Optic Fiber 100mo : any user could share experience ?

[Taipan]

Greetings,

I've been contacted by one of our local ISPs to upgrade a private facility from 24mo ADSL to Optic Fiber 100mo (both ways).

Business-wise, this doesn't make any sense as I barely exploit the full-power of ADSL on a daily work basis (I don't work in video editing or advertising).

But I could consider it as an upgrade for playing WoW as m-boxing.
Monthly sub is about 50% over ADSL, not the real issue tbh considering the actual monthly cost of m-boxing.

The catch is : once I dropped ADSL for Fiber Optic, I can't go back (well I can but that would imply re-ordering a second ADSL line again -for at least 12 months commitment-, on top of the Fiber Optic one, thus double monthly subs which would be a silly way to waste money).

ISP salesperson claims that Fiber Optic will provide better ping and so on for online gaming but I trust him as much as I trust a Car or Insurance salesman....

Anyone here using Fiber Optic and could share his/her experience with regards to WoW performance/experience vs ADSL ?

/salute

[BobGnarly]

Not sure what level of DSL you have, but I doubt you'd hit a bandwidth bottleneck using it multiboxing. I have a 1/3M service, and I 5 box plus run a vent server with 5-10 other people attached (at high quality settings) with no problem.

So, while I doubt you'd notice much of a difference there, the difference in other areas is pretty significant. We have a FO service here which is 10M, and it's great. Never underestimate waiting less time for downloads.

A weak point IMO with DSL is that it's running over a copper pair that is buried in your yard. There are all kinds of reasons why these lines fail, and when they do, it's not a binary failure, it's a signal degradation which sucks to diagnose. At least with optic technology it either works or doesn't.

As far as ping, there is very little difference between the techs themselves in this regards. However, many CLECs will use certain hardware settings (DMT signalling in my case) which can cause ping issues. In my case, this DMT causes a 40MS delay, which pisses me off, but Qwest refuses to remove it even though a lot of knowledgeable people have told them that it isn't always necessary. I've yet to hear of anything like that with FO, at least in my area.

Hope that helps.

[PyrostasisTDK]

I have been using fiber optic from verizon since MAy of 2005. In 3 years I have lost service only twice... due to mass power outages. =)

Fiber is cheaper, faster, nonrestricted upload download (meaning you can download your max bandwidth, and upload at the same time with out getting choked down), did I mention FASTER?

I love Fiber, best choice I ever made.

However, the only PITA is once you go fiber you lose your copper connection (used for DSL and such) At least in Verizons instance its a royal pain in the ass to get back to copper.... but thats like trading in your super model for her uglier stupider mutant 2 headed sister, no reason to go back to copper.

Also great for FPS games, I get anywhere from 6 - 12 ping on CS servers.

[aetherg]

(obligatory knock on wood)

I five-box on 768kbps DSL, and I have no problems, even while talking on vent at the same time. I'm usually at 300ms ping, which is mostly due to being on the opposite coast as the server I'm playing on. My ping is not noticably higher when playing 5 characters than it is when playing just one.

[lille]

Was on a LAN in a friends apartment, we were 8 guys playing wow on his 2mbit connection, worked fine, only problem we had was space :/ its a small apartment, only 17m² :P. So you shouldnt have any bandwidth problems when 5 boxing on a 24mbit connection.

I'd suggest what Furs said, check out the Killer NICs. Info can be found here: http://www.killernic.com/

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I've been through SWBell ADSL, cable modem, ISDN and now I'm on Verizon FiOS fiber (15mb down, 5mb up) and it is the cleanest, best performing connection I've ever had but quite a fair margin. DSL pings have dropped from DSL by about 30-40% average, so the ping time comment is correct. Bandwidth will largely depend on how your provider's regional setup is laid out. If their upstream hubs are saturated, it is possible you'll be disappointed at times with raw throughput. But that's no different on any other topology.

Good luck!

[twobztwop]

Ya, I have verizon FIOS fiber optic here in the U.S. It's been pretty rock solid aside from a few issues the first month or two. (I was one of the first subscribers in the area). I also get t.v. through it as well.

It's pretty fast. Here's the speed test.

[Xzin]

You can EASILY 5 box on a basic DSL connection. Remember, some people still use 56k modems to play.

The issue is upload bandwidth. Assuming an 8 mbit (roughly 1 MEGABYTE) per second upload and download, you could run 10 - 15 boxes at once NO problem. Of course most connections are desync, limiting the upload bandwidth. Figure 56k (.056 megabits) per box as a good rule of thumb.

So a 2 megabit up DSL would give in theory about 35 connections. In practice it will give maybe half that assuming off peak hours.

Under 200 ms pings are preferred for boxing. 500+ starts to get problematic and 1000+ starts to break follow on the ground just running around.

[Cripes]

Under 200 ms pings are preferred for boxing. 500+ starts to get problematic and 1000+ starts to break follow on the ground just running around.

haha, I normally play at 500-900ms ^^
Still waiting on oceanic based servers from Blizzard.

I completely forgot about my internet connection though, 20 Characters are being played at once in my house on 1.5M/256k rofl. Forgot, time to upgrade.
Thanks for fixing a soon-to-be problem without knowing it! I figure if we all climbed into AV my internet connection would QQ and die :whistling:

@op
I visited a friend in the US about 4 weeks ago, she's on Fiber optics. It was fantastic. (although I'm comparing it to AUS ADSL)

[Mudd]

My ISP does fibre to the building/floor. Average 125 ms pings while 5 boxing from the west coast to an east coast server (not sure if east coast servers are actually located on the east coast). Bandwidth and latency seem to be consistent regardless on the time of day. Over 4 years of usage there has been 1 day of it being down. Compared to my previous cable and dsl experiences I am much happier with fibre or at the least this ISP.