Satellite Internet and Online Gaming: Does It Work?

Online gaming is one of the fastest growing trends in the world right now. With games such as Runescape boasting subscriber numbers of around a million and World of Warcraft exceeding 7 million active members, the total number of MMOG subscriptions is verging on the absurd, quickly approaching the 14 million mark worldwide[6/06, mmogchart.com]. This tremendous growth in the popularity of the online gaming industry has, in part, been fueled by the accessibility of high-speed broadband internet. A high-speed connection allows for a much more enjoyable game-play experience. Everyone knows that online games work exceptionally well on DSL and Cable internet connections, but what about the newer high-speed service satellite internet? As satellite internet is becoming more readily available and cost effective more and more rural dial-up customers are making the switch to cash in on the faster speeds and always on access. But, when it comes to online gaming many are concerned that their game-play experience will be less satisfactory, if they can even connect to play at all.

The reason for this concern is the issue of latency. Latency is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. This is direly important when it come to on-line gaming in that latency translates into the time that it takes from the moment that a button is pushed to when the action is performed in the game. Often this can mean the difference between life and death. With DSL and Cable the response time is almost immediate, being between 50milliseconds-150milliseconds. The latency for satellite internet is between 600milliseconds-800milliseconds. This may sound like the end of online gaming for someone who has just made the switch to satellite internet but it is not. Although this degree of latency does all but rule out first-person shooters there are a good number of MMOGs that operate well over a satellite internet connection. And, although the effects of latency can never be completely eliminated, there are ways in which to improve upon them. The simplest way to do this is by speeding up the way that one's computer handles and responds to information being transferred through the connection and by increasing the total amount of available bandwidth. Some operating systems have built in reserves on bandwidth that are non-essential to the functionality of most web applications, see link for a tweak http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/showthread.php?t=3323 .

By eliminating non-essential services i.e. bandwidth hogs that the average user never utilizes and dedicating more physical resources to the most used application can help tremendously. Minimizing the effects of latency down to the bare minimum allowed by the laws of physics enables one to play more online gaming that was before not workable and also speeds up the responses of other games that already do work. So, although there are limitations to on-line gaming over satellite internet there are also ways to improve upon game-play responsiveness and many games that will play well without operating system tweaks. Below is a list of online games for both console and PC that, according to subscribers that have tested and played them, do and do not work over satellite internet. This is not a definitive list of games guaranteed to work, so be cautious as results may vary.

What Works

Xbox/Xbox360/PS2/Handheld Games:

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat(for me anyway doesn't for some others)

Perfect Dark Zero

All Tony Hawk games

Mario Kart DS

Call of Duty 2

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Socom 3(mixed results)

Socom 2(so-so)

Nascar 06 total team control(works kinda)

Rainbow Six Series(Host boots for high ping usually, But CO-OP and 2 V 2 work well)

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

PC Games:

Runescape

Asheron's Call

Everquest

Everquest 2

World of Warcraft

Star Wars Galaxies

Dark Age of Camelot

Roma Victor

Eve Online

Star Wars: Empire at War

Dungeon and Dragons online

Warcraft3

GuildWars

City of Heroes(very difficult to connect to the patch server..other than that it works fine)

Final Fantasy XI

Contract Jack

Auto Assault

Aces High Online flight sim

Trackmania

WarRock Beta

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast

StarPeace

America's Army

Red Orchestra

Diablo 2

Titan Quest

F.E.A.R.

Postal 2

What doesn't work or is not enjoyable

Xbox/Xbox360/PS2/Handheld Games:

Far Cry Instincts Predator

Halo 2

NBA Live 2006

Quake 4

Prey Demo

Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked

PC Games:

Star Craft

BattleField 2 Demo

Call of Duty 1&2

Battelfield2

Band of Brothers

C&C Generals

UT2004(playable..not enjoyable)

Ragnarok

Prey Demo

Civ 4

Battlefield 2142

Jacob Minett is a consultant and copy writer for the fullfillment company My Net LLC. With six years experience in the satellite industry, Jacob has worked both in the field as a lead technician and now consulting and web copy duties for http://www.MyBlueDish.com which specializes in WildBlue Satellite Internet.

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Pay Bills Online For ATT - DSL Only Dry Loop Accounts

As more and more people decide to get Dry Loop accounts one of the biggest questions I get asked at my blog is "how do I pay my bill?" As some of you may know "DSL only" accounts (Dry Loop) are high speed internet accounts that don't require you to also purchase the phone services. ATT has been offering the service for about a year now, and as a personal user, I have to say I'm very happy. It's really one of the most economical and affordable ways to get high speed internet service without being bundled with a bunch of phone services or cable TV features I don't need.

But the thing about Dry Loop accounts is that if you already have an ATT phone account once you make the switch you're basically opening a brand new account-existing customer or not. So that means a) they do a brand new credit check on you and b) if you already had a login to pay your bills online it no longer works. It's VERY important that you understand that you're old login does not relate to your brand new "DSL only" account. When I first got the service I ended up getting months behind in my billing because I kept logging in and expecting to see a bill and one never showed up. But I WAS being billed.

So there are 2 ways you can pay your bill online. The first way involves not being "registered" but just inserting your personal data and paying on a month-to-month style payment. The second way is to actually register your account and be able to attach a bank account for funding, see past bills, and have a regular login/password like most people use today.

When you get your Dry Loop account you will no longer have a phone number. But they will give a 7 digit account number that LOOKS like a phone number. It will start with 081 and look like this; 081-XXX-XXXX. You can take that number and go to att.com/paybill and pay your bill in the month to month style payment. If you decide you want to have a regular online account you'll need to go to this website. Once you get to that website. You'll enter your account number, and your personal identification numbers and zip code. You will then be sent to a second page that will ask you if you want verification by a phone call (you'll need to provide a phone number you would like to be called on since the 081 number isn't a phone number) or a mailing address. ATT will then call or mail you a code, so that now you can complete the online registration.

David Rosenthal writes for the internet. He uses and writes about ATT Dry Loop. And has written about lesser known deals people can find for DSL Only type accounts.

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