers (vonage and the like) will perform fairly to very poorly on a wireless broadband connection.

So, basically, only 1 person can send/receive at a time to the tower. And in this case, there's alot of people. And then again there's the time that the signal requires to travel all the way here. Though I don't quite understand your last sentence, could you please clarify it for me?

[mbossman2]

correct and all it takes is one person doing a significant up or download to tie up the access...

which part? latency sensitive or IP telephony?

[Leto Kynes]

Sorry for the late reply, so tired with school and all...

Well, would you mind just explaining both? I'd greatly appreciate it!

~Leto Kynes

[mbossman2]

ok...

latency sensitive: latency is a time delay caused by hardware and software. let take a hypothetical data stream made up of 5 packets (A, B, C, D & E)


With some applications (like email), if packet E arrives 1 second after all the other packets, the users experience is really not disrupted...

Now with some applications (voice and video specifically), the arrival of the packets in sequence, within a specifically designated time frame is critical to the functioning of the application and the use of the data...delayed packets would have the effect of making video look like a really old charlie chaplin movie (all jerky and jittery) or with voice traffic dropping out in the middle of words (at best) or the call being completely dropped (worst case). Wireless, because of the shared bandwidth and having to stop and listen to see if someone else is transmitting (creating latency), applications like voice, video and gaming are not run at their best...

Now for the IP telephony: this is a voice application which, in a consumer's case, is sending regular voice traffic across the internet to the telephony service provider (like vonage). with the wireless solution you have, latency becomes a big issue which can degrade the quality of the voice service, ranging from poor quality to complete loss of connectivity.

Does this make sense?

[Leto Kynes]

Yes, now I understand.
Thank you VERY much for taking the time to type that out!